Google Maps update problems on Droid Froyo

I’ve been running and RC build of Android 2.2 aka Froyo on my Motorola Droid for a few weeks.  It’s great, overall, but there are still a few quirks.  One of the most noticeable issues is that Google Maps doesn’t like to update.

To manually fix Maps, modify /data/system/packages.xml, removing the section that starts with:

<shared-user name=”com.google.android.apps.maps”

After you’ve taken that out, reboot your phone and then install Maps from the Market. If you get a Login Failed message, join Latitude. It will prompt you to authorize the app. Do that, and then you can un-join Latitude by selecting Privacy options and opting out.

To modify Packages.xml, do this:

adb root
adb remount
adb pull /data/system/packages.xml (which will copy packages.xml to your working directory on your computer)
(edit packages.xml, which is now in your working directory, with a text editor, removing the section described above)
adb push packages.xml /data/system/packages.xml (which will push packages.xml to /data/system/ on your phone)
adb reboot

Then install Maps from the Market.

I recommend Notepad++ for editing the file. Regular Notepad loses the formatting of XML files and makes it more difficult to remove the entire section that you need.

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