My daughter got an sm-t380 (Galaxy Tab a, 2017) US edition, Android version 9, Build PPR1.180610.011.T380DXS4CUD3. as a hand me down. It has been auto updated to the latest and greatest, which is Android security patch level December1, 2020 We use Family Link to control her use. I wanted to install the software she uses, but was unable to install Youtube Kids and MineCraft, and Family Link Parental controls (Family LInk seems to work though, it enforces restrictions on daily limits and downtime) It was also unable to update Gmail, Google, Google Chrome: Fast and Secure" Google Photos and Messenger (these seem to work though). Other games and applications installed fine.
I was hoping a hand me down may be enough for a preteen. If 5 years after the original purchase the tablet is completely useless, then if I buy a new tablet it won't be Samsung.
OK. let me follow up here. After dozens of tries and a few days of time I managed to install everything I wanted to without any tricks. I can only think that there was a certain order that things needed to be updated to work and that the update process didn't take those dependencies into account, so a number of iterations were necessary before all the dependencies were in place, but who knows.
