App Center turns old Ubuntu Software in 24.04, How to Get it Back

App Center disappeared, instead it shows you the old Ubuntu Software in your Ubuntu 24.04? Here’s how to fix the issue.

As you know, Ubuntu switched to App Center since 23.10. While, the old Ubuntu Software is still in use for Ubuntu 22.04 and 20.04. And, both are Snap Store.

While the old Ubuntu Software is built with GTK toolkit, App Center uses Google Flutter for its user interface that looks modern and runs faster.

Ubuntu distributes the snap-store package through different channels for each Ubuntu releases. For 22.04, it’s latest/stable/ubuntu-22.04, and for Ubuntu 24.04 it’s latest/stable/ubuntu-24.04.

Since Ubuntu 24.10, the rule has changed. It uses 1/stable for old Ubuntu Software, and 2/stable channel for App Center.

when users install the snap-store snap, they receive the old Ubuntu Software when installing latest/stable and the new Flutter based App Center is only available on latest/stable/ubuntu-23.10 and newer release branches.

To resolve this issue we are creating new tracks for the App Center so that Ubuntu Software will track 1/stable and the App Center will track 2/stable. This means we can continue to support Ubuntu Software on older LTS releases …

The current 22.04 and 24.04 LTS still use latest/stable channel for the snap-store package.

But, perhaps due to mistakes, I’ve seen App Center disappeared, and Ubuntu went back in my Ubuntu 24.04 twice!

The correct way to fix the issue is wait! Wait until Ubuntu team found the mistake and updated the channel with App Center back for 24.04.

Though, you may try to manually refresh the package by running command:

snap refresh snap-store

Switch to 2/stable to get back App Center

If you can’t wait, then the one-time solution is switch to the 2/stable channel mentioned above.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run the single command below:

snap refresh snap-store --channel=2/stable/ubuntu-24.04

If the command failed and showed you “snap-store” has running apps, then kill the app according to the PID number in terminal output:

sudo kill -9 PID_NUMBER_HERE

Then, re-run the last command to switch snap-store app channel.

When done, trigger Gnome Overview, search & open App Center and enjoy!

How to Restore

To revert back the previous snap-store channel, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

snap refresh snap-store --channel=latest/stable/ubuntu-24.04

Also, kill the running app first if any in background.

Source: UbuntuHandbook