Here’s what I"m doing:
… at this point the app just expands the one available “Update All” line item, into seven separate line items to update my seven apps individually.
How do I update all apps at once, without having to select each individually? Is this expected behavior?
Have root access, install the Privileged extension (eg. the Magisk module works), done.
No root access? Well…ask Google why you can’t use another store on their devices…
Isn’t F-Droid an alternative store on my (non-rooted) Android device? I suppose it’s really “just an app” and that’s why I can’t update all my F-Droid apps at once? If that’s all true I think F-Droid might as well delete the “Update All” button, since it does not perform that function.
Perhaps F-Droid is assuming you’re on a rooted device with something like Magisk, but is that a majority of F-Droid users, or a minority of F-Droid users?
Update all will download them all anyway, yes, but really update on a rooted device. This is Android.
Everyone who cares about privacy, which are the majority of F-Droid users, avoid Google and to achieve that, they tend to install a custom ROM with no Google footprint, like LineageOS. To be able to do this, they need an unlocked bootloader and so they can install F-Droid Privileged Extension from there. No need to be root actually.
F-Droid can’t actually update the apps in the background without the privilege extension. You need to confirm every app change that’s not from google playstore, if you’re using stock android.