Special version strings can prevent updates #188613

The problem

(Seen on an app, but I am assuming applies more widely)

• Release an app with an special version string according to AwesomeVersion (e.g. latest)
• Release an update with a non-special version string (e.g. 1.1.0)
  • This likely also occurs with updates without a change to the special version string, but that hasn't been confirmed
• HA shows an update is available for the app, but the update button is disabled

Root cause:
The _version_is_newer method uses AwesomeVersion to compare the two version strings. AwesomeVersion treats the versions dev, latest, beta & stable with a special meaning - all four are always treated aa newer versions than a normal version if it is the second argument on a comparsion.

Suggested solution:

• Special case special version strings, so like with invalid strings than it always returns true

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2026.10.4

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

No response

Link to integration documentation on our website

No response

Diagnostics information

No response

Example YAML snippet

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

Additional information

No response