Build & Run version works, but direct apk version does not

Ok.

So. I updated my android project to the 2018.3.12f1 build and afterwards encountered a rather miffing anomaly.

If I build and run my game onto an Android device it will work without any issues. But if install the same game from a .apk file or from play store. It loads whichever scene it starts from without any issues, but loading a new scene freezes the game and sometimes also creates interesting graphical glitches on the screen (image attached).

So far what I have tried is: re-downloaded the android sdks, tried all the different build settings within the "Player Settings":
Scripting runtime:.NET 3.5 & 4.0
Scripting Backend: Mono & IL2CPP
Compatibility levels: .NET2.0 subset & 2.0.

oh and logcat gives no visible errors.

I'm at my ropes end here. The game works fine on the device when I build it through Unity and the IOS and web versions had no issues. Only thing I am certain of at this point is that game freezes during a scene load.

 

I dont have any issues while running the game inside Unity, thus there are no error messages in the console :/

I've currently tested this on three Android devices with similar results: Xiaomi Redmi Note4, Huawei P20 lite and older Sony xperia.

I am currently testing if I can get alternative results by building the game on another computer.

 

ah. That is the weird part. logcat also gave out no errors.

I think I might have it sorted out now though.
So far everything seems to be running well with a build I did using unity on a windows laptop. Asides that the only other difference was the Android Build tool version, which is 28 versus the 29 on my Mac.

Currently testing whether the bundle build also works...