diff --git a/lib/private/app.php b/lib/private/app.php
index 3b8cbba3898..7917c1c0c01 100644
--- a/lib/private/app.php
+++ b/lib/private/app.php
@@ -567,7 +567,7 @@ class OC_App {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * get the last version of the app from appinfo/info.xml
+	 * get the last version of the app, either from appinfo/version or from appinfo/info.xml
 	 *
 	 * @param string $appId
 	 * @return string
@@ -587,9 +587,14 @@ class OC_App {
 	 * @return string
 	 */
 	public static function getAppVersionByPath($path) {
+		$versionFile = $path . '/appinfo/version';
 		$infoFile = $path . '/appinfo/info.xml';
-		$appData = self::getAppInfo($infoFile, true);
-		return isset($appData['version']) ? $appData['version'] : '';
+		if (is_file($versionFile)) {
+			return trim(file_get_contents($versionFile));
+		} else {
+			$appData = self::getAppInfo($infoFile, true);
+			return isset($appData['version']) ? $appData['version'] : '';
+		}
 	}
 
 
diff --git a/lib/private/app/appmanager.php b/lib/private/app/appmanager.php
index 69e5334774e..fba5bb19f61 100644
--- a/lib/private/app/appmanager.php
+++ b/lib/private/app/appmanager.php
@@ -299,6 +299,9 @@ class AppManager implements IAppManager {
 	/**
 	 * Returns the app information from "appinfo/info.xml".
 	 *
+	 * If no version was present in "appinfo/info.xml", reads it
+	 * from the external "appinfo/version" file instead.
+	 *
 	 * @param string $appId app id
 	 *
 	 * @return array app iinfo
diff --git a/lib/private/installer.php b/lib/private/installer.php
index 36fda28cd27..64f84d58b54 100644
--- a/lib/private/installer.php
+++ b/lib/private/installer.php
@@ -389,11 +389,16 @@ class OC_Installer{
 		}
 
 		// check if the ocs version is the same as the version in info.xml/version
-		$version = trim($info['version']);
+		$versionFile= $extractDir.'/appinfo/version';
+		if(is_file($versionFile)) {
+			$version = trim(file_get_contents($versionFile));
+		}else{
+			$version = trim($info['version']);
+		}
 
 		if(isset($data['appdata']['version']) && $version<>trim($data['appdata']['version'])) {
 			OC_Helper::rmdirr($extractDir);
-			throw new \Exception($l->t("App can't be installed because the version in info.xml is not the same as the version reported from the app store"));
+			throw new \Exception($l->t("App can't be installed because the version in info.xml/version is not the same as the version reported from the app store"));
 		}
 
 		return $info;
diff --git a/lib/public/app.php b/lib/public/app.php
index 032116eb43f..e25f025d12d 100644
--- a/lib/public/app.php
+++ b/lib/public/app.php
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ class App {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * Get the last version of the app from appinfo/info.xml
+	 * Get the last version of the app, either from appinfo/version or from appinfo/info.xml
 	 * @param string $app
 	 * @return string
 	 * @since 4.0.0
diff --git a/tests/data/testapp.zip b/tests/data/testapp.zip
index c828572827f..e76c0d18724 100644
Binary files a/tests/data/testapp.zip and b/tests/data/testapp.zip differ
diff --git a/tests/data/testapp2.zip b/tests/data/testapp2.zip
index 1953cc896f8..f46832f7a75 100644
Binary files a/tests/data/testapp2.zip and b/tests/data/testapp2.zip differ