diff --git a/.github/workflows/manual_generate_apk.yml b/.github/workflows/manual_generate_apk.yml
index 25f942bff2..3fdca44207 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/manual_generate_apk.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/manual_generate_apk.yml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ on:
 
       buildVariant:
         type: choice
-        description: 'Build Variant'     
+        description: 'Build Variant'
         required: true
         default: 'NormalOptimized'
         options: 
@@ -19,27 +19,46 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0
           submodules: recursive
+
+      - name: Check Valid Version Tags
+        id: valid-tags
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          echo "count=$(git tag -l 'v[0-9]*' | wc -l | tr -d ' ')" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+
+      - name: Fetch upstream tags # required for git describe to return a valid version and to preevnt androidGitVersion from crashing on a new fork
+        if: ${{ steps.valid-tags.outputs.count == '0' }}
+        run: |
+          # TODO: should try to fetch tags from whereever this repo was forked from before fetching from official repo
+          git remote add upstream https://github.com/hrydgard/ppsspp.git # fetching from official repo as a fallback
+          git fetch --deepen=15000 --no-recurse-submodules --tags upstream || exit 0
         
       - name: Setup JDK
-        uses: actions/setup-java@v2
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v4
         with:
-          distribution: 'zulu'
+          distribution: 'temurin'
           java-version: '17'
+          cache: 'gradle'
         
-      #- name: Setup SDK
-      #  uses: android-actions/setup-android@v2
+      #- name: Setup SDK # gradlew will install SDK automatically, thus this step not needed
+      #  uses: android-actions/setup-android@v3
           
-      #- name: Setup NDK
+      #- name: Setup NDK # gradle will install NDK (side by side) automatically, thus explictly seting up NDK here will cause not enough storage issue when building debug variant
       #  uses: nttld/setup-ndk@v1
       #  with:
       #    ndk-version: r21e
+
+      - name: Test androidGitVersion
+        run: |
+          echo "count=${{steps.valid-tags.outputs.count}}"
+          gradle --quiet androidGitVersion
       
       - name: Assemble APK
-        run: bash ./gradlew assemble${{ github.event.inputs.buildVariant }} --stacktrace
+        run: ./gradlew assemble${{ github.event.inputs.buildVariant }} --stacktrace
       
       #- name: Gradle Test
       #  run: bash ./gradlew test${{ github.event.inputs.buildVariant }}UnitTest --stacktrace
@@ -48,14 +67,12 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           find . -name "*.apk"
           mkdir ppsspp
-          if [ -e android/build/*/apk/*/*/android-normal-optimized.apk ]; then
-            cp android/build/*/apk/*/*/android-normal-optimized.apk ppsspp/
-          elif [ -e android/build/*/apk/*/*/android-normal-debug.apk ]; then
-            cp android/build/*/apk/*/*/android-normal-debug.apk ppsspp/
+          if [ -e android/build/*/apk/*/*/*.apk ]; then
+            cp android/build/*/apk/*/*/*.apk ppsspp/
           fi
 
       - name: Upload artifact
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
         with:
           name: android-${{ github.event.inputs.buildVariant }} build
           path: ppsspp/