Ok, I have a simple question about publishing apps on Google Play through the developer console. Keep in mind I already have apps published but it's an extension of an app already published.
Question
I have an app that is published on version 4.0. and I forgot to make a back up of the app. I am redoing the app with the same package name and as per Google in your aab, the version code has to be one version higher.
My question is since the original app is lost. When I set the aab signing, app name, and the setting to the exact same can the aab file be used as an update? Or am in a situation where this will be a completely new aab app bundle?
The App
The app is just a simple notepad app. Only maybe 15 users at the moment. So I am not losing users. Since the entire app has been overhauled would I update (if possible as explained in question) with the revised aab, or just set this as its own primary app? Also what would be the repercussions of doing this and how would it affect the 15 users?
This was a mess up on my part, but I was wondering what my options are, and if anyone has faced this issue.
Related
this is a more tightly focused version of the same problem which I've asked about here: App on Play Store invisible to Android 11 devices
In that previous question, I only briefly wondered about signing. Here, I'm deliberately focusing on signing.
In March 2021, the Play Store started asking that I comply with the new v2 signing method whereby the developer must sign an APK before uploading it to the store. I successfully moved over to that method, the APKs are accepted by the Play Store. When I do it wrong, the Play Store rejects the APK immediately on the upload completing.
At some point (and it's hard to say if these things are truly related) I got feedback from people running devices on Android 11 saying they can't see my app in the store at all. Devices < Android 11 continue to see updates that I upload for my app.
I've done a ton of troubleshooting of the AndroidManifest.xml file. See the other question that I linked to higher up. I don't think that's the problem.
I am left with wondering about the signing aspect of the situation. All I can tell you about my certificate is that it's self-signed. Is this a problem for either the Play Store or Android 11 devices?
Thanks for any help.
Michael
No, the certificate you use has no incidence on the visibility of your app in the Play Store or Android in general.
When you say people can't find your app, is it that they can't find it by searching some keywords, or they can't access the Play store listing using a deep link?
There is no real guidance on how to make your app findable on the store using search, it will largely depend on the popularity of your app, the quality of your app, and the competition on the search words with other apps.
I have an app in the play store, which TargetSdkVersion is 23, but now I need to downgrade it to 22.
I get an error while uploading the new Sdk in Google console developer because I cant downgrade from 23 to 22, is there any way to do that? Or something like removing the app to upload a new one with same name?
You can remove the app from the Play Store and upload it again with the same name but the package name has to be different.
You can unpublish the old app in the developer console.
If your app already has some users they will still be able to use the old app, if they bought the app (e.g. if it's not for free) they will even be able to reinstall the old app in future.
A simple downgrade is not possible.
Based on selmaohneh's answer. However, I would like to share the full tweak for this sad Android M permissions issue. The steps as it worked for me (Alegra Yes):
Unpublish the application
Change the name of that unpublished app in the application Store Listing tab - beware that you must be signed in as a developer with full permissions for the specific application, or the developer account owner in Google Play, to be capable to edit such things.
Now comes the tricky part, as written above, you need to change the package name all over the application.
Publish it as a new application, but with the same name.
I have already published an app to version 2, and have uploaded an app with version 3 to to Google Play as a beta testing version, and then discovered with errors, so I have modified the codes is now ready for publish.
I tried to upload the correct apk with version 3 to Google Play, but it says I have already uploaded a version 3 apk already.
Question:
How to remove the wrong apk from the Google Play? Or what should I do? Or I can only modify and upload the app as version 4?
Thanks!!
You can not remove the apk from google play. You just have now update your application version and upload the new apk on google play that is the only way.
Please note that package names for app files are unique and permanent, so please choose wisely. Package names cannot be deleted or re-used in the future. Keep in mind that if you've lost your keystore, you'll have to publish the app with a new package name and a new key. You should also update the description of the original app and unpublish it.
If the app was ever published, this will not work. You can unpublish an app, but you cannot delete any .apk files that were ever active while the app was published. (This behavior is undocumented as far as I can find.) This is unfortunate; it would be nice to be able to completely remove all traces of an app that was never downloaded by anyone. Even better would be a sandbox area that emulated all aspects of Google Play, including buying your own app (and would support doing it through the emulator).
Check out HERE
Turns out I don't have Proguard activated on a live app that I have published to the Google Play store. It's not the end of the world since I don't have anything sensitive in the app (and I've found that I can decompile apps pretty well even when Proguard is applied).
My question is: If I apply Proguard and then upload a new .apk to Google Play, when my users update are they going to run into a problem?
One reason I ask is because I learned the hard way that changing the LAUNCHER activity in an app can make user-created shortcuts void in an updated version, so I'm trying to prevent causing any more inconvenience to my users.
If I apply Proguard and then upload a new .apk to Google Play, when my users update are they going to run into a problem?
No. You users are getting a compiled version of your application, not the raw sources.
As long as the package name remains the same and you sign the package using the same keystore you won't have any problems.
I've just finished making some updates for a company's Android app, only to realize that they no longer have the private key that was used to sign the original release that went to the Android Market. If I understand correctly, this means that these changes can't be released as an update to the original app. I think the best option is to pull the original app from the market (it doesn't have many downloads or reviews) and re-release the app signed with a new key. However, I'm worried that Android Market might not allow an app to be released which is practically identical to an app that has already been released (e.g. same name, same icon, mostly the same functionality, etc.).
Has anyone been in this situation before? Did google allow you to re-release as a separate app to the Android Market?
You are correct in that you will have to release this as a new application with a different package name. You will have to pull the other app from the Market as it will no longer be updateable and your users will have to redownload the new version of the app.
I don't see any reason why Google would have any issues with this, it's a known issue that some developers/companies can come across when they loose their signing key. Also, as far as I know, Google doesn't closely monitor incoming apps unless they are being flagged.
I've seen some apps that have 10 versions of the same app in the Market, just so that they can have more visibility, which is something that I think Google needs to look out for.
If you just forgot password.
https://code.google.com/archive/p/android-keystore-password-recover/
If you replaced the existing key file.
1.Rename your package name.
2.Generate new signed apk but this time keep copy of the key and never lose it if you want to update your existing app.
I had a similar thing happen, and we had to change the package name even after pulling the original application from the market. I assume this is to protect users from 'accidentally' downloading a malicious update to an application they already have.
As of about August of this year (2011), the Android market has had the capability of uploading multiple APK's for the same package name. You should be able to remove the original APK and substitute a new one with the same package name now using that mechanism.
I haven't tried it yet, but we were able to upload multiple copies of our different applications that targeted specific platforms and it worked like a charm.