I currently use the inner sharing of the play console to release new versions to testers. (They have exactly the same package name and signing key.)
However, the testers responded that they could not upgrade from the official version to the test version, so the app update process could not be tested.
If I install the app first and open the inner sharing link, the play store displays
"A public version of this app is already installed on this device. Uninstall it and try again"
Is there a way to upgrade directly from the official version to the test version in the play store like installing an apk? (not uninstall app)
For example, the internal test of the play console may be possible?
Thanks for your help.
If you're using internal app sharing https://play.google.com/console/u/0/internal-app-sharing/ to share your app, then it won't work. Internal app sharing is used to quickly share an app with your internal team and testers, it doesn't undergo google play review process.
So you can't update your public version using this.
You can however, use different play console tracks for uploading your apps and they will support updates. Here https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9845334?hl=en is the link for setting up open closed or internal track. When you upload your app to any of these tracks, they'll go through the google review process and once the app is available on playstore, testers can easily update it.
In case you don't want to wait for review, and want to use internal-app-sharing only, then, you can create 2 different versions of your app(different version numbers) and upload both of them to internal-app-sharing. You can then share the 2 links to your testers, and your testers should first install the lower version app and then open up the link of higher version number apk. It'll show the update button.
Edited(Thanks to #pierre): Although it looks like you're uploading artifacts signed with the same key, the Play Console actually re-signs the artifacts in the internal-app-sharing to avoid distributing an app signed with the production key that hasn't gone through their review process.
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i made app and build it as an apk file in flutter and i tried to install it in my android phone but while installing it, play store said: the app is unkhown do you wanna install,
and then i installed the app and app was working well, the question is how i can solve it, Do i have to buy a play store account? or there is another way to solve it.
If you intend to make the app available to play store users then you need to create a play store account. Normally the warning that you received if from Android OS telling the user that the app can't not be trusted, since it does not come from the play store but yourself built it. You can ignore this "warning" for now.
The warning will not be shown to the users when the app is built, signed and uploaded to play store.
You should refer to the official documentation to know how to sign and publish your binary file to the Play Store.
You'll need 25$ to create the Play Store developer account (available for your entire lifetime) and a bit of reading from the official documentation
We want to start using google play for testing (We used Firebase until now).
One of our tests is version upgrade (from the current production version on google play to the new production version which we want to publish to google play), but we can't figure out how to do this - in google play.
When internal tester opens the test link, he always see the internal version.
The test page at the bottom has the option to 'Install the public version on Google Play', however, clicking on that link, opens the internal version.
The way we deal with that right now is by having two google accounts on a device, and only one of them is for the internal tester.
In this way, the other account still sees the current production version.
Is there a way for internal tester to view the production version?
There are two possible solutions:
The tester would have to leave the internal testing program by clicking the "Leave the Program" button above. They would then see the Production version
The other way would be to put the Production version in both your channels - Internal Testing and Production
Here I am developing Android app with android studio. I turned my google account into a google developer account and then published my app in the play store after signing that app within my computer. After a month I published an update for that app with the same package name. I also upgraded the "Version Name" & "Version Code". I checked the the situation by using a phone which has the initial release of the app, but after I released the update the specific page of that app in play store doesn't show an update button ("open"button is there).
How can I correct this?
Thanks.
If your phone with the "initial release" of the app didn't install it from the Play store, then the Play store won't update it. I suspect this will be your problem.
The Play store will only update apps for which it did the initial install (to avoid treading on the toes of app developers during development or other app stores).
The way it checks for "Did the Play store install this" is "Does the signature of the app match the signature in the Play store" and "does the user on the phone have a record of install from the Play store on their account on any device".
After updating an app on play store it can take several hours to be available on play store. Just wait for couple of hours.
So first of all you have to make sure the following three points are in place:
You are installing exactly the same variant from android studio compared to the one you published on google play store.
The app you installed from android studio has a lower "version code"
You are using exactly the same signing key.
Most likely the third point is what is stopping this from working. The problem is that if you are using app bundle as publishing format, that apk is not created yet when you upload the bundle and it will only be create and SIGNED at a later the stage, when the app is about to be distributed on a specific device.
Unfortunately, there is a chance, like in my case, that the signature still will not match perfectly even if you used exactly the same key to sign the app, reason being that if you have singed up for Google Play Store signing, google will add some metadata: "It does however insert a minuscule amount of metadata that helps with verifying the source and integrity of the distribution. This metadata comes in two flavors: For all apps uploaded to Google Play, Play has been adding security metadata after the signing block to enable features such as authorized P2P app sharing. We announced this originally in a blog post in 2017. For apps uploaded as app bundles, we will improve this security by introducing what is called a source stamp. This source metadata is inserted into the app’s manifest by bundletool. When the APK is generated on Play’s server, it’s also signed with a Google key in addition to your app signing key."
I yet have to solve this issue unfortunately
I've pushed a beta version of my app to the play store and am now trying to see it in the play store on my device. It's not showing up.
How can I tell whether it has been published?
When I go to the play store on my laptop and search for my app, only the production version shows. If I click on the search result, it goes to the app store page with a warning "you don't have any devices". That part is fine. But should the search results also show my beta version?
I've set up a google group of which I'm a member.
I'm assuming that if the play store shows it on my laptop and doesn't show it on my device, then I have some sort of configuration problem - that is what I'm trying to debug in the first place. However, without knowing if the beta version is published, I'm in the dark.
Any one know how to deal with this situation?
The best way to verify that the Beta app is installed on your device is to actually install the app on your device from the Google Play store using the account with which you have opted-in to the Beta Test group. You can then verify that the Version Code of the Apk is indeed the Version Code of the BETA Apk that you have uploaded. You might want to print the version code to logcat as your app stats so that you can verify it easily. You can then also opt-out of the BETA test and reinstall the app through the Play Store and verify that it is NOT the Beta Apk by once again looking for the version code.
The Play Store now allows open and closed beta testing, although this was not always the case. If your application is in open beta testing, then it should be in the search results, given you've got a version in production. (I'm lead to believe that if your app is in open beta but you don't have a production version, it will not be in the search results).
In order to test to see if your application is available in the search results, you must disassociate yourself with your developer Google account to do your search. This will remove the association that your Google account has already with the application. It sounds like you've done that "on your laptop" since it says you say it says you have no devices. If your computer is logged into Google, you'll need to open a private browsing window or log out of that Google account, then do your search. If the search returns no results, the application will not be discovered by new users. But those same new users could still be in the beta by using the beta link that you have the option of distributing.
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).
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