I've been developing my first app for work and am having trouble removing an earlier version from the Google Play Console.
My first release was version 2, which I released on the Internal Test track, as much as an experiment to understand the working of things. I have subsequently release the app up to version 8, always targeting Alpha/Closed Track and had no problems with them.
However my first release, the one in Internal test track, simply refuses to go away. All the others I have found I can click MANAGE then RELEASE TO BETA then DISCARD (at the bottom) and they go away, but not this one.
Can anyone help me with this please. I have to say that the websites for releasing to both Android and to Apple do leave much to be desired - a bit of a baptism of fire to get your first app out there, even just to testers.
It is possible to discard the release by creating a new release without a bundle or APK, inserting a release name, which is required, and completing the process.
We found that while there is no remove, we had to add an empty version which replaced the test version. This was a huge problem for us as the test version was in violation of permissions rules and our production code was not, but the production app was pulled from the Play store... Yikes. Adding a remove or delete would be soooo much more intuitive.
Sign in Play Console
Choose your app
Click Release Overview (Left pane)
Select the release version that you want to stop
View track
Pause track (Right upper hand corner)
I would upload your next alpha to the internal test track and promote it to the alpha/closed track. You will still have a build in the internal test track, but at least it is a relevant build.
Tried and worked.
Unfortunately, there is no straightforward way to delete or make a version inactive. The simplest thing you can do is as follows:
If not done already, create a version of your apk/aab you want to really release and upload it.
Go to test tracks where old versions are used. Create a new release in that test track.
Instead of uploading a new apk/aab, just pick the latest one from the 'Add from library' option.
Roll out the test track release.
It will simply mark old versions (which were used in test tracks) as inactive and only the latest one you uploaded will remain active. You can verify it on the 'App bundle explorer' page.
Now you can submit the app for approval.
End a test
To remove users from your app's test:
Sign in to your Play Console.
Select an app.
On the left menu, select Release management > App releases.
Next to the test that you want to end, select Manage.
Expand the "Manage testers" card.
After ending a test, testers won't receive updates but the app will remain installed on their device.
To remove a closed test track that you created, select Deactivate track. You can access deactivated tracks on the App releases page in the "Closed tracks" section.
To end an open, closed alpha, or internal test, select Remove testers.
Go to manage internal test
Manage testers
Remove all testers
This is the safest way
Haven't found how to delete a build - as been said, we just upload a newer version of the app with higher build number into the Internal track and propagate it through Alpha to Production. So just overwrite the unwanted build.
You can mark them inactive after pausing it.
I believe that what most are saying is that Google needs better way to disable or continue testing an obsolete or bad build when the developer knows it's a waste of time. It seems that there are ways we can force it, but it's not the ideal way. I agree. I don't want people to waste their time or bad-mouth my app because of unclear definitions on our side. We are in the 21st century, but everyone makes mistakes. If Google path is ideal, then make the documentation reflect that.
You don't need to discard it. Testers will always get the highest version code they are eligible for.
Related
Our app update has been rejected even though we addressed the issue. In the email with the details of the rejection says that we have some vulnerabilities with our recent submission but it says that the version that have issue is the one on the production channel:
and we didn't submit that version because it's already public, my latest version is 2021031602 (3.3.0) and as you can see in the image above that version doesn't have any vulnerability and I want to upload it to a closed test channel not production. I post this question here because I'm unable to get a proper response from the Google Play Team.
This is the most recent chat that I had with them:
Then I get this email:
But I never got an answer from the policy team, we have been running with this issue since January and honestly I don't know what else can we do.
Anyone who has been in this same situation? I'll really appreciate your input.
Greetings!
I managed to solve the issue with the following steps, in case someone is struggling to find how to remove a non complaining bundle/apk.
Go to your Play Console.
Select the app.
Go to App bundle explorer.
Select the non-compliant APK/app bundle's App version at the top right dropdown menu, and make a note of which releases they are under.
Go to the track with the policy issue. It will be one of these 4 pages: Internal / Closed / Open testing or Production. (If the bundle with the issue is on the production track, you'll need to upload an update directly to that track until you get to the step 8).
Near the top right of the page, click Create new release. (You may need to click Manage track first)
If the release with the violating APK is in a draft state, discard the release.
Add the policy compliant version of app bundles or APKs.
Make sure the non-compliant version of app bundles or APKs is under the Not included section of this release. For further guidance, please see the "Not included (app bundles and APKs)" section in this Play Console Help article.
To save any changes you make to your release, select Save.
When you've finished preparing your release, select Review release.
If the non-compliant APK is released to multiple tracks, repeat steps 5-9 in each track.
Is it possible to end an app in beta (also known as open track or early access)? I currently have my app in internal app sharing, and decided to release it to Alpha - but noticed no differences, so tried to release it to Beta. But after reading supporting documentation which explains the difference between Alpha and Beta, I discovered I don't actually want to be in Beta yet.
There's no clear indications anywhere to say I can remove it, I've removed testers on the Beta release and even done a new release with no APK. But it's still accessible on the Google Play Store.
Am I doing something wrong, or is this genuinely by design?
It is by design, what you can do is, go to Manage country availability and uncheck all countries, then it won't be available to
Turns out after playing around with settings, it was literally down to my expectations for things to happen almost instantly similar to TestFlight on iOS. Google can take up to 3 hours to process an update, and I wasn't aware of this.
If anyone else has a similar issue - wait. But the conversation with Abubakar are useful ways to hide the app, but it won't be instant, so be patient.
There is option to remove testers in the Beta Manage page. Just Expand manage testers and click on Remove testers button.
I have an app that's close to launch. In prep for this, I've put it into production with "Timed publishing". It's ready to go, all I have to do now is click "Go Live".
However, I have a bug fix and I want to put out a beta for it now, before I'm ready to release the app to the world at large.
I've managed to upload the beta, but how can I release it to my beta testers through the store. Previously when I've played with Timed publishing, it didn't actually go out to the Beta testers until I clicked "Go Live".
I don't want to do that, because I'm not ready for my app to be made public at all, and I'm afraid it will go anyway.
I've tried switching to Advanced mode and Deactivating the version in production right now; however, it won't let me save. It complains The application could not be saved. Please check the form for errors. But don't see anything on the form that looks like an error.
How can I do this, or what should I be looking for to find the error?
I got an answer out of Google:
We don't currently support the functionality of removing production APK. If you press "Go live" button on the upper right corner, both production and beta version will be published on Play Store. It's not possible to keep production version silent and only have beta version live.
We currently require that once a Production APK has been published, the app must always have an APK in Production. This requirement is in place so that we are in compliance with the DDA by ensuring that once an app has been made publicly available, that it remains available for any users who may have installed it.
In my not so humble opinion, this is a deficiency in Google Play's system. I can see that requirement once it has been made public, perhaps even only after someone has actually downloaded it, but until then I as a developer should be able to pull it completely or be sure it's going to go straight to a Unpublished without ever appearing on the store so that no release happens by accident.
Google continues:
If you would like to prevent users from downloading your latest production version, since you haven't made it live, one option is to edit the previous production APK file to which you want to roll back with a higher version code than the current APK file. You may then upload the old APK as an update.
After you make sure the production APK is not the one you want to present to public and the beta APK is the right one, you can then press "Go live" so users will still see the previous production version while testers can download beta version.
The other way is to unpublish the current app and then publish a new app with a new package name for beta testing only. [...]
Both those are round about ways of accomplishing the work I need to do, it just adds more effort on my part to set up another app for my beta testers to use. It would; however, allow them to use both side by side on the same device when it goes live.
Right now I'm facing the same problem, but I think it's not possible to publish a beta if timed publishing is enabled without going live.
Here is the reference about this topic I found in Google support:
Reference link: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6334282?hl=en&ref_topic=7072031
Is there a possibility to release an app on Google Play without it being 'officialy released', advertised etc.?
Let me explain. I would like to release my application to some (quite large) audience in order to build a database. To these users I would like it to be available without the need to join any beta testers group. In the same time, to average user the app is not going to be very useable. So, at first I would like to narrow average users installing my app as much as possible. It would be great if I could postpone Google Play featuring it on any lists.
I hope I made myself clear. Any ideas?
You can release your app as a Beta release. It will be limited to a certain audience that you define in Google Play (there is a Users administration feature dedicated to that). This sounds like a normal process for what you are willing to achieve.
Before that, you can also release your app as an Alpha. The principle is the same but the group is different. Alpha is perfect to get rid of most of the bugs your application may have.
So, to summarize, the process is:
1- You build your app, and test it on your own
2- Then you release it as an Alpha to a very small group
3- Reiterate 1- and 2- as long as you have bugs reported by the Alpha testers
4- You promote your app as a Beta to another group, usually larger. Data is created and more bugs, less obvious, are reported
5- Reiterate fixing and 4- as long as you have bugs reported by the Beta testers
6- You promote your app as a Production release. Now everybody can use it.
You may also, once all this done, release your app with the words "(PUBLIC) BETA" in its name and description. Once the public beta testing done you'll just have to remove these words to let the users know this is no longer a Beta but a Stable version.
Caveat: by doing this way, you'll have to expect your app to receive negative comments and rating from users who didn't get this is a beta, or what a beta is.
My application is currently in alpha. On the google play developer console, I accidentally uploaded a new APK as production rather than alpha.
In advanced mode, there is a deactivate button. But if I deactivate and try to save I get the generic message "The application could not be saved. Please check the form for errors." I don't see any errors on the form. How do I deactivate?
I tried uploading a later version to alpha - that seems to work - but I don't want ANY version in Prod, as my app is not yet ready for prime time.
According to a Google customer service rep I contacted:
The Deactivate button is provided in your advanced mode when you want to support multiple APKs but when your new update supports the same number of devices as your previous APKs, the system won't allow such update. So it is required for you to deactivate the older version in order to upload your new APK.
The Deactivate button is only useful for situations where you have multiple active APKs.
Furthermore, discussing with them, there is apparently no functionality at this time that allows for you to remove APKs from the Production tab once they've been uploaded to that tab, AND there's apparently no way to enable Beta testing if your app is unpublished, so at this point it seems there's no way to undo what you've done if you accidentally upload an APK to the Production tab by mistake. The workaround proposed by the representative was to change the package name of the app, change the keystore used to sign, and create an entirely new application.
Further discussion with the representative indicated that the "error" is that you can't have a Production tab without an APK if there was one there already, but it sounds like there's a bug in that it doesn't actually report that that's the cause.
In latest play console you can goto Publishing Overview->managed publishing status-> press manage button on right then turn on managed publishing