I've recently released an Alpha build of my app via Google Play Console (as I've done many times in the past). This is a closed testing build and I've opted in with my device/account via the URL console provides.
There is an existing production version of the app.
I waited a little while then went to PlayStore app to download the update.
Strange thing is, the version shown in PlayStore is updated (to the one used by my Alpha build) but there is no option to 'Update', only the option to Open the already installed (older) production version I have installed on my phone.
Has anyone seen this before? Could it just be Google are still in the process of rolling out my Alpha build?
Update
I've waited over 12 hours now since upload to console
I've tried clearing the cache on the PlayStore app to see if the update option appears but it didn't.
Update 2
I've got the update to work but in a very convoluted way. I had to:
Open the 'download' link on the testing opt-in page using Chrome (not PlayStore)
Click 'Buy' (not Update) and let it install
The result is though that it didn't seem to update the app, rather overwrite it. As a result a migration routine I had in the new app to pull over old data didn't run and my previous app data was lost (this is a separate issue though).
It does sound like something is wrong with my PlayStore app but what!?
This is weird. This sounds like you changed package name (essentially released a new app) rather than just release a new Alpha.
Related
I had previously launched an app on both Google Play store and app store.
During the initial release process, few of my friends helped me test my app via internal testing for android users and testflight for iOS users.
After successful release, I continued working on my updated version, and now I have everything set up except testing.
For now, I have uploaded new version of an app on internal testing(android), testflight(iOS), and wait for further process.
What I am wondering about is that testers(my friends, in this case) had downloaded previously released version and they still can download and test newer version of my app.
To sum up, here are things I want to know.
Can people whom I listed previously as testers and had downloaded previous release version of my app still download and use newer version of an app for testing?
I found out that this process is considered as QA(Testing). How mobile app testing on physical devices be done in companies?
Thank you so much!
InternalTesting (on Google), same thing as TestFlight (on Apple), is done by sending invitations, so just remove relative Google/Apple account from their address lists and they cannot download updates and neither the App again.
The second point is not clear: what do you want to know exactly?
I have found the other versions of my question on SO and have already tried to contact Google through their dev support trying both the chat/email options, but have yet to get a straight answer about this.
I have an app that is currently using the internal testing track on Google Play. I have numerous testers all of which can download the app, use it and test it no problem. The reason I want to use internal testing, for now, is that the documentation states there is no verification period between versions and testers get the new version immediately.
The issue I am currently experiencing is that a tester who already has the app is not served an updated version when they return to the store page. If they uninstall and reinstall the app, the new app they install serves the new version.
My question is why would the new version be available but not present the user with the 'Update' button to install the new version?
Is there an issue with the app being on the internal test track? Does my app need to be verified? Can an app be verified using the internal test track? It has been 17 days since my initial upload to verify the app, which seems rather long to wait for the verification.
Does anyone have some insight into this issue? I am running out of ideas and it is rather annoying to have testers need to uninstall and reinstall the app every new version I would like tested.
After almost a month I finally have the update button. Here are the steps I took:
Create a new Closed Testing Track and go through all steps required to post a closed testing app.
Wait until the app is verified and the store page updates with the relevant store page data. (This took ~3-4 business days)
I can now publish to the Internal Testing Track, see the Update button, and use it. I no longer need to publish to the Closed Track unless I want to.
I've looked over most of the documentation and nowhere does it say in writing that your build needs to be verified to have the Update button appear, nor does it say anywhere that it is required to be in at least Closed Testing to be verified.
I hope this helps someone else in the near future as this was quite annoying.
Although a little cumbersome, when using internal testing, you'll provide your users with a URL where they can download the app (via the play store), note, this URL can be found under your "How testers join your test" section, on your "testers" tab, on your 'Internal testing' page.
When you create a new version, the testers who already have the app installed, can use the same URL provided in the first place, and they can click to download via the play store (counter-intuitive as they already have it), but when it takes them to the play store, it will give them an option to update the app, and you'll see your updated release note ect...
This means you won't need to go through the Closed testing approach and wait to get it verified.
I hope this helps somebody, I didn't want to create a closed tracked and get it verified as my app is very early into dev.
As the title says, we published a new version of an app 2 weeks ago. Play Store indicates in the registry that the new version was uploaded (1.7), and allows it to be downloaded to users who did not have it. Not so, for those who already have it, for example, users who have version 1.6, do not see the option to update, just uninstall or open.
We expected it to be only a matter of time, but 2 weeks is already too much. We contacted Google support, and they only ask us questions like: "Have automatic updates for the application enabled?" ... Does anyone know what is happening, or if it is our mistake, some step wrongly made? We generate the apk directly from Android Studio and change the version.
One of the issues that your users might have is this
Maybe they disabled the auto-updates of Google Play, but is really weird that they can't see it, maybe it's due the devices. Is your device listed as compatible with the new version of your app? Did you tried clearing Google Play cache and trying it again?
PS: Make sure you change in your Gradle (Module app) your versionCode along with the VersionName
If new users are getting the new version installed then it is definitely uploaded to the Play store correctly.
If existing users aren't seeing "update" (just open) then it means there is something about the new version of the app that is incompatible with their devices. You can check this by trying uninstalling and re-installing. If they get the old version after an uninstall / re-install (or worse, if they can't install after uninstalling) it shows that only the old version is compatible with their device.
This probably means you changed something in the manifest to make it incompatible, but that is a whole different debugging problem.
I have not updated my Android app for quite a while. Now I would like to use the Alpha Test to run some tests of the In-App Purchase features.
Problem is, that I do not see how I can install the Alpha version on my device using the Play Store. I did the following:
Created the APK in Android Studio 2.1
Logged into the Google Play Developer Console
Selected my app and switched to APK/Alpha-Test
Uploaded the APK the the Alpha Test and published it
It is a closed Alpha Test and I am the only tester. The e-mail address I entered in the tester list perfectly matches the address of the Play Account I am using on the device.
Opened activation URL in Chrome on my Device. Play Store webpage is shown, saying that I am a tester.
Clicked the link to the Play Store and downloaded the current Version of my app
Checked if there is an update to the Alpha Version, but there is not
I uploaded/published the alpha APK on three days ago. Even if it can take some hours before an update reaches the store, three days should be long enough, shouldn't it?
I found other threads dealing with this kind of problem and in some cases the solution was to clean the cache of the Play Store App and restart the app. However this did not change anything in my case.
So, none of the suggested solutions I found worked for me. Any other idea what I can do?
UPDATE:
Still not possible to update to the alpha version. I now switch from a Closed Alpha Test an Alpha Test using a Google+ Community. However, the result is the same:
While logged in with my developer account, I switched to Google+ and created a new Community.
Invited my test user (one of my other accounts) to the group.
Copied the URL of the Goole+ Community to the Aplha Testing section in the Developer Console.
Published the changes.
When visiting the test URL (https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.mycompany.myapp) I got the message "You are not a tester"
Checking the e-mails of my test account. Found the invitation to the Google+ Community and joined.
When visiting the test URL I could now click on Become a tester and now I am tester.
Downloaded the App from the Play Store using my test account. Just received the public version.
No update to the Alpha version available...
UPDATE 2:
Also after switching to a Public Alpha Test still no update available.
I am running out of ideas...
After two weeks I was finally able to solve the issue. I share the solution here, just in case somebody encounters the same type of problem:
I contacted Google Support to find out, if there is any known problem that prevents the test version from beeing downloaded. They told me, that the uploaded APK was not compatible with my test device (Nexus 5) due to an incompatible ABI version.
This was quite confusing, sinc my app did not use any native code and thus did not configure any ABI version at all.
Finally Google told me, that the ABI version of the APK was identified as commons-io-2.4.jar. This still does not make sense, since this is obviously not an ABI version. However with this information I was able to move on and find a way to avoid the problem.
Android Stuido copied the commons-io-2.4.jar file into the lib folder within the APK. The Dev Console identified the content of this folder as ABI version (which does not make any sense) and thus the APK was marked as not compatible with the device.
Either there is a bug in Android Studio (copied the file into the lib folder) or the Dev Console (identifies the lib content als ABI version).
SOLUTION
Since I did not need the commons-io-2.4.jar anymore, I could simply remove it from the project and the new version is distributed without any problem in the Alpha/Beta Test Channel. I have no idea what I would have done, if the app would depend on this lib.
The information in the Dev Console on wether an APK is supported by specific devices or not is quite confusing:
The public version of the APK was (of course) compatible to thousands of different devices, including the Nexus 5 I use for my test. The Dev Console shows the same information (the one of the public APK) for the test APK as well. Thus I assumed, that the test APK is correct and compatible. One can only see the information about the test APK, by clicking on the APK in the Dev Console.
Say I have an application that users have installed from the Play Store, if one of my users reports a bug and I want to send them a patched version of the app to test, they can install it to their phone just fine. But if I then update the app on the Play Store, will the user get the update? My testing seems to indicate this is the case, but is there any gotchas?
The way my build process works is that each time I build, it gets a higher version code, so the patched version will have a higher version code that the one currently in the Play Store and then the version I upload to the Play Store after sending my user the patch will have a higher version code again.
I'm taking a decently wild guess here, but it should work, provided the following are met:
The version code of the apk on Google Play is higher than that of the hotfix
The user originally installed the app from Google Play to begin with, and only updated it via side loading.
The hotfix and the Google Play update are both signed with the same key.
I'm decently sure this will work, as I recall a long discussion about this on one of the android google groups that ended with success. I unfortunately cannot find it right now.
If you do try it out, please post back with the results.
I don't see any issue with this workflow. As long as you increment the version number at each build.