I am working on an Adobe air based Android app. Since it's over 50MB, I have a separate obb file. At the moment my app is not published, still there as draft, and I need to test the obb downloading functionnalities before moving on.
So, does anyone know of any way to download an app from the store that is there as draft? I tried adding my own google group to the testers list, but it seems like a publish is required as well.
Am I just missing something about the draft mode? It seems pretty useless if you can't even make sure that what you uploaded is actually functionnal before publishing.
Related
Few weeks back I uploaded first version of my app to google play. Everything, including updates, worked great until now.
When I install apk directly to my phone everything works as expected I have 0 High score, google achievements works and ad is showing.
But when I dowload the SAME apk from google play(after I published it) the game shows highscore of 60 and neither achievements or ad are showing. (I am using Unity and its playerPrefs system of saving data).
I went and investigate the situation and I found out something weird to me.
In the artefact library I downloaded my apk and there are 2 types.
1) The one that I uploaded
2)One tha google somehow edited
Somehow the 2. apk diferes A LOT from what I uploaded.. Namely the uploaded state of highscore(even some other saved stuf)
It is possible that I forget to clear playerPrefs in earlier version, but NOT in this one.
How is it posible that google somehow merges my new apk with older one?
And when I am uploading new apk I dont keep the old ones, I am deactivating them so where is the problem.. It is my first published app and I dont know some of the "advanced wording".So please if you know what is happening go slow on me ;)
(Sure I missed something :/ )
Thanks for all help.
Google doesn't modify APKs uploaded to the Play Console. The fact that you observe a different behaviour of your app related to gaming suggests that maybe your integration with the game library has some issues.
Overall, given that we don't know the setup of your console and your releases, you would have more luck reaching out to the Play Console support team.
A teammate put the APK in the wrong account in Google Play, now, I need to fix without the original binary. So, I want to know if I can download the APK out of the wrong account, then signon with the correct account and upload?
FWIW - the APK is not yet published, it is still a draft as we need to put the remaining required collateral from Marketing team.
remove APK from wrong account draft.
create APK with correct account signature and upload there.
No, you cannot download the API from the dashboard. Probably would be some sort of a security violation if it were allowed.
This sounds like a re-marketing ploy (app rustling). It takes an app from one account and replaces the branding (names, images, etc) with that of another account.
If your devs do not archive their published works, then they are silly persons. What do they use for a code repository? A sock?
Google only stores the latest version of an app apk. Previous app versions are tracked, but the previous apks are not archived (as far as puny humans are concerned).
Only the latest published apk can be downloaded, and only as a customer.
There is no Wayback Machine for android apps, afaik.
I am developing an Android application and in this application, I am using "In app billing" features.
I uploaded apk on the google console account and set the product id, price and other required things and saved all the data in the draft.(Application is still in draft mode).
I did not publish my app yet.
After a few minutes, I realized that I uploaded old signed apk file and keystore of this apk has already lost.
Now I want to remove this old apk file and want to upload a new one in draft mode.
My problems are :
How to remove the old apk file from the google console account.(In Draft Mode)
How to upload the new signed apk file with new key store (As I have
lost my old key store)
EDIT:
I want to publish the app with the same name and with same package name. I do not want to change my app name atleast.
This can now be done by going to Release management > Artifact library and deleting the APK.
You cannot delete the artifacts anymore.
Here's a part of my chat with Pete through the built-in help & support.
Pete:
Thanks for waiting. You can't remove an apk that you've already
served. Your next Production apk has to be version code 3 or higher.
Me:
So I can't just delete the artifact of that build?
Pete:
That's correct.
(P.S. He mentioned version code 3 because of my specific issue)
You can try KOTIOS's answer.
Delete the aab / apk file from the Google Play Console on the App Bundle Explorer under Release Tab
Then select the apk/aab file you want to delete from the List
Quoting Can we still remove never-published apps from Google Play?:
Well, the answer is that the strategy still works. If you've never
published the app, you can remove all traces of it from Google Play
and another publisher account can then upload an app with the same
package name. All you need to do is deactivate (if necessary) and then
delete all .apk files and the app will disappear from your developer
console.
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).
I also discovered that the delays involved in propagating changes to
all Google Play servers seems worse than it did a year ago with
Android Market. In one case, when testing license responses I had to
wait two hours after uploading (but not publishing) an app before the
response came back as anything from "NOT_MARKET_MANAGED".
You can do this by upload new apk with upper version
and the old Apk will deactivated automaticly
I have already published android app on Google Play. It is desired to distribute the application even offline as .apk file directly. My app is completely free and we wish it should spread to as many people.
I am not sure what could be advantages and disadvantages of providing .apk file?
Questions are :
Will Google play count direct .apk installation as a download, when connected to internet ?
Will users with direct .apk installation get any update published later ?
To answer your questions:
Yes, you will get a download prompt if you click on an .apk in Android. When you go to open the completed download, it will offer it up for install (see caveats below)
If you offer your .apk up for direct download outside of Google Play you get no "update checking" -- you have to do that yourself. Not entirely sure what happens if the .apk is available in the play store and via direct download.
It is easier to talk about the disadvantages for the approach of distributing the .apk yourself.
You have to do all the tracking yourself, if you publish to the play store you get some statistics
Similarly, you have to do all "update checking" on your own (either via writing it in your app or some other way.)
No secure way of distributing your application. The built in Android browser does not support downloads over HTTPS streams that require authentication **
Easier for users to get the source code of your app. They can download the .apk from your site, open it in 7zip (or similar) and have at the underlying class files. Whether or not this is a concern is really for you to decide.
The most important reason
Your users will have to check "Allow installation of packages from unknown sources". Your average person might not know how to do this, and may be hesitant to do so. So, it may limit your ability to gain a a wide market share.
So, in summary, ask yourself if not being in Google Play/Android Market is really worth the hassle that comes for both you and your users.
** Not sure if this is true with Chrome on Android -- it is certainly true with the older default browser
Google play collects statistics of Apps only installed through Play Store , with a Google account logged in. Read Documentation on App statistics.
Newer version of Play Store app can auto detect if any of installed app is also available on play store, and will notify for the update.
Also, there are numerous third party app markets other than Play Store. You can upload your app there too (auto update is not available with all of them).
Seems no, correct me if I am wrong :)
Yes, provided that the package name is the same and the version code of the apk file you've uploaded to google play is larger than the one installed in the device.
I have an app on the Android Market, and recently I was made aware that another publisher had uploaded it under a different name, and was giving it away for free.
I've never uploaded an apk that wasn't signed correctly in the official Google manner. What I'd like to know is, is code signing intended to prevent this kind of thing happening?
Can someone remove the license and add their own? Is this easy to do?
They'd have to do more than just take your APK and upload it under their account. The namespace which you create is unique to your application. So, at a minimum they've reverse engineered some of your code.
As long as somebody is able to pull your apk off of their device and re-package it, nothing can really stop them from uploading it to the market on their own. Report it to Google and you may want to look into using the licensing service.
There is nothing preventing someone from doing this. All code signing does is ensure your application has not been modified from the version you published. i.e. a modified version cannot be installed on top of an unmodified version. If your app has simply been republished without modification, it is no different from your own version. Only the distribution source has changed.
You will need to implement some kind of licensing to prevent piracy. Android code signing is not like iOS code signing (where apps on the store as actually signed by Apple, not just you).