Unable to deactivate APK accidentally uploaded to Prod - android

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tab once they've been uploaded to that tab, AND there's apparently no way to enable Beta testing if your app is unpublished, so at this point it seems there's no way to undo what you've done if you accidentally upload an APK to the Production tab by mistake.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

Related

Error updating app on Google play store after introducing new google policy

I am trying to upload a new version of my app on play store and getting following error while uploading:-
You can't edit this app until you create a new app release declaring sensitive permissions
I have tried removing CALL_PHONE permission that Google restricts in latest policy and my app does not contain any unadaptable data. But still getting same error.
If anyone faced the same issue. Please help me to resolve.
Thanks in Advance!!
If you are unable to submit a new version in any of the tracks, promote an older version from an Internal Track to Alpha or from Alpha to Beta or from Beta to Production. While doing this a Permission Declarations Form will show up querying Call Log and SMS permissions used in your app.
Once you have submitted this form and promoted an older version, you will be able to submit new versions of the app in all the tracks.
First find out how many active artifacts you have
Go to 'Release Management'->'Artifact library'
You must have more than one 'Active artifacts'
I have 3 active artifacts - 1 from production, 1 from beta and 1 from alpha (version 24, 6 and 4 --see below image)
Now you need to Upload a new APK(here apk with version code 25, and version name:3.0.2)
Go to 'App releases'->'Manage'->'Create Release'
Upload a new APK that you want to release ( here new APK with version code 25)
Retain the current version of APK (here version code 24)
Click ‘Add from library’ and Upload all active APKs(here apk with version code 6 and 4)
Now select Compliance status’ > check “No, this release does not meet the SMS and Call log” (see below image)
-Go to declaration section and select all (see below image)
-Click "Save" at the bottom of the page
-Now on same page, we need to deactivate (current market app (here apk with version code 24))
-Click "Save" again then select "Review"
-you'll be able to release a new version of APK by clicking "Start Roll Out" button.
(refer following link:https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/ajddj6/play_store_console_you_cant_edit_this_app_until/efkqmx2/)
We fixed it first uploading the bundle in the Beta track and then promoting it to Production. Directly uploading it to Production produced the same error.
I found the solution after a lot of research. I was facing the same issue since yesterday. I had already removed both the sensitive permissions in my last release which were related to SMS and Call Logs and yet I was getting this warning.
The solution like #IvanF mentioned is to check if you have apps in any other tracks. You may do so by going to App Releases section in Play Console and check if you have any app under Open, Internal or Closed section. If yes, then you'd have to deactivate them first because that is where the problem lies. The way to deactivate apps in other sections is mentioned here -
https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/ajddj6/play_store_console_you_cant_edit_this_app_until/eeye216/
Hope this helps.
I finally found the answer, I had non-compliant APKs in different tracks
if you had non-compliant APKs in different tracks, then that's what you should do
First: Go to App releases > Click Create Release in the track you need to update
Second: Upload the compliant APK, make sure to remove the sensitive permissions from this APK
Third: Retain the current APK
Fouth: Upload all active APKs from all tracks, you can do that by clicking on ADD FROM LIBRARY button above the upload section, make sure not to deactivate the applications, the declaration form will appear in the bottom of the page
Fifth: Fill the Declaration form by the following:
Compliance Status: Check No
Declarations check all
and save
Sixth: on the same page after the save, deactivate and remove all the non-compliant APKs and keep the new compliant APK
Seventh: Click save and review
and you are done!
I just followed these steps: source ([here][1])
Internal test: Create an internal test release to quickly distribute your app for internal testing and quality assurance checks.
Closed: Create a closed release to test pre-release versions of your app with a larger set of testers. Once you've tested with a smaller group of employees or trusted users, you can expand your test to an open release. On your App releases page, an Alpha track will be available as your initial closed test. If needed, you can also create and name additional closed tracks.
Open: Create an open release after you've tested a closed release. Your open release can include a wider range of users for testing, before your app goes live in production.
Production: When you create a production release, this version of your app is available to all users in the countries you've targeted.

How can I publish a beta in Google Play while my app is still in Timed publishing?

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

How to remove the unpublished apk from the Google play console account

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

Google Play Beta testing without a published app?

I created my first Android app and wanted to let some users take part at the new Google beta testing feature. Unfortunately my app got published as a production APK and is visible to everyone now. That was not my intention, because my app is far from being released.
If I unpublish my app it also get's inaccessible for the beta testing users. So I have to keep it published to run the beta test.
What are my possibilities to make the best of this situation?
Using a dummy app as production APK?
Keep it unpublished and start with a new package name all over again?
Easiest way would be to delete the published app, but Google says NO.
You can put your Google Play Developer Console into "Advanced Mode" by clicking the button in the top right corner. Then you can activate/deactivate APKs as necessary, and upload APKs specifically for beta testers only. You do not need to change the package name.
After filling in all the details, In your developer console dont upload your APK to the production tab, only upload it in the Beta tab and click publish. Now wait for it to get published and find the playstore link which you can find after clicking the "Manage list of testers" link which is under the "Beta testers". Share this link with your beta users.
Even I made similar mistake before and then unpublished my app. Started again the publish process with different package name as Google remembers your app by the package definition. You won't be able to delete an unpublished app. That needs to be unique. When you create your app, don't upload the apk first, just prepare store listing. Once done, you will see all the panes, production, beta, alpha under APK menu. hope this helps.
Provided the constraints you have, I guess your best option is to set the filter of the APK to no devices if allowed; if not, set it to a single device (one you figure there are almost none in the market).
Additionally, you can change your publishing options for no country (or, again, to a single small country), although I think that might impact the beta testers as well...
I've just found myself in a similar situation (app was published to production prematurely, and I need to do some beta testing). Jorge's answer got me thinking. I found an option under "Pricing and Distribution" which allowed me to restrict distribution to my organization.

Android - Uploading new APK with updated permissions to a published app

So I'm having trouble uploading a new APK to the play store with billing enabled.
Currently I have a published app that is paid and I want to change it to a subscription app such that the users get a yearly subscription and hence latest data to the app.
Now my issue is that the developer console will not let me upload a draft APK with the permissions for billing enabled. I log into the dev console, go to APK, change from simple to advanced mode, save my new APK as a draft and once uploaded I get the following error:
This configuration cannot be published for the following reason(s):
All devices that might receive version 1 would receive version 2.
Some devices are eligible to run multiple APKs. In such a scenario, the device will receive the APK with the higher version code.
I updated the Version code and the version number to be one higher than the current as well as different combinations of upping only one of the two values with still no success.
The app is being signed with the same keystore.
Thanks,
DMan
Figured out what this actually means now. Basically it was just telling me that I need to archive the current apk in order to actually publish the new apk. The new apk was successfully added as a draft. This message was just worded a little awkwardly and actually means that in order to publish version 2 version 1 must be archived NOT that there was anything wrong with the saved draft I performed.
Thanks,
Dman
Yes, all you have to do is to disable the old aplication, after that a the Publish botton will be available to push on the top left area so your new APK will be published
Did you disable your first version? By default, after uploading in advanced mode, both your first and 2nd version are activated. Looks to me like it's just saying that you've got 2 APKs active, that will reach the same devices thus one of the 2 is useless.

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