CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidgoogle-play
Tushar
Tushar

Reputation: 1607

Does Alpha/Beta apk publishing works unpublished app in Google Play?

I did setup and uploaded new apk for alpha release as per mentioned here by creating Google Group and adding that group for Alpha release. But alpha test accounts still not able to download application from Google Play. Link generated from developer console lets tester to opt in, but does not let download application. I did this for unpublished app and it's almost 24 hours passed but still Google Play client gives "Item not found" error.

Am I missing something or do I need to simply wait more ?

Google Play tester link

Upvotes: 21

Views: 32333

Answers (11)

gattsbr
gattsbr

Reputation: 3772

Try checking the link again 5 minutes after you opt-in to the beta/alpha program. Some times it just takes a little time.

Upvotes: 1

Allen
Allen

Reputation: 301

While having the same issue this seemed to help me.I seemed to have uploaded an APK to production with the same versioning numbers.

Taken from Google Support Website

If a Production APK is uploaded with a higher version code than an alpha or beta APK, the alpha and/or beta version will automatically be deactivated.

Upvotes: 0

yongsunCN
yongsunCN

Reputation: 766

A few possible causes based on my experience:

  1. Tester's email address has a typo, double check it.
  2. Submission is still being processed, wait until it's published.
  3. Make sure you are signing in with the correct account to play store, if you have multiple google accounts stored on your phone.
  4. If you had something wrong like above and fixed it, make sure you clear app data of both your browser app and play store app. Simply clear browser cache sometimes won't work.

Upvotes: 0

dstibbe
dstibbe

Reputation: 1697

Go to the opt-in link, then "Become a tester", after a while you can download.

Upvotes: 0

Zhixin Liu
Zhixin Liu

Reputation: 151

It's the normal case, actually it may take one or two days for download after you publish it.

Upvotes: 1

Amt87
Amt87

Reputation: 5607

You can check step 1 in the following link

it says:

  8. Select the Publish option.

Upvotes: 0

Mark Scheel
Mark Scheel

Reputation: 2963

Click All Applications in the upper left of the Play Store View and click on your APK.

You will see this:

enter image description here

Note, when clicking the same Draft button from other screens you won't see the drop down.

Click Why can't I publish and you will see something like this:

enter image description here

So now, do those things, click your APK and go to the APK section and fill out the required items (description, photos, etc) and click save. Then go to the Pricing & Distribution section and do the same (look for the * to indicate required fields) and click save.

Then you will see this in the upper right:

enter image description here

Sweet! When you click Publish you will get a message saying that the APK will be available in a couple hours. Because this is for Alpha or Beta publishing on the Google Play Store the APK will only be available to Play Store accounts in the community or email group you set up.

Now go back to your Alpha or Beta tag and look at the Testers section for "Manage List of Testers", click that link and there will now be a link you have to share with your testers. They have to visit that link to BECOME A TESTER at which point they can get the APK.

Man, that wasn't easy, but it works!

Upvotes: 9

AndreaC
AndreaC

Reputation: 63

In the APK section, I clicked on the link "Manage list of testers".

Underneath your list of testers (the google group(s) you have) there should be a link in the section "Share the following link with your testers. ". I took that link and then posted a notification from my google group that was set up for testing. Then that notification was sent out and the testers could get to the app that way.

Really stupid. I expected that new versions, including the first, would be sent out as notifications for all group members. That would just makes sense. The current system is dumb and if that's what they want, then they should explain that because I would want my testers to use the latest to report bugs !!!!

Upvotes: 3

Jacob L
Jacob L

Reputation: 101

I had to publish the application but not in all countries, the country I live in was enough for me to see it. However, It appears that I have to pay for my own application to test it making it a bit pointless. Edit: Adding accounts under settings will make it possible to make test purchases for in app-billing, probably also for paid-apps. It can take a few hours before others can download beta apps, but I have not experiences 24hrs, usually around 2-4hrs.

Upvotes: 4

Tushar
Tushar

Reputation: 1607

It turns out that your application needs to be published in all countries to be able to get alpha/beta builds.

Upvotes: 14

Antonio Argentieri
Antonio Argentieri

Reputation: 49

You need to publish the alpha APK before it is available to download.

See here for more info. https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/3131213

Upvotes: 4

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