CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidjenkins
Bryan Deemer
Bryan Deemer

Reputation: 903

Only releases with status draft may be created on draft app

I'm using the Jenkins AndroidAPKUpload plugin.

I have a draft version of an app in the Play store. The app is intended only for internal testing and it will never be released to the public. I assume that means it will be a draft forever.

When I try to upload the APK via the plugin I receive the error "Only releases with status draft may be created on draft app"

Is there a way I can mark my app as draft? A setting in the build.gradle file perhaps?

Upvotes: 32

Views: 38272

Answers (8)

Isuru
Isuru

Reputation: 31323

If your Play Store account is brand new and you still haven't filled out all the information especially the fields in the 'Main store listing' under 'Store presence', Play Store will show this message.

In my case, I filled out all the details and added the screenshots (they don't have to be fancy, just a few screenshots of the app would suffice). Then when you submit the next build, it goes through the review, even if you submit it to internal testing.

Upvotes: 1

Dragos
Dragos

Reputation: 61

Yup, I can confirm. Submitting my app to be reviewed in the Alpha Track (Closed Testing) worked. It goes through the review process, so you have to add a little bit more details, but after the review is done the app is no longer in Draft mode.

And now my Azure Pipelines can publish directly to the Internal Test Track. I'm pretty sure it goes the same way for any CI/CD provider.

For Azure CD is even worse cause you can't mark your build as 'Draft'. So there is no other way than the one described above.

Cheers!

Upvotes: 4

Made in Moon
Made in Moon

Reputation: 2464

On my side, this issue came from the fact I didn't finish to add some required informations such as title, description, logo, etc. in the Dashboard section (in the Google Play Console).

To make sure you provided all required informations, try to release a closed alpha release. It will show you required missing informations.

Good luck !

EDIT

I noticed that the app status is "draft" before submitting a release (that needs review), see the screenshot:

enter image description here

Upvotes: 1

Egnaro
Egnaro

Reputation: 115

I was running into this as well. In the Google Play Android Publisher plugin's documentation, it states for the Rollout % field, "If you enter 0%, a draft release will be created". After changing the rollout to 0, Jenkins was able to upload new builds while the app was still in draft mode in Google console.

Plugin docs: https://www.jenkins.io/doc/pipeline/steps/google-play-android-publisher/

Upvotes: 1

bra.Scene
bra.Scene

Reputation: 628

I've had the same issue while using Bitrise's Google Play Deploy step, and the reason for this is that if your app on Google console is not set up (privacy policy, app access, content rating etc.), then you cannot create alpha track, only internal track.

So once you first manually put the first app version in internal track, the mentioned Google Play Deploy step will work fine, you just have to set it's status property to draft.

Upvotes: 2

airtonix
airtonix

Reputation: 5169

if you switch to fastlane, then you can:

  • specify that it's going to be a draft release, and
  • make sure the track you're uploading to is specified as internal

https://docs.fastlane.tools/actions/upload_to_play_store/

lane: deploy
  upload_to_play_store(
    track: 'internal',
    release_status: 'draft',
    apk: path_to_your_apk
  )
end

Upvotes: 57

Christian Z.
Christian Z.

Reputation: 441

If your app is in "draft" state, the Play Console API refuses releases that are not in the "draft" state. It's unclear whether the API supports releasing without submitting the app setup forms (I filed feedback). You can then release on the web page once the draft release is created, but it's a manual step.

See this issue for a similar tool: https://github.com/eventOneHQ/apkup/issues/49

The problem probably resolved itself for you because by creating an Alpha channel release also completed the app setup, moving the app away from the draft state (it should say "Closed testing" in the app selector).

Upvotes: 8

Bryan Deemer
Bryan Deemer

Reputation: 903

I did solve the problem, although to be honest, I don't remember exactly what I did. I believe I manually uploaded the first APK to the Alpha channel in the Play console. Then I released that version internally. After that I was able to upload automatically from Jenkins.

Upvotes: 28

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