[android-developers] Certain apps not being shown in Android Market?

[niko001]

Hi,

some of my apps are not being shown in the market after updating to
2.2 (for no obvious reason, doesn't seem to be based on whether they
are paid/free apps or on their target/minsdk-value). I've seen users
reporting the same issues with a variety of apps on other forums, so
I'm not the only one experiencing this, but no one seems to know a
fix. Is this a bug in the Market, or can I do anything on my side
(change the target-property of my apps, permissions that are no longer
supported, or anything along those lines)?

The apps are still installed on my 2.2 phone and they still work
flawlessly, they are just not being shown in the "Downloads" tab in
the market and I can't find them through the search, either.

Thanks for your help,
Nick

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[Yahel]

Just a thought :

What are the permissions listed under the require segment of your app
in your manifest file and what screen resolution do you support in
your apps ?

One of my apps doesn't show in the market for lower screen resolution
devices.
The require part of the manifest file might also filter out apps for
specific devices. Say if you specify that your app requires flash
capability for the camera, then all devices without flashes won't see
the app in the market.

Keep us updated.

Yahel

[Hermes Pique]

I'm having the same problem. Some users are reporting that one of our
apps doesn't show up the Android Market with Froyo.

Best,

H.

[JP]

Same problem here. BTW, in my case, I allow all screen sizes. I've got
a couple of apps out that build on each other. The paid one doesn't
show, the free stuff, that actually requests additional permissions,
is still there. Kindof bad for the little business there is. At least
2.2 hasn't been pushed out to the masses yet.

On May 23, 7:52 am, Yahel <kaye...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a thought :
>
> What are the permissions listed under the require segment of your app
> in your manifest file and what screen resolution do you support in
> your apps ?

[JP]

Same here. Thankfully I'm not alone with this.
I allow all screens. This needs to be addressed on the fixed end,
otherwise

[niko001]

Hi,

thanks for your answers.

Yahel, that's a good point, the Google I/O-Android-Keynote talked
about market filtering for certain features (so that an application
requiring a touchscreen is not shown in the Market of a Google TV-
Device, for example).

What's weird, however: I have a paid and a free (Demo/"Lite") version
of the same app, which are basically identical in their code (the demo
has obviously less content, but the manifests are identical, apart
from the app name), and the Lite version is showing up in the 2.2
market, the paid version isn't :-/! However, other paid versions are
visible, so it's not an issue of no paid apps at all, just a few
aren't showing...

I'll keep you updated, but would love an "official" statement (from
someone who knows what's going on :-)!) whether this is something I
need to fix, or if it's a general Market-issue which Google needs to
fix.

Best regards,
Nick

[Lance Nanek]

Are you using the copy protection option in the Market publishing
console?

[Zsolt Vasvari]

No problems on my end. I am using the following settings:

<supports-screens android:smallScreens="true"
android:normalScreens="true"
android:largeScreens="true"
android:anyDensity="true"/>

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="3"
android:targetSdkVersion="7"/>

> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Christopher]

From a little bit of testing it's appearing that this is a copy
protection issue. All of my apps are copy protected, and none of them
are now showing in the market on my N1 with 2.2. I should mention
that I've been having a bit of difficulty in testing this completely
as I can make changes and publish them apparently faster than the
market updates those changes. My first app was compiled against 1.5
with copy protection and I could not see it on the N1. It took me a
bit to figure out that the market was lagging in my updates however,
and by that time I'd moved on to some other ideas. I will go back and
do some further testing and post those results. My latest effort
however consisted of publishing an app compiled against 2.2 but with
minSdkVersion set for API Level 3. With copy protection off, I could
see it fine, however once I turned it on it disappeared.

[Christopher]

Went back and published a test app compiled against 1.5. Nothing
fancy, just a basic app with minSdkVersion 3. With Copy Protection
off, I could see it fine on the N1 with 2.2. Once copy protection was
turned on, the app would no longer show in the market for the N1 with
2.2. This seems consistent with my other tests and seems to point the
finger at copy protection.

[niko001]

Hi,

you're right, it's definitely a copy-protection issue, thanks for
figuring that out :-)!

The new "Market Filters" document in the official Dev Guide states:

"Forward-Locked Applications
To forward lock an application, set copy protection to "On" when you
upload the application to Market. Market will not show copy-protected
applications on developer devices or unreleased devices."

I don't think that our N1s are suddenly being treated as an unreleased
device, but it could be that this is happening because Froyo is not
100% released to the public yet, as it's only being pushed to review
units via OTA at the moment?

This is the doc: http://developer.android.com/intl/de/guide/appendix/market-filters.html

So far, to me it's still not clear whether this is a feature or a
bug ;)!

Thanks,
Nick

[String]

On May 24, 10:32 am, niko001 <ebs...@googlemail.com> wrote:

> "Forward-Locked Applications
> To forward lock an application, set copy protection to "On" when you
> upload the application to Market. Market will not show copy-protected
> applications on developer devices or unreleased devices."
>
> I don't think that our N1s are suddenly being treated as an unreleased
> device, but it could be that this is happening because Froyo is not
> 100% released to the public yet, as it's only being pushed to review
> units via OTA at the moment?

I'm afraid it's probably a feature. From what I've heard, the market
client checks the device "fingerprint" against a Google database, and
doesn't show copy-protected apps if the "fingerprint" isn't found. And
I believe the "fingerprint" is comprised of phone model, OS version,
and mobile carrier, perhaps among other things. So while the Nexus One
isn't an "unreleased device," it IS when it has 2.2 installed - at
least in the eyes of the Market client.

This is one of the major gripes with copy protection as currently
implemented. This "fingerprint" method is prone to failure, and when
it does, the handset won't show copy-protected apps. So far, the only
solution seems to be to wait until Google adds the particular
combination to their database - which hopefully will happen before 2.2
rolls out to Nexus Ones officially.

String

[FDP]

(sorry if this is a double post, I submitted it once already and
didn't see it show up)

I did a bit of looking around, I found this in the official
documentation: "To forward lock an application, set copy protection

to "On" when you upload the application to Market. Market will not
show copy-protected applications on developer devices or unreleased

devices." (from here: http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/market-filters.html)

Since 2.2 is not officially released yet (is that right?), my guess is
that all copy protected apps are not showing up. This also makes
sense for the paid/demo issue described - the paid app is probably
marked copy protected while the demo one is not.

Someone who is having this issue could test my hypothesis by looking
to see if they have ANY copy protected apps showing up in the Market.
If you can see any then I am wrong. :)

Cheers

On May 23, 11:33 am, niko001 <ebs...@googlemail.com> wrote:

[programingjd]

I am two apps using
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4"/>
and
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

They don't have any support-screens tag in the manifest (should they
have one and explicitly specify that they support everything?).

None of them show up on the market after upgrading to 2.2.

[FDP]

I have a guess!

Official docs say: "To forward lock an application, set copy

protection to "On" when you upload the application to Market. Market
will not show copy-protected applications on developer devices or
unreleased devices." (from here: http://developer.android.com/guide/appendix/market-filters.html)

My guess is that the ones that don't show up have copy protection set
to "on", and they don't show up on 2.2 because it's not "officially"
released yet.

For example, the demo version showing up but not the paid version
makes sense because you probably have the paid one copy protected but
not the demo version.

A customer reported this to me for the first time today as well. This
is my best guess for now...if anyone can confirm it or prove me wrong
that would be great. :)

Thanks!

On May 23, 11:33 am, niko001 <ebs...@googlemail.com> wrote:

[programingjd]

I think that's it. I took off the copy protection and my app started
showing up again.
I don't know for sure that this is the reason because I changed other
things, but
it seems like it is.

[powder]

Hi,

I have the same problem and its definitely the copy protection. I have
a Nexus
which I updated to Froyo and now I have to turn off the copy
protection in order
for my app to show up in the market. When is Google going to fix this
problem?

Not related but also a point to mention is that all rooted phones out
there will
not be able to see the copy protected apps. Probably since they can
log in with root
and get access to the apk files. This was there even before Froyo.

Regards Jonas.

[String]

On May 27, 3:44 am, powder <andr...@unidevsolutions.com> wrote:

> When is Google going to fix this problem?
>
> Not related but also a point to mention is that all rooted phones out
> there will
> not be able to see the copy protected apps. Probably since they can
> log in with root
> and get access to the apk files.

You've just answered your own question. This "problem" is by design -
intended to stop users of rooted devices from accessing copy-protected
APKs - and so is never going to be "fixed". You either need to remove
copy protection (a solution you already found), or wait until the 2.2/
NexusOne combo is official, at which time Google will enable full
Market access for it.

Or find another outlet for your apps, but that's a whole 'nother ball
of worms. :^)

String

[powder]

Hi,

Thanks... I thought 2.2 was offical, I have installed a "true" 2.2
from Google
on a non rooted Nexus phone. Should not Google make sure this works
before
even putting up the new SDK and before rolling out 2.2.

Regards Jonas.

[Mark Murphy]

powder wrote:
> I thought 2.2 was offical

SDK, yes. Nexus One or other hardware, no.

> I have installed a "true" 2.2
> from Google
> on a non rooted Nexus phone.

Please point me to the Google blog post or Web page indicating that this
was "true".

> Should not Google make sure this works
> before
> even putting up the new SDK and before rolling out 2.2.

They have not rolled out 2.2 to hardware yet.

--
Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)
http://commonsware.com | http://github.com/commonsguy
http://commonsware.com/blog | http://twitter.com/commonsguy

Warescription: Three Android Books, Plus Updates, One Low Price!

[powder]

Here I got it here:

http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF50-from-ERE27.1e519a24.zip

But they removed the link now:-)

I still have the zip, if you want it I can send it to you...

On May 28, 10:24 pm, Mark Murphy <mmur...@commonsware.com> wrote:
> powder wrote:
> > I thought 2.2 was offical
>
> SDK, yes. Nexus One or other hardware, no.
>
> > I have installed a "true" 2.2
> > from Google
> > on a non rooted Nexus phone.
>
> Please point me to the Google blog post or Web page indicating that this
> was "true".
>
> > Should not Google make sure this works
> > before
> > even putting up the new SDK and before rolling out 2.2.
>
> They have not rolled out 2.2 to hardware yet.
>
> --

> Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy)http://commonsware.com|http://github.com/commonsguyhttp://commonsware.com/blog|http://twitter.com/commonsguy

[powder]

Google did a fix:

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/application-visibility-issues.html

On 29 Mai, 12:00, powder <andr...@unidevsolutions.com> wrote:
> Here I got it here:
>

> http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF...

[niko001]

Great, thanks for letting us know!

At the moment, I still can't see copy-protected apps, but hopefully it
will take effect soon (provided that this is the same non-visibility-
issue they're talking about here...:-))

On Jun 8, 11:17 pm, powder <andr...@unidevsolutions.com> wrote:
> Google did a fix:
>

> http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/application-visibility...

[TreKing]

On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 4:17 PM, powder <and...@unidevsolutions.com> wrote:

Google did a fix:

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/application-visibility-issues.html

I like this part:

Regrettably, we fell short of our own standard for customer support by not communicating the issue to our developers and how we were working to resolve it.

Apparently Google has a standard for customer support. Who knew.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TreKing - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices
http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking

[niko001]

Still not working for me :-/! I've just found a pirated version of one
of my apps (that had copy-protection enabled) floating around on
several different sites, so the copy protection apparently isn't doing
much good anyway and I can safely disable it ;-)!



On Jun 9, 1:17 am, TreKing <treking...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 4:17 PM, powder <andr...@unidevsolutions.com> wrote:
> > Google did a fix:
>

> >http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/06/application-visibility...

[powder]

I now have the wrong download count in Android Market... What is going
on?