Android LVL: ERROR_NOT_MARKET_MANAGED when uploaded a new version with public key of new acc

Question

We're moving to another Google Play developer account, so I faced the following problem. App with LVL transferred to this new account returned LICENSE_ALLOW, until I've uploaded a new version with a new public key from our new Google Play account. Now it returns ERROR_NOT_MARKET_MANAGED. I hope it's because Google Play didn't register a new uploaded apk yet (while in Developer console I see a new version) - according to Android Market Doesn't Show My New Version, but usually you must only upload an apk, even not publish, to get rid of this ERROR_NOT_MARKET_MANAGED error.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Answer 1

Relax people, after approx. 30 minutes after I uploaded it, app finally started to answer LICENSE_ALLOW! So if you face the same problem, don't worry, just wait for a while.

Answer 2

I've been dealing with the same issue; I'm not sure it's quite a safe as "relax" though :)

Two concerns I'm investigating:

1) It seems wrong to me that LVL reports this an application error rather than a license violation. So be careful how you treat this in your policy, google's sample code implies that an app error is a developer error and is something your should either fix, or at least not penalize the user for. However if you ignore this in production builds it may provide a way for a hacker to disable your licensing by altering the app version to > the released version. (I don't know how feasible this hack is, but I have run into all kinds of crazy hacks already in CN so it wouldn't surprise me)

2) As pointed out some other threads e.g. Android "Not_Market_Managed" error this creates a problem when publishing new builds. I have not yet been able to make this turn off by saving a draft apk into gplay, so if I actually have to publish to turn this off that would be bad news as there's no way to test this without releasing.

The strange thing is I do not always get this error with new dev builds. Another post speculated that LVL has some rule like you can be +1 over the published version code without triggering it. I hit this error when I had done two released quite close to each other; maybe they are right?

Answer 3

but usually you must only upload an apk, even not publish

From my experience, for LVL to work, you absolutely have to publish the app, even if it's with as much as a single alpha build. (Even though the documentation says uploading a draft should suffice -- idk maybe I was unlucky and it was a temporary malfunction)

Considering @mvk's point 2)

bad news as there's no way to test this without releasing.

This can be remedied by publishing the app with no Production build -- this way the application doesn't go public but you can still test all the Play Store-bound stuff.