Internal Testing Play Store download page shows "This item isn't available"

Question

Context

I have an app on Play Console in the Internal Testing track, which is set up and everything works perfectly fine with

• my development APK
• release AAB
• physical phone downloading from Play Store (Android 10)
• emulated phones download from Play Store (Android 12 & Android 9.0)

Problem

But one of our first users can only get to the Play Store page, which shows the error "This item isn't available" with zero helpful details:

The user has Nokia 1.3 with Android 11.

Currently

• We've tried
  • Removing and re-adding their email to the internal testers list
  • Adding an alternate email for them to the list
  • I've tried using a different Google account (on emulated Android 9.0) to reproduce the issue, but it works perfectly fine for me; I can get straight to the app download page and successfully install it
• I'll be trying
  • Uploading a new release to see if that changes something

What else do you think I can try?

Or what other details do you need to know to help figure this out?

Thanks a ton!

Funk

Is your user in the same country or is the app available in their country? In Internal Testing -> Releases -> Countries/regions? Did the user join with the link provided below? – Paraplegia

@Paraplegia it's for all countries, and docs say Internal Testing bypasses country restrictions either way. What do you mean by "the link provided below", because they are able to get all the way to the Play Store app's download page, and are already in the email whitelist. Since posting, I've also verified Android 9 has no issues (I'll edit the post with this detail) – Funk

I have the same issue. In my case the user is in EU and I am in Pakistan. – Flier

Did anyone find a solution for this? I need this too and can't use the workaround from daddy7860 because we are using the closed beta track too :/ – Freiburg

Answer 1

We were able to get past this by promoting our app to the Closed Beta (internal early access) track, and adding all necessary details for Google Play to review the app, waiting 2-3 days for the current release to show as "Available", and confirming with the user that it works for them.

Now, more than just downloadable, it's also searchable on the Play Store (as long as the user is in our email whitelist)

Funk