Android alpha testing "Item not found"

Question

I have published my app for alpha testing, but not able to download it from play store.

I have opened the url "https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.*" and accepted to be a tester and now it shows me "you are a tester". But when I click on the link "download it from the Play Store", it shows me "Item not found" in my test device play store and "requested URL was not found" in desktop browser.

1. App is in published state for more than 48 hours.
2. App is published in all countries.
3. google groups for testers are added, I can see the group in manage testers tab. Tester account is added to the group ( triple checked it)
4. test device has only one tester account.
5. I can access the in-app purchases, which means the app is published properly. Google doesn't support draft mode anymore.

I went through some similar posts in stackoverflow, but there is no definite answer. Looks like for some people it resolved automatically and some people are not lucky enough.

Purgatorial

For me, I had to wait for a few hours. But in your case, that doesn't seem to be a case as App is in published state for more than 48 hours. :| – Carchemish

UPDATE : I can access it using my developer's login. But not with any of the tester's login. I added one g+ community and added some tester's. And then add this community url in my developers console. But still no luck! – Purgatorial

Make sure your device's google play services use the correct tester id. I had 2 google accounts added on my device, which was causing issue. It worked fine after I just kept 1 tester account. – Carchemish

I encounter the same problem. But instead of "Closed Alpha testing", I am using "Open Alpha Testing". I can open the link and accepted to be a tester, but when click "Download app on Google Play", it shows item not found. I have submitted the update for more than 48 hours and the status is shown as "Published". What's wrong? – Hither

Did you find a solution for it? I'm having the same problem and trying to resolve it with Google Play support with no luck – Regularly

Please help me out what is the right solution? I'm also suffuring the same issue with my beta version app. – Henryk

same issue facing for me. I published for internal testing. It showing item not found in play store. This the first version of the app. – Messing

DId you tried this? https://mcmap.net/q/127296/-google-app-is-published-on-internal-test-track-but-can-39-t-be-found-downloaded – Canorous

Answer 1

If the app is "Published", but when you click in "View in play store" the site (example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.companyname.appname) show the error:

"We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server",

try this:

• In "Google Play Console" (https://play.google.com/apps/publish), select your app
• goto menu: Release management / App releases
• In Aplha, click in the button "Manage Alpha"
• Click in "Manage testers" and copy the link "Opt-in URL" (example: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.companyname.appname)
• Send this link to your alpha users, you and the users need to click in "Became a tester" before access the app in PlayStore.

After this, open the link of app in play store again (View in play store) logged with a user from the testers list.

If the url still don't open, try close your browser, or clear the browser cache and try again. The browser store a cache of redirects.

Dilatant

Thank you.. that did it! – Champion

How would you become tester for the app, if the app is not in the play store? – Incompatible

Clear all data from chrome before navigating to Play Store – Sinasinai

Answer 2

If you are using Chrome, then it caches redirects. To fix it, clear browsing data. More details on this

Currie

Thanks a lot. I could not access to GooglePlay via the Testing link received by email, but after cleaning "History and data" of Chrome it works: great! – Send

This clearly helps. Clear all data from chrome before navigating to Play Store. – Administer

Answer 3

In my case, the issue was that I wasn't logged to Google with the proper account in Chrome.

I cleared all browsing data, but un-logging from Gmail/Google and re-logging with the proper @gmail.com account would probably have done the trick.

Algonquian

Answer 4

Another thing to check is whether or not Pricing & Distribution -> Only make this application available to my organization is checked. It seems that this doesn't interact well with Alpha- or Beta-only tests, even if your test account is in the given domain. Once I turned this flag off, my beta-only app became visible via the Play Store link from the testing signup page.

Viyella

there is no such option in new dashboard – Change

@AmirDe it seems Store presence -> Pricing & Distribution exists, however Store presence -> Pricing & Distribution -> Only make this application available to my organization does not. – Gove

Answer 5

In addition to all the great answers here, I just found out that if you did an internal test before the closed (alpha) test, the Play Store may want you to use the internal test URL instead.

So say you have your great app and you released it to the internal test track. You created a list called "Internal Testers" for that track and it all went swimmingly. When you did this, Google Play gives you a URL for those testers of the form https://play.google.com/apps/internaltest/{id}. Your internal testers joined the program using that URL, downloaded the app no problem and the test went through.

You now upgrade to the closed track (alpha testing). You create a new list called "Alpha Testers" with new people in it and you enable your release both for "Internal Testers" and "Alpha Testers" thinking that you should carry over your internal testers to alpha. When you do this, Google Play gives you a URL of the form https://play.google.com/apps/testing/{package}. Your alpha testers can now join the program using that URL and download the app. But your internal testers have to keep using the internal test URL to join the program.

From testing a variety of scenarios, it looks like moving a tester from on list to another doesn't fix the problem.

As far as I can tell the Google Play documentation doesn't mention any of this.

Chanell

The Internal Test is somehow bugged, I've followed the exact same steps, but in an Android 5.1 device I keep getting the "Item not found" error, while in other devices and emulators the app can be installed just fine. – Hammad

Answer 6

Where you add groups for test - there have a link for tester (something like terms) you need to click this link on each testing device and say "Yes"

After that link apear in market. I wait 3 days before found it : )

Custommade

Answer 7

For my part it was due to the fact that I sent the link through SMS. It worked when I sent it by email. This link has the form https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.*. This is this link that you have to share by email.

Faizabad

this worked for me. The link in the googleplay console was not redirecting me to the page where I can join as tester. – Kataway

Answer 8

This can be due to a silly mistake where you aren't signed in with the appropriate Google Play account in your device's Google Play Store.

Sign in with the testing gmail account into Google Play and then click on the test-link

For more detail check Item not found

Throw

Following this - you're signing in to Google Account to access testing program, and then within Google Play to download the app. You've to be signed in to the account that you've accepted the testing program in to download the app, otherwise you'll get "Item not found" message – Piddle

Answer 9

allow access to Settings -> internal access -> Manage users with download rights later Settings -> Internal Access -> Testers and the app link will work

Disrespect

Answer 10

I had this similar issue.In my case, I had multiple testers as CSV and there was an space between multiple users tester.Space was the issue in email address.Bad email address may cause this problem.

Luxuriate

Answer 11

Also, make sure the device you are using is among the supported devices for your app. For this, check Release management -> Device catalog on play console.

If this is the problem, expect to see a warning similar to the app is not compatible with your device when you visit play store page via a web browser and Item not found error via play store app.

In my case, I had to make some changes in the Manifest to correct the list of supported devices. So, I replaced below line causing the number of supported devices to be 0:

    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera2.full" />

with:

    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera2.full" android:required="false" />

In your case, Manifest may need a different change of course.

Motherwort

Answer 12

In case someone has tried the several suggestions and has not worked, I want to share another situation I haven't seen listed anywhere else.

Make sure the latest build uploaded is not deactivated. The Play Store console doesn't warn you if, for any reason, the release is made unavailable to your testers. It'll show with a greyed out row, like this:

Check on App releases > Manage, in you track dashboard, that the latest build is Added, not Deactivated.

Harms

Answer 13

In my case is Android Studio emulator, I relaunch play store after few minutes googling, then no more such error "Item not found".

Polypropylene

Answer 14

In my case the emulator had been started a couple of months ago and perhaps cached something wrong. I kept receiving BillingClient.BillingResponse.ERROR resulting in this message.

After restarting the emulator it started working again.

Federative

Answer 15

Simple way is to use incognito mode. Thats it.

Elegant