Reset version number on the google play store

Question

I've published an app on the playstore and accidentally used version number 9999999 for testing purposes on my gradle build. So now my application is published with that version and I cannot decrement it, otherwise the google play developer console will complain. Also, I cannot remove the app from the play store because it has already been published. So I'd have to either use a different package name and create a new app (which I don't really want) or I'd have to somehow reset the version number.

Is this possible at all? Are there other alternatives for me here?

Jealous

I'm very much fear that you're screwed up, I don't think there's a way to do that. Just for my curiosity, why would someone put the version number to 9999999 for testing purposes? – Atencio

@Atencio damn. Well I had some kind of preview app which I didn't want to use the normal version increments because that didn't seem logical. In hindsight, I was just being dumb :D thanks for your insight though, write an answer and I'll accept it. Guess everyone would take that rep ;D – Jealous

I ran into the same problem because I used to have DNS serial like version codes (YYYYmmmddXX format) for my apps. One day it stopped working because the version code was to big to be parsed as an Int by cordova. I have made a pull request (github.com/apache/cordova-android/pull/298) to change it to Biginteger, but it's been months and I fear it will never land. – Methylnaphthalene

@Pierre-AlexisdeSolminihac this wont gonna work. Even if cordova supports it, the Android SDK does not. "versionCode — An integer used as an internal version number." from developer.android.com/studio/publish/… – Exhaustless

Plus that same page now explicitly states: "Warning: The greatest value Google Play allows for versionCode is 2100000000." – Methylnaphthalene

Answer 1

I'm very much fear that you're screwed up, I don't think there's a way to do that. As commented above, changing the version number for that number could be very dangerous and you have to be very careful.

However, if I were you I would contact ([email protected]) them explaining what you've just done. After that, just keep your fingers crossed!

Atencio

sorry, forgot about this. I have contacted them and they were able to help. – Jealous

@Jealous Hi Yorrd. Can you please guide on steps to initiate process and how long Google took to help on this issue? They reset the version to some specific version which you asked for?? – Free

@Free sorry, I forgot. I believe they removed the app for us to re-add, but I'm not certain about this at all anymore. It's been 3 years :P – Jealous

@Jealous Firstly, Thanks for quick response. But definitely Google can support on this.. right? How should I approach them? Through email on above email id ([email protected]) or through Play Store console help section? – Free

@Free i sent them an email. Both methods will probably land in the same ticketing system so it doesn't really matter – Jealous

So I checked with Google, they can help to remove the app from play store only if it doesn't have any active users in open channel (beta or production). For open developer program (the usual $25 dev account) they will not support more than this. However, they might be supporting each way possible if you are a Google Partner, which is again not easy to be. – Free

Answer 2

You can continue incrementing your versionCode. According to their documentation, the highest versionCode allowed is 2100000000, so you are still technically below that limit.

source: https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/versioning

Plasticizer

Create comment, i had this code in my react native app: output.versionCodeOverride = defaultConfig.versionCode * 1048576 + versionCodes.get(abi) so i just delete this, write the last version on google play and it work – Toothsome

Answer 3

It seems like this problem hasn't been considered when building the developer console. You can still try to contact google directly and see if they can remove the faulty apk for you.

Dialectician