I few months ago I was able to purchase applications from the Market here in Puerto Rico. As everybody knows, PR is a US territory and it appears as a state when entering my information in the Google Checkout account and profile. For some stupid reason the Market (as I was told by a Google representative) Puerto Rico isn't in the list of accepted countries to purchase applications. Anyways I was able to do so by using my iPhone internet and clearing the market cache data.
Now I can't purchase anything by any means. The market web site only shows free applications only. The error message that I get is: "This app is compatible with some of your devices" which is false since I know the application is compatible because I can install the free version. When hit the PAY button the message i get it that the app can't be installed in my device and if i try to buy it using the market on the tab it says: "The item were attempting to purchase could not be found."
Right now I'm really frustrated and tire of dealing with this stupidity from Google. I love the tab and the Android platform but this is issue is limiting the usability since I can't purchase the applications that I want or need. Also this is really sad for the developers because this kind of issue will push other users to get the applications pirated from other sites freely.
My question: Is there a way or fix to overcome this? I tried to get help from Google in this matter but its impossible.
BTW, i noticed that a friend can purchase applications from his ASUS Transformer without issues. I registered his tablet in my google account and I was able to purchase the application using his tablet. Maybe since Apple blocked the sales of Galaxy Tabs is the Market now blocking apps for sale?
I will appreciate any help...
Related
Hello everyone,
I just got a Nook Tablet I have never had any smart phone or tablet before, and I have never purchased an app. My question is about DRM on apps.
If I buy an app from the B&N store, will I only be able to use it on my Nook Tablet? For example, if I get an Android phone in the future, will I be able to use my Nook Tablet apps on it?
I know that there are other marketplaces such as the Android marketplace and the Amazon app store. Are there similar issues with those as well?
Where is the best place to buy an app to ensure I won't have to buy it a second time?
fr3dw0rth said:
Hello everyone,
I just got a Nook Tablet I have never had any smart phone or tablet before, and I have never purchased an app. My question is about DRM on apps.
If I buy an app from the B&N store, will I only be able to use it on my Nook Tablet? For example, if I get an Android phone in the future, will I be able to use my Nook Tablet apps on it?
I know that there are other marketplaces such as the Android marketplace and the Amazon app store. Are there similar issues with those as well?
Where is the best place to buy an app to ensure I won't have to buy it a second time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Buy from the google market if you want to use it in the future for android phone/tablet.
Does that mean that if I buy from the Google market, I can copy the app to a new device and install it again? Would the new device also have to have the Google market installed?
What it is about buying an app from B&N that would restrict me from transferring and installing my app on a new device?
* bump *
fr3dw0rth said:
Does that mean that if I buy from the Google market, I can copy the app to a new device and install it again? Would the new device also have to have the Google market installed?
What it is about buying an app from B&N that would restrict me from transferring and installing my app on a new device?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can copy it and install it anywhere regardless where you buy the app - manually copy it or use a backup program like Titanium backup. If you want to tie the program to the market, so you can get updates for it, you can redownload it from the android market, or use a program to tie it to the market so it recognizes it (but your account will have to have purchased the program if it's not a free one).
The android market is tied to devices - you cannot use it without a device registered to the account, which is different than the other markets/stores where an account is enough (currently). There is no issue installing the Amazon market, the B&N Market, etc on different devices and regrabbing programs. (But the external B&N market app doesn't run on nook tablets, only odd part.) Since the android market is by far the biggest one, it's probably the best place to buy things, but no you shouldnt' have issues with the other markets and transferring stuff around.
Anything you purchase through Google Market or Amazon App Store can be used and downloaded on any device as long as you use the same account (gmail for google, login for Amazon). I have three devices that all share the same apps. When you login to either for the first time, it will list all your purchased apps under "my apps" and you can download directly from there. I have no experience with the B&N market yet.
I keep a second family gmail account and make purchases through that on Google market so my family can all share the same purchased apps and our own seperate gmail accounts for email, calendar, etc.
There's no definitive answer, since a) it depends on the vendor's permission, b) the "app store" scheme is still in a state of flux, both conceptually and in implementation.
In theory, whatever "app store" you buy an app from will allow authorization for any devices linked to that store. Since Google's uses Gmail, then any device linked to a particular Gmail acct should be authorized.
Presently, buying from Google allows the widest reach, assuming all your devices are linked to Gmail. Buying from B&N, in theory, would allow any B&N-linked devices (NC and NT for now) to be authorized. Ditto for Amazon's.
This is a problem, assuming you buy apps from different app stores. This will be addressed over time, by user demands of vendors to establish a commonal authorization system. Realize that we're still in the beta testing stage, not only of mobile devices and OS'es, but also their ecosystems.
Over time, one'd expect more vendors to eschew "per user" for a more granular "per device" or "per X devices." For one, it avoids the abuse of having a "communal" Gmail account--mentioned in the previous post--to share between different users. Since the latter requires additional infrastructural work, you only see this from a few large, established vendors for now. But all vendors are loathe to let a third-party control their vendor-client relationship, and will have their own proprietary authorization at some point.
There are a few other threads with this same problem, but no solutions, and my situation's a little different. Suddenly, after months of purchasing apps for my Galaxy Note and Galaxy S2, I'm now frequently running into unpurchasable apps. Search via Market app doesn't find them. I can reach them by scanning a QR code, and when I click on the price to purchase, it eventually times out with a "not found" error. When someone gives me a link, I'm able to find the apps on the Android Market web site, but it says they're incompatible with all my devices.
This supposed incompatibility is wrong because sometimes the apps suddenly become available to me, and I purchase in the usual way. Most recently, for example, RepliGo. Before recently, this problem happened once or twice, but lately it's about half the time for apps I want to purchase. For example, I can't purchase Juice Defender Ultimate and Keyboard Swap for Tasker. In fact, a search in Android Market web site doesn't even find Juice Defender Ultimate. I get the free version on my phone, and from there there's a link to the paid app. My Market app will then go to the paid app, but purchase times out. Meanwhile, as I said, I'm able to purchase other apps, so this isn't some general payment problem.
I'm using Market Enabler because I'm not in the U.S. I try faking various providers, but it doesn't clear up the problem. Anyone have a clue as to what's going on here? Why is it only recently that my failure rate for purchasing apps--or even finding known apps--is around 50%?
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
Was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on using the Android Licensing copy protection in their apps? Do you use it and do you spend a lot of time on it or have any creative ways to help enforce it?
As we all know any kind of drm will always be cracked but I just wanted to know if people found it worthwhile to have..
I'm using In-app-billing, because I found that even licensed apps can be copied.
And yes, all apps can be cracked eventually, but most of the publishers of cracked apps remove them if you ask to. So that's what I'm gonna do!
Sent from my Nexus 4 running Android 4.2 JB
I don't like license checks that force you to be online, but I do like to have 'something' in place...
Recently I started working with some OEMs in India who wanted to pre-load my apps on their devices. Very exciting obviously, but I didn't know if I could trust them as I'd never heard of them.
So what I did was get the app to load a web page on one of my servers off the screen (9000%x...) so that it couldn't be seen. The page it linked to was empty, but if I wanted to I could modify the code to include a redirect that would send it to another page. Then in my 'onPageOverride' event I just said if URL = 'stopapp.htm' then do whatever it was I wanted to do.
What I actually have it do in that event is to fill the entire screen with that web page. The user then can't interact with the app underneath, but they get a message that I can create at the time saying 'This app has been illegally distributed' or whatever else I want to say. I can even forward them on to the download page if I want this way.
This works well too because if the user isn't online, the page just doesn't load and nothing happens. But if I want to stop offline use as well I can save a file in File.DirInternal and have the app check for that. 'SwitchOff.txt'. They get caught once, then they can't use the app.
Obviously this doesn't work quite like a license check, but what you *could* do with it is to have the app pop up with a message to people using an old version that's not updated. That's probably downloaded off of some file sharing site, so you could then just keep pestering them to 'update' and send them to the Play Store to do so. You can also check how many of the users on that version of your app are legitimate by looking at your Play Developer Console.
One thing to note is that the redirect URLs you use will need to be different in every version of your app that you release.
Hope this helps someone! I wish I'd done it sooner, one of my apps is all over the web grrrr...
pretty much the same as what I'm doing atm except I just ping a server in the background and display a popup if the result meets certain conditions.. I don't disable the app either as I can't be 100% certain it's pirated, instead I display a "scary" popup saying if they're using a pirated copy this is illegal etc.. your average user won't know how the popup was generated so it should be enough to make them think "someone" is onto them and go the proper route.. With the added bonus a genuine user can just press ok and carry on using the app
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
For one of my paid apps, about 5% of the downloads are from non-Google Play sources, meaning, I'm not seeing any revenue from those 5%.
There is an Android API, that allows developers to see which platform their app was downloaded from. So, I've been thinking about adding that hidden feature to my apps and maybe do something fun with it. But, haven't got around to it yet. My thinking has been that if somebody downloaded a pirated copy of my app, then they probably weren't going to pay for it in the first place. And, hopefully, they will tell their friends about it and maybe one of them will actually purchase it through Google Play.
I already have all my licensing code in place and commented out. Since my app is pretty new I want to see how it does before adding licensing. Since the app is free and income is from IAP its not too bad. I'd only turn on licensing in the next release if I see a pressing need for it.
Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
I live in a country that can't register a google merchant account. I have some free ad-suported apps, but I want to make an ad-free pad version.
I see two ways:
- a paypal donation for ad removing (but I read that it isn't legal and my accoutn can be banned)
- a link in my application to my website to buy a Pro add-free version (not everyone will install an .apk from some website)
Any other legal way to recieve money from users for removing ads?
Don't mess with z google!
artouiros said:
I live in a country that can't register a google merchant account. I have some free ad-supported apps, but I want to make an ad-free pad version.
I see two ways:
- a paypal donation for ad removing (but I read that it isn't legal and my accoutn can be banned)
- a link in my application to my website to buy a Pro add-free version (not everyone will install an .apk from some website)
Any other legal way to recieve money from users for removing ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the google terms of service basically forbids you from monetizing a paid version without going through them. I wouldn't try to work around this problem. Don't mess with google. I have an account that is still banned from Ad Words because some friends (6 years ago) started clicking like crazy on all of the banners on my website. So, don't try to do anything subversive, it won't pay off.
So, your real problem is to get a google merchant account. That really sucks that your country isn't able to get one. Is there any person or company out there maybe that could be a go-between from another country that can have a merchant account? I really don't see any other safe solution. Good Luck anyway!
artouiros said:
I live in a country that can't register a google merchant account. I have some free ad-suported apps, but I want to make an ad-free pad version.
I see two ways:
- a paypal donation for ad removing (but I read that it isn't legal and my accoutn can be banned)
- a link in my application to my website to buy a Pro add-free version (not everyone will install an .apk from some website)
Any other legal way to recieve money from users for removing ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have some problem few months ago, however it's no longer a problem because few week later, i receive a notif with a good news that my country are supported so i can create a google merchant account.
But before, I also did some thinking on how to work around it, yet, can't find any way to do that which doesn't break google policy.
I can't suggest any way beside waiting and hoping that your country will soon supported by google (not useful enough, eh ?), who knows ?
Some idea come to mind though, if you ask someone from other country which supported by google, who kind enough to make a google merchant account for you, so you can access it Iater from your country when the account has already been made, I don't know if it works, anybody try something like this before ?
Hello. I recently bought a Huawei P40 Lite, without GMS and installed the apps using googlefier. Everything goes well except some errors that are fixed by swiping and blocking them, and one bigger issue: location. Some local apps (the phone is for my mom so she has a lot of shopping apps for local supermarkets with discounts, cards, vouchers etc) require you to set your location through google, so instead of the app showing the map and allowing you to choose your store, you're stuck at a "Google Play services are updated" screen. Is there any fix for this?
How it looks on my P20 Lite (with factory GMS)
How it looks on my P40 Lite (with googlefier GMS)
Also, does anyone know any better solution of installing the google services? As said, this phone is for my mom and I really don't want to have to fix something every week, so I'm up to even root and mess with things so I can have a more permanent fix.
Welcome to XDA
Yes, well... no idea what the solution is but there's no way I leave that junkware run on my phone.
With a user like that always keep in mind it may be malware, a virus or rootkit causing it.
An Android is only as secure as its user...
blackhawk said:
Welcome to XDA
Yes, well... no idea what the solution is but there's no way I leave that junkware run on my phone.
With a user like that always keep in mind it may be malware, a virus or rootkit causing it.
An Android is only as secure as its user...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it's not junk or malware. It's a genuine app from the playstore for a supermarket chain named Lidl. She's had it for months, you basically get a qr code and you have to scan that code at the cash register to get some discounts. The app shows her each week what products have discounts and what products are gonna have discounts next week. The app is legit.
As for the user, yeah I agree my mom isn't the most careful out there but i managed to teach her to not install or press any buttons and everytime she gets a weird message or notification she comes to me to figure out what it is. Even when a normal app requires a permission, for example "facebook requires permission to take pictures", she comes to me, so I'm pretty sure she'll be fine with it.
Is there any proper way of installing GMS without having these types of issues even if it involves rooting or god knows what else? At the price of this phone there's nothing better than it and I don't really want to downgrade to a bad samsung just for that.
Just because it's on Playstore doesn't make it safe
FB? Bah-ha-ha-ha.... is pure social malware.
Purveyors of disinformation and far, far worse.
No way that be on my phone. I punched out of FB 13 years ago after a month... the puppet cut the strings.
Meh, it's a lick on you... do what you will, but actions have consequences.
blackhawk said:
Just because it's on Playstore doesn't make it safe
FB? Bah-ha-ha-ha.... is pure social malware.
Purveyors of disinformation and far, far worse.
No way that be on my phone. I punched out of FB 13 years ago after a month... the puppet cut the strings.
Meh, it's a lick on you... do what you will, but actions have consequences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that deep. Like I said, all she does is talk about flowers, plants and work-related subjects. I taught her how not to fall in the hands of scammers and how she should come and show me everytime she gets any weird request. She doesn't download any apps without me, doesn't access weird websites, i think it's safe enough for a mature person.
Yes, I know that it isn't safe just because it's on the playstore, I'm just trying to tell you that it's a legit app, developed my the supermarket chain that has over 11k stores in Europe and there isn't any sensitive information apart from her name and a qr code that she has to scan, instead of the typical physical discount card.
On another note, since the topic has been moved to another category, does anybody have any idea on how to fix my issue?
@goldieczr did you find a solution?
I've got the exact same problem on my Hisense a6l.
I got these files (in the rar) from an official seller. With these you can install google service and magisk.
Both files are executable zips that can be opend. All you need is the password from the text file.
Same thing with the installation, just copy paste the passwords when ask.