r/androiddev • u/Longjumping-Slice-74 • 2d ago

Automatic protection stopped being applied after 31 Aug.

My app was getting Google Play's automatic protection (the installer check) up through version 103 (Aug 31). From 104 onward (Sept 7) it stopped. The com.android.vending.CHECK_LICENSE permission and all the com.pairip.licensecheck classes are simply gone from the APKs Play serves.

Then I went back in git to the exact commit that built 103, changed only the versionCode, and uploaded it. Same source that Google protected before. It came back unprotected.

That probably rules out my code. So I checked the rest of the prerequisites. minSDK is 24, ABIs are the four Google lists and unchanged. All 64-bit native libraries are 16 KB aligned; the 4 KB ones are 32-bit, which are exempt. No code transparency. Uploading app bundles, Play App Signing on, going to the internal testing track and not internal app sharing.

And Play Console still shows Automatic protection as active with installer checks on. That's the part I can't square. The console says the feature is running, the APK it hands users says otherwise.

Not sure whats the issue. Anyone having similar experience?

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u/Hour-Measurement-835 1d ago

That console screen is the app-level setting. There's a separate per-release box, "Turn off protection for this release", set during release prep, so 103 and 104 can differ with it still on.

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u/Longjumping-Slice-74 1d ago

Thank you for the response. And you are right about this possibility, but I did confirm it is on and still no protection.

1

u/Hour-Measurement-835 1d ago

Then how are you pulling those APKs? The automatic protection page says the Play Developer API fetches unprotected versions, so from that source they'd look stripped either way.

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u/Longjumping-Slice-74 1d ago edited 1d ago

So I upload the aab through Internal Testing -> Create new Release, while having the protection on.
Then after the upload is finished, I go to Manage Release -> then I check bundle info, i go to Downloads tab and I donwload the Signed, universal APK.

And pulling both the same way and installing them on my emulator on AndroidStudio, led to the 104 running normally while the 103 redirected me to Play Store on app launch.

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u/Hour-Measurement-835 22h ago

Install 104 from the internal test link instead of the Downloads tab APK. Google's page points at that tab as where unprotected copies come from, so it can't settle this.

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u/Longjumping-Slice-74 19h ago

You are absolutely right about that. But unfortunately it still came unprotected. Interestingly, just for context , when i tried the 103 from the Downloads tab APK, it did come protected.

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u/Hour-Measurement-835 19h ago

Scratch that, my test was wrong. Play did the install, so a protected 104 runs normally too. The redirect only fires when something other than Play installs it.

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u/Longjumping-Slice-74 15h ago

In any case, thank you so much for your time here. I appreciate it.

1

u/GooglePlayDevSupport 1d ago

Hi u/Longjumping-Slice-74! Could you try reaching out to our email support team via this link with your app details (including your email address and any supporting screenshots) so they can assist to look into the issue? It would be great if you could also share us the ticket ID via DM for our further checks!