Application Error : This version of the application is not configured for Market Billing

Question

Since a couple of days it's possible to use in-app-billing in Android apps. Very cool of course. So, I started working on a update for my application to implement this. But now I run into some problems. This is what I did:

• I first tried the reserved product IDs for testing static in-app billing responses. That works without problems.
• I uploaded a draft APK to the market (with production signing, no debug signing), that included the com.android.vending.BILLING permission.
• When I did that I was able to add a 'In-app Products' to my app in the market and set it status to published.
• I created a test user and reseted my device to make that test user the primary account on my test device.
• The reserved product id's still work.

Now comes the problem. When I use my own product ID (the one I added before, see above) a dialog is shown with the following text:

"Application Error : This version of the application is not configured for Market Billing. Check the help center for more information."

There is nothing strange I can find in the log. Anyone knows what I'm doing wrong here?

Solution 1

I just encountered this issue and realized it was because I was running a debug, unsigned version of my app. In Eclipse, when I exported and signed my application and installed it on the phone, then I was able to use my in-app products without seeing this error message.

Solution 2

I have found that once I upload a new copy of my APK to the market, then I experience that "application error" during course of the next hour or so. After at least one hour has gone by (sometimes up to two hours need to have gone by), then I no longer get that error anymore and I can then purchase my items without any problems. It seems that the Google servers need at least an hour to process the fact that you have uploaded a new APK (with regards to the InApp Billing aspect of the APK).

So my advice is for you to wait 1 to 2 hours after uploading your APK, and then see if you still get the "application error".

Solution 3

I also ran into this problem. I finally realized that my published app had a versionCode of 3, my draft (unpublished apk with the Billing permission) had a versionCode of 4, and the signed apk I was using to test in-app billing was still at versionCode 3. Once I changed the versionCode to 4, I was able to get through to the actual in-app product page for the purchase I was requesting.

Solution 4

This can happen on signed, released builds when the apk uploaded as a draft does not match the apk running on your system in test mode. Just make sure that your builds match up, you should be alright in test mode and will stop seeing the errors.

The big worry here is that we'll see this same behavior in production, i.e., we release 1.0.0-1 with in-app billing, then we release 1.0.0-2, and users running 1.0.0-1 will be unable to purchase or have their purchases restored and will receive the same error (very bad user experience). Have been scouring the docs for mention of this behavior as specific to test-mode, but no luck so far; we've added a bug here: http://code.google.com/p/marketbilling/issues/detail?id=15#c0

Solution 5

I also encountered the same issue...but now issue is solved

My observations based on few trials:

1. The version code should match both on the Google Play and the Device
2. Even though versions match, we may still get this error
3. Wait about 1 to 2 hrs then try, we will not get this error

Hope this helps

View more solutions

Comments

[Bill The Ape]

+1 for the additional information, forward thinking and the link to the bug thread.

[Barry Fruitman]

Debug versions are ok but they must be signed.

[Jana]

is this necessary to publish the app for testing an inApp item. i have published the inapp item and kept the app unpublished. i apologies if the question is silly or unrelated.

[Usman Kurd]

@ jana no there is no need to publish app for testing in app but yes there is a need to publish the in-app product to be published other wise you will get an error on your device while testing in-app product "Item not found"

[Booger]

I just wanted to re-affirm this answer worked for me. I was getting this error - even though the app versions were correct. I didn't do anything other than wait a few hours, and it started working correctly (I didn't see the error again).

[Peter Fortuin]

I also discoverd that the version code should match. At least your testing version can not be higher that the one on Google Play. I'm not sure if the other way around is also true. I hope not, because that would mean that people with older version of the application can not use my in-app-billing.

[nuala]

#3 was the trick. If you're sure everything is ok have a break and try later. It just needs some time to update :)

[M Katz]

I will second that: it worked for me also to wait a couple hours (actually waited overnight so I don't know the exact timing). As a small editorial comment, it's frustrating that Google couldn't give a more accurate error message for this and save us all a lot of trouble.

[Steve Haley]

It's important to note, as in some of the other answers - the version code of your test app must be the same as the version code of your draft in Google Play. So if you started with a placeholder v1 in Google Play, then prepared the real app as v2 - that real app has to be uploaded to GP as a draft before you can finish testing it.

[Shailendra Madda]

In my case I uploaded version 1 apk in play store and there are no issue with in app feature,but now I developed version 2 apk which is signed with my own key and installed in my device for testing before put in play store then in app billing not working.Showing like: "this version of application is not configured for billing through google play". What is the issue here?

[Kedu]

Does this mean, i user with an app version older than the current, cant use in-app purchases, and has to update the app first ?

[slott]

The versionCode got me - why is this needed?

[tenpn]

Things have recently changed, and you now need to publish your app to the alpha channel on google play before IAP testing can continue.

[StuartDTO]

Can you help me with this question please?