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Downloading (paid!) APK from Google Play & sideloading it?

T

timbr

Lurker
Hi all,

kind of a weird question due to some special circumstances:

I have an older (ca. 2019) Amazon 10" Fire tablet running something like FireOS 7.xx which AFAIK was still based on Android 5.x. I also have a Galaxy J-something smartphone (running Android 7.x IIRC) somewhere which I can't find atm, unfortunately (I've been using non-Android phones for years). So this is about said Amazon tablet primarily.

I have the Google Play store installed on the tablet (as per several instructions on the net), and it generally works fine. Since I installed the Google Play app, I only ever got apps from there.

Now I'd like to buy the Caustic 3 synthesizer Android app, which is still widely regarded as the best app of this kind for Android. It may (or may not) be abandoned, but you seemingly can still buy it at Google Play. Last version was (and probably will alway be) 3.2 from 2013.

This app comes as a freely downloadable base app and a separate for-purchase "Unlock Key" (no IAP). If I look it up in the Play Store from my desktop PC, it looks like both are still in the store and most importantly, you can still purchase the unlock key.

However, if I try to find it in the Play Store bolted-on to the Amazon tablet, both are nowhere to be found. That's a bit weird since the app should run fine on Anroid 5.x. Amazon's own (kinda joke of an) app store has the (v3.1!) program itself, but not the unlock key.

There have been some reports of people running the Amazon-downloaded app with a Google Play-acquired unlock key, but I can't see how that could work.
In my case, this would require me to purchase the unlock key in some way off the tablet (maybe inside the desktop browser?), and then to somehow get it onto the tablet and hopefully, the unlock magic would still work then.

I never read anything about downloading the APK files of your own purchases directly from Google Play to anything other than the final target device and, even if such an APK download was feasable, I have no idea whether or not the licensing-DRM-whatever magic can be made to work after an APK transfer.

Please note that I'm only ever talking here about making a legitmately purchased app work and not about 'hacks' or such of any kind.

Could someone tell me if and how this could work?

I apologize in case this has been discussed before in another thread but my search turned up nothing that hit the spot (downloading your "own" APKs and "messing with it").

TIA
 
I know, but I'm looking for a way to download the unlock key file that verifies/validates my personal license. I can't imagine any generic download will do. Will it?
I can get the base app (albeit one minor version outdated) from the Az app store. But that's not the point of my inquiry.
OTOH, maybe I'm misunderstanding the way the Google Play licensing scheme works.
What's especially confusing in this case is that the deidicated 'unlock key' is a separate purchase/download.
 
I already have the desktop version (which is indeed free). But this thread is (only) about the Android version.

What is going on with the app, is unclear, see e.g. here:

What happened to the developer? | Single Cell Software

singlecellsoftware.com singlecellsoftware.com

As for FL Studio, I'm very well aware of it (as of Cubasis, n-Track Studio, Audio Evolution, RD4, Bandlab & others). The Android version of FL Studio is more than twice the price of Caustic, and the desktop versions are way more expensive. I'd prefer not to get into that.

I just want something cheap to play around with on my Android device(s), and the synths in this app seem to be quite nice. The full version of Caustic 3 (Android) is just €6.99.

My problem is this (screenshot taken with desktop browser):

Caustic_3_not_available_markup.png


Which is technically stupid (I know there are people who run it on this device), and probably the reason why it doesn't show up in the app store on the device.

I want to find a way to get around this block by somehow buying it and moving the (legitimately owned) APK onto the device.
 
Well since the developer has abandoned his Android app you can't get around the unlocking feature which is no longer being hosted by any server and taken down.
Basically, no transactions.
 
timbr said:
I already have the desktop version (which is indeed free). But this thread is (only) about the Android version.

What is going on with the app, is unclear, see e.g. here:

What happened to the developer? | Single Cell Software

singlecellsoftware.com singlecellsoftware.com

As for FL Studio, I'm very well aware of it (as of Cubasis, n-Track Studio, Audio Evolution, RD4, Bandlab & others). The Android version of FL Studio is more than twice the price of Caustic, and the desktop versions are way more expensive. I'd prefer not to get into that.

I just want something cheap to play around with on my Android device(s), and the synths in this app seem to be quite nice. The full version of Caustic 3 (Android) is just €6.99.

My problem is this (screenshot taken with desktop browser):

View attachment 167849

Which is technically stupid (I know there are people who run it on this device), and probably the reason why it doesn't show up in the app store on the device.

I want to find a way to get around this block by somehow buying it and moving the (legitimately owned) APK onto the device.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing, "This app is not available for any of your devices." Which are two phones and a TV box.

Google Play just won't let you purchase and download, unless you have a supported device it can download, install, and run on.

Given that the dev is no longer around, quite frankly I don't think anything can be done.
 
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Thanks for looking into it.
mikedt said:
Yeah, I'm seeing the same thing, "This app is not available for any of your devices." Which are two phones and a TV box.
Google Play just won't let you purchase and download, unless you have a supported device it can download, install, and run on.
Given that the dev is no longer around, quite frankly I don't think anything can be done.
Click to expand...
Well, that makes me sad. I actually wanted to get that unlock key for years, just didn't get around to it. 😢
I have several music apps for iOS, which seems to be the much more popular platform for music production of any kind. Most of them are way too complicated. Lots of others are from the 'beatmaking' or sampler/looper varieties, none of which ever was my cup of tea (IIRC, FL Studio also belongs into that camp).
Caustic OTOH seemed both simple and a lot of fun. The only similar app I can see is RD4, which is less powerful and also semi-abandoned.

UPDATE: What's even weirder is that I DID now find the Caustic 3 app (not the unlock key) in the Play Store on the tablet (after a detour via the homepage in the browser and a link to the app store found on the homepage), and there it now says (translated from German) "This app is not available for your device because it was developed for an older version of Android."

UPDATE 2: So I tried to give it "an older version of Android". Dug out an old Android 4.0.4 Galaxy, charged it and - had to learn that you cannot sign in to Google anymore with auch a phone. It keeps rejecting the username & password (or only the passwort), although it *is* correct. AFAIK Google never announced they would cut off 4.0.4 (unlike 2.3.7 and older). Google's support pages were useless. Now I read somewhere else that this might have to do with a lack of TLS 1.2 in 4.0.4.
BTW, you can still buy Caustic in the iPhone's App Store, although comments complain about severe bugs due to missing updates.

UPDATE 3: Meanwhile, I dl'd the 3.2.0 APK (presumably the last version; Amazon only had 3.1.0) from APK Mirror. Of course, still no unlock key.

Does this from the APKMirror description possibly help?

Info_APKMirror.jpg


I don't know what the "target" value does exactly.
 
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Although this, on the one hand, is only yet another update on the Caustic saga (and it looks like I'm in full self talk mode now regarding that), it also shines a new light on Google's Play Store (and not a good one), so I finally made this an entirely new post. A looooong one.

1.) Meanwhile, I pushed the 3.2.0 version of the app (from APKMirror) onto the Amazon device, replacing the 3.1.0 from the Amazon store. When I clicked the in-app purchase button "Get the full version" in the app, I got a Fire OS popup saying that the external retail page was "not available on this device". :(

I also tried to simply buy the unlock key from the Google Play page that I can access with the browser. Not possible due to lack of "eligible devices". :( :(

2.) OTOH, the Amazon app store page for the unlock key, which I could also find in the meantime, states that the key is "currently not available" :( :( :(, and the story the newest user review tells is interesting in itself (but still not the reason for making this an entirely new post):

He reports he had to reinstall his Fire tablet and after reinstalling the app, the old unlock key from the Amazon store wouldn't reinstall, and Amazon's support wouldn't help fix the problem. He claims that this problem affects many apps from the Amazon app store, which sheds some bad light on the Amazon Fire ecosystem, whose app store more and more looks like a wasteland anyway. He claims he could buy the unlock key from the Play Store (this was 2 1/2 years ago), which would unlock the app from the Amazon store. Looks like one should never ever buy any app from the Amazon store in the first place, and only ever use the Play Store on Fire devices. :( :( :( :(

3.) After the failure with my old Android 4.0.4 Galaxy, I happened to find my old Android 4.4 Lenovo tablet, which (after a weird browser detour) *was* able to access the Play Store, but still could not find the unlock key in the store. From what I read elsewhere, there simply aren't *any* eligible devices for this app defined in the store anymore. :( :( :( :( :(

My last gasp then was to try accessing the unlock key purchase page from within the (sideloaded) demo app on this tablet. What resulted in yet another variation of "no way": after it initially looked like you could finally buy the f***ing key this way (the article page showed up), the click on "Buy" resulted in an up to then unknown error message "The article you want to buy could not be found". :( :( :( :( :( :(

4.) At this point, I had it. 😈 After trying to buy this g*dd*mn key in every conceivable way and failing time and time again, I turned to some shady sites that promised the same thing for free, and after some flops that served me crap or nothing at all, I found a key that works perfectly. I hate having to resort to such methods, but I really had tried hard before to do it the 'right' way. :cool:

5.) But now comes the BUMMER :wtfdroid: (and *this* is finally the reason for a new post, and I've run out of smileys here to express the strength of my feelings): Even if I had found a generally workable way to purchase this app from the Play Store, I (personally) would never have been able to pay it.

The original impetus for me to finally buy some Android apps was that PayPal ran a promotion: Make your first purchase (3€ min.) from the Play Store via PayPal and receive a 10€ bonus in your PayPal account. I had never bought anything from the Play Store before, only relying on the occasional free app. However, I also had bought a 15€ code card some time ago at a stationery/tobacco store (can't even remember why exactly). Please note that (1) I don't have a credit card, which is *not* uncommon here, my PayPal account runs on direct debit, without any problems up to now, and (2) all of the following was happening in some way parallel to the Caustic saga.

To get the PayPal promotional benefit, I needed to add PayPal as a payment method to Google Play. What can I say: NO WAY. The Play Store software kept throwing up some stupid "OR-IMPRS-03" error, without further explanation. I still have no idea what this error means exactly, but rumor on the net says that you absolutely have to have a CREDIT CARD in your PayPal account, otherwise an error like this (or similar) will come up. I don't want no f-ing credit card, thank you. Can't you just adapt to the customs & conventions in the countries you want to do business in? In addition to me not being able to find any useful explanation or workaround on Google's help pages, the internet rumors also report that support is of zero help in this matter.

So I still had that code card to boost my balance, right? Wrong. "We need more info to redeem your gift card." But even after supplying Google every relevant information I could think of (even validating my phone number, which I especially resent, as it's equivalent to an ID card here, due to the Orwellian attitude of our government), the error remains unaltered. Needless to say that Google's help pages were totally useless, and reports on the net state that if you *do* submit a form (that they do supply, but that requires information on the shop you bought it from and a receipt I don't have anymore), you're in for an endless wait and a "can't help" at best.

6.) If you happen to be from Europe, you might be familiar with a 1970s "Asterix" animated feature film and the "place that sends you mad". IMHO, the Google Play Store easily bests that.

And while it may have its own faults, I never ever had an experience anywhere close to all this in Apple's app store.

I wish there were better alternatives. I'm kinda done with the OS duopoly and wish (better: dream) it might be broken at some point in time (my lifetime, that is). :maddroid:
 
Dannydet said:
Well since the developer has abandoned his Android app you can't get around the unlocking feature which is no longer being hosted by any server and taken down.
Basically, no transactions.
Click to expand...
Whatever you have done on those shady sites and inputting your numbers, info, etc., keep in mind it may be compromised...
 
I'm well aware of that. One of the reasons I usually don't want to have anything to do with such warez. But then, you can't fit a lot of malware into 86 kb.

P.S.: No, no personal info necessary.

P.S. 2: Found this regarding Google Play cards, containing lots of (well-deserved, IMHO) four-letter-words towards Google:
https://www.reddit.com/r/googleplay/comments/rbd32c
 
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If you expect Google to adapt to the norms in different countries you will have a long wait. For a company which positions itself as a global business it has a remarkably parochial view, often giving the impression that it never thinks about life outside of the Google campus never mind outside of the USA.

But I've never used a Google Play voucher, or used PayPal with Google, so can say nothing about how those work even with a credit card (I do use a credit card for all online transactions, as where I am those offer better protection than a debit card).
 
Update (yes, another one, I lost count now, honestly): At least, I can report success on one front, I could finally add Paypal as a payment method in the Google Play Store. The only thing that was different this time was that I had removed the 'authentication' requirement for purchases, only leaving it active for installs.
Now I can legitimately purchase stuff, hooray! If they bother to sell it (is that correct English?).

Oh, and I'm still waiting on my 10€ Paypal bonus even though I bought another (unrelated) 5€ app yesterday.
 
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timbr said:
Hi all,

kind of a weird question due to some special circumstances:

I have an older (ca. 2019) Amazon 10" Fire tablet running something like FireOS 7.xx which AFAIK was still based on Android 5.x. I also have a Galaxy J-something smartphone (running Android 7.x IIRC) somewhere which I can't find atm, unfortunately (I've been using non-Android phones for years). So this is about said Amazon tablet primarily.

I have the Google Play store installed on the tablet (as per several instructions on the net), and it generally works fine. Since I installed the Google Play app, I only ever got apps from there.

Now I'd like to buy the Caustic 3 synthesizer Android app, which is still widely regarded as the best app of this kind for Android. It may (or may not) be abandoned, but you seemingly can still buy it at Google Play. Last version was (and probably will alway be) 3.2 from 2013.

This app comes as a freely downloadable base app and a separate for-purchase "Unlock Key" (no IAP). If I look it up in the Play Store from my desktop PC, it looks like both are still in the store and most importantly, you can still purchase the unlock key.

However, if I try to find it in the Play Store bolted-on to the Amazon tablet, both are nowhere to be found. That's a bit weird since the app should run fine on Anroid 5.x. Amazon's own (kinda joke of an) app store has the (v3.1!) program itself, but not the unlock key.

There have been some reports of people running the Amazon-downloaded app with a Google Play-acquired unlock key, but I can't see how that could work.
In my case, this would require me to purchase the unlock key in some way off the tablet (maybe inside the desktop browser?), and then to somehow get it onto the tablet and hopefully, the unlock magic would still work then.

I never read anything about downloading the APK files of your own purchases directly from Google Play to anything other than the final target device and, even if such an APK download was feasable, I have no idea whether or not the licensing-DRM-whatever magic can be made to work after an APK transfer.

Please note that I'm only ever talking here about making a legitmately purchased app work and not about 'hacks' or such of any kind.

Could someone tell me if and how this could work?

I apologize in case this has been discussed before in another thread but my search turned up nothing that hit the spot (downloading your "own" APKs and "messing with it").

TIA
Click to expand...
Android hmmmmm... I mean Andrite is completely AOSP. LOOGLE is myself/yourself as far as no cost. Only Playstore requires payment for extra features. I mean I get you want youre purchase to follow you on youre devices and that should be by original google account/email you used when you purchased the full features of the APK. under that Gmail account. **** playstore root and use Lucky Patcher as we ALL know its safe to mention LP now the once double edged sword by non other than the great Chelpus. I mean Helpus. Dont pay for shit anymore Android is Open Source Not Open wallet. Shut the door on an open situation. FREEEEEEDOM!
 
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