Google play, I accidentally uploaded production APK, now can't do beta testing

Question

I first accidentally uploaded an APK to production in the google play developer console. Now when I click publish, it actually publishes my app to the play store, even thoug

Answer 1

I found a neat trick as I encountered the same situation and had to find a satisfactory solution...

Update and general solution: set a flag (feature) that is not supported on any device! DonSteep recommends the flag.

This will keep the app "published" but in practice, no device will see it.

Good luck!

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Old answer (outdated):

1) upload a new production release with minSdkVersion [apilevel] in your build.gradle where "apilevel" is as high as the Google Play Store allows - currently 25 while the highest released platform level is 24 / Nougat. This means that your app will be still officially published, but wont show up in searches as none of the devices will be compatible. As of today (Aug 2015), this will do: minSdkVersion 25

2) enjoy open beta!