Remove obsolete beta version from Google Play

Question

About two years ago I published a version of one of my apps as a beta testing version for a limited number of users, using the \"Beta\" version in Google Play Developer Cons

Answer 1

You cannot delete an app once its published as beta, or alpha or production. Because Play store wants to keep app id as unique, so there will not be conflict if you later wanted to release beta version to production.

The only way you can do is unpublish the app.

Answer 2

Suppose you had released beta app (Open testing) with v1.0.0, but your production is pointing to newer version. Now you want to discontinue that beta programme having older app.

I have found two ways of discontinuing beta programme in new updated play console.

1. Go to Open Testing settings of your app. You can see the countries where your beta programme is available. Now unselect all the countries except one country as one country is mandatory. For that mandatory conutry, you can keep any country which you feel like that country is not required for you app.

2. Release a new version in Open Testing track with no apk or bundle in it. Yes you can! Play console will allow you to release new beta version without having any app in it.

Answer 3

Using a few hints you left on your stack overflow profile I think I've deduced what your app is and what is the problem. I won't mention the app name here as you seemed to want to keep the question general.

The problem is the subtle difference between a superceded release and a shadowed release. Your beta APK is partially shadowed. The beta APK is targeted at users on SDK9+, whereas your production APK is targeted at users on SDK16+. This means while most users will get your production APK, users on older devices (SDK 9-15) will get your beta. As a result, your beta is still technically active, and so you getting the email is correct.

So now the question is what can you do to deactivate it? The answer is a bit confusing in the UI, but makes sense once you think about it. You need to

• create a release with NO (0!) APKs in it
• publish that release to the beta track

This tells Play that you deliberately want there to be no active APKs in Beta. These users will still get production APKs, but your old beta APK will no longer be active. We're sorry this got confusing, you were caught by a subtle edge case.

Answer 4

We also see such unobvious behavior but it was about inner testing track. Even if you remove user or clear the whole list of users - it doesn't help, and that removed user still see the beta version of the app.

So what we tried and it helps us a lot of times:

• remove list of testing users at all(previously you can copy/export that as backup)
• upload new csv list of users

Answer 5

Just for information of anyone visiting this thread, here is what I did to stop beta appearing on my Google Play Store app listing.

At first, we launched with releases on beta track. Then, when the app was stable with enough feature set, we decided to go for full production. We decided to promote the latest beta release to production track (note we didn't place any apk/bundle on production track just promoted the beta release to production). Then we started to place every new release apk/bundle on production track and this gave us Superseded by production on beta track. But still we faced the issue of {App Name} (Beta) appearing in the application title on Google Play Store listing.

Then to remove this (Beta) from application title we had to go into Google Play Store App listing -> Release Management -> App Releases -> Beta Track -> Click on Manage Testers -> Click on Remove Testers. A confirmation dialog will open then click "Yes".

Removing the testers solved the problem.