Android Question Published a new update. Play Protect Gives Warning on install?

tufanv

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Hello,

I have an app on playstore with more than100k active users. Today I have uploaded a new build. I have added sd_treelist and wobblemenu by Bisjawit. Some users are reporting that Play Protect blocks the update and says it has a virus. But on my test phones, I don't see this. But some users are absolutely experiencing it. This will crash my apps reviews and install numbers. What should I do? I can't udnerstand what causing it.

Thanks
 

tufanv

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
yes, this is the same version. Its keep getting more interesting ..
Same app, installed from same source: google play. We got multiple reports saying this shows as threat, some people like you says it is not

Check my screenshot:
 

Attachments

  • WhatsApp Image 2023-05-08 at 23.01.47.jpeg
    87.6 KB · Views: 137
Upvote 0

tufanv

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
I have found what is causing a false positive. I will create a thread about this so that if someone experience this, they will not go mad like me.
 
Upvote 0

tufanv

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
After 2 days of no sleep, this is what happened:

"
It is really annoying. I will explain what happened shortly. The last update which resulted with this problem was a big update. Many things changed so it was nearly impossible to know what caused it. After 2 days of chat with support agents of Mcafee that doesn't even know they are the developer of "device protection" system of samsung. You know, there comes a moment and you understand, they can't do anything for you because they don't understand what you are telling, I needed to go back to last clean build and started copying the new codes part by part and testing it on a device as an internal tester. If the build gets this warning, you can also understand when installing as an internal tester. That helped very much. I started to implement the update part by part. After 39th build, (no sleep for 2 days) warning started to show again. Between 38th and 39th build I only had created a designer script with names sms.bal and mail.bal. WTF!

I deleted these two layout files (by the way, layout files are empty). Error was gone! F**king Mcafee classifies my app as a threat when there are these two designer scripts.. Ilost many customers on update of course when they saw this threat message.. I don't know how this can cause a complicated mcafee system to see my app as a virus. I will try with an empty project and create sms.bal and mail.bal only and see if it pops again.

It was really annoying 2 days for me. Things like this started to make me disgusted of policies on Android. It can happen to anyone at any update and it can f**k up your years of effort in a week if you can't find the solution. So, if one day you see this problem, be aware that anything can cause it and start from the last clean update and proceed part by part uplaoding a build to internal testing phase and test as an internal tester with device proteciton on, on samsung devices until the error pops again.

Thanks for your help guys.

"
 
Upvote 0

Jmu5667

Well-Known Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Happy for you that you found your issue
 
Upvote 0

swChef

Active Member
Licensed User
Longtime User
Curious, if you go back to build 38, then add the two empty layout files but use different names (not sms and not mail), does it still alarm.
 
Upvote 0

tufanv

Expert
Licensed User
Longtime User
Curious, if you go back to build 38, then add the two empty layout files but use different names (not sms and not mail), does it still alarm.
Didn't exactly tried that but , I have copied all content of the layout files to another layout, they worked fine. %90 percent chance that, yes it would still alarm.
 
Upvote 0
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…