APK too large - Managed Google Play

Hi Klar,

Thanks for reaching out. 

The limitation you are running in to with the "Private Apps" option is outlined further in the following Android developer documentation.

When checking the settings on an On Premise SMC Server deployment, the "Legacy" option has application package size limit of 100MB so this may not work either. Checking the same options in Sophos Central SMC, I do see that the "Legacy" option allows you to upload a package up to 300MB in size. 

When testing this, it is not possible to deploy a "Legacy App" to a device that is enrolled with "Android Enterprise". Apps that are added in to the portal using the "Legacy App" options can only be deployed to devices enrolled under the "Legacy Device Management" mode. 

Hi Klar,

Thanks for reaching out. 

The limitation you are running in to with the "Private Apps" option is outlined further in the following Android developer documentation.

When checking the settings on an On Premise SMC Server deployment, the "Legacy" option has application package size limit of 100MB so this may not work either. Checking the same options in Sophos Central SMC, I do see that the "Legacy" option allows you to upload a package up to 300MB in size. 

When testing this, it is not possible to deploy a "Legacy App" to a device that is enrolled with "Android Enterprise". Apps that are added in to the portal using the "Legacy App" options can only be deployed to devices enrolled under the "Legacy Device Management" mode. 

Hi Qoosh,

thanks for your help but i have serveral questions about this.

We have created a .aab file for our app but when i try du publish a private app through sophos in the managed play store im getting the following error : Das APK kann nicht mittels aapt-Dump-Badging analysiert werden.

1. is it possible to upload .aab files in the Managed Google Play store through Sophos MDM or can i upload only .apk files?

2. I tried to login in the Google Play Console and to create an app but due to permission issues i cant do anything. I have only the Administrator Role with my account and the developer account created by sophos. What can i do? Im not able to shrink the size of my normal apk file for my app

I was able to find some information here:  Android App Bundle faq
No, private apps published to managed Google Play can publish with either APKs or AABs.

I have reached out internally to clarify if there are any limitations with the "managed Play iframe" (the UI that you access through Sophos Mobile). I will follow up on this thread with the feedback I receive.

When searching the error you received, (Das APK kann nicht mittels aapt-Dump-Badging analysiert werden.) I found other forums mention that this could be an issue with the way the application is built. With that being said, I am not aware of a way to publish a private app outside of SMC that does not require you to pay a fee. I would suggest to upload the private app outside of SMC to isolate the error, however, this would incur a cost to you and I will try to avoid that. 

To more clearly address your second point, it is not possible to upload a Private App to the google play store without access to either the Google Play Console or Custom App publishing API

Please allow me a few days to check with our team and get back to you.

I received some clarification that the AAB or APK package can be used with the Private App options within Sophos Mobile. I'd suggest checking if there are any changes that can be made to address the error you are getting when uploading the AAB package.