Google Play Console - How remove an update of published application

In previous versions of Google Developer Console this could be possible unpublising the last .apk and enable to production your desired version

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but now it can´t be possible.

Note that rollbacks aren’t supported due to the app versioning requirements of the Android platform. If you need to rollback, consider launching a previous APK with a new version number. However, this practice should be used only as a last resort, as users will lose access to new features and your old app may not be forward-compatible with your server changes or data formats, so be sure to run alpha and beta tests of your updates.

You can see the previous releases but you can´t enable again:

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You need to create and publish a new release with a consecutive versionCode.

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Click on Create Release Like you release a new version, but instead of uploading an apk click "Add From Library", Here you will get all the previous versions of your app, select the version you want to rollback to, then release it after review button.


Just build old app version with new versionCode and old versionName and publish it


Reviving this but for those that are looking for something similar but for Android App Bundles.

As it's not as clear cut as when doing it for .apk.

For .aab's you need to:

  1. unpack the aab (its just a zip file)
  2. decode the AndroidManifest which is a binary proto message with protoc
  3. to decode you will need the .proto file found in the aapt2 tool
  4. alter the version code/version name of the decoded android manifest
  5. encode it again with protoc using the .proto files used in step 2
  6. pack the aab with zip, but be careful not to zip directories and to remove the path prefix that you might add unwillingly
  7. sign the zipped file with your store credentials, using jarsigner
  8. zipalign the signed zipped file
  9. rename the zipped, aligned and signed to the final .aab file

You can find these same steps in the following gist, with some of the work prepared before hand.

https://gist.github.com/Farious/e841ef85a8f4280e4f248ba8037ea2c0

I tried to avoid hardcoding anything and to bulletproof it, but it might not be yet.