Google Play Game Services : Debug AND Release certificate

Question

After much screaming and tearing of hair I have finally gotten In-App billing and Play Services sign in to work in my Android application - kind of. Google should really be ashamed of themselves, the process has been gruelling to put it mildly. One example of extremely important information that is mentioned kind of like an afterthought on the tutorial pages: "You must create the new client ID in the Google Play Developer Console, not in the Google Developers Console."

I have now reached the point where my debug APK works with Game Services sign in (leaderboard and achievements), and my release APK works with In-App billing. But not both at the same time. I know that debug APK does not allow for In-App billing, but why does not the Game Service sign in work when debug sign in works? I have triple and quadruple checked that package name, client ID, application ID, debug AND release certificate SHA1-fingerprints and everything matches up perfectly, but still no luck. I get the dreaded "There is no linked app associated with this client ID." It's obviously linked, as it works using the debug certificate.

Are there yet another restrictions or minor detail I have to think about to make this ")=#(¤/"¤() work? :-)

Answer 1

Well you've probably seen some of the tales of woe from last year e.g.

There is no linked app associated with this client ID

and

Google Play Services and "There is no linked app associated with this client ID"

and

Google Play Services - Sign in - Client ID debug vs release

However, I do recommend that you review all the different contributions, because it is highly likely that one of these will fit. Even my own humble submission re. the app_id problem is worth 30 seconds of your life.

What troubles me most, is it that it looks as though you may have been trying to do this stuff from the api console (now called the developers console) as opposed to the Google Play Developer Console. That was a major cause of problems last year (although Google made some improvements as a result of all the difficulties that people encountered). If all else fails, I would recommend creating new definitions from scratch in the Google Play Developer Console - at this point the documentation for Google Play Game Services is very accurate. I have not used in-app billing so I could not comment on that.