In-app Billing - Item requested not available for purchase

Question

I am working on learning in-app billing but I am having a problem with the google's in-app billing example, the Dungeon one.

I have already set up the application, added my public key, and changed the API_VERSION to 1 in the makeRequestBundle().

I have already exported and signed the application and uploaded it onto Google Play and saved it as a draft with a few pictures and activated the apk. I also added both the sword_001 and potion_001 as published in-app purchases!

Next I installed the signed app onto my phone but when I try to purchase either the sword or the potion I get an Item unavailable error

The item you requested is not available for purchase.

I even tried on a different device to make sure it wasn't because developer's can't purchase their own products, and I get the same message on both devices.

What have I missed?

Answer 1

Check your versionCode. It can't be higher than the last published/unpublished version in any of your distribution channels (prod/beta/alpha).

Answer 2

In app billing seems fraught with pitfalls, but this is what I found that affected availability of items for purchase and also suitability of application:

1. My code for what it was worth was strongly based on the Google Android demo, but I stripped out a lot of the complexity. I have a feeling that having got it to work a better result would be produced by writing it all again from scratch.
2. I got the static test product ids going first.
3. Despite what the documentation says, it seemed to me that the purchase item(s) must be published, even when using a test account. Mine didn't work when they weren't, anyway, and I waited quite a long time to see if they would start to work as others have suggested - they still didn't.
4. You (I anyway) can't publish a purchase item without publishing the app, so what I did was upload and publish the app, create the purchase items, publish them (big button at the bottom of the page), then unpublish the app again. This seems to leave the items published.
5. The app must be signed in the usual way (I did this by exporting from Eclipse) before uploading, but what isn't so obvious is that the app you load to the mobile MUST also be signed in the same way - ie a (debug signed) version loaded to the device by Eclipse - run or debug - isn't going to work.
6. They also both need the same version number, I think. Not 100% sure. If so that would unfortunately kind of imply that customers with old versions installed can't purchase anything without upgrading.
7. When the app is uploaded to Google, it can take several hours before it becomes available and you get all the right responses for the in-app billing. I find 1-2 hours typically.
8. I suspect the other comments on this subject about whether you use a gmail or googlemail test account might be red herrings, but for what it is worth, my test account is gmail.
9. I did come across a useful little note on the internet somewhere about how to change your primary account on the mobile without having to do a hard reset (and consequently losing everything), but unfortunately I haven't managed to find it again.
10. What I did find though is that one can have several google accounts on the mobile, and then select the one to be used by Google Play.

Hope this helps somebody. I have to say its a pretty complicated system, with not many switten down answers, and I nearly gave up on it.