CIQ App Store claims 2 of my apps now have the same AppID

I have 4 clones of a simple data field app. (I know >_>). I submitted the original a month ago and it worked fine. The second was submitted 2 weeks ago, and it worked fine.

The 3rd and 4th were originally submitted two days ago.

I know that I didn't originally submit identical IQ files for the 3rd and 4th because:
- The AppName is different (i.e. the name that shows up when you choose the data field on the watch)
- The apps can write data to FIT files. The label and graph colour are different for each of the apps.
- I was able to install them at the same time, on a single watch

Tonight I made an update to all four clones, and rebuilt everything. Uploading new version for clones 1-3 worked fine.

But when I tried to update clone 4 with the corresponding newly built IQ, the store claimed the AppID was different than what was originally submitted.

The following errors were detected in your app file
The app-id within the manifest-file deviates from the one originally registered for this app.

When I updated clone 4 with the newly built IQ from clone 3, it was accepted. So now I apparently have two copies of clone 3 in the store!
(I should never have tried that, but I just had to find out...)

Is it possible that I messed something up here? I checked my archives of the original submission for clone 3 and clone 4: the manifest IDs are different and they are what I expect to see. (I generated them using the UUID generator suggested in a garmin dev doc.)

Now clone 4 in the store has the wrong IQ file (from clone 3).

I just did a test with both (non-updated) fields on my watch, with writing to a FIT file, in the same activity. The labels and graph colours are what I expect to see (i.e. different from each other). Meaning that the original versions of clone 3 and clone 4 were distinct, and came from the correct IQ files.

Is there any way to force the store to accept the correct IQ?

(On a side note, I once accidentally submitted the IQ for clone 1 to the clone 2 store entry and vice versa, yet the store did not complain). All 4 of the clones have different AppIDs (or they did, anyway).

Links to the apps in question:
http://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/e9...5-f436909377dd
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/1...d-e1e81cb38e8a

The next thing I will try is to update both apps on my watch and test them out, but frankly I'm a little worried about what the results will be. There's no way they can work properly now, since literally the same IQ has been uploaded for both.

Here's a side-by-side screenshot which shows different store URLs, but identical AppIDs:

http://image.ibb.co/j7Gkzv/dfKYCQh.png

Edit: I renamed the IQ files in question to .ZIP and compared the manifest.xml files within. Everything matches my expectations.

flowstate over 8 years ago

I updated the 3rd and 4th clones (from the store) on my watch, and sure enough, they are both actually clone 3 now. The listing on GCM shows them as different apps, but they appear exactly the same on the watch (i.e. the AppName is from clone 3). The default config is also from clone 3 (each clone has different config), and only one of them can be installed at a time, since after all, they are the same app.

This is probably my fault for trying to update 4 apps almost simultaneously. <_<

flowstate over 8 years ago

My best guess for what happened is that I accidentally uploaded the IQ for clone 3 to the store URL for clone 4, just before AppID verification was implemented. Now that the verification is in place, I'm stuck with two duplicate apps forever, unless I remove clone 4 and resubmit it.

Or perhaps it was an issue with possibly having two tabs open, with the submission forms for different apps.

peterdedecker over 8 years ago

It's a strange situation you claim to have as the verification that the manifest id matches with what was uploaded initially is in place for a while...
edit: store guid is indeed different from manifest uuid, it has been brought up in the past why but forgot the reasoning.

Peter.
My apps in the store

flowstate over 8 years ago

Yes it's a very strange situation. Well, perhaps the manifest AppID may be used to generate the link but they are clearly not one and the same, as has been noted in the past.

When I look at any of my apps and click "Edit Details", the listed Manifest AppID is different than the URL.

As a matter of fact, I just deleted clone 4 and resubmitted it to the store. Obv the new URL is different then either clone 3 or (the now-dead) clone 4 URL. ( I don't think it's worth it to have an app in the store that shouldn't be installed or updated, and I'm guessing it would be faster to approve the resubmission than to fix the problem.) I guess that doesn't prove much because the new submission has the correct manifest appID. But I am 99.99% sure that the first version of clone 4 came from the correct file. (For the reasons stated above -- I was able to have all 4 clones installed at the same time, too).

However, that is still 5 distinct URLs for 3-4 unique AppIDs. (I'm sure it's 4, but for the sake of argument, it could be 3). I am 100% sure that I have used no more than 4 unique IDs for those clones.

I imagine that the same app (with same AppID) could be submitted and removed over and over again, and each time a new store ID/URL would be generated. (Or at least until Garmin blocks the dev from submitting apps...)

If both of your statements were true (100% of the time, since the first clone was submitted), then my situation would be impossible. It would be impossible for two different store URLs to have the same AppID. My guess is that the manifest ID verification has some glitches....

As I said, in the past I was able to accidentally upload clone 1's IQ to clone 2's store page and vice versa. I quickly fixed the error by issuing another update to each app. Needless to say the AppIDs were different, That was just a couple of weeks ago.

Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do was to delete an app I already submitted, and resubmit it. Even if only 2 or 3 people downloaded it so far. :P

Maybe Garmin can still look at dead app, if they want to.

Next time I will update one app at a time, slowly, without opening two tabs on the CIQ store.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

When you get the "different AppID message when updating to the store, you should see what it thinks the app ID is. Did it match the AppID in the "#4" you were trying to upload? The .iq is actually just a .zip file format, so you can look at the manifest.xml inside it and see the AppId there. Could it be just just tried to upload the #3 version to the #4 app by mistake?

peterdedecker over 8 years ago

Could it be just just tried to upload the #3 version to the #4 app by mistake?

Which shouldn't be possible.

Peter.
My apps in the store


flowstate over 8 years ago

Thanks Jim.

As already posted above:
I know that IQ files are ZIP files, and I already renamed my original and second submissions for three and four to ZIP files in order to compare them. The manifest.xml files were correct, unchanged from v1 to v2. I used the file comparison tool Beyond Compare to compare everything.
In fact, what ended up happening is that I was able to upload three IQ to four app page, resulting in having two copies of the same app in the store.

To be clear, at v1:

* Store three equals IQ three
* Store four equals IQ four

I know this because I had all four fields installed, and tested all of them. Each has a different AppName [different name in list of data field], has a different graph colour in FIT files, a different label in FIT files, and different default config.

After the store mishap:
- When I clicked Edit Details, both three and four app pages claimed that they had the same manifest AppID [as shown in the screenshot posted above.]
- I updated both three and four on my watch and:
- Only one could be installed at a time [similar to what happens when you have the "store version" of an app and you try to sideload a debug version; only one stays "installed"]
- No matter which one was installed, they both behaved as three. They both had the same AppName [three's] and the same graph colour and label in FIT files.

So at v2:
- Store three equals IQ three
- Store four equals IQ three
- Store four woud not accept IQ four any longer
- Store four happily accepted IQ three

As I said above, just a few weeks ago, I was actually able to accidentally upload one for two and two for one. And the store did not prevent me. I was also able to undo my error immediately.

This time, yes, I may have accidentally uploaded three for four. Or perhaps I had both submission forms open at the same time, which may have caused problems. In any case, this time I was unable to undo the bad state. After I got the first error message, I deliberately uploaded three for four to see if it would accept it, which perhaps was a mistake. OTOH, the damage may have already been done.

As I said, I ended up deleting four and resubmitting it, because I don't want even a tiny handful of users to download/install an app which conflicts with another app.

Sorry for the weird lack of numerals in my post, but I had to edit my post about 50 times in order to get the forum to accept it. The forum doesn't like numbers, either.

jim_m_58 over 8 years ago

It sounds like there was an error in the app store (wrong UUID), so it's not clear it was actually updated. It was attempted, but failed.

At one time, having two apps with the same UUID was allowed. (I think it's been disabled now, but maybe a bit of the logic is still there) It was in place for developers that had separate apps based on device, that used the same uuid, but because it was device specific, could never be installed on the same watch.

"myApp for the vivoactive", "myApp for the forerunner 235", "myApp for the Fenix3" etc.

flowstate over 8 years ago

It was actually updated, because before I updated my watch I had app 3 and app 4 working fine.

After the store mishap, I updated my watch and now had two copies of app 3 (with different names in GCM but same behaviour on watch), which were unable to be installed at the same time.

Furthermore, after the store mishap, I was never able to submit IQ 4 to store 4 ever again.

flowstate over 8 years ago

To be clear, this is the sequence of events:
- Update app 1
- Update app 2
- Update app 3
- Update app 4:. Store says "bad AppID". I tried this over and over again with the same result.

This is where I should've slowed down and pressed Edit Details to see the store AppID before doing anything else.

I acted on a hunch and uploaded IQ 3 to store 4 and it worked.

I don't know if the exact bad state happened before that or at that point.

But after that, I was never able to upload IQ 4 to store 4 again. (Tried for an hour.)

One problem is I had a couple of tabs open at the same time, which may have led to me either making a mistake, or the store getting confused, because I may have interleaved the two-step process of uploading and editing details between three and four.
i.e.
- Upload app three
- Upload app four
- Submit Edit details app three
- Submit Edit details app four
- Store gets confused between three and four?? Who knows.