Misc

Copy-Protected Apps Disappearing From Froyo-Enabled Phones

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When Google said that the unofficial Froyo build was not yet ready, we assumed they were trying to prevent users from reporting issues on a file that got distributed accidentally. Even while some Nexus One users are using Android 2.2 just fine, there’s a good handful reporting issues with the build.

Android-Froyo

One such issue seems to be the disappearance of certain apps in the Android Market. Users installing copy-protected apps may not see those show up in the market if they’re running Android 2.2, even if you’ve paid for it. The cause of this is because the market doesn’t know what Android 2.2 is yet, so when your phone tells the market that it’s running Froyo (and a certain application requires Forward Locking to prevent piracy), it goes “eh?”.

The issue should clear itself up when Google rolls out the “official” 2.2 upgrade, but until then, you’re just going to have to do without some of those apps for a little while.

[via Android & Me]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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16 Comments

  1. I have noticed that I cannot find certain apps that have not been made Froyo compatible or get updates for them. But once they publish them as Froyo compatible, all seems well.
    .
    I really only had one app have this problem and when I emailed the dev it was fixed the next day.

  2. Another problem with this build is that every once in a while, at least 2 or 3 times a day, it drops my home’s wifi connection. Have to turn off and re-enable the phone’s wifi. Hope it’s due to this version of 2.2 being a beta build and will be fixed with the final release version.

  3. [MOD] Fix Protected Apps not Showing on FroYo
    http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=687371

    Its that simple.

  4. This is why I’m so against the unofficial release. People whine that it’s not good enough. You should know what you are getting into when it’s not an official release whether it’s from cyanogen…or Google themselves.

  5. let the team at google know so as to improve the platform release version

  6. Glad to see this finally come to light. I thought that I was loosing my mind at first. The official Froyo update can’t come soon enough now.

  7. Dataviz Office apps work. Streamfurious, WordUp, Backgammon, all pay apps, all work fine on this Nexus w/ 2.2
    What’s broken, iFart?

  8. I just restored my backed up apps and set them to ‘auto update’ :)

  9. @roebiling C’mon…READ before you post… PROTECTED apps do not show up in the market IF you are running FROYO. It’s not hard to understand… And if you were running FROYO yourself, you’d know. As mentioned earlier, there is a fix on XDA…else you can wait till the official release…
    Having said all that, I smiled at the iFart bit :-)

  10. I love the way blogs sensationalize stories… Phone arena has a similar story today that says Froyo is causing “chaos” in the market…
    Give me a break! I am on Froyo and I have protected apps… its a SIMPLE fix…

  11. no big deal, its coming in a 2 weeks i suppose… ahhihihihi

  12. we’re really concerned with the whole copy-right issue.
    we have our textinput “ExB preDICT” as a copyrighted version
    in the store and it’s not just froyo that doesn’t see the app,
    but also depending on country (e.g. finnland) or device (e.g.
    acer liquid) you also don’t see copy righted apps.
    sorry, google, but that’s really ridiculous.
    android is the most important “free” software market and
    MUST work in all circumstances. google is a leader and
    currently the app-store, also from a vendor perspective
    (e.g. check-out vs market integration, no analytics, no chance
    to localise one software, no possibility to make an upgrade info
    in store or on install, no in-app purchase), lags significantly
    behind apple for example.

  13. billabong, g’day, mate.

    My Nexus, as I said in the post, is running 2.2. That’s Froyo, right? Guess I should have been more clear.

    However, I only assumed the Dataviz app suite, being the most sophisticated (and expensive) of the Android apps, was copy-protected and therefore within the group that the writer reported to be auto-deleting. But, maybe it’s not copy-protected. I haven’t tried to copy it or seen a notice anywhere that labels it “copy protected.”

    Moreover, I suspect that it’s the competition that starts these exagerated tales / urban myths. The Nexus One has been the subject of a bunch of them.

    If I’m right, we should begin to see a fresh bunch about the HTC EVO in the next few days. If so, we should wait for the real users to comment, writing their real experiences, before we judge. They can add valuable depth to these kinds of stories.

  14. @roebling Which apps are “protected” and which ones aren’t seems to be a mystery to me.

    For example, a $3 game called “Space Physics” won’t show up on phones running unofficial builds, yet other paid apps do. StreamFurious, as you pointed out, works fine on unofficial builds, but I’ve seen several other apps that do not – the amusing part is that they’re usually fairly trivial apps. For some reason, the guy selling $1 games is more worried about piracy than companies selling serious productivity tools.

  15. hey guys I am a dev. I have both protected and upnprotected apps in the market. Now…guess which ones show up and which one do not.
    Guessed?
    There you go…

  16. I’ve noticed the same thing which is confusing.. a few paid apps I have I can’t get.

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