How to actually "Sideload an APK"

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kcfdaniel asked Oct 3, '24 wm1 commented Oct 3, '24

How to actually "Sideload an APK"

Referring to https://docs.clover.com/dev/docs/sideloading-an-apk, The first line saying "You need to install your app to the sandbox text merchant on the Developer Dashboard ". Like how do we actually properly do that?

The instruction is not clear, and causing a bunch of people posting questions similar to "403 App doesn't have required permission: package does not have permission MERCHANT_R". Some examples include

https://community.clover.com/questions/18627/error-app-doesnt-have-required-permission-merchant.html

https://community.clover.com/questions/12908/app-doesnt-have-required-permission.html

https://community.clover.com/questions/45652/getting-the-error-from-merchant-connector-on-sandb.html

https://community.clover.com/questions/9233/sdk-forbiddenexception-status-code-403-app-doesnt.html.

There are just some "workarounds" since around 2017 saying something similar to uninstall and install again, and then manually click some "sync" button on some clover apps.

Like what's the actual proper way to do that, is the proper way documented somewhere in the docs?

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Answer 1 · 2024-10-03T01:48:32Z

wm1 answered Oct 3, '24

Yeah, it's definitely not clear.

Here's what we do:

- upload you dev apk to sandbox app-store and publish/submit the version (it will say pending or something like that, but it will be actually in an "approved/published" state in sandbox

- make sure you check all the needed permissions in app settings (read/write). sometimes you have to do it multiple times as checkboxes don't save state for some reason.

- switch to your clover sandbox merchant account and go to app-store/more-tools and install the app from the web (you can also click the "view in app market" link in the app listing)

- this will push the apk to your linked sandbox devices

after that you can sideload an updated version via adb, or repeat steps above for new build

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Answer 2 · 2024-10-03T02:05:56Z

kcfdaniel answered Oct 3, '24 wm1 commented Oct 3, '24

last step "- this will push the apk to your linked sandbox devices", do i need to sync or reboot or manually do something on the sandbox device, or wait for some time for the apk to be pushed?

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wm1 commented · Oct 03 at 02:30 AM

from my experience it gets pushed to devices pretty quickly, but i guess sandbox may be slow at times.

if you reboot the devices, it should theoretically pull the latest apk (you can see it if you swipe down on top left - there will be an icon and some message like "app updated/installed")

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