Oh noez, all my app purchases have disappeared on Google Play

[Vulk]

I'm one of the people affected by the following problem:

http://www.androidcentral.com/getting-google-play-store-errors-youre-not-alone

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=24080700

Basically, all the apps that I paid for claim that they need to be purchased again, regardless of whether I browse them on the Play Store on the web or on the device. This has been the case for four days now. I contacted Google Play Support, received a canned email response, replied again with a detailed email using screenshots to illustrate the problem, and received nothing. If you read that XDA thread, you'll see that none of the people who have been affected by this have received any substantive communication from Google at all.

Considering I've bought somewhere between 40 and 50 apps on the Play Store, this is pretty damn frustrating. I've heard stories before about Google's reputation for customer support, but it never really worried me because I consider myself a pretty tech savvy user, and I've always been fix any technical problems I encounter by Google searching or asking for help on a forum. But when you get a problem like this one, where the fault is entirely on Google's servers and there's nothing you can do to fix it yourself, then you start to appreciate the value of good technical support - or at least open communication.

 

[Lupus]

Strange, hope you get it sorted out Vulk, never had an issue with their support, I've logged two requests and both were resolved in a week

 

[JStrike]

It seems to be quite common. It also seems to only affect effect certain handsets, and not others

 

[Vulk]

I see Phandroid is now covering the story: http://phandroid.com/2012/03/29/google-play-store-glitch-makes-paid-apps-disappear/

Maybe that will get the attention of someone at Google.

Am I the only here who is being affected by this?

 

[Elimentals]

WOW, that is just ****, 1st time I hear of this.

Did the apps just dissapear from your play account?
Can you still use the ones on your phone?

Reason I ask is I have full APK back-ups of all my apps on my PC so wonder if something like this hits me if I will be able to still use them.

 

[Vulk]

Yeah, the apps I have on my phone still work at least. And the apps that I've purchased do show up in the "My Apps" list:

However, if I actually click on an app, it says that I haven't bought it, and it wants me to pay for it again in order to download it:

I haven't tried actually doing this, but people on XDA say that if you do try purchase it again, it just gives you an error message.

Exactly the same thing happens when I access the Play Store from the web. It shows all my purchased apps under "My Orders". But when I try to download one of them, it demands payment. At least I still have the complete record of transactions on Google Wallet, so I can prove that I did buy actually the apps. Needless to say, the situation is rather vexing.

 

[Syphonx]

It seems the issue is getting some exposure, I'm sure it will be fixed in a few days, you'll just have to be slightly inconvenienced until then.

 

[Elimentals]

Yeah, seen it now on The Verge

Google investigating missing purchased apps in Play store

Google is looking into a Play store problem that is preventing users from accessing purchased apps. Several users have reported that apps they've bought are missing from the "My Apps" section of Play, and aren't showing up as purchased in the store. Our apps appear to all be in place, but scrolling past the first couple of pages gives us the error shown above. Android Central says that it's been hearing about the errors for three days, and forum threads at xda-developers show much the same thing. The error appears to be occurring both on Android devices and on the web store; while it's not affecting all users, it doesn't seem to be confined to one country.

Google doesn't seem to have fixed the issue yet, but it is apparently investigating it. On the "Known Issues" page, it notes that "we're aware of reports from some users that several applications are missing under 'My Apps' on their devices, and we're currently looking into the issue." Anyone who can't access apps in the store probably shouldn't worry about long-term app problems — as some people have noted, this looks like some kind of connection error. Still, it's frustrating for anyone who's trying to find a purchased app or download a new one and unable to do so.

Guess its a bad egg in Google's face. Bet you its performance related, having so many Android phones installing and updating must take its toll somewhere.

 

[Vulk]

It seems the issue is getting some exposure, I'm sure it will be fixed in a few days, you'll just have to be slightly inconvenienced until then.

True, and hopefully you're right. Though in all fairness, it wouldn't have gotten any exposure if it weren't for a bunch of people (including myself) on posting on XDA to complain about it.

 

[mercurial]

Something is obviously amiss in the google play code. They'll sort it out soon.