Google suspended app due to Hockey SDK that no longer exists in code

Question

google suspended app due to "Hockey SDK" which was used long time ago in the code, but doesn't exist there anymore

Your app contains content that doesn't comply with the Device and Network Abuse policy. We found youur app is using a non-compliant version of Hockey SDK which contains code to download or install applications from unknown sources outside of Google Play

I keep searching through the source codes of android app, but can't find anything related to Hockey SDK. It was removed long time ago.

Any ideas how to debug this issue? Am I missing something?

Answer 1

AppCenter is aware of the issue, so take a look here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/sdk/distribute/android#prepare-your-google-play-build

HTH

Answer 2

In a specific case I'm aware of, this has probably been caused by Facebook SDK 5.0.3 which contains

<receiver
        android:name="com.facebook.CampaignTrackingReceiver"
        android:exported="true"
        android:permission="android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES" >
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="com.android.vending.INSTALL_REFERRER" />
        </intent-filter>
</receiver>

android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES is forbidden on Google Play. Not 100% sure it's that (we're yet to upload to Play) and not sure why it reports Hockey SDK, which has never been introduced to the app (dependency reports and even app decompilation don't show any Hockey packages at all).

Answer 3

Update:

After send an appeal from Google Play console, telling to Google that my actual version do not use Hockey App SDK, one editor from Google lift the ban and changed state to "Removed", so now I can edit the app, unpublish the old version with Hockey and send again for review to get published again.