How to safely reupload banned app on Google Play?

My account has been banned, I have new now for a month or so, and that’s OK. But I was thinking to upload some of my old apps. So I changed their names, package name, keystore,in app graphics and I will upload them from another computer, from my friend’s. Actually I didn’t change it, I created new apps with different graphics,keystore,name,package name, but copy/pasted my old code. Is there anything else I could do to make sure they don’t recognize it? Thanks.

you covered a lot of stuff there, it has to be enough. report back with results!

if i was a betting man, i’d say Google only look for a new package name and that’s enough to get in again. if you do get banned again, it’s for the same reason you were banned the first time which is human reviewers keeping a close eye on new apps in search terms like ‘mario’.

was ‘mario’ some insider-joke?
didnt get it at all >.<

mario, the nintendo game. you might have heard of it. searches for it daily must be huge.

i just read in another post that some guy was creating new accounts and uploading mario preloaded on an emulator and his account was pulled within a few hours, suggesting to me that google are watching that term.

Ahhhhh ok of course I know it, it’s ma childhood, thx xD

guys a similar case, one of my app was suspended due to DMCA notice. Just wondering if DMCA is represented by some US organisation, can we reupload app for non-US countries? Is that a safe bet?

anyone tried this before?

DMCA / copyrights / trademarks are international, so you would be banned even if you are not shown in the US. However, if you have less downloads and are not on top for those requests, you can re-upload the app. Also, it depends on the keywords. Some of them - like Mario - used to be watched carefully, some of them not.

I have tested this formula but dont work

As far as I understand the agency that initiated the DMCA request specially mentioned United states as copyright claim. If they have no jurisdiction outside of US, would they even bother to do that? I have seen other developers getting banned for competing apps and now back on the app store.

Maybe its safer to upload under a new account?

The answer is Yes - it is much safer.

How does banning happen in Google?

If they suspend you single application for the first time, they just close this one app.
If this is a second suspension, they can close your entire account, especially if there are other apps they don’t like.
If this is a third suspension, they will close your account almost for sure (90+%).

It does not matter if this is a new version of a suspended app or anything else.

Regarding DMCA - I cannot answer anything else, I personally didn’t use this technique - but this is a very interesting idea. Try it and tell us the result.

You may have made a mistake with not changing your code. I’ve heard that Google goes as far as looking at the code of apps and can recognize coding styles/patterns and link your new account to your banned account with this.

Come on. It would be insane if they did it. Some people hire programmers to do their games. That would mean that you get banned if you hire one that had his account banned for some reason.

Think about how you would do it if you worked for Google… profile the code, build a table of functions and check how many of the function signatures match. Do this for every app on the market and you can easily build a heuristic … Then there is also the res and layout files. Profile those too.

Basically, if it looks, feels and smells like the same app… then it is the same app. Of course, they probably need to add some whitelist checks for the build-your-own-screensaver-app crowd.

Not necessarily true. For example, there is a sample app for building wallpapers online, Every student can build it and create his first Android wallpaper within hours. There are thousands of such apps on the market - and they are all very similar and based on the same code.

I agree with our professor. There are many auto android app maker software out there (even I am using it for one my app). These software would generate same code for all apps with difference of content and admob publisher id. The look and feel is all same.

Having said that, I appreciate “mind” for coming out with this theory of profiling the code. That’s why your hero based games are super hit.

DMCA takedown requests are directed at the service provider that is hosting the offending content, in this case, Google. Since Google is a US company doing business in the US, they have to comply with US law. It doesn’t matter where the content is uploaded from or distributed to.

Come on. It would be insane if they did it. Some people hire programmers to do their games. That would mean that you get banned if you hire one that had his account banned for some reason.

Well, I reuploaded several apps with the same code, and they are still alive. It would be stupid if they would check code. My friend asked me a few days ago to make him an app with some photos, and I thought I would just copy/paste one of my apps, and just change the graphics, name, photos,package name etc. And he would get banned cause it’s my code.

wow thats good, I just faced banned when re upload my APK with new packageName/ID, what must I change? any suggestion? Icon? graphic?

The type of app itself may not be allowed in play store and Google never looks at your code as of now for duplicate apps. Prank and porn apps get detected easily by google

My 3 apps were banned under DMCA in 10 minutes & eventually I started loosing my good performing app’s ranking