AndroidOS Regionalisation

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johcar

103 posts

Master Geek

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#171979 7-May-2015 15:15

I bought a Nexus 6 (XT1100) from my local PBTech store just over 3 months ago. I also bought a Nexus 7 2013 (LTE) from them about 18 months ago.

I have recently encountered an issue with "NZ Only" apps - a taxi one (which I can't currently remember the name of) and Lightbox - which has apparently recently been upgraded to work on more than just Samsung devices.

When I visit the Play Store via my PC browser and navigate to the app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.lightbox),a message is displayed "This app is incompatible with all of your devices."

When I visit the Play Store via my devices, the message displayed is "This app is not available in your country."

However I have no problem accessing the Kiwibank or 3NOW Ondemand or ANZ goMoney apps - and I assume that all these are regionally-locked apps.

Lightbox Support tell me it's because the devices were parallel-imported by PBTech and that I should approach PBTech for a solution. I suspect that their tech support will tell me, sorry, tough luck....

I can't be the only one in the country using a parallel-imported phone...

Is this just a case of deliberately narrow coding on behalf of Lightbox?

Is there any way that I can easily get rid of the regionalisation on these two devices - or, contrary to the underlying philosophy of vanilla Andrioid, can I make it a New Zealand flavoured phone?

Both devices are running Lollipop 5.1 and are NOT rooted (don't want to go down that path).

gzt

17157 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1299939 7-May-2015 15:22

Have to ask if you have checked usual regional settings on your device.

CutCutCut

1039 posts

Uber Geek

#1299940 7-May-2015 15:22

I have a Zenfone 5 which I got from Expansys, I think from Hong Kong. I've never had any issues with region based app as far as my experience goes. I know it runs a wolrdwide version of their firmware but it's defintely from overseas, came with an adapter for the charger.

markl

348 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1299943 7-May-2015 15:26

I'm pretty sure that every country/region restriction I've ever seen on Google Play has been based off the country supplied in the billing address of the primary payment method (i.e. credit card) in your Google Wallet. Have you ever used a foreign address for that?

johcar

103 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#1299946 7-May-2015 15:32

gzt: Have to ask if you have checked usual regional settings on your device.

Settings>Language and input - there are no settings there that indicate I am anywhere other than here.

Language is "English (United States)" - because there's no NZ English value

johcar

103 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#1299950 7-May-2015 15:36

markl: I'm pretty sure that every country/region restriction I've ever seen on Google Play has been based off the country supplied in the billing address of the primary payment method (i.e. credit card) in your Google Wallet. Have you ever used a foreign address for that?

Ah. The old Google Wallet conundrum. Good thinking!

Indeed, I have a US address held against the Wallet app at the moment. I will reselect a local address and see whether that makes a difference...

Disrespective

1926 posts

Uber Geek

#1299957 7-May-2015 15:42

Have you tried sideloading the apk's? You aren't running a VPN by any chance are you? If you check your ip address, I assume it comes from NZ? Have you tried connecting to the store via another wifi AP?

As mentioned, if your device billing details are for NZ then it should be fine.

johcar

103 posts

Master Geek

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#1299971 7-May-2015 16:04

Disrespective: Have you tried sideloading the apk's? You aren't running a VPN by any chance are you? If you check your ip address, I assume it comes from NZ? Have you tried connecting to the store via another wifi AP?

As mentioned, if your device billing details are for NZ then it should be fine.

I don't have the APK, so I can't sideload it.

Not running a VPN - even on 4G I get the same message...

I'm hoping the Google Wallet answer is the correct one - it seems the most obvious - but I have changed the default address to my home address and so far it hasn't made a difference

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

gzt

17157 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1299999 7-May-2015 16:17

Play Store: Scroll down a bit on this for the official google support advice fix:

http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/42347/how-do-i-change-the-google-play-country

johcar

103 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#1300503 8-May-2015 10:23

Managed to get the app installed on my phone and my tablet.

Steps taken:

Removed my credit card payment method from Google Wallet
Added it back in, using my NZ address for the card
Removed all foreign (freight forwarder) addresses from Google wallet
Closed Play Store
Cleared data via Settings>Apps on Play Store
Restarted Play Store
Added new user to phone/tablet using another Gmail address
Logged on as that user
Opened Play Store, installed Lightbox
Logged back on as main Gmail account
Opened Play Store, installed Lightbox

Pretty sure that the adding of the new user was the straw that broke the camel's bank here - I wasn't able to add the app to the tablet until I had done this (I didn't check on the phone before I had added the new user).

Hope these steps can be used to help someone else with a similar problem

NikT

1710 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1302604 12-May-2015 10:52

This is driven by the Google account rather than the origin of the device. As above, using an account with an NZ address will fix it.

Product Manager @ PB Tech

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