App distribution redirect to an old Aritfact after uploading same apk with same version number

[Abdelsattar]

[REQUIRED] Step 2: Describe your environment

• Android Studio version: Ladybug | 2024.2.1 Patch 1
• Firebase Component: api:appdistribution
• Component version: 5.0.0

[REQUIRED] Step 3: Describe the problem

Steps to reproduce:

What happened? How can we make the problem occur?
This could be a description, log/console output, etc.

• When we upload the same app from our app with the same version and the same MESSAGE it does not override the old one in Firebase app Distribution even though we get successful results, and the links are actually redirected to an old artifact uploaded 5 days ago

Result:

Uploaded APK successfully 200
Added release notes successfully 200
Added testers/groups successfully 200
View this release in the Firebase console: https://console.firebase.google.com/project/****
Share this release with testers who have access: https://appdistribution.firebase.google.com/testerapps/****
Download the release binary (link expires in 1 hour): https://firebaseappdistribution.googleapis.com/app-binary-downloads/projects/***
App Distribution upload finished successfully!

Relevant Code:

we have this job in our pipeline

      - name: Distribute to Firebase
        run: ./gradlew packageDebug appDistributionUploadDebug --releaseNotes="$MESSAGE"

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[lehcar09]

Hi @Abdelsattar, thank you for reaching out. I tried reproducing the behavior and I was able to reproduce it. Per checking, this is working as intended. If the CRC32 checksums in the APK (or AAB) don't change, we don't create a new release. If any single bit (of the uncompressed binary) is different, then a new release is created - even if versions and build numbers are identical.

With that, I'll be closing this issue now. Let me know if there's any misunderstanding so we can re-open the issue. Thanks!

[Abdelsattar]

Hi @lehcar09 , Thanks for taking the time for investigation, you are right nothing have changed in the app as it was created a while ago from the same commit, but at the end it cost us a day of investigation due to misleading message
which is

Uploaded APK successfully 200.  --> no new apk uploaded
Added release notes successfully 200
Added testers/groups successfully 200
View this release in the Firebase console: https://console.firebase.google.com/project/****
Share this release with testers who have access: https://appdistribution.firebase.google.com/testerapps/**** --> 
Download the release binary (link expires in 1 hour): https://firebaseappdistribution.googleapis.com/app-binary-downloads/projects/***
App Distribution upload finished successfully! -> no new app Distribution uploaded.

I'll request changing the response messages to clearly saying at least " No new APK uploaded: Existing version matches current changes
A version of this APK ([Version Code] / [Version Name]) with identical content already exist."

Many Thanks.

[lehcar09]

I'll go ahead and mark this as a feature request. Internally tracking in b/394284067. While we are unable to promise any timeline for this, we'll definitely keep this under our radar.

P.S. For folks who find this useful, adding an emoji thumbs up on the original post can help us prioritize adding this to the roadmap.

[kaibolay]

This should be fixed in version 5.1.1 of the gradle plugin which was just released.