Warning: App must target Android 13 (API level 33) or higher. It does

Question

I received the following warning from Google Play Console that our app does not meet the minimum target API level. However, it does and below is the code for it:

defaultConfig {
        // TODO: Specify your own unique Application ID (https://developer.android.com/studio/build/application-id.html).
        //TODO: Keep an eye on targetSdkVersion number, as it has to be within one year of major android release.
        applicationId "com.com"
        minSdkVersion 24
        targetSdkVersion 33
        versionCode flutterVersionCode.toInteger()
        versionName flutterVersionName
    }

This is the image showing the warning:

Then, when I click on the affect app bundles, they are really old ones from over 2 years ago:

Should I just delete these older bundles or do I need to do something else? I am worried because it says we will not be able to update the app unless we meet the requirements (which the newest code does).

UPDATE: After first updating each track (even paused ones) with a compliant app bundle according to the answers below, sending them for review, and then publishing those changes (again even if the track is inactive), my warning of not being able to update the app persisted. So I reached out to Google directly and received the following message about the warning. I guess we will see what happens the next time I try to update the app

"As per checking, this warning is with regards to Google Play's target API level requirement which only warns the developers about the risk of not releasing a compliant app version. In this case, you may ignore this warning and you can rest assured that you will still be able to release an app update. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions about the Play Console and we'll be happy to help."

Update of Update: After publishing and clicking on the message in the Inbox, a new message appeared saying violation was resolved (as mentioned below).

Answer 1

I was faced with this warning for a similar reason - I had a package with an old target api version in internal testing paused.

The solution to this problem is to update all active application packages released in production or testing.

To see a list of all app bundles that need to be updated, you should go to:

Inbox > Click your affected warning message > View details > View app bundles - This will list all app bundles and where they are released - Production or testing.

Also, you can check them by going to the App Bundle Explorer and checking all versions with Release status is Active for matching target sdk In my case, it was paused version 1.0.0 with target sdk 31 for internal testing:

You need to go to the partition where the active version with target sdk < 33 is located and do the following: Add new release > Add from library > Set checkbox on your app bundle with target sdk 33 or more > Add to release > Next > Save and publish

Then if you go back to Inbox > Click your warning message > View details you will no longer see the View affected app bundles button, and you will have the following notification:

Thus, after completing all the actions, all your active releases will comply with the rules

UPD:

After completing all the above steps and successfully completing the review, the warning message will disappear and you will receive the following message in your Inbox:

Answer 2

This is what worked for me, It appears the Play Console bot assumes you haven't taken any action to resolve the policy breach if you don't click on the message sent to Inbox.

Try 1

To fix this, go to the Dashboard, click Inbox, and open the message that contains the warning about the target Android 13 (API level 33) or higher.

Try 2

Incase that dose not work for you even when it should. Click on Dashboard you will notice an error telling you about the target policy at the very top, click on that it will then take to to the Policy status

Try 3

Click on the App bundle explorer and make sure only your production bundle is active and the rest are inactive. Also check Your internal, closed and open testing and if there are active bundles make sure pause all of them.

Do this and you will receive a message in your inbox saying A recent policy warning about your app has been addressed.

Answer 3

It is just a delay on Google Play to update the status of each app. I simply updated some of my apps and did nothing else. Today the WARNING MESSAGE is gone for those apps.

Answer 4

Check in AndroidManifest.xml "<application" tag if tools:targetApi is 33

Answer 5

I had the same issue, this is because you might have older versions of your app that are in one of the internal test tracks.

You will have to update these older test tracks as well.

Answer 6

In my case, I updated the SDK version from 31 to 33 in build.gradle.

compileSdkVersion = 33
targetSdkVersion = 33

Then compile a new bundle, using it to create releases listed in the View affected app bundle (including testing and production) to deactivate the old outdated bundle.

The warning is no longer presented afterward.

Answer 7

I had the same issue, yesterday it was solved.

My problem was that I had a very old version of my app as an active Track in 'Open Testing' and 'Closed Testing'.

My latest version was in 'Internal Testing' as well, so the solution was to promote this version to 'Closed Testing' and publishing it and wait for a short while, and then when it was available in 'Closed Testing' I promoted it again to 'Open Testing' and publishing it and wait for a while again until it was available in 'Open Test'.

By doing this the old version of my app was removed from both the Closed and Open Testing sections and was replaced with the new version (similar to production version).

After doing this the button was disappeared that says 'check Affected bundles' but the alert message was still there showing; and then after 2 hours approximately I received the message from Google that everything is OK now and I will be able to send updates in the future normally.

The production app version was not modified and no update was sent to users.