Google Play store with G Suite

[localzuk]

I am struggling to get the Google Play store to work properly on our devices. I have it set up in G Suite so that users in our Admins or Staff OUs are allowed to use Google Play fully (enabled in Apps -> Other Google Services). I also have it set to allow any apps to be installed under Devices -> App Management, for those 2 OUs.

 

Yet, when I set up a device and log in with either my account or any of our staff accounts, we end up with Google Play showing but being entirely empty and being titled "My School Apps". Nothing turns up when I search etc...

 

I've also tried forcing the install of an App (Tapestry and Outlook) and it doesn't install like it is supposed to.

 

What am I doing wrong here? Chromebook related stuff all works fine, just not the Android bits.

[rogerdnixon]

There is no such thing as a user having the full PlayStore. As an admin you first have to authorise an app in "Device management > Chrome > Apps & extensions" and click on the yellow + button and select add from Google Play (or you can do it from https://play.google.com/work). That is where an admin can browse the entire store.

 

Then in "Device management > Chrome > Apps & extensions" you can deploy an approved app to the who organisation or a specific OU. So you can Allow Install, Force Install or Force and pin. The Play Store will be empty for any user that does not have some apps at least Allowed Install.

 

There is generally a sort delay from approving and deploying an app and it appearing in the Store for the user. The other thing to note is that while most apps work fine on a Chromebook, some don't and compatibility varies between devices. Incompatible apps won't show in the Store for users.

[gtg93]

Out of interest are the devices running Android 8 or above? and are you using a proxy?

 

If so, we're having the same issue in regards to app deployment/using play store, but our Android 7 and below devices work fine.

 

May help / may not:

Our filtering provider suggest that Google are now checking the SSL signature at server end, meaning although the SSL certificate for our proxy is trusted on the Android device their servers are rejecting the connection.

 

We've run wireshark and bypassed all URLs from our proxy and which should in theory fix the above, however it still doesn't work... We're currently going back and forth between Google Support and support from our filtering provider but not getting anywhere fast. If anything comes up I'll let you know if it's of any use.

Edited September 13, 2019 by gtg93
to fix atrocious grammar

[localzuk]

Does that not apply to Chromebooks with Android support, rather than pure Android devices?

I have a mix of both.

 

EDIT: 3 hours after deploying the Outlook app, it has just appeared on our pure Android devices.

[localzuk]

Also, yes, the pure Android devices are all Android 8.1.0 and above. We go via a Sophos transparent proxy. I have put in place the following regexes for it (though this is not ideal!!) to bypass https.

 

• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gvt1\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?googleusercontet\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?play\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gvt2\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?ggpht\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?accounts\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?clients\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?dls-udc\.dqa\.samsung\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?doubleclick\.net/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?dl\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?assistant\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?google-analytics\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gld\.di\.atlas\.samsung\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?inbox\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?m\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gstatic\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?googleapis\.com/?
  

[gtg93]

Also, yes, the pure Android devices are all Android 8.1.0 and above. We go via a Sophos transparent proxy. I have put in place the following regexes for it (though this is not ideal!!) to bypass https.

 

• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gvt1\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?googleusercontet\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?play\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gvt2\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?ggpht\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?accounts\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?clients\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?dls-udc\.dqa\.samsung\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?doubleclick\.net/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?dl\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?assistant\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?google-analytics\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gld\.di\.atlas\.samsung\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?inbox\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?m\.google\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?gstatic\.com/?
  
• ^([A-Za-z0-9.-]*\.)?googleapis\.com/?
  

 

Thanks for that - I think we have all these and more without any success unfortunately... Don't want to hijack your thread however.