android:maxSDKVersion - couldn't upload apk to alpha

Question

I've faced the problem uploading app to Play Store. The old "19" version was available for API versions 10 and above. New "20" version specified maxSDKVersion=22 (not higher Android 5.1). An error message, when trying to upload "20", says:

"it is forbidden that a device upgrading from API levels in the range 10-22 to API levels in the range of 23+ should downgrade from version 20 to version 19, which could happen if...".

This situation clearly specified in documentation :

...future versions of Android (beyond Android 2.0.1) will no longer check or enforce the maxSdkVersion attribute during installation or re-validation. Google play will continue to use the attribute as a filter, however, presenting users with applications available for download.

Our application not working properly on Android 6, so we should somehow to prevent installs on those devices.

Answer 1

So, there is an answer from Google support:

... The error message is stating that if a user updates the Android version on their device, the configuration of your APKs would cause them to become ineligible for the version they currently have.

To resolve this issue, always make sure the APK that supports the higher API level always has a higher version code. For example, if an APK with API levels 14 - 17 was version 3 then an APK with API level 18 would have to have version 4.

In other cases, you can simply remove the max SDK declaration from your app's manifest. ...

And there is no way to add maxSDKVersion limitation in existing app.