Samsung Galaxy Store suspending apps because of “Blocked by Play Protect” popup

I have multiple apps published in Samsung Galaxy Store and all those apps were also published in Google Play Store. All my apps in Samsung Galaxy store and Google Play Store were using different APKs since I was using Galaxy Store specific features in APKs published in Samsung Galaxy Store. Recently the issue started with app reviews when app review team started suspending my apps from the Galaxy Store because those apps were giving “Blocked by Play Protect” popup when installing from Galaxy Store. Some APKs were using same key for signing and some were using different keys so keeping the same signing key on both stores did not help. After looking for a couple days and trying different things, I finally found the solution which was also suggsted by the Galaxy Store app review team as well as some other developers to go and file an appeal using “Play Protect Appeals Submission Form”.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/contact/protectappeals

On this page, enter your email address, developer name, application package name.

In ‘SHA256 Hash of the apk of the uploaded file on Virus Total’, you will need to go to Virus Total website and upload your APK to scan. Go to

https://www.virustotal.com

Choose file and upload your apk to verify if it’s safe. When the verification is complete, go to the ‘details’ tab and copy and paste the SHA256 code in “Play Protect Appeals Submission Form”.

You should also provide information to the Play protect team on the reason for filing the appeal. Write down the “Blocked by Play Protect” popup issue you are facing when installing app from Samsung Galaxy Store. Submit the form and wait for a while. Play Protect team does not respond to the appeals unless there is a problem so if you do not hear anything back, you should know that the appeal went through. The process is pretty quick with soem developers telling that the issue could be gone in next few minutes itself but I waited for a day before requesting review team from Samsung Galaxy Store to check and verify for the popup and the issue was resolved after the review team reinstated my apps.


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