Unable to install some apps from Google Play on customized AOSP: Item is not available. Reason: 9

Question

I'm getting the following error when trying to install some apps from Google Play:

LibraryUtils.isAvailable: not available restriction=9 
DocUtils.getAvailabilityRestrictionResourceId: Item is not available. Reason: 9

I'm running a customized version of AOSP (a customized Android x86 flavor) on x86 hardware. I've researched a lot and there are lots of vague attempts/guesses at answers already on the net but I'm specifically looking for what "Reason 9" refers to. Once I have that, I'm hoping I can come up with a hack in AOSP to avoid the error as when I sideload the same apps they run fine. This is hobby I'm doing so I'm not worried about some possible unintended side effects.

Answer 1

If you pull the Play Store APK from your device you can decompile it. I decompiled the APK and did a simple search for your error message. The error message can be found in the class com.google.android.finsky.utils.DocUtils

$ grep -lr "Item is not available"
com/google/android/finsky/utils/DocUtils.java

Here is the method:

public static int getAvailabilityRestrictionResourceId(Document document) {
    int restriction = document.getAvailabilityRestriction();
    int resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_generic;
    switch (restriction) {
        case 2:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_country;
            break;
        case 8:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_not_in_group;
            break;
        case 9:
            if (document.getDocumentType() != 1) {
                resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_hardware;
                break;
            }
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_hardware_app;
            break;
        case 10:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_carrier;
            break;
        case 11:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_country_or_carrier;
            break;
        case 12:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_search_level;
            break;
        case 21:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_for_managed_account;
            break;
        case 22:
            resourceId = R.string.availability_restriction_missing_permission;
            break;
    }
    FinskyLog.d("Item is not available. Reason: " + restriction);
    return resourceId;
}

In your case, the response has a restriction of 9. This would either get one of two strings. If we decompile the resources of the APK using ApkTool we can see the values of these two strings.

<string name="availability_restriction_hardware">"Your device isn't compatible with this item."</string>
<string name="availability_restriction_hardware_app">"Your device isn't compatible with this version."</string>

The method getAvailabilityRestrictionResourceId(Document document) is invoked in the following classes:

$ grep -lr getAvailabilityRestrictionResourceId | grep -v DocUtils
com/google/android/finsky/activities/AppsPermissionsActivity.java
com/google/android/finsky/billing/lightpurchase/OfferResolutionActivity.java
com/google/android/finsky/detailspage/WarningMessageModule.java
com/google/android/finsky/layout/WarningMessageSection.java

It would be beneficial if you provide info on when this gets logged.

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The problem is still vague. From searching on Google, some people have solved similar problems by changing a system property (most often in /system/build.prop).

Probably not the answer your hoping for, but I hope my research helps out.