Unable to make Android in-app purchase with test account "The publisher cannot purchase this item"

Question

I am attempting to test In-App Purchases in Android.

I have uploaded a privately signed apk to Google Player Developer Console. It is currently a Draft in the "Alpha Testing" section.

When I attempt to purchase an item, I get the following error:

The publisher cannot purchase this item.

This is confusing to me, because I am using a test account, not the account used to publish this app.

I suspect that it may be failing because I have the developer account on the phone at all but this is my personal phone, so I don't want to delete the account off the phone (especially if I am not sure it will solve the issue).

Can anyone confirm if the publisher account must be completely removed from the phone to test in-app purchases?

Thanks!

Answer 1

First thing you should make note in your mind that

Testing Account:

Google Play does not allow you to use your developer account to directly purchase in-app products that you have created yourself, you'll need to create test acccounts under your developer account profile.

for more information:

1) http://developer.android.com/training/in-app-billing/test-iab-app.html#PlayItemTest

2) http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#billing-testing-test

More than one account:

Note: To make test purchases, the license test account must be on the user’s Android device. If the device has more than one account, the purchase will be made with the account that downloaded the app. If none of the accounts has downloaded the app, the purchase is made with the first account.Users can confirm the account that is making a purchase by expanding the purchase dialog.

check this link:

http://developer.android.com/google/play/billing/billing_testing.html#testing-purchases

Hope it will solve your problem. Let me know if you wanna get more information.