In this article we’ll go over what information we need in order to replace a pre-existing live app with the one you built in our system.  Doing so will help avoid requiring users to re-download your app after it has been updated with our version. First let’s go over what we need for the iOS version of your app.

Apple is very simple. All we need to update an app built outside of our system is the login credentials for the account that the app is published under. You can enter this information into the “Publishing Info” section of the App Dashboard when you’re filling out all of the publishing information for your app.

Note: Depending on if you have Two Factor Authentication enabled in your Apple developer account, you may need to schedule a call with us so that we can obtain the code that Apple sends you in order to gain access to the Apple developer account.

Next we’ll go over what we need for the Android version of your app.

Google is a bit more complicated. Along with adding us to your Google developer account as a Release Manager, you’ll need to obtain the following information:

Once you have that information, reach out to us at support@buildfire.com with the file and information attached and we’ll pass that on to our publishing team.

Note: Some services won’t give you this information which means that the process of replacing your pre-existing app with our version will be a little more complicated if you are unable to obtain the information above.
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If you are unable to obtain the information above, we can still replace the pre-existing app with our version in the Google Play store, but we will need to unpublish the pre-existing app to free up the app name then submit our version. This will also mean that Android users will need to uninstall the older version and install our version in order to get the latest version of your app.

Once we have access to the Apple developer account that the app is published to, and we have all of the Keystore information, there’s nothing additional that you need to do, though it always helps us when you let us know that you want to replace a pre-existing app with our version when sending us the Keystore information. This helps smooth the process for updating your app.

In addition to this article, we recommend checking out the following related articles so that you have a better insight into how to use the system to its fullest advantage:

Still have questions? No problem! Reach out to us and we’d be happy to help :)