Fixing Version code 1 has already been used Error in Azure DevOps GooglePlayRelease@ 4 Pipeline

Описание: Learn how to resolve the Google Play release error caused by shallow git clone in Azure DevOps pipelines, ensuring correct Android version codes are used during app deployment.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/79541246/ asked by the user 'MikkelT' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2041475/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/79541618/ provided by the user 'MikkelT' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2041475/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Understanding the Version code 1 has already been used Error in Azure Pipelines

When releasing an Android app through Azure DevOps using the GooglePlayRelease@ 4 task, you might encounter the error:

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This happens despite having an auto-generated versionCode (e.g., 2343) based on the number of Git commits. Your app's manifest and build outputs confirm the correct version code, so why does Google Play reject the upload?



Root Cause: Shallow Git Clone in Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps pipelines perform a shallow clone of your Git repository by default. This means it only fetches the latest commit, not the full commit history.

When you use this command in your build script to generate the version code:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

It returns 1 because there is only one commit fetched in this shallow clone.

Google Play sees this version code as 1 — which conflicts with an existing release.



How to Fix: Fetch Full Git History in Pipeline

To ensure git rev-list --count HEAD returns the total commit count, configure the checkout step in your Azure DevOps pipeline to fetch the full history.

Modify your YAML pipeline as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Explanation:

fetchDepth: 0 tells the agent to get the entire commit history rather than just the latest commit.

This ensures your getVersionCode() function reflects the true number of commits.



Summary

Issue: Shallow repo clone causes Git commit count to be 1, resulting in incorrect versionCode.

Impact: Google Play rejects app uploads with duplicate version codes.

Solution: Use fetchDepth: 0 in pipeline checkout step to fetch full Git history.

By applying this fix, your Android app build versioning aligns with Git history, and your deployment through Azure DevOps to Google Play proceeds without version code conflicts.



Additional Tips

Always verify your version code values locally using Android Studio or bundletool.

Keep your signing and build steps unchanged; the core issue is usually Git fetch depth.