An app offers me to activate Google in-app purchases on a Google-free device using “Order Number” and email address. What am I entering?
I have an Android device without Google services. An app where I previously made in-app purchases on another device with Google services offers me to activate those purchases on the Google-free device using “Order Number” and email address. What am I entering?
Enter the Gmail address of your Google account as the email address. You can find the “Order Number” as an order number in the invoice that Google sent you by email after the in-app purchase. If you didn’t keep the receipt, Google lists all Play Store purchases, but you can’t get the receipt there. You need to go via data export instead:
Open your Google account on the PC in the browser, select “Data and data protection” on the left and below “Download or delete my data”. When exporting data, first deselect everything with “Unselect all” and then click on “Google Play Store” further down. Then click “Next Step” and select “Export once”. You will then receive a link that you can use to download a ZIP archive. Inside you will find various JSON files. Search for your purchase in “Order History.json” and copy the “orderId” in the corresponding entry – this can be done with a little skill with any editor; a JSON decoder is more convenient. The Firefox browser can also prepare and search through JSON files.
Newer part numbers start with “GPA”, older ones only consist of a few dozen digits. The app we tried this out with opens a browser to authenticate the email address, in which you have to log into your Google account. This does not work with the browsers of custom ROMs, but the app insists on Chrome – which cannot be installed without Google services – or the Samsung Internet Browser.
It is available from the usual alternative app sources such as the Aurora Store and was easy to install and set as the default browser, at least for us. However, the app only recognized it after an app restart – tap the square icon in the control bar, swipe the app up or sideways depending on the Android version and restart it. After the app has successfully activated your in-app purchases, you can uninstall the Samsung browser again.
(jow)
