I put a tv in my daughter's room and wanted to load some of my old purchases on the box and found that they will only install to my phone now. Examples:
MinecraftLego Jurassic WorldMickey Mouse Castle of Illusion
What gives? Is there a way around this? The simpler the better. The devices I'm trying to install to are an old Asus Nexus Player and 2017 Shield TV.
Thanks for any assistance
For play store apps/games that are hidden from Android TV devices, you can export their APKs from phone/tablet and sideload these APKs on Android TV. One of such tools for exporting apps is SAI ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aefyr.sai&hl=en_US ), which can handle both standalone and split APKs. Of course, not all apps/games are guaranteed to work on Android TV even if you manage to sideload them.
For games, you may also need to copy over their OBB files (game assets) from "/sdcard/Android/obb" folder on your phone/tablet to Android TV.
I am not sure about the other two games, but the latest "Castle of Illusion" (v1.4.1) works perfectly on Shield TV with a controller when sideloaded.
Apps have to specifically support Android TV in order for the Play Store to install them on an Android TV device. That said, if a game supports game pad controls, it should also work fine on Android TV if you can get it installed. You might be able to install it using an alternative Play Store client like Aurora, and you might need Sideload Launcher or a similar app to launch it.
Disney removed Android TV compatibility from Castle of Illusion (at least in that it no longer shows up in the Play Store, the game still works if side loaded). I bought it on my 2017 Shield and couldn't download it again when I moved to the 2019 model, emailed Disney and they confirmed. They also refused to refund it. It should be illegal...
re: Minecraft, I found this open bug on Mojang's site that seems to indicate Android TV compatibility was dropped from Play Store back in 2018. I would guess it's not coming back. https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE-36176
Not sure about Lego Jurassic World, I think it was available on GeForce Now at some point for streaming but not sure if a native Android TV app.
Lego Jurassic World still works fine when sideloaded. IIRC, you need to find a specific Tegra apk/obb bundle though.
Mickey still works when sideloaded.
I don't have minecraft but I've been told it works fine when sideloaded.
I too have observed how even paid apps are suddenly not ATV compatible again... However, if I install to phone and extract the apk, they work fine as sideloads... Even with gamepads.
I believe that it's because Google keeps changing the goal post of what qualifies as ATV compatible... Not cool Google.
Not all phone apps are Android TV compatible.
If you've logged in with the same account, visit the Play Store on a computer and it will show you which of your devices are supported on each apps page.