Custom DPC blocked by approved-DPC allowlist on Android 16 Samsung: generic “An error occurred”, no Play Protect message
We develop a custom DPC for organization-owned tablets used by Mexican municipal public safety agencies (fully managed, device owner via QR). On Samsung Galaxy Tab SM-X300 (Android 16, BP4A.251205.006) and SM-X133 (Android 16, October 2025 patch), QR provisioning downloads the DPC APK (HTTP 200), shows “Preparing your work space”, then fails with a generic “An error occurred / If you have questions, contact your IT admin” screen. There is no Play Protect or “App blocked” message.
We isolated it on the same SM-X300:
| QR payload | Result |
|---|---|
| Google Test DPC (official download, official signature) | Provisions fine |
| Same Test DPC APK, only re-signed with a debug key | An error occurred |
| Minimal DPC (two provisioning activities, INTERNET only), our package and release key | An error occurred |
| Same minimal DPC, different package, debug key | An error occurred |
| Our production DPC | An error occurred |
In every failing case the DPC never ran: a network beacon in Application.onCreate and in the provisioning activities was never received. The same DPC installs over adb and becomes device owner without issues.
Our package and signing certificate are registered and verified under Android developer verification in Play Console, and we submitted the Play Protect appeal on Nov 4. Since a re-signed Test DPC also fails, this looks like the approved-DPC allowlist applied by signing certificate.
Questions:
- Is a generic “An error occurred” (instead of “App blocked to protect your device”) the expected behaviour for a non-allowlisted DPC on Android 16 Samsung?
- Is the Play Protect appeal form the right route for allowlisting a custom DPC, or is there a dedicated process?
- Has anyone had a custom DPC allowlisted recently, and how long did it take?
