Background
Apps that are distributed through Meta release channels (Meta Quest Store, App Lab) must conduct "Entitlement Checks." Entitlement checks are used to validate whether users have legitimately purchased or obtained an application, effectively preventing piracy and unauthorized access. These entitlement checks are required to be built into the application during the app development stage in Unity or Unreal.
Problem
A Meta account cannot access an app on multiple devices simultaneously. When attempting to use the app on multiple devices simultaneously, users will receive the error, "Multiple Devices Can't Access This App at the Same Time. This app must be purchased separately to be used by multiple devices at the same time. To continue, quit this app on any other devices."
⚠️ If devices are using a single Meta account across multiple Quest devices and are using Meta Store, App Lab, or other content that is tied to Meta release channels, you or your customers on ManageXR are likely to receive this error when attempting to launch an app on multiple devices simultaneously.
Because these entitlement checks are built into the app itself, this behavior applies regardless of how the app is distributed, e.g., Meta Quest Store, App Lab, manually sideloaded, or even if it is deployed through ManageXR.
Solution for Developers on ManageXR
Meta enforces that developers build the entitlement checks into their application in order to distribute their app via Meta release channels, App Lab, and Store. However, if you’re distributing the app in other methods, these entitlement checks are not required.
Thus, as a developer, you should NOT use the same .apk file you distribute on Meta to distribute on ManageXR. If you do this, it will trigger the "Multiple Devices Can't Access This App at the Same Time" error for customers who have used a single Meta account to set up multiple devices.
To fix this, you must:
1) Create a Separate .apk
Create a separate .apk of the application that does not have the entitlement checks built in and is not tied to Meta release channels. This involves building another version of the app in Unity or Unreal.
2) Upload to ManageXR
The separate application without Meta-specific requirements should be uploaded to ManageXR. It is crucial to keep updates for this version separate from updates pushed to the application on the Meta Store or App Lab.
💡You should consider building your non-Meta distributed .apk with a different package name. This will make it easier to distinguish between these two apps when debugging and make it less likely to accidentally have one version clobber the other (for example, if you have these different builds share the same package name, a user could install a version of your app via ManageXR, but then update it via the Meta Store and run into this issue).
Solution for Customers on ManageXR
ManageXR recommends creating a unique account for each Meta Quest device. This adds time to the setup process; however, it will help avoid issues with entitlement checks when using certain applications. If you're using Meta Quest devices, we highly recommend reading our Meta Account Setup Guide. In this guide, we talk about the account types you can use to set up Meta devices, device pairing methodologies (One-to-One vs. One-to-Many), and the pros and cons of account types and pairing methodologies.
Need more help?
Talk to a member of our team using the chat bubble in the bottom right of your screen, or reach out to support@managexr.com