Install the preview
Seed & Shelf isn't on Google Play yet, so this installs directly from here. Android calls that “installing an unknown app” and will ask you to allow it once — the steps below are the whole process.
86 MB · Android 7.0 and later · build 1
SHA-256: 375bc5ff8ae1f0abd3fc9a77b0d50d93e94c270ec410a500371b8320699796e6
Large for what it is, because a sideloaded APK has to carry the code for every processor Android runs on. The Play Store version will be roughly half the size, since Play sends each phone only the parts it needs.
Installing it
- Tap the download above on the phone itself — not on a computer. Chrome will warn that “this type of file can harm your device”; that warning appears for every APK regardless of what's in it. Choose Download anyway.
- Open the downloaded file. Android asks whether to allow Chrome (or your browser) to install apps. Allow it — you can turn that back off afterwards, and it only ever applied to that one browser.
- Play Protect may say it doesn't recognise the developer. Expected: the app hasn't been through Play's review yet. Choose Install anyway.
- That's it. Seed & Shelf appears in your app list like anything else.
Updates won't arrive on their own. A sideloaded app doesn't auto-update, so a new version means downloading from this page again. Installing over the top keeps your records — Android treats it as an upgrade as long as it's signed with the same key, which every build from here is.
Once the app is on Google Play, updates become automatic and this page goes away.
Back up before you rely on it
This is a preview, and your logbook lives only on the phone. Before a serious canning session, take an export: Settings → Data → Export everything, then put the file somewhere that isn't the phone. It takes ten seconds and it's the difference between a bad afternoon and a lost season.
Something wrong?
Tell me what happened and what phone it was: info@seedandshelf.com. A screenshot of the error is worth a paragraph of description.
If the install fails with “app not installed”, the usual cause is an older copy signed with a different key. Uninstall the old one first — and export your records before you do, because uninstalling deletes them.