I agree that it’s not ideal, but you’d have to upload your app to Google Play (assuming you plan to release it) anyway.
Fortunately, you’ll only need to upload a new version of your app when you make changes to the contents of your Expansion Files. So that’s slightly less headache with Google Play.
Slight correction of my previous comment, you have to upload a version of your app with expansion file to Google Play, but after you do that, you _ can _ continue to iterate on the content of your Expansion File by side-loading it. Just be sure that you build your app with the _ correct package name and version code _ you provided to Google Play.
When a Corona app that uses Expansion Files launches, the engine will use Google Licensing to verify your package owns the Expansion File and some properties of the Expansion File itself. This is why you need to do an initial upload to Google Play.
In regards to testing Expansion Files, be sure to put the .obb file in the correct place. Unfortunately, this can vary between devices. There are a couple ways you can verify what location Expansion Files should go to.
- Using the Android “Monitor” tool’s “File Explorer”, you can see where the obb directory is.
- Download a free app that’s over 100MB and see where the Expansion File gets downloaded.
For example, on Nexus devices, you should put the .obb file in this directory.
/mnt/shell/emulated/obb/\<my.package.name\>/\<my.obb.file\>
However, for Samsung devices, the directory would be different.
When you’ve got your app ready to ship, at that point you should be sure to upload the final Expansion File to Google Play.