Android – Google Play issue: “your device isn’t compatible with this version”

At some point in the last few months changes were made to either or both the ADT plugin for Eclipse and Google Play that rendered my most recent Android application updates “incompatible” with tablets.
After doing a bit of research, I was able to locate 3 items that after adjusting in my applications resolved the new “compatibility” issue with my applications distributed through Google Play on tablets.

1) I added the below lines to the AndroidManifest.xml file. The lines explicitly declare support for all screen sizes, especially the xlargeScreens for tablets.

<supports-screens

        android:smallScreens="true"

        android:normalScreens="true"

        android:largeScreens="true"

        android:xlargeScreens="true"></supports>

2) Adjusted the section of the AndroidManifest.xml file from:

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" targetSdkVersion="8"/>

to

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4"/>

3) Ensured that there was a drawable-xhdpi folder under the res directory that at least had the Android application icon.

After making these three changes, Google Play restored “compatible” for my applications with tablets.

The most frustrating part of the experience is that Google Play gives no indication during the application upload and publishing process that it will prevent tablets from using the application.Due to this lack of transparency, the issue can’t be identified until the application update has already been published and made public for users on tablets.

Update on June 3rd 2013: For the next update to the applications, I might try adding back in the targetSdkVersion to see whether or not that impacts tablet support in Google Play. As mentioned in the comment below, and I do agree, that removing/adding targetSdkVersion shouldn’t impact tablet support.