We have an application, which we never updated to M-style permissions.
I tried upgrading google-play-services version from 7.8.+ to 9.0.+. When uploading new APK to play store, I get this error. This configuration cannot be published for the following reason(s): It is forbidden to downgrade devices which previously matched version 218 to version 67, which would occur when API levels in range 16+ and Screen layouts containing any of [small, normal, large, xlarge] and Features containing all of [android.hardware.TOUCHSCREEN]. It is forbidden to downgrade devices which previously used M permissions (target SDK 23 and above) to APKs which use old style permissions (target SDK 22 and below). This occurs in the change from version 218 (target SDK 23) to version 67 (target SDK 21). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/android-developers. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/android-developers/c96bd801-b8a2-4b43-aa29-e7c61e84748f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

