'App not Installed' Error on Android

Question

I have a program working in the Android Emulator. Every now and again I have been creating a signed .apk and exporting it to my HTC Desire to test. It has all been fine.

On my latest exported .apk I get the error message 'App not installed' when I try to install the .apk. It runs fine on the emulators.

As I have mainly been testing on the emulators and only every now and again exporting to a real phone I am not sure when this happened. What is the likely cause of it not installing on a physical phone but running fine in the emulators?

I have tried rebooting the phone & removing the existing .apk, does not fix the fault.

Answer 1

I had the same problem and here is how solved it : Go to the Manifest file and make sure you have the "Debuggable" and the "Test Only" attributes set to false. It worked for me :)

Answer 2

This can also occur when making a home screen widget, and your widget XML file has an incorrect Activity specified in its android:configure property.

Answer 3

For me, On Android 9 (API 28), disabling Google Play Protect from play store app worked the trick, and i was able to get rid of the App not Installed error.

To disable Google Play Protect. Open "Play Store" application => tap on Menu button => select "Play Protect" option => Disable the options "Scan device for security threats".

Answer 4

I faced the issue when I update my android from 2.3.2 to 3.0.1 . If this is the case the IDE will automatically considers the following points.

1.You cannot install an app with android:testOnly="true" by conventional means, such as from an Android file manager or from a download off of a Web site

2.Android Studio sets android:testOnly="true" on APKs that are run from

if you run your app directly connecting the device to your system, apk will install and run no problem.

if you sent this apk by copy from build out put and debug folder it will never install in the device.

Solution :go Build ---> Build APK(s) ---> copy the apk file share to your team

then your problem will solve.

Answer 5

Open your logCat when trying to install the app. Set it to "No Filters". Search for "InstallAppProgress" package identifier. If the install fails you should see an "Installation error code". In my case it was

D/InstallAppProgress: Installation error code: -7

From here you can use this link to find information about your specific error code.

Answer 6

My problem was that I have multiple user accounts on the device. I deleted the app on 1 account, but it still was installed on the other account. Thus the namespace collided and did not install. Uninstalling the app from all user fixed it for me.