Parse Error There is a problem parsing the package while installing Android application

Question

I got this error while installing the android application  Parse Error   There is a problem parsing the package    I did the following steps    First time I installed the application and it works fine  I made changes to the existing application and change the version no in Manifest file    lt manifest xmlns android  http   schemas android com apk res android  package  org openintents samples BasicOpenARDemo  android versionCode  2  android versionName  1 0 1  gt   Then I export the application and finish the code signing process  For this  Right Click your Project node   select Export  There you will see a wizard  Follow the steps and finish the code signing also  I got the ARDemo apk file  Then I changed it   s name to ARDemo1 apk Then I shipped this apk file to mobiles SD Card and started the installation I got the above error    I googled  they say that problem with unpacking manifest file   Can anyone tell me what could be wrong with me

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In my case i written  lt activity android  quot  Stopwatch quot   gt  instead of  lt activity android name  quot  Stopwatch quot   gt  in android manifest  Check your manifest and gradle file again

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As mentioned by  Veneet Reddy install it via ADB   Go to ADT Bundle sdk platform-tools past your  apk file and run command prompt as administrator    Then run adb devices command which will list the connected devices or emulators that are running      Then run adb -s yourDeviceID install yourApk apk    Note  uninstall the app if you have already installed before installing again

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Instead of shooting in the dark  get the reason for this error by installing it via adb   adb -s emulator-5555 install   path-to-your-apk com app apk   Replace emulator-5555 with your device name  You can obtain a list using   adb devices   Upon failing  it will give a reason  Common reasons and their fixes    INSTALL PARSE FAILED NO CERTIFICATES  Reference INSTALL FAILED UPDATE INCOMPATIBLE  Reference

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In my case build 1 was installed correctly in my mobile using the signed APK  also from Google Play Store   But when I update the application with build 2 for first time  I had an issue installing it with the signed APK as I got  quot There was a problem parsing the package quot   I tried several methods as specified above  But did not work  After some time  I rerun the commands jarsigner -verbose -sigalg SHA1withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore my-key keystore app-release-unsigned apk myappkeyalias zipalign -v 4 app-release-unsigned apk MyApp apk  and surprisingly  it worked  It seems sometimes the APK built might be corrupt  So  Re-running jarsigner and zipalign commands resolved my issue

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Another possibility is that you have saved the apk file into application PRIVATE folder and then try to install  by starting an intent from your code   in this case  when you start intent  you get error parsing package  In this case  the raised error is about permission issues  The point is saving the file into private folders is not a good practice  however if you really want to do that  you should write file in MODE WORL READABLE when you download it  Please consider that MODE WORLD READABLE is deprecated and this solution is not the best as it has some security issues  The best is to save your file in an external storage

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And just to help possible new readers  another reason may be errors in the manifest file  I had mistyped android service as android service and ran into  the same error

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use it inside build gradle  Module app  minSdkVersion 14 targetSdkVersion 28  This error also comes when Android version is less than minSdkVersion

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The reason is apk is not signed  Once the apk is signed  the issue will be resolved  http   ionicframework com docs guide publishing html Please use the link on instructions to sign the apk

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You said that the first time you installed the application it worked fine   The only difference in the steps you outlined between the two versions are    The version number  I m assume that this did not participate in breaking anything  The code The name of the  apk file   Try renaming the ARDemo1 apk file back to ARDemo apk  make sure to back up the older version  and see if that helps  My guess is that it has something to do with the name of the apk   If it still does not work  then you can eliminate the name of the apk file as the source of the problem and start investigating 2  by rebuilding your old version and see if you have same problem again  If the problem does not exists with the rebuilt version of your old code then you know it must be something to do with your code   I hope that gets you somewhere   Cheers  Joseph

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I m not repeating what is instructed here to input the Key store  password  etc  Try      Build -  Generate Signed APK -    Input   ---Next---  select BOTH    V1  Jar Signature  V2  Full APK Signature    I don t know why  but at least it worked in my situation

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I got the same error  Parse Error  There is a problem parsing the package  while trying to install an  apk package from email  I was able to get around the problem by installing the 3rd party package installer ApKatcher   http   www addictivetips com mobile install-android-apps-from-gmail   ApKatcher isn t the only solution  A colleague of mine got around the problem by installing Astro File Manager   You can find both applications in the Android Marketplace

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As a couple of the other answers have mentioned  there can be problems when installing from the SD card  In my case I was distributing my app via email attachment  and it usually worked fine  Just open the email and download the attachment  it apparently goes to the SD card  and click on it again and it gets installed   But then one day it didn t work  and it turned out it was because I had the phone connected to my development PC via USB  and that placed the SD card in a different mode or something  So the solution was simply to disconnect the phone from the PC and then send the e-mail again and download the attachment again  Or else place the USB connection in  charging only  mode so the SD card is not  connected  to the PC

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I had the same problem using the apk file exported from android  Tools  gt  Export  I used the apk file in bin folder instead and it worked   P S  apk file in bin folder is created after first time you run the application in eclipse

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Similar issue  using this  borrowed  and slightly modified code                   Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION VIEW                   File newApk   new File Environment getExternalStoragePublicDirectory Environment DIRECTORY DOWNLOADS     myapp apk                    intent setDataAndType Uri fromFile newApk    application vnd android package-archive                    intent setFlags Intent FLAG ACTIVITY NEW TASK                   startActivity intent                   result   true    Needed to change the file creation to this  comma instead of plus in the File constructor  was missing     after the download directory                        File newApk   new File Environment getExternalStoragePublicDirectory Environment DIRECTORY DOWNLOADS    myapp apk

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Installation can give the specified error at least in following cases    Name of the package is changed after signing  Use the exact name as the signed package is  instead  adjust the name in Manifest  Package is compiled against on higher API level  Correct the API level in Manifest file Package is executed from SD-card  Run  install  the apk -file from phones memory OR use adb command to install it

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I had a bad tag pair in my manifest file    lt meta-data gt   lt  meta-data gt    Basically got in when I copied a bad meta-data sample code from payu pdf file  Crap

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One reason could be  that your activity name is not defined in the manifest       lt activity           android name                  gt   lt  activity gt    above code was creating the same issue with me

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Check whether  your device supports the version you specified in minSdkVersion in AndroidManifest xml   If not specify the lower version and try again

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You might also want to check the logs on the device to see if it s something simple like a permissions problem  You can check the logs using adb from a host debug computer   adb logcat   Or if you have access to the console  or when using Android-x86 get console by typing Alt F1  then you can check the logs by using the logcat command   logcat

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I have had this problem Parse Error   There is a problem parsing the package  I was testing on Android-8  I have same apk with same signature  Everything was same without the version number and version name  App was installing when I install it manually but this error occurred when I was downloading and installing updates programmatically  Then I have found my cause of problem    There was an option to check canRequestPackageInstalls    When this method returns true then app get installed successfully  It was returning false always in my case   So first I check this and then let the user to download and install updates      In onCreate     if  Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   Build VERSION CODES O                if   packageManager canRequestPackageInstalls                          startActivityForResult                          Intent Settings ACTION MANAGE UNKNOWN APP SOURCES  setData                              Uri parse String format  package  s   packageName                              requestCodeqInstallPackage                                         else                       canInstallPackage   true                                   In onActivityResult     override fun onActivityResult requestCode  Int  resultCode  Int  data  Intent             super onActivityResult requestCode  resultCode  data          if  Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   Build VERSION CODES O              if  requestCode    requestCodeqInstallPackage  amp  amp  resultCode    Activity RESULT OK                    if  packageManager canRequestPackageInstalls                          canInstallPackage   true                                 else                   canInstallPackage   false                 Toast makeText mContext   Auto update feature will not work   Toast LENGTH LONG                       show                            Then when need to install update then-   if  Build VERSION SDK INT  gt   Build VERSION CODES O       if canInstallPackage         doInstallAppProcess       else             generate error message          Hope it will help someone

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I had this problem  even when I specified the correct minSDK and targetSDK version  My problem was  I was using  android theme   android style Theme NoTitleBar Fullscreen  in launcher activity  on Jellybean device  When I removed this attribute  it worked

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I am experiencing the same    Parse error  There is a problem parsing the package     error message with my signed APKs as others but I suspect it could be caused by different reasons   To test this I did the following   Setup Windows 8 1 Eclipse  ADT Build  v22 6 2-1085508  I generated a typical new Helloworld app accepting all defaults   I ran the app on an emulator and live device successfully   I then sideloaded and installed the apk to my live device and ran it successfully   It had generated an apk in the bin folder with a size of 782 KB   I then exported the Helloworld app to the same bin folder signing the app from my key store which has been used successfully in the past to promote to Google Play   It created an APK with a size of 385 KB  replacing the original apk    I sideloaded the apk to my device and when I went to install it I got the error    Parse error  There is a problem parsing the package     this is the same package that sideloaded and installed when done as a non exported form

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Another problem causing this error can be installing APK from restricted SD card mount point  mnt media rw MicroSD   Use unrestricted mount point  Removable MicroSD

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For anyone else having this issue the only time i ever  got this error was when the API version in your Android Build configuration does not match what s on the  physical device     Go into Eclipse and right click on your project and go to properties   Select Android--WHICH BRINGS  YOU TO ANDROID BUILD TARGET   Adjust you target to match the device and see if that resolves the issue

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If you re compiling and exporting your apk file under SDK version 2 1  it will not work on any android version below your SDK export  2 1   Android software is forward compatible not backward compatible   For example if you re programming using the android NDK  ann add-on to the android SDK  package that allows development in the C C   family  this is only compatible with android 2 3  android version 2 2 and below support java builds only   Therefore you will reaceive the  There is a problem parsing the package  error

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In my case I signed with only V2 signature  from Android 7 onward  but tried to install on 5 and 6  Adding V1 during ARK generation signing fixed the issue   See Difference between signature versions - V1  Jar Signature  and V2  Full APK Signature  while generating a signed APK in Android Studio

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I ve only seen the parsing error when the android version on the device was lower than the version the app was compiled for   For example if the app is compiled for android OS v2 2 and your device only has android OS v2 1 you d get a parse error when you try to install the app

[android] "Parse Error : There is a problem parsing the package" while installing Android application

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