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Android Publish an Android App Publishing on Google Play Building a Release-Ready APK

Posted by Jashan Shewakramani
Jashan Shewakramani
Courses Plus Student 2,428 Points

Problem Installing Generated APK

I have generated a signed APK of a release type exactly as was done in the video. But every time I try to install it on my Nexus 5, I get an error - Application Not Installed. I'm not sure why this is coming up. But I will mention that I have been using my phone instead of the Android Virtual Device to test my app.

3 Answers

James Simshaw
James Simshaw
28,738 Points
James Simshaw
James Simshaw
28,738 Points

Hello,

As you've been using the phone to test and now to try the signed APK, I wonder if there's some versioning problem going on. Could you try uninstalling the test version then try to install the signed version. My other thought is have you enabled the option "Unknown sources" in the Security settings?

Jashan Shewakramani
PLUS
Jashan Shewakramani
Courses Plus Student 2,428 Points
Jashan Shewakramani
Jashan Shewakramani
Courses Plus Student 2,428 Points

I tried all of that. I have no idea what's going wrong. But I did create a test app and I built an APK out of that without previewing it on my phone first. And it worked. It must be some kind of bug. In the end however, the test version and APK version are essentially the same. But for anyone else who may be facing the same problem: only test your apps on the emulator; it won't install on your phone otherwise.

James Simshaw
James Simshaw
28,738 Points
James Simshaw
James Simshaw
28,738 Points

The only time I've seen this error in this manner is when trying to install a signed APK while the testing APK is still installed. This is caused because the two APKs are both technically signed, the testing APK is just signed with a dummy debug cert while the signed APK is signed by your cert. How are you trying to install the signed version? How did you uninstall the testing version?

James Simshaw
James Simshaw
28,738 Points

If you haven't tried it yet, I'd recommend using the basic adb commands to uninstall the testing APK(even if it is supposed to be removed already) and then try the adb command to install.

1) adb uninstall com.package.appname Replace com.package.appname with the path for your app 2) adb install application.apk Replace application.apk with your generated APK.