Installing an Android update - "Application Not Installed" error

Question

I have recently made a change to an existing app and we would like to push out the changes to our users as a downloadable update.

The application recognizes that there is an update, and downloads the file. After the download, we can click on the apk file and it says that it will replace an existing application. We click OK, then click Install and get a message simply saying "Application Not Installed."

We would like this to be a rather seamless transition to the new update as we have ~1000 users that will need this update for our company to run smoothly.

Both applications (old version and new version) are signed APK's with the same certificate. Having each user uninstall manually then install the new version is not an option as we have given them limited access to their phone features.

Answer 1

Hard to be definitive without seeing logs and/or manifest files, but some quick things to look for:

In the AndroidManifest.xml file, check to make sure:

1. The package name is exactly the same in each version
2. the versionCode is an integer that is greater than that of the previous version

3. The versionName is different for each version

   <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="XXXXX" android:versionCode="2" android:versionName="2.1.0 Fred">

Answer 2

Make sure that both applications have the same build variant (ie productRelease - productRelease etc.). In my case it was the reason of the problem.