RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application

Question

When I run my application, everytime I am getting the below exception in my logcat:

 04-14 09:29:53.965: W/dalvikvm(1020): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x409c01f8)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application   android.app.Application: java.lang.NullPointerException
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:482)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:3938)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1300(ActivityThread.java:123)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1185)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.LoadedApk.initializeJavaContextClassLoader(LoadedApk.java:362)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.LoadedApk.getClassLoader(LoadedApk.java:305)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:474)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020):     ... 11 more

Note: When I uninstall the app from the emulator and run it, then I don't get this exception but when I re-run the installed application in emulator, I am getting this. Please help.

if your package is android.app.Application ,try changing the package name ,kinda looks suspicious , looks like System's package. — Its not blank, Apr 14 '12 at 04:12
Expand out the Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException line. There should be a reference to a line in your application further down the line — Zaid Daghestani, Apr 14 '12 at 04:39
No,I don't have any package like you mentioned in my application. App is declared in the Manifest as: `` ` ` — user182944, Apr 14 '12 at 05:52

score 195 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

195

This is a verbose error message raised by underlying framework when dalvik re-install .apk file and trying to reuse or recycle the previous opened activity/view from the same package (if you haven't closed the previous installed app yet). It has nothing to do with your app, moreover, it is very unlikely that your app will get freezed or crashed cause by this verbose error message on end user's device.

It seems that this dalvik verbose error log only happend on Android 4.0 system, I've tested it myself on Android 3.2 and 2.3.3 running environment, where you cannot replicate to get this message shown on neither of them. A similar question has been discussed before at here and someone has filled a bug report in Android Issues Tracker.

I don't think you should concern too much about this verbose error log at the moment, if you look more logs before and after this red error in Logcat, you can see the full story and find that the previous opened activity/view (which are marked as died state) get killed and the newly re-installed one get poped ultimately.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Community

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answered Apr 14 '12 at 23:31

yorkw

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Hi, No my app is neither crashed nor freezed because of that exception, Its working fine even after the exception is thrown. I just saw the exception in the logcat and was unaware of it, hence thought of asking the same. Thanks for the info, a very useful one. – user182944 Apr 15 '12 at 04:08
3

I'm getting this in the developer console of a production application. It seems to primarily happen with 4.2, but I've seen other version as well (4.1, 4.4). – Dustin Apr 28 '14 at 15:34
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@Dustin, did you solved this? As this exceptions reports at most 34/week! and a lot of complains in user messages! – thecr0w Aug 07 '14 at 03:15
Same here @Dustin Any Solution? – Pradeep Kumar May 26 '15 at 10:52
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I'm still getting it locally in Android 5.1.1. – Sam Jul 08 '15 at 10:07
I was using KitKat (4.4.2) but there was no such error. It started to appear on Lollipop (5.1.1). – Buddy Aug 01 '15 at 03:15
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It occurs even on 5.1.1 . What is going on? – android developer Aug 05 '15 at 18:28
I tried to restart android studio (1.3.1) and run again on my device, now its working fine, this might be a bug of some sort, dunno what triggers it. – ralphgabb Aug 17 '15 at 07:22
Sorry for reviving an old thread, but this occurred in the cloud test lab on play console alpha release.. What guarantee is there that this won't occur on production and the user upgrades the app and faces this. :( – Udayaditya Barua Jun 14 '16 at 07:58
on 5.1 and 6.0 I'm seeing smth similar [`caused by IllegalStateException`](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44957870/runtimeexception-caused-by-illegalstateexception-in-initializejavacontextclasslo) – snachmsm Jul 06 '17 at 20:43
I actually still see it on old Android versions(on both devices and emulators), and I have latest version of IDE and gradle... – android developer Nov 26 '18 at 09:36

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '13 at 17:44

16

I realise it's a very old question, but this may be useful anyway. I've found that when I observe this error in my own development, it's due to the previously running instance of my app not closing down neatly, for example by shutting down background threads prior to exit.

answered Jul 17 '13 at 17:44

JulianSymes

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Yes hitting the home button on my phone then running this again removes this error for me as well. – Aggressor Nov 14 '14 at 18:31
Makes sense, but how can an app close down neatly when it's open in front of the user and then Android kills it to upgrade it? – Sam Jul 08 '15 at 10:04
Presumably Android invokes onDestroy() methods in that scenario, no? One would hope so. – JulianSymes Jul 08 '15 at 11:58

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

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I have been getting same error when I tried connect to the internet with JSOUP inside my application class. It was tricky, because application run on emulator but not on actual device. It turned out, that I just used JSOUP library wrong. Loading page in new thread solved my problem.

Hope I helped someone.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community

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answered Jul 25 '14 at 20:43

Yoda066

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 18 '16 at 17:04

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Hope this helps someone. Go to the running apps on your emulator by clicking this:

Close the app you are trying to install and then run it again. NO need to uninstall/reinstall app or clean project.

answered Feb 18 '16 at 17:04

Ojonugwa Jude Ochalifu

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 05 '14 at 15:45

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For me it helped to clean the Project. In Eclipse:
- Project --> Clean
Please control that Project --> Build Automatically is CHECKED
If the gen-Folder is empty after that, there's a mistake in the res-folder. Often, mistakes in the res-folder aren't shown by the red cross! Good luck and greetings

answered May 05 '14 at 15:45

Didn't help for me. When I use `adb` to upgrade from one of my production apks to another, this problem happens, so it doesn't seem specific to the IDE in my case. – Sam Jul 08 '15 at 10:02

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 14 '20 at 07:19

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Simple Solution:

Just Restart your emulator or mobile device. And the problem is gone! Reason for this issue was due to a previous app activity was wrongly halted.

answered Feb 14 '20 at 07:19

Prajwal Waingankar

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 04 '14 at 10:01

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In my case this error appear after I've imported Android Maven project into new workspace, and SRC folder was not automatically added to build path.

Right click on the project/Build path/Configure build path/Source - check if there missing sources.

answered Jun 04 '14 at 10:01

Andrey Uglev

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 15 '14 at 04:58

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I got the same problem. Cleaning the project worked for me.

Select project go to Project --> Clean

answered Nov 15 '14 at 04:58

cnuis2cool

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Didn't help for me. When I use `adb` to upgrade from one of my production apks to another, this problem happens, so it doesn't seem specific to the IDE in my case. – Sam Jul 08 '15 at 10:02

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 23 '15 at 13:24

In my case logcat show me it coudn't find the initial activity, but the Dex Path was different, it was ".../data/app/myapp-1" instead of ".../data/app/myapp". I soved this making click on the elcipse project name "myapp" in the Package explorer window. Then right click on it, ->refactor->rename... I set the project name to myapp-1, and then, ->refactor->rename... and back again to "myapp". Then it worked... some kinf of bug in eclipse?

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 17 '16 at 04:47

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I got the same problem. Uninstalling my app then reinstalling it solved the issue.

answered Jun 17 '16 at 04:47

swati

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 27 '17 at 06:29

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I experienced this when I imported my project which was built from a different machine. Just Invalidate caches and restart

File>Invalidate Caches/Restart>Invalidate and restart

answered Mar 27 '17 at 06:29

Anish

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score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Apr 10 '17 at 18:39

I changed the applicationId to something different on (Module:app) build.gradle file, run the app again on my device. Then, I undo the change and run the app again and everything works. It works on Android Studio 2.3.1 and 4 different devices I have here, from 5.0 to 7.0.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Dec 04 '17 at 08:01

I meet this question. When use gradle clean,gradle installDebug it work ok!

   AndroidRuntime  D  Shutting down VM
E  FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E  Process: tv.panda.live.broadcast, PID: 4685
E  java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication" o
   n path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/lib/arm, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]
E      at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:572)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4883)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:178)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1573)
E      at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:111)
E      at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:194)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5691)
E      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
E      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
E      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:959)
E      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:754)
E  Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDi
   rectories=[/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/lib/arm, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]
E      at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
E      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:511)
E      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:469)
E      at android.app.Instrumentation.newApplication(Instrumentation.java:988)
E      at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:567)
E      ... 10 more
E      Suppressed: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication
E          at java.lang.Class.classForName(Native Method)
E          at java.lang.BootClassLoader.findClass(ClassLoader.java:781)
E          at java.lang.BootClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:841)
E          at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:504)
E          ... 13 more
E      Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Class not found using the boot class loader; no stack available

score 0 · Answer 14 · answered Jan 25 '23 at 06:45

0

I received this error when using ksp instead of kapt when adding hilt dependency

Change

ksp "com.google.dagger:hilt-compiler:$hilt_verson"

to

kapt "com.google.dagger:hilt-compiler:$hilt_verson"

Hope that helps

answered Jan 25 '23 at 06:45

Emmanuel Mtali

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RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application

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