Application is not installed error, when launched from home screen shortcut

Question

FYI: I have gone through these links already 'App not Installed' Error on Android

Application not installed when i try to autoupdate

My question is little different.

• I released app with default/main activity as XActiivity.java in version 1.0
• I released update with changing default/main activity as YActivity.java
• I find that app opens fine from application meanu, but when I try to launch from home screen shortcut, it throws an error saying "Application is not installed"

I know that its due to shortcut referencing to old XActivity.java, by removing would solve this issue, but if I release app to thousands as an update who already have this app would get annoyed at the first instance of this error message. I would loose on good reviews I got

Answer 1

Please check if you have the property android:exported="false" on an activity that should have been a "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER". This disables the specific activity from being launched on the launcher.

Answer 2

in 2021, just add

android:exported="true"

in the manifest, and it will be fixed

Answer 3

That is because homescreen shortcuts work slightly differently from the launcher icons in some launchers.

Your old shortcut still contains a reference to XActiivity as the main Activity, when you have updated it to be YActiivity. This causes Android to think the app isn't installed, as it cannot find an XActiivity in your app marked as the MAIN Activity.

Simply removing the home screen icon and adding it back will solve this.

Answer 4

Putting

  <intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
    </intent-filter>

inside specific activity inside Manifest.XML did the job for me.

Answer 5

This question is old, but still relevant today.

This occurred because I changed the starting activity. I had this originally (truncated):

<manifest>
    <application>
        <activity android:name=".activities.StartActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name=".activities.OtherActivity"
            android:exported="false" />
    </application>
</manifest>

I removed StartActivity but I forgot to remove android:exported="false", after adding the intent filter. It looked like this:

<manifest>
    <application>
        <activity
            android:name=".activities.OtherActivity"
            android:exported="false"> <!-- REMOVE THIS -->
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

In short, make sure your starting activity is exported.

Answer 6

What if you implement both XActivity and YActivity as entry points in your app? XActivity could remove its launcher shortcut, install the YActivity shortcut, and launch YActivity.

Answer 7

first ensure if current installed apps can be moved to sd card if they cant be that is it you have got the reason on my htc desire 300 while rooting i flashed wrong rom bricked my phone in bootloop got it repaired from a shop now running custom rom i dont know which one but it doesnt support moving app to sd card so i copied app to phone memory unmounted or removed sd card then i try to install from phone memory and my fs2014 1.35 is now installed horrray hope it help you this will only work if you have custom rom because original rom does nt have errors like that or you call that a bug

Answer 8

Possible Solutions of “Application not Installed” error

• Reboot the phone: In times like this, first thing to do is to reboot your device. Or just shut down, remove and reinsert your battery.
• Make sure to uninstall any apps you don’t use to free up space, also uninstall previous versions of the same app currently installed on
  your device.

• Double check the apk files you download and be sure they were
  completely copied or downloaded.

• Try resetting app permissions by going to Settings >Apps>All>Menu key

  Reset application permissions or Reset app preferences.

• Change app installation location to Automatic or Let system decide.
  Make sure your SD card is not mounted or connected to a PC or
  elsewhere.

• For worst case scenarios, format your SD card – copy it’s contents
  somewhere else for backup and format.

• The last solution would be to totally wipe your device. Either by
  doing a factory reset under Settings or by doing a full wipe in
  recovery mode.

Reference

Answer 9

I've had the same problem, just a minute ago. I'm not expert so all I could get from all answers is problem is in shortcut created on home screen by launcher. I'm using classic minimalist launcher which doesn't have app drawer so all apps are on home screen, so I can't just delete shortcut without uninstalling it.

So I cleared cache of my launcher and it created new shortcut for that app on its own and it started working.

Answer 10

Might be a case, check your code for "App shortcut creation" where the Intent.EXTRA_SHORTCUT_INTENT is mapped to the LAUNCHER activity. (Might be SplashScreenActivity)

Answer 11

The solution I wrote is. AndroidManfest.xml

1. I retained intent filter android.intent.action.MAIN for my previous XActivity.java.
2. I also retained intent filter android.intent.action.MAIN and also category as LAUNCHER to YActivity.java

In the onCreate() method of XActivity.java I added these lines, and it seems to have solved issue

Intent thisIntent = getIntent();
if(thisIntent.getAction() == "android.intent.action.MAIN"){

        Intent intent = new Intent(this,YActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);
        finish();
}