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Since the new Android API level 18 came out for 4.3 Jelly Bean, what will happen if i remove the older API levels of 17 to level 8? I want to do this to save space as these files are of a decent size.

My question here is will I still be able to write an app that runs on devices with the lower API levels, having kept only the latest API level files in the SDK Manager?

BTW I have set the minSdkVersion in my manifest file as 8 and targetSdkVersion is set to 18

Or do I actually have to download all the files for each API level in between the minSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion in the SDK Manager?

Aziz Shaikh
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Anoop
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1 Answers1

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what will happen if i remove the older API levels of 17 to level 8?

That depends on what you specifically intend to remove. If you look at your SDK Manager, there are several entries for each API level.

My question here is will I still be able to write an app that runs on devices with the lower API levels, having kept only the latest API level files in the SDK Manager?

Yes, though if you delete the emulator images, you will not be able to test on lower API levels, unless you happen to have hardware for those levels.

CommonsWare
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  • To answer your first question, i remove everything from the lower API levels which means the -> Documentation for Android SDK, SDK platform, Samples for that SDK level, ARM system image, Intel system image, MIPS system image, Google API's and sources for android SDK. I remove them because the newer API level has them all over again. – Anoop Oct 08 '13 at 18:19
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    @Anoop: Do not remove ARM and/or Intel system images, as the newer API level **does not** "have them all over again". Without those images, you cannot build emulators to test your app on those older API levels. The MIPS system images are safe to delete from all API levels, simply because it is highly unlikely that you will be shipping your app to MIPS devices. – CommonsWare Oct 08 '13 at 18:36