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I have an app, in testing, written in Xamarin which I release to google play. Up until recently all updates had gone in fine - but one specific update fails to install on my client devices. The error on the client is simply "cant install appname" and there is no additional information. Initially I thought it was a device problem but the play stats show that the version has not updated on any of the devices - and usually they auto update. I have since released 3 different incremental versions (with few unimportant changes) but none of them have managed to install. Are there any logs or techniques for diagnosing why an application wont install?

The only clue I have at the moment is that during the download of the APK the download progress bar goes way over the 12mb that the app is - up to around 16-20mb before the app attempts to install and then fails.

I have no idea where to start looking - is this a failure of my APK, my code? google play services?

Any help appreciated

Edit: Errors from the ADB log, thanks to SushiHangover include several errors like this:

 E Finsky  : [3671] oqt.run(4): Couldn't create session for <appname>: Cannot automatically move <appname> from af01404a-b700-4834-8d5c-b2bcac411834 to internal storage
 E Finsky  : java.io.IOException: Cannot automatically move <appname> from af01404a-b700-4834-8d5c-b2bcac411834 to internal storage
 E Finsky  :    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance0(Native Method)
 E Finsky  :    at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:334)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.ParcelableException.readFromParcel(ParcelableException.java:56)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.ParcelableException$1.createFromParcel(ParcelableException.java:82)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.ParcelableException$1.createFromParcel(ParcelableException.java:80)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Parcel.readParcelable(Parcel.java:2852)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:2000)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1951)
 E Finsky  :    at android.content.pm.IPackageInstaller$Stub$Proxy.createSession(IPackageInstaller.java:254)
 E Finsky  :    at android.content.pm.PackageInstaller.createSession(PackageInstaller.java:324)
 E Finsky  :    at opy.b(SourceFile:7)
 E Finsky  :    at oqt.run(Unknown Source:3)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:790)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
 E Finsky  :    at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:65)

This second one appears to be unrelated, I cleared the log and retried and the only consistent errors were the one above.

BugleRcsEngine: [2] qbe.a: Unable to get Cs Apk version: android.content.pm.PackageManager$NameNotFoundException: com.google.android.ims

Not sure what either of these mean though - any additional insight appreciated.

Tollo
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    Get the `logcat` output from one of the devices that is failing on, that will show the detail of the failure. – SushiHangover Jul 14 '19 at 23:43
  • Thank you - that's given me a log file, although no clue as to what the error is, there are lots of errors in the logfile. Is there any reference info I can look at to see what is expected? The repeated errors during download seem to be: [6106] qbe.a: Unable to get Cs Apk version: android.content.pm.PackageManager$NameNotFoundException: com.google.android.ims – Tollo Jul 15 '19 at 21:10
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    This exception is thrown when a given package, application, or component name cannot be found. Check your code where you use the name and add a try-catch to handle the exception like [this thread](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50807771/packagemanager-namenotfoundexception). – nevermore Jul 16 '19 at 01:54
  • Thank you for the assist, I don't use any code anything like that anywhere - I will download the old version of the APK and the new and try and compare and see what is different. I am not even entirely sure that error is coming from my application - is the BugleRcsEngine something to do with my app? Is that a part of Xamarin or something? – Tollo Jul 16 '19 at 19:30
  • I cleared the logs and redid the download - once with a successful app (not mine) and once with mine. I think the BugleRCSEngine is not related. The only consistent error I can see is added to the question. Any help appreciated! – Tollo Jul 16 '19 at 20:33
  • Users of application our company is developing have same problems. Simply we can't help them, even uninstall and install does not work. Do you find any similarity with my problem described here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57472395/android-app-cant-be-installed-updated-for-some-users-xamarin? – Klemenko Aug 13 '19 at 07:04
  • That sounds very similar, I think it must be some issue in Google play, probably with Xamarin apps as it seems to be too much of a coincidence otherwise. Sorry, but for me the clear cache, uninstall and then reinstall google play, then uninstall my app and reinstall it worked. I can't be sure whether the first stages made the uninstall and reinstall of the app work - but for me was only one user affected. – Tollo Aug 14 '19 at 17:22

1 Answers1

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This isn't an answer so much as a workaround that may help others.

I uninstalled the application, then reinstalled it from the play store from scratch and the new version came down straight away. I think that the play store must have had an error and cached that locally - despite clearing the play store files, and even reinstalling the play store itself.

I don't know really what the fix is here - but uninstall the app and reinstall worked for me - and I can only hope that it does not affect my app users as they are less likely to try that.

Thanks to SushiHangover and JackHua for their help and guidance

Tollo
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