Apk not installing on some phones

Hello! I have had an issue out here in my remote location. I find that my .apk installs fine on some devices (Samsung) but others that I have tried start to install and quit part way through with a message of “App not installed”. No explanation as to what caused it. Has anyone experienced this or have any suggestions? Thank you!

-Casey

Have they previously installed an app from you? If they have and you changed the keystore, that will block a new install. They need to delete the old app before installing the new one.

I think this is happening even on devices that I haven’t installed any previous apps on. And my keystore is the same anyway. Any other suggestions for troubleshooting the problem? Thanks!

What Android versions are the phones that are not installing the app?

I didn’t get that info when I was trying to install it. I will keep a log when it happens again and get back to you. Any other info I should get. Type of phone, android version etc? Thanks!

Hi @Casey_Ellis… I just came across this post and thought that you might want to look at this other related forum post I put up in January - Problem with phones recognizing APK file

I have had multiple phones not installing apps I’ve created with SAB and I’m still not sure why. I’ve been taking down some of the phone info for each phone that won’t install. Here are some details:

Phone: Alcatel 5033T
Android version: 8.1.0
Kernel version: 4.4.95

Phone: Wowi
Android version: 8.1.0

Phone: Samsung or Alcatel?
Android: 9

I’d say this “App not installed” error is happening about 50% of the time now.

Thank you for the help. The phones “recognize” the .apk and begin the installation. When it reaches the end of the install it simple says, “App not installed”. I’m not sure if this is the same issue you had.

-Casey

Hi Casey. The issue I had was different. The phones just wouldn’t recognize the APK file until the file name was changed by removing the extra period that SAB was generating.

Sorry, I don’t know why it will not complete the install on your phone. Lack of storage space??

@Casey_Ellis If you change keystore but have the same package name and have an older version installed. Because the package name and keystore don’t match it will prevent the new one installing. Either uninstall the first one then install the new one. Or go back to the original keystore.

This does not apply if no app with that package name is on your phone already.

Thank you. I have been trying to install on many phones that have never had an app from SAB on them before. I’m probably getting a 50/50 chance that the app won’t install on someone’s phone. Pretty discouraging. I try and take pictures of people’s phone’s “about” screen to see the Android version etc. when the app won’t install. Not sure what that can tell us. Sometimes I’ve tried to free up storage on their phones and that has led it to install on some phones. Other times that doesn’t help.
Casey

Some of the features in SAB require a minimum Android version. If they have a phone older than that version then it won’t install.

What do you have set as your minimum version? App > APK > Minimum Android Platform

For example importing a .bloomd file requires Android 5 minimum version.

Thank you for the reply! I have for most of my apps the lowest version of Android possible. For most apps, that is 4.0, except for, as you mentioned my apps that use .bloomd files and for those I set it to 5.

Most of the phones that are failing are 8.1 - 9

Any other suggestions of why this is happening around 50% of the time? Could it be a lack of storage that would cause this “cannot install” error?

Thank you!