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Getting "App Not Installed" message after attempting to install new version of Android app

I have an app that I developed wow like 8 to 10 years ago, but I have been updating it constantly at least once a year or so.

I'm actually in the process of completely redoing the app from scratch, and it's working great when I run it on my Android from my computer, but when I build it with a signing key on PhoneGap Build, I get the error message "App Not Installed." when I try to install the apk.

I've read through several other posts on the topic and I can attest:

  • I have plenty of storage space on the phone.
  • The new version number is larger than the old version number.
  • The signing key is the same as the original version.
  • I do not have any version of the app currently installed on my phone.

Any other ideas on what may be causing this? I've removed all my plugins to take that out of the equation, but I still get the same error. The original app was build with OnsenUI and Cordova. The new app is build in Ionic 5.4.16, Cordova 9.0.0, and Android 8.1.0.

Something else I have noticed is that if I change the app id (com.company.appname) to anything else (i.e. com.company.appnamedev), it installs. I feel like this is very indicative of the issue, but I don't know what to do with it.

Very much appreciate any guidance to finding the problem.

Solution

  • I finally figured out the root of all my issues. As it turns out, I had another half baked app I started and had on my phone under a different name and app identifier, but I had temporarily dropped the same google-services.json and GoogleService-Info.plist files into that other app that I use for the one in question here.

    After employing Mike N's suggestion, I got the error: 

    adb: failed to install mynewapp.apk: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_DUPLICATE_PERMISSION: Package com.company.new attempting to redeclare permission com.company.new.permission.RECEIVE_ADM_MESSAGE already owned by com.company.old]

    I uninstalled the old app that should not have had those files to begin with and everything installs and works great now. Hopefully this helps someone else out who encounters the same bizarre situation.