App can't run on devices below Android 7.1 after migrating to Android Studio 3

Question

After upgrading to Android Studio 3, app can't be installed on Android 5 and 7 devices that we tried on - if I send myself the APK it says "App not installed" and if I try to build from AS it restarts the phone with a corrupt memory block exception in the logs.

App can be installed on emulators running those android versions, though.

App can be installed on Android 7.1.1 and 8 that we tested on.

Tried with Java 8 compatibility both enabled and disabled - same result.

Minify is enabled. Enabled it additionally in 2 modules as well.

compileSdkVersion 26
buildToolsVersion '26.0.2'

defaultConfig {
    minSdkVersion 21
    targetSdkVersion 26
    useLibrary 'org.apache.http.legacy'
    applicationId 'com.myapp.android'
    versionName "6.0.0.2"
    versionCode 6002
    multiDexEnabled true
    testInstrumentationRunner "com.android.test.runner.MultiDexTestRunner"
}

Here's the error message

ime: Calling main entry com.android.commands.am.Am
11-01 11:03:20.807 26024-26589/system_process I/ActivityManager: START u0 {act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] flg=0x10000000 cmp=com.myapp.android/.app.MainActivity_} from uid 2000 on display 0
11-01 11:03:20.811 26024-26589/system_process A/libc: invalid address or address of corrupt block 0x39 passed to dlfree
11-01 11:03:20.811 26024-26589/system_process A/libc: Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1, fault addr 0xdeadbaad in tid 26589 (Binder_8)
11-01 11:03:20.913 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
11-01 11:03:20.913 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: Build fingerprint: 'motorola/condor_retgb/condor_umts:4.4.4/KXC21.5-40/46:user/release-keys'
11-01 11:03:20.913 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: Revision: '33456'
11-01 11:03:20.913 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: ABI: 'arm'
11-01 11:03:20.914 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: pid: 26024, tid: 26589, name: Binder_8  >>> system_server <<<
11-01 11:03:20.914 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR), fault addr 0xdeadbaad
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: Abort message: 'invalid address or address of corrupt block 0x39 passed to dlfree'
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG:     r0 00000000  r1 b6ee4dec  r2 deadbaad  r3 00000000
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG:     r4 00000039  r5 b6ee60d4  r6 98697000  r7 00000041
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG:     r8 9e566bfc  r9 9e566cbc  sl b6bd85d2  fp b6bd85db
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG:     ip 80808000  sp 9e566ba8  lr b6eb5e2f  pc b6eb5e30  cpsr 60010030
11-01 11:03:20.945 14726-14726/? I/DEBUG: backtrace:
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #00 pc 00028e30  

/system/lib/libc.so (dlfree+1239)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #01 pc 0000f0c3  /system/lib/libc.so (free+10)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #02 pc 00012dd9  /system/lib/libandroidfw.so (android::ResStringPool::uninit()+38)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #03 pc 00013b33  /system/lib/libandroidfw.so (android::ResXMLTree::uninit()+12)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #04 pc 00013b51  /system/lib/libandroidfw.so (android::ResXMLTree::~ResXMLTree()+4)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #05 pc 00010843  /system/lib/libandroidfw.so (android::AssetManager::getPkgName(char const*)+258)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #06 pc 000108a5  /system/lib/libandroidfw.so (android::AssetManager::getBasePackageName(unsigned int)+68)
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #07 pc 00080de7  /system/lib/libandroid_runtime.so
10-31 22:41:28.134 254-254/? I/DEBUG:     #08 pc 00270eef  /data/dalvik-cache/arm/system@[email protected]

EDIT: I found something here that might be related https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64434571

Answer 1

So turns out this is a bug in CyanogenMOD/LineageOS and possibly other custom ROMs who modify things they aren't supposed to modify.

The workaround is to turn off AAPT2 (but I don't know what the cons of that are)

Google have fixed this in build tools 27 but I don't know if we can use that yet?

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64434571

EDIT: If you are still unable to install your app on some devices that you don't directly build on, first File -> Invalidate caches / Restart, then Build -> Clean, and most importantly - don't use the APK file that you get from clicking RUN, use the one you can create by Build -> Build APK(s)