Application is not installed error, when launched from home screen shortcut

Question

FYI: I have gone through these links already 'App not Installed' Error on Android

Application not installed when i try to autoupdate

My question is little different.

• I released app with default/main activity as XActiivity.java in version 1.0
• I released update with changing default/main activity as YActivity.java
• I find that app opens fine from application meanu, but when I try to launch from home screen shortcut, it throws an error saying "Application is not installed"

I know that its due to shortcut referencing to old XActivity.java, by removing would solve this issue, but if I release app to thousands as an update who already have this app would get annoyed at the first instance of this error message. I would loose on good reviews I got

Answer 1

Please check if you have the property android:exported="false" on an activity that should have been a "android.intent.category.LAUNCHER". This disables the specific activity from being launched on the launcher.

Answer 2

in 2021, just add

android:exported="true"

in the manifest, and it will be fixed

Answer 3

This question is old, but still relevant today.

This occurred because I changed the starting activity. I had this originally (truncated):

<manifest>
    <application>
        <activity android:name=".activities.StartActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <activity
            android:name=".activities.OtherActivity"
            android:exported="false" />
    </application>
</manifest>

I removed StartActivity but I forgot to remove android:exported="false", after adding the intent filter. It looked like this:

<manifest>
    <application>
        <activity
            android:name=".activities.OtherActivity"
            android:exported="false"> <!-- REMOVE THIS -->
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>
</manifest>

In short, make sure your starting activity is exported.