Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED no root

Question

I have checked all the solutions, comments and answers of all other questions in StackOverflow.

I have been running, compiling and debugging my app for months. But suddenly it started to appear this message in my Eclipse when using my Nexus to play with it.

MOBILE:

• I have no root !!! (It's a Nexus, and I have no root, and all the answers in other Stackoverflow's questions need root to be executed)
• The application is uninstalled, there's no trace of it in "Applications"
• Since I don't have root access, I can not access to /data/data folder, or /data/local, or /data
• I do know problem would be solved resetting the phone to factory settings, but, sincerely, I can not.

ECLIPSE:

• I have cleaned the project many times, restart Eclipse and even update it
• I can not change the name of the project (as one solution suggests), since it's a long time project and I can not change it

• Console says:

  • Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED
  • Please check logcat output for more details.
  • Launch canceled!

• Logcat says:

  • 01-05 12:18:19.265: W/ActivityManager(761): No content provider found for permission revoke: file:///data/local/tmp/MyApp.apk
  • 01-05 12:18:20.855: W/PackageManager(761): Package couldn't be installed in /data/app/com.myapp-1.apk

• I can install, uninstall other APK/applications with no problems at all. So it's not about permissions in /data folder/subfolders

CONSOLE:

• If I try to uninstall (with -d or any other parameter) the app it says: "Failure" (because adb does not find the app in the phone)

So, I'm not debugging with virtual machine / emulator. I have a Nexus no-rooted with no trace of the application, and I can not build the app from Eclipse to the device.

Thank you

Answer 1

I had the same issue in my non-rooted Nexus 5. I managed to solve it without root access nor Factory reset.

For this device, I managed to solve it by going to Settings -> Storage -> Misc and try to delete any files related to the faulty app (in my case, an .apk that was pushed from Android Studio and a .db file). I also clicked on Cached data to wipe the cache for all apps.

I don't know exactly which of the two things triggered the solution. You probably want to try to delete some files in Misc before wiping the cached data, since it seems less of an overkill.

It seems to be that there were some remaining files from a previous installation which weren't wiped with the uninstall (probably an issue in the Android installation system). These files aren't accessible without root access, since they are under the /data/local/ folder. Apparently the Storage tools for the Nexus 5 have permission to delete files under that folder.

I don't know whether other devices have a similar set of storage tools.

Answer 2

Downloading app from play store will resolve the issue. To continue development on the app, uninstall the currently installed app and just launch the app from eclipse.

It works fine.

Answer 3

This may seem odd, but my pointy-haired boss just had this issue and tried everything we could think of. Just would NOT install due to the INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED error.

He uninstalled some other apps (games) and suddenly it would install. Maybe it is an issue of disk space on internal card? Dunno, but worth a try when someone else hits it.

Answer 4

First time this happened I tried installing from eclipse, from command line etc.... Everything failed so I did a factory reset which then worked.

24 hours later it happened again.

Not wanting to do another factory reset, I tried all the same things again to no avail.

Lastly I tried downloading our current app from the appstore, which miraculously worked.

I then used adb to reinstall.

So if you have a version of your app in the app store, try installing that to get something on your phone, then do a reinstall "adb -d install -r $PACKAGE.apk

Hope this helps someone.