What is INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES error?

Question

I found that this error can now also occur when using the wrong signing config. As described here, Android 7.0 introduces a new signature scheme, V2. The V2 scheme signs the entire APK rather than just the JAR, as is done in the V1 scheme. If you sign with only V2, and attempt to install on a pre-7.0 target, you'll get this error since the JARs themselves are not signed and the pre-7.0 PackageManager cannot detect the presence of the V2 APK signature.

To be compatible with all target systems, make sure the APK is signed with both schemes by checking both signature version boxes in Android Studio's Generate Signed APK dialog as shown here:

If only 7.0 targets are anticipated, then there is no need to include the V1 signature.

Did you edit the AndroidManifest.xml directly in the .apk file? If so, that won't work.

Every Android .apk needs to be signed if it is going to be installed on a phone, even if you're not installing through the Market. The development tools work round this by signing with a development certificate but the .apk is still signed.

One use of this is so a device can tell if an .apk is a valid upgrade for an installed application, since if it is the Certificates will be the same.

So if you make any changes to your app at all you'll need to rebuild the .apk so it gets signed properly.

I found this was caused by my JDK version.

I was having this problem with 'ant' and it was due to this CAUTION mentioned in the documentation:

http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/app-signing.html#signapp

Caution: As of JDK 7, the default signing algorithim has changed, requiring you to specify the signature and digest algorithims (-sigalg and -digestalg) when you sign an APK.

I have JDK 7. In my Ant log, I used -v for verbose and it showed

$ ant -Dadb.device.arg=-d -v release install
[signjar] Executing 'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_03\bin\jarsigner.exe' with arguments:
[signjar] '-keystore'
[signjar] 'C:\cygwin\home\Chloe\pairfinder\release.keystore'
[signjar] '-signedjar'
[signjar] 'C:\cygwin\home\Chloe\pairfinder\bin\PairFinder-release-unaligned.apk'
[signjar] 'C:\cygwin\home\Chloe\pairfinder\bin\PairFinder-release-unsigned.apk'
[signjar] 'mykey'
 [exec]     pkg: /data/local/tmp/PairFinder-release.apk
 [exec] Failure [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES]

I signed the JAR manually and zipaligned it, but it gave a slightly different error:

$ "$JAVA_HOME"/bin/jarsigner -sigalg MD5withRSA -digestalg SHA1 -keystore release.keystore -signedjar bin/PairFinder-release-unaligned.apk bin/PairFinder-release-unsigned.apk mykey
$ zipalign -v -f 4 bin/PairFinder-release-unaligned.apk bin/PairFinder-release.apk
$ adb -d install -r bin/PairFinder-release.apk
        pkg: /data/local/tmp/PairFinder-release.apk
Failure [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_INCONSISTENT_CERTIFICATES]
641 KB/s (52620 bytes in 0.080s)

I found that answered here.

How to deal with INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_INCONSISTENT_CERTIFICATES without uninstallation

I only needed to uninstall it and then it worked!

$ adb -d uninstall com.kizbit.pairfinder
Success
$ adb -d install -r bin/PairFinder-release.apk
        pkg: /data/local/tmp/PairFinder-release.apk
Success
641 KB/s (52620 bytes in 0.080s)

Now I only need modify the build.xml to use those options when signing!

Ok here it is: C:\Program Files\Java\android-sdk\tools\ant\build.xml

            <signjar
                    sigalg="MD5withRSA"
                    digestalg="SHA1"
                    jar="${out.packaged.file}"
                    signedjar="${out.unaligned.file}"
                    keystore="${key.store}"
                    storepass="${key.store.password}"
                    alias="${key.alias}"
                    keypass="${key.alias.password}"
                    verbose="${verbose}" />

Most of the time the solution for this error is really simple:

1. Uninstall your apk
2. Clean your Android project
3. Build your Android project
4. Install / run your apk