AS can not find the apk when starting debug app when outputDirectory or outputFileName changed

user_7556091 0
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I am using Android Studio to debug my application. For some reasons, I have to change the default output apk directory and file name. So I changed the applicationVariants' outputDirectory and outputFileName in app's build.gradle script. This modification make the apk output to the expected place and name. But I found a problem is that when I start to debug the app just like before, AS said:

Installation did not succeed.
The application could not be installed.

List of apks:
[0] 'C:\Users\progquest\projects\Study\app\build\outputs\apk\free\debug\app-free-debug.apk'
Installation failed due to: 'Invalid File: C:\Users\progquest\projects\Study\app\build\outputs\apk\free\debug\app-free-debug.apk'

Note: 'free' is a product flavor of my application.

Obviously, the debugger still used the old default output directory and apk file name to find the source apk. How to change it?

Thank you.

android-debug android-gradle-plugin android-studio
2 Answers

This happened to me; it started working again after I unselected and then re-selected the correct "Active Build Variant" in the "Build Variants" tool (even though it was already selected).

user_645050

There is a file called output-metadata.json in the same directory.

The contents of this file is on my system something like so:

{
  "version": 2,
  "artifactType": {
    "type": "APK",
    "kind": "Directory"
  },
  "applicationId": "com.example.sample",
  "variantName": "debug",
  "elements": [
    {
      "type": "SINGLE",
      "filters": [],
      "versionCode": 1,
      "versionName": "1.0",
      "outputFile": "app-debug.apk"
    }
  ]
}

From my testing it appears that changing the path in "outputFile" (i.e the field that currently states "app-debug.apk") makes Android-studio pick up the change.

Alternatively: Use the property to change the apk-name-

android {
    ...
    defaultConfig {
        ...
        setProperty("archivesBaseName", "MyNewAppNameGoesHere")
    }
}

This sets part of the apk name, and also updates output-metadata.json appropriately so Android studio picks it up.

see https://stackoverflow.com/a/39202249/2923245

user_29232450
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