ADB Install Fails With INSTALL_FAILED_TEST_ONLY

Question

I am having issues installing an apk to my device.

adb install <.apk>

Using the above command returns the following:

5413 KB/s (99747 bytes in 0.017s)
        pkg: /data/local/tmp/AppClient.TestOnly.App3.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_TEST_ONLY]

Any idea on what might cause this issue?

It definitely recognizes the device. Could it be an issue with the apk?

Solution 1

Looks like you need to modify your AndroidManifest.xml
Change android:testOnly="true" to android:testOnly="false" or remove this attribute.

If you want to keep the attribute android:testOnly as true you can use pm install command with -t option, but you may need to push the apk to device first.

$ adb push bin/hello.apk /tmp/
5210 KB/s (825660 bytes in 0.154s)

$ adb shell pm install /tmp/hello.apk 
    pkg: /tmp/hello.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_TEST_ONLY]

$ adb shell pm install -t /tmp/hello.apk 
    pkg: /tmp/hello.apk
Success

I was able to reproduce the same issue and the above solved it.

If your APK is outside the device (on your desktop), then below command would do it:

$ adb install -t hello.apk

Solution 2

I had a similar problem with Android Studio 3.0.0 Beta 7 and could not publish anymore to the play store.

As stated here: https://developer.android.com/studio/run/index.html

Note: The Run button builds an APK with testOnly="true", which means the APK can only be installed via adb (which Android Studio uses). If you want a debuggable APK that people can install without adb, select your debug variant and click Build > Build APK(s).

Same goes for release build, with Android Studio 3 you need to go to Build > Build APK(s) to have a non testable release apk that you can submit to the store.

Solution 3

Add -t install flag, as on the screenshot below:

Solution 4

In my case this mistake was in unstable gradle version. Just use a stable version of gradle (not alpha, not even beta). And it was fixed for me

Solution 5

After searching and browsing all day, the only one works is adding

android.injected.testOnly=false

to the gradle.properties file

View more solutions

Comments

[evve]

I should add that some of this may not be necessary for others.

[Saurabh Meshram]

Appreciate the extra effort!.

[Reaz Murshed]

Saved the day! Changed the gradle version from 2.4.0-alpha3 to 2.3.0

[Ryan R]

The price of sticking to the bleeding edge... Thanks!

[BubbaGum]

The sample project I compile use 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.4.0-alpha7' and does not compile with a stable version, only adding -t as mentioned solved the issue for me.

[rmtheis]

Please explain what -t does.

[xiaoyee]

in adb help, you will see install with -t means allow test packages

[GPS]

Can anyone confirm that setting android:testOnly="true" will fix it for unstable gradle versions too?

[marioc64]

You don't need to adb push and pm install, you can specify the -t switch just after the adb install command: adb install -t -r package.apk

[Sky Kelsey]

This started happening with Android Studio 3.0, and your suggestion fixed it for me.

[noamtm]

I suspect that right now (Oct/Nov 2017) this is the correct answer for most people who get here. Before AS 3, the APK produced by "Run" was installable even outside of AS, no it is not.

[Gene Bo]

screen is launched via clicking Edit Configurations on the module dropdown menu - between Make and Run, Debug buttons at top of IDE : developer.android.com/studio/run/rundebugconfig.html

[Elye]

Refers to medium.com/@elye.project/… to understand better of the issue.

[Basim Sherif]

Thanks! This will fix spoon runner issue as well!

[amIT]

no need to push the apk anymore adding -t works in adb install works fine , for the full command check my answer below.

[user3193413]

Thanks mate. It started after upgrading android gradle to 4. Deploying the app directly from android studio works fine but not if using the terminal (adb install etc..) After refreshing the gradle as you mentioned it worked.

[sunil]

@user3193413 Nice to hear the post was of help

[ruben]

there's update and there's some more tweak.. took me a while to figure it out :/

[drulabs]

You are a lifesaver. I was having trouble with the release build (faulty keystore) and wanted to distribute debug builds to my testers.

[HendraWD]

adb push bin/hello.apk /tmp/ doesn't work for me, adb push ./debug.apk /sdcard/temp/debug.apk worked

[Joshua Pinter]

If you're using appium, you need to specify "allowTestPackages": "true" to your e2e scheme capabilities.

[Sulav Timsina]

adb install -t app/build/outputs/apk/usUnitedStates/debug/app-usUnited-debu‌​g.apk worked for me.

[Julian]

Thanks. That solved my problem. My app was a system app. Thus -f was needed. -f: Install package on the internal system memory.

[Girish]

@JoshuaPinter Can you please elaborate where to put allowTestPackages": "true"

[Joshua Pinter]

@Girish You add it to your Appium driver config, like config.allowTestPackages = true. Note, this only pertains to end to end tests using Appium.

[Prahlad V Thej]

@nicklee Would I be able to release this build on play-store with key set as android.injected.testOnly = false or should I revert it back to "true" when I am uploading to play-store?

[Prahlad V Thej]

Would I be able to release this build on play-store with key set as android.injected.testOnly = false or should I revert it back to "true" when I am uploading to play-store?

[Martin]

The android:testOnly="true" is only set in the build/intermediates/**/AndroidManifest.xml files. So I never added the flag in the first case.

[Martin]

@prahlad-v-thej Pretty sure the opposite is true: Trying to upload an testOnly version to the Play-Store will fail. My suspicion is that Google added testOnly so you don't accidentally upload a version meant for debugging and testing to the store. Since I make clean builds before upload it doesn't matter to me.

[Martin]

No, that doesn't work — my test scripts do an uninstall automatically when the install fails.

[Reza]

Perfect. you saved my time. I had the same problem that I sent debug apk in outputs folder of project. I didn't know that I should build it using BUILD APK

[android developer]

This works, but then of course the app is more limited in terms of developing it... :(