HOW TO FIX “APP NOT INSTALLED” ERROR IN MOBILE DEVICES

Are you an android mobile phone user? Have you ever tried opening an application on your mobile phone just to stumble on the message “app not installed” what can you do in this kind of situation, maybe you are already thinking of taking the device to an engineer or even tired of it that you want to get rid of it, before you do that why not consider some of the possible solutions provided in this tutorial, you might find them helpful. Before we venture into the solutions we need to find out what the problem is exactly, so to do this let’s consider the following possible cause of the “app not installed” problem.

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF "APP NOT INSTALLED" PROBLEM

Ø Improperly mounted SD cards: The SD card on the device may have not been mounted properly or it is not accessible because it has already been mounted on another device.

Ø One of the possible causes of this problem is Insufficient storage space: When the storage space required by the app you want to install requires more space than you have left of your device storage space, then this error message comes up ‘Application not installed’.

Ø Another possible source of error is Low Android Version: Some apps are specifically made to work on later versions of Android OS, so the version on your device might not be supported by the app, ‘Error parsing file’ is usually the error message you will encounter in this case.

Ø When the apk file is bad. Bad or corrupted apk file is one of the major causes of ‘App not installed’ error message on Android mobile phones, something might have happened to the apk file in question, for example, the file might have been corrupted when you were downloading it, this can be because you didn’t complete the download process so the file wasn’t downloaded completely or when you are transferring files from another device, the transfer might not be complete.

Ø Corrupt installation path: If the storage location you are trying to install your app on is bad or corrupted, app installation may fail.

Ø Wrong installation path: While some apps can be installed on both phone memory and SD card, others require to be installed only on the phone memory. Trying to install them on SD card will only show you the error message.

Ø Conflicting app signature: This occurs when you want to install a newer version of an already installed app, but the newer version has a different certificate from the old one. Also, trying to install apps with no signature (unsigned apps) can land you to ‘App not installed’ error message.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS YOU CAN TRY TO SOLVE THE "APP NOT INSTALLED" PROBLEM

Ø One of the possible solutions is to try rebooting your mobile device as doing this will free up the phone’s random access memory (RAM) which will help the device to work more efficiently.

Ø Make sure you double check your Apk file by Making sure the Apk file you are trying to install was completely downloaded or completely sent to you mobile device.

Ø If the app you are trying to install is already installed on your phone, first uninstall the app before trying to install the new one, the app’s signature maybe in conflict.

Ø If the problem is associated with storage space then free up some storage space: Simply delete files and uninstall apps that are no more in use to give room for your new app. If you are not convenient with this, you can option to buying SD cards with bigger storage capacity.

Ø Check your app’s installation location or path and preferably change it to ‘Choose automatically’ or any other means that allows your mobile device to decide.

Ø Like I said earlier, the app version may be the source of the problem because the app you are trying to install may not be compatible with the Android version on your phone, you can check this by looking up the app’s detail/information page on Playstore or on the net.

Ø Properly mount your SD card: Check and make sure the SD card is properly mounted and accessible from your device, also make sure it is not mounted or connected else where.

Ø Another thing you can do is Reset App preferences: Resetting apps preferences might do the trick, you can do this by going to your phone settings -> Apps -> All and then click the menu key and select ‘Reset app permissions’ or ‘Reset app preferences’ from the drop down menu.

Ø There are some other things you can do but you should try them as your last options.

Ø Backup and format your SD card: Backup important files on your SD card to somewhere else and format the SD card.

Ø Reset your phone to factory settings: This means to entirely wipe your smartphone so be sure to think it through before proceeding with this step. You can do this from recovery mode or through ‘Settings’ -> ‘Backup and reset’ and then click on ‘Factory data reset’