Android 10 - No Activity found to handle Intent

Question

My 3rd party app has a way for the end-user to download an updated APK from our server and then the app will invoke the install package manager on that APK after it's done downloading. This same method has worked for all versions of Android OS but now it will crash on Android 10 (api 29). I haven't seen anyone with a similar problem yet, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Here's what I use to call the APK file from within my app:

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
final File apkFile = new File(Files.getApkFileName());
Log.v("dt.update", "Start update from " + apkFile.getAbsolutePath());
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(apkFile), application/vnd.android.package-archive");
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
startActivity(intent);

And here is the stacktrace coming back every time, only on Android 10 / API29:

E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
Process: com.MyAppHere, PID: 11107
android.content.ActivityNotFoundException: No Activity found to handle Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=file:///storage/emulated/0/Download/updatedapp.apk typ=application/vnd.android.package-archive flg=0x10000000 }
    at android.app.Instrumentation.checkStartActivityResult(Instrumentation.java:2051)
    at android.app.Instrumentation.execStartActivity(Instrumentation.java:1709)
    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:5192)
    at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentActivity.startActivityForResult(FragmentActivity.java:676)
    at android.app.Activity.startActivityForResult(Activity.java:5150)
    at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentActivity.startActivityForResult(FragmentActivity.java:663)
    at android.app.Activity.startActivity(Activity.java:5521)
    at android.app.Activity.startActivity(Activity.java:5489)
    at android.view.View.performClick(View.java:7140)
    at android.view.View.performClickInternal(View.java:7117)
    at android.view.View.access$3500(View.java:801)
    at android.view.View$PerformClick.run(View.java:27351)
    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:883)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:100)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:214)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7356)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(RuntimeInit.java:492)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:930)

Answer 1

ACTION_VIEW (for APKs) and ACTION_INSTALL_PACKAGE were deprecated in Android 10. You need to switch to the PackageInstaller API.

This sample app demonstrates the basics for getting a simple APK installed. The guts are in the MainMotor:

/*
  Copyright (c) 2019 CommonsWare, LLC

  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not
  use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain   a copy
  of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0. Unless required
  by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the
  License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS
  OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific
  language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

  Covered in detail in the book _Elements of Android Q

  https://commonsware.com/AndroidQ
*/

package com.commonsware.q.appinstaller

import android.app.Application
import android.app.PendingIntent
import android.content.Intent
import android.content.pm.PackageInstaller
import android.net.Uri
import androidx.documentfile.provider.DocumentFile
import androidx.lifecycle.AndroidViewModel
import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
import kotlinx.coroutines.Dispatchers
import kotlinx.coroutines.launch
import kotlinx.coroutines.withContext

private const val NAME = "mostly-unused"
private const val PI_INSTALL = 3439

class MainMotor(app: Application) : AndroidViewModel(app) {
  private val installer = app.packageManager.packageInstaller
  private val resolver = app.contentResolver

  fun install(apkUri: Uri) {
    viewModelScope.launch(Dispatchers.Main) {
      installCoroutine(apkUri)
    }
  }

  private suspend fun installCoroutine(apkUri: Uri) =
    withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
      resolver.openInputStream(apkUri)?.use { apkStream ->
        val length =
          DocumentFile.fromSingleUri(application, apkUri)?.length() ?: -1
        val params =
          PackageInstaller.SessionParams(PackageInstaller.SessionParams.MODE_FULL_INSTALL)
        val sessionId = installer.createSession(params)
        val session = installer.openSession(sessionId)

        session.openWrite(NAME, 0, length).use { sessionStream ->
          apkStream.copyTo(sessionStream)
          session.fsync(sessionStream)
        }

        val intent = Intent(application, InstallReceiver::class.java)
        val pi = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(
          application,
          PI_INSTALL,
          intent,
          PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT
        )

        session.commit(pi.intentSender)
        session.close()
      }
    }
}

When an activity or fragment calls install(), supplying a Uri to the APK, I use PackageInstaller to install it:

• Get a PackageInstaller from PackageManager
• Create a SessionParams and open a session from it
• Write the bytes of the APK (read from an InputStream from the Uri) to an OutputStream supplied by that session
• Call commit() to actually begin the installation process, with results being delivered back to the app via a PendingIntent
• Call close() to close up the session

The API is clunky, but it is designed to handle a wide range of scenarios, including "App Bundle"-style multi-APK installations.