Android app refuses to upgrade when switching build platforms

[jifryk]

Description

We recently decided to switch from building our MAUI app for Android platform on Windows to building on Mac; we also target the iOS platform, this allows us to do both builds on a single box.

After this switch, the app wouldn't upgrade- attempting to install the new apk with newer version# built on Mac over the prior version built on Windows, we get "App not installed as package conflicts with an existing package". I've now confirmed the same issue occurs when switching in the other direction- installing a new apk with newer version# built on Windows won't install over a prior version built on Mac with the same "package conflicts" error message.

Before I saw this for myself, I would've said it really shouldn't make any difference what platform you build on.

Is this a known issue? Any way this can be addressed?

Steps to Reproduce

Part 1:

• Create the baseline Maui app
• Build for Release for Android platform on Windows
• Install on an Android device
  Part 2:
• Update the versionCode in Android manifest
• Build for Release for Android platform on Windows
• Attempt to install over build from Part 1, you can't, "package conflicts"
  Part 3:
• Uninstall the app from Part 1
• Install app from Part 2
• Update the versionCode in Android manifest
• Build for Release for Android platform on Mac
• Attempt to install over build from Part 2, you can't, "package conflicts"

Link to public reproduction project repository

No response

Version with bug

9.0.14 SR1.4

Is this a regression from previous behavior?

Not sure, did not test other versions

Last version that worked well

Unknown/Other

Affected platforms

Android

Affected platform versions

Android 14 - 16

Did you find any workaround?

No known workaround.

Relevant log output

[jfversluis]

I'm not sure if I understand correctly, but this seems more like a configuration issue in your project. You probably don't set the application version correctly causing your app version to be lower than what is installed and thus causing conflicts.

Without having any concrete information about the version numbers you mention in your reproduction steps or some relevant reproduction project, its impossible to say something useful about this or determine if this is a potential issue in the .NET MAUI SDK. Please provide more information, what values do you set the version to? How do you build you app? Have you verified in the app binaries that the values end up in the manifests, etc. etc.

[jifryk]

I'll have more updates on this topic later today or early tomorrow

It looks like my steps to reproduce has some issues as originally submitted, will update those too...

[jonathanpeppers]

This problem would happen in Android Studio as well, but with .NET if you build an app on a fresh machine it will create a "debug" .keystore in:

%localappdata%\Xamarin\Mono for Android\debug.keystore

(same location Xamarin.Android used)

If you move to a new machine, it will create its own debug keystore -- and you can't install/upgrade an app built with a different .keystore (but same package name).

I would recommend just making a test keystore of your own, commit it in source control, and that will work between multiple machines:

• https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/maui/android/deployment/publish-cli
• https://developer.android.com/studio/publish/app-signing