Why do we need to uninstall app first when sideload new version of an apk ?

Question

Hello.

Imagine this situation :

I have my app named com.MyCompany.MyApp which is in V1.0 when I use

adb install c:/Path/To/Apk/myAppV1.0.apk

it's ok the first time.

But then I update my app to V1.1 and write down :

adb install c:/Path/To/Apk/myAppV1.1.apk

it should install correctly (that's what is happening on phones and oculus quest for example).

But on my Pico G2 4K I have an error :

Failure [INSTALLFAILEDALREADY_EXISTS: Attempt to re-install com.MyCompany.MyApp without fist uninstalling.]

My question : Why it does that ?

Answer 1

Hi,
What i do is the following:
adb push testing.apk /data/local/tmp
adb shell pm install -r /data/local/tmp/testing.apk

That way you can keep any existing local files / config of your app.

Comments

What I do is :
adb install -r /path/myApp.apk
and it's working. But just wanted to know why on pico we need this -r and not on the other platforms.