Important Google Android Skill – My Applications don’t seem to get updated!

If you keep making modifications and they are *not* making it down to your Android device you can wipe out the versions of the app on our device as follows. For example – I simply added a Log.i method to the onCreate method and it *never* came out – I thought I was crazy. I figured I was doing something wrong.

I don’t know why it does not just overwrite the files on my Emulator – but by blasting the files on the emulator life gets much better.

Start this process with Eclipse up and running and the emulator up and running – hey try to update your app.

$ cd /Users/csev/dev/android_sdk_darwin_m3-rc20a/tools
$ ./adb devices
List of devices attached
1	emulator-tcp-5555	device	0
$ ./adb shell
# ls
drwxr-xr-x root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 var
drwxrwxrwt root     root              2007-12-01 08:06 tmp
drwxr-xr-x root     root              2007-11-11 15:59 system
drwxr-xr-x root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 sys
drwxr-xr-x root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 sbin
dr-xr-xr-x root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 proc
-rwxr-xr-x root     root        93824 1969-12-31 19:00 init
drwxr-xr-x root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 etc
drwxrwx--x system   system            2007-11-11 15:59 data
drwx------ root     root              1969-12-31 19:00 root
drwxr-xr-x root     root              2007-12-01 08:06 dev
# cd data
# cd app
# ls
-rw-rw-rw- root     root       139313 2007-12-01 08:06 Lunar.apk
-rw-r--r-- system   system    1325833 2007-11-11 15:59 ApiDemos.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root       139233 2007-11-13 16:50 Toozday.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root        49781 2007-11-29 08:01 Twitter.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root        51506 2007-11-29 12:21 Hello.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root        11931 2007-11-29 12:32 H2.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root        54804 2007-11-29 18:48 SkeletonActivity.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root        11931 2007-11-29 19:49 H3.apk
-rw-rw-rw- root     root       139591 2007-11-30 20:07 LunarLander.apk
# rm Too*
# rm Hello*
# rm H2*
# rm H3*
# rm Ske*
# rm L*
# rm T*
# ls
-rw-r--r-- system   system    1325833 2007-11-11 15:59 ApiDemos.apk
#   (Exit with CTRL-D)

Then run the app again – Voila!

SO far once I have done this – I can re-download again the normal way – if I get stuck and downloads seem not to be overwriting the app on the emulator – blast away!