Android App not loading in Emulator after Android Studio 2.3 Update

Question

I have just uploaded my Android Studio version to 2.3, and I am now having problems testing my app in my emulator. It is a Nexus 5X emulator with Android 7.0 Nougat loaded on it (API 24), with an ABI: armeabi-v7a (I have an AMD processor, so to the best of my knowledge I can only use this). Before, it was a bit slow and would sometimes come up with a 'Not Responding' error, but clicking 'Wait' would always do the trick.

After the Android Studio update, when I press 'Run', it opens up & boots the emulator. However, once booted, it gets stuck on the "Launching App - Installing APKs" process. It probably shows that it is doing this for about 2 minutes, before stopping. It then shows "Launching Instant Run Service" for a few seconds. The green 'run' arrow then becomes active again, as if there is no emulator open. The emulator is open, but there is no app. If I click the green 'run' arrow with the emulator already open, it does a gradle build sync & then doesn't even attempt to launch the app/install APKs - it only says "Launching Instant Run Service" for a few seconds, even though nothing happens.

I have tried removing the emulator & recreating it, and I have also tried fiddling with some of the parameters as suggested in other posts which concern similar (but not identical) issues to this. The first time I tried to run the app on the emulator after the update, I had many messages pop up in the event log, saying Android Studio Can't Bind to Local 86xx for debugger, whilst the Android Device Monitor was opened. Ever since then, with the ADM closed, I have had the problem described above, with no error messages showing in the error log.

Any help with this issue would be very much appreciated - please note it concerns the very latest version of Android Studio which I have only just had a popup requesting that I install. Build Tools Version in build.gradle has also been updated from 24.0.2 to 25.0.0.

Lupulin

Have you tried loading a blank Android project and see if that worked rather than your app? – Ricardoricca

Try build tools version "25.0.2" – Murrell

I'm afraid neither of those work. I have also tried using several other emulators. The vast majority don't even load up the Android Emulator. There are a couple of really old emulators (2.7" screen, with Android Gingerbread running) which do load the app & function, but cannot get it working in any modern emulator. – Lupulin

I think it could be something to do with SDK & Build Tool Versions. As this is the only thing that appears to have changed, and it seems now that it keeps trying to open the app on the emulator (as the background turns black & the 'home bar' at the bottom disappears), but then immediately seems to revert to the main background, so that it crashes. – Lupulin

...And it is just stuck on 'Installing APK'. Could anyone tell me if I am using the correct settings: Compile SDK Version - API 25: Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) | Build Tools Version - 25.0.2 | Min SDK Version: API 10: Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) | Target SDK Version - API 25: Android 7.1.1 (Nougat). Please note this app needs to be fully compatible with all versions of Android from 2.3.3 Gingerbread onwards. – Lupulin

I get same problem, not with emulator but with an LG tablet. Gets stuck "installing apk". I am using Android Studio 2.3.1 on a Macbook. – Induplicate

Answer 1

If you haven't already done it:

Open Tools -> Android -> SDK Manager
Select tab SDK Tools, flag Android Emulator (version 27.0.5 at the moment) and Apply

This solution worked for me, hope this can help

Ferrel

Answer 2

I tried all of the aforementioned and it didn't help. What helped was disabling Instant Run in Settings -> Build, Execution, Deployment -> Instant Run.

Relevant issue in AOSP bugtracker: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=235879

Isadora

This was the issue for me. Disabling Instant Run made the emulator launch my app immediately. Before it would just sit on the home screen. – Shuntwound

I have an old app and the problem was instant run, Android studio warned me that install run was disabled in a pop but it was a lie wtf!!!! – Stirps

Answer 3

Updating the Java SDK solved the problem for me.

Experience

Answer 4

you need to download the Android Emulator for Android Version 2.3 or make sure when you updated your AS from 2.2 to 2.3 all these components got updated and installed. I had the same problem and i just downloaded the Android emulator and it worked fine for me.

Philology

Thanks for your reply. I didn't recall seeing an option when updating to Android Studio 2.3 to include any additional components. How do I go about checking the Android Emulator version I have, and installing Android Emulator for Android Studio version 2.3. Thanks for your help. – Lupulin

Answer 5

had the same problem, after two days of trying to solve this, i decided to uninstall android studio, and then install the new virsion 2.3 all over again, now Emulator working just fine! *not much of programming, but it did the job!

Tarim

Answer 6

Don't worry about updating anything. For some reason upgrading to 2.3 makes the default setting for running your app set to "androidDependencies" which does nothing except give you strange errors. Just go to Run -> Edit Configurations and in the window that pops up try to delete with the minus symbol the selection on the left pane with the task called android dependencies. Then click on "app" under the "Android App" expandable arrow at the top. (see the pic) edit configuration window

Stockist

Answer 7

I recently download Android Studio 2.3 and installed default components and some Android OS for emulator. When I use an emulator (version 26.0.0) I have problem with its sound and image (display is very poor).

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04.2, Kernel 4.8 and KVM is setup. It's an example of my problem:

Tedman

Answer 8

I think you've not enabled the developer settings in your emulator. Sometimes after update the emulator is reset and all the settings are lost. Enabling it, should solve the problem.

Oosperm