WinRT App's package family has more than one package installed. - visual-studio-2013

When I go to debug our app I get the following error message
Microsoft Visual Studio
Unable to activate Windows Store app 'xxxx'. The activation request
failed with error 'This app's package family has more than one package
installed. This is not supported'. See help for advice on
troubleshooting the issue.
OK Help
When I dig out the event log I found this error.
The app xxx App's package family (xxxx) has more than one package installed. This is not supported, so the app was not activated for the Windows.Launch contract.
In order to find out what other packages are installed I run the following PS script:
Get-AppxPackage -all
Looking at the output from the previous script I only see the one package that is installed from the visual studio location. I uninstalled the app from the start menu and run the script again and there is nothing installed.
The app is signed so I can’t change the package family name.
I have followed the steps in https://stackoverflow.com/a/14340075/127067 and I still can’t run our app from VS or from the installed package.
How do I find the other errant package family name? Dig through the registry?
What are some steps I can follow in order to run the app again?

Hard to guess how you did that. Double-click the Package.appxmanifest file in your project. Select the Packing tab, you'll see the Package family name for your app. It is made up from the package name, a guid, and a hash of your publisher name. The guid is supposed to make it unique, make sure you didn't change it.
Installed Store apps are recorded in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModel\Repository\Families registry key. Compare the entries with yours, a match will be a problem. Do try to get it uninstalled as normal before you start hacking the keys.

I also faced the same problem while I am developing a Windows App and trying to debug the same on my development machine.
So from the error message itself, it's clear that there is already an app installed on your app and installer cannot continue further because of that.
And above post, you get an idea what is happening inside our system and installer.
First time fixed the same problem with registry cleaning and clearing the registry entry for that particular app. You need to more mindful while doing the same.
But the second time, I face the problem again.
The actual question is why this is happening, at least on my machine.
When we try to create an app package (Project->Store->Create App Packages), we may change the package Version. This is the place where we are somehow creating that error.
Let's say I have already app installed on my machine from debugger with Version 1.0.0.1 and the second time we creating the app with version 1.0.0.2. Now, after creating an app we launch Windows App Certification Kit tool for verification of our app and it will fail (in my case). And if I want to debug the Windows app, it will show above error.
To solve this problem, what I did was, created the app package with the same version which is already installed on my machine and then tried to launch the debugger and that worked.
So this is my solution for this error. There may be some other way to solve this problem other than this and above mentioned solution.

Related

Why app installed using MSI installer would disappear from Windows

We made some changes to the installation and updating process of our Windows app recently, and some users are now complaining that Windows sometimes automatically deletes the main application .exe file.
It usually occurs after users update app using built-in web update feature. The feature is implemented using .msi built in Advanced Installer tool.
We are struggling to figure out what is causing this, and haven't found a way to consistently reproduce the issue (though we've seen it happen as well).
Here's what changed with our installation and web updating process:
The main installer for our application is now a standard .msi, which becomes a part of the Windows installation system and is natively manageable by Group Policy and other system features, such as rollback or versions. In previous versions that did not have this problem, our installer was a .exe built with the SetupBuilder tool.
We introduced the redesigned web updater feature inside the app (to update to new versions within the app). It uses the same .msi as the main deliverable as for installation. .msi is downloaded from our server in a form of .exe which is then extracts MSI and starts it. MSI then updates file in our installation. These .exe and .msi is built with Advanced Installer tool which provides such a web update feature to developers. In previous versions that did not have this problem, our web update feature was developed with SetupBuilder tool which provided a custom web update files - .exe web updater that downloads a number of web update files containing patch to our app.
The goal of a transition to the standard .msi installer was to make it easy for our clients to deploy the app in organizations - say, mass deploy using group policies and other similar tools.
Has anyone else experienced a problem like this? Any ideas on how to troubleshoot and try to reproduce?
Theory: Before doing anything else: The first thing I would ask the people who report the problem is if they have re-packaged your older, legacy (non-MSI) setup to be their own MSI file? This can cause a well-known upgrade problem along the lines of what you explain (file missing). Please check first. Tell them to uninstall the existing version and then install the new one - that is the simplest way. Not always enough (some obscure problems possible).
Mismatched component GUIDs could cause missing files after upgrade, as could file version downgrade scenarios and various other technicalities. You could try to install to a new default location on disk to avoid these problems. The reason this can work is very technical and hard to explain tersely. Essentially you de-couple yourself from "the sins of the past". It is generally enough to change the name of the file in question: for example MyApp.exe to MyAppNew.exe or maybe add the major version: MyApp5.exe, but maybe try the folder change first ProgramFiles\MyCompany\MyApp => ProgramFiles\MyCompany\MyApp5.
How do you configure your upgrade? View "Upgrades", what is selected: "Uninstall old version first and then install new version" or "Install new version first and then uninstall old version".
Blog Entry:: Why Windows Installer removes files during a major upgrade if they go backwards in version numbers (might be of help).
Deployment Debugging: For open ended debugging of MSI and deployment problems in general one obviously needs to gather intel and that means logging and system inspection.
Logging: First try to get a proper log file for the systems where this problem occurs. In Advanced Installer you can tick the "Enable verbose logging" in the Install Parameters view to enable verbose logging for all package installations. This adds the MsiLogging property to the compiled MSI and every installation of the MSI will cause a MSI log file with a random name to be created in the TMP folder. View the folder, sort by date and the file should be at the top. Suggest you do this and then tell the users to send you the log files when relevant. Maybe you have this setting enabled already?
Further Logging: There are many ways to enable logging, and you can find a description here: Enable installation logs for MSI installer without any command line arguments. The MsiLogging property is just one possibility.
To log a single MSI setup: http://www.installsite.org/pages/en/msifaq/a/1022.htm.
To enable global logging for all MSI operations on the machine: Please see this FAQ-entry from installsite.org, section "Globally for all setups on a machine" - for the exact procedure.
How to interpret an MSI Log File.

UWP Apps and the start menu

I've googled pretty much but i can't seem to find any information on this..
I've cloned a project from github, it opens and builds no problem. it's also added to my start menu.
I can run the program from my start menu as if it was a "normal" program.
Now I have made some changes to the sources and built it, and the changes seem to be present in the installed version (which I start from start menu) just by themselves.
my question is: is that really the case? do UWP apps get installed and updated automatically? is there a way to NOT update my installed version with my release-build every time? it seems wrong, did I miss something? (did I maybe "install" the changes somewhere along the way without noticing/by double-clicking the executable etc.) and: can I replace the executable that is started in the start menu? I tried to find where it is stored/linked, but I couldn't find anything, as there is zero information in the start menu.
Or can I rely on the start menu version always being my latest release build?
I'm confused, if someone has any information on this, I'd be really happy. :)
You are correct whenever you build and run the app on the local machine using Visual Studio it gets deployed to the system apps from where you can run it. So each time you build and run with any changes they will be updated in the system installed app as well(Basically they are same)
If you want that these changes do not get reflected in the system's app then I think you can use Device emulators available in the Visual Studio.

Error: Registration of the app failed

While trying to deploy an app from Visual Studio, I'm getting an error. I have already set developer mode and also deleted the app package from the packages folder, but it still won't work.
Here's the error message:
Error : DEP0700 : Registration of the app failed. Deployment Register
operation with target volume C: on Package
App_1.0.0.2_x64__m0fsgersa29a0 from: (AppxManifest.xml) failed with
error 0x80070002. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160
for help diagnosing app deployment issues. (0x80073cf9)
Do I need to set anything else?
I got this when attempting to debug a project from a shared folder.
Opening the project from a local folder first resolved the issue.
I know there is already an accepted answer, but I had a totally different problem with the same excact error message. When th app was running I took a look in the SQLite database with a program that I didn't close when I uninstalled the app and re-run it from Visual Studio. I think that Visual Studio couldn't overwrite the database as I was 'using' it.
Closed the program and voila the app run smoothly.
Hope this helpes anybody else as I was stuck for precious hours!
In Windows 10 there are two possible cause of this problem are as follows,
Previously installed app is locked and preventing VS to delete while deploying the application. Goto C:\Users\{you user}\AppData\Local\Packages and delete the folder of your application. Now rebuild and deploy your application.(this was the solution in Windows 8 devices as well)
If it is still not working, double check if you have removed the below entry from appxmanifest file. If you are targeting Desktop Name="Windows.Desktop" entry should be there in the file. If it is Phone, Name="Windows.Mobile" should be there in the TargetDeviceFamily. You can have both in the configuration but sometimes Microsoft will suggest to keep separate configuration when you submit the application for STARTS testing.
< Dependencies>
< TargetDeviceFamily Name="Windows.Desktop" MinVersion="10.0.0.0" MaxVersionTested="10.0.0.0" />
< /Dependencies>
Hope this help in figuring out the reason and solution for "Error : DEP0700 : Registration of the app failed" error.
Don’t worry, the solution is actually very simple.
Error: DEP0700: Registration of the app failed. An internal error occurred.
So you’ve started your Windows 8 app development journey. All things are going smooth until one day you hit this error when trying to run/debug your app. The error says “Error: DEP0700: Registration of the app failed. An internal error occurred with error 0x80073D05. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=235160 for help diagnosing app deployment issues. (0x80073cf6)”
This is a very cryptic error and does not give you any info about what the problem actually is. The problem is that Visual Studio is not able to delete the application data in your local packages folder.
Don’t worry, the solution is actually very simple. On your Windows 8 machine, go to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Packages\ folder. There you will find a folder that has your application’s Package Family Name in it – you just need to delete that folder. The issue is that while your app is in development, it might have a random GUID as its Package Family Name, so the folder will also have that random GUID as its name which makes it hard to know which folder belongs to your app. Again, that is easy to find as well. Right click your project in Visual Studio and click properties. The value you see in the “Package Family Name” field is the name you should look for in the folder. Simply delete it and build your solution again and it will run like a charm.
Read more details at http://paraswadehra.blogspot.com/2012/12/error-dep0700-registration-of-app.html
For me this was caused by being signed in with my Microsoft account in windows instead of the local user account. Logging in as a local user fixed this.
DEP0700: Registration of the app failed
For me the error DEP0700: Registration of the app failed, was raised because my Store App was installed from the actual Microsoft Store. I had to uninstall it and then I could debug my app smoothly.
I got this when I tried to run the project from a ReFS filesystem. Running from NTFS worked. My error code was 0x80073cfd.
I stumbled over the same issue today and after a few hours I found out, that the problem was because I moved the AppIcon files into a subfolder and forgot to adjust the references inside my package.appxmanifest. Unfortunatly the corresponding error message didn't point into this direction and all the above mentioned solutions didn't help for me, so hopefully this helps someone else!
In my case, I was opening one of the App files (Log Files). When deploying, Visual Studio attempts to remove all the files and packages (if uninstall is on in the properties). It was unable to remove the Log file as it was opened. When I closed all files, and tried again, it worked.
I ran into this error when testing some code in domain-bound and non-domain-bound scenarios (which requires me to have a domain account and a non-domain account on the same machine).
I found that I had to uninstall the application from the account I originally deployed it from before I could deploy it again on the other account.
My problem is that there is another Microsoft account in my computer that installed the app from Microsoft Store.
Nothing from the provided solution helped.
The only thing that solved my problem is to delete that account that I installed the app there.
SQLlite database might be opened. Just close the sqllite and try to deploy again.

Unable to Activate Windows Store App

I installed a retail version of Windows 8 Pro. I downloaded and installed Visual Studio Express 2012. I asked for and received a developers certificate. Then I tried to create a hello world app.
From there I get a "Unable to Activate Windows Store App" message box when I try to debug the app. Most commentary on the web says delete build directories. This didn't work for me
Does anyone have a solution for how to fix this and debug my app?
This happened to me once too, but the deleting build directories advice fixed it. Specifically, you just need to delete the bin\Debug and bld\Debug folders in your projects. Their contents will be regenerated by Visual Studio when you rebuild. I assume that this is only one project since it's a Hello World app; otherwise I would ask if you deleted build directories from all projects in your solution.
You can also try running "Clean Solution" from the BUILD menu in Visual Studio.
I'm sorry...it's horrible if this is happening on a clean install as you describe.
I ran into the same issue, and tried rebuilding, cleaning, deleting temp files, rebooting the computer, etc... and nothing helped.
Then finally I made a release build then went back to debug. And now it works.
I have no idea what happened, nor if that really helped, but it's worth a try.
For me a RESTART of pc solved this error message.
For me the problem was that I created the app on a TrueCrypt mounted virtual drive and when I moved the project files to a normal drive then everything worked just fine. Weird.
I was getting the exact same error. In my case the culprit was a NuGet package. It had added an app.config file to the project and it was confusing VS. I removed the app.config file and it solved my issue.
I got the solution at Iris Classon's site.
This can be solved by Uninstalling the app from the start screen then again building the app from Visual Studio.
I had a similar problem, and the cause was creating the project on a USB thumb drive. Creating a project on a normal hard drive volume works.
this can happen when the application signing key (.pfx file) is missing.
Try the following:
Open the Package.appxmanifest file in Visual Studio
Go to the register "Packaging"
Select [Choose Certificate…]
Select the test certificate using [Configure Certificate…] [From File…], or create a new one using [Configure Certificate…] [Test Certificate…]
When using a test certificate, ensure that it is in the .gitignore file. There should be an entry like !**\*_TemporaryKey.pfx to include the key in Git.
Note: The certificate for release build should only be available to the build server and not included in Git.
Rebuild the project
This has happened to me in the past and I have always found that deleting the build directories resolves it.
However this time this is not working for me.
I have tried
- Rebooting
- Deleting build directories
- Running Build | Clean Solution in VS
- Renewing Developer Account
The only thing that will work for me is changing my Package name under the Package.appxmanifest
However I am not overly happy with this as a solution. I will keep investigating.
The issue might be caused because NuGet will try to add an app.config with binding redirects to Windows Store apps if it thinks it is needed. However, Windows Store apps don’t need app.config, and will actually fail to start with a very confusing error message if it is present.
And the solution in this case would be to Remove the App.config
This error generally comes when you try to deploy in debug mode.
I would suggest, deploy the app first in release mode and then try in debug mode.
This worked for me.
Making a new certificate works for me. For this, go to Package.manifest->Packaging, and follow the Choose certificate.... Click on Configure certificate and select Create test certificate. Give it a name and press OK.
Increasing the revision number of the package worked for me
Tried so many of the above fixes. Nothing worked (deleting bin, obj dirs, editing the manifest, editing the registry, changing package name, etc, etc.) My Avast antivirus software was running and so I uninstalled it completely. That was it. App now runs fine.
This sort of problems are common with Windows 8 Visual Studio. Such errors encounters when your developer license of Visual Studio has expired so you may want to renew or get a new developer license here's how you get that. How to get a developer license in Windows 8
And similar problem may also encounter with E_Fail issues here's how to solve Unable to activate Windows Store app E_Fail Issue
For me, the fix was a combination of two of these answers -
Renew the developer license (How to get a developer license in Windows 8)
And deleting the build directories (though I deleted more then the screenshot depicted) Delete the Build directories
NuGet will try to add an app.config with binding redirects to Windows Store apps if it thinks it is needed. However, Windows Store apps don’t need app.config, and will actually fail to start with a very confusing error message if it is present.
Solution:
Remove the App.config
and build again
For those who get a similar error but who are searching for a solution while debugging an IOT background app on a local machine specifically - you can find it here.
Using the search term "unable to activate windows store app the activation request failed with error" brought me here.
Because of Two things i resolved this issue.
Basically, we just need to delete the bin\Debug and bld\Debug folders in our projects. Those contents will be regenerated by Visual Studio when you rebuild project.
Just Restart the Visual Studio. And Clean Build and Rebuild the solution and RUN it.
Hope this helps.,
Playing with this issue for 3 days, tried every suggestions, nothing works. Until now!!!
The solution was this for me:
renew developer licence
build and deploy solution in Release mode (after this step it still not worked, but VS installed some packages in rpi)
start VS remote debugger with default account (http://:8080/#Debug%20settings)
configure remote device with Universal authentication mode (VS2017 -> Project settings -> debug -> target device: remote machine, authentication mode: Universal (unencrypted protocol))
...and now I can sleep.
Hope it helps somebody.
This gift was courtesy of Microsoft's automatic updates for VS2015 which was one of the 2 culprits:
KB3022398
KB3165756
It also broke SourceTree and other apps that draw the GUI - making an outline of the app but not drawing the contents.
For me changing the Package Name in Package.appxmanifest fixed the problem
In my case, the C# UWP app had a native library which failed in the application startup code, and called exit(1). The symptoms were identical to those in the question, though. Visual Studio would throw a message:
Unable to activate Windows Store app '88888888-6666-5555-4444-111111111111_abcdefgh!App'. The Acme.exe process started, but the activation request failed with error 'Operation not supported. Unknown error: 0x80040905'.
In addition, there was a message in the UWP app Windows log under Microsoft\Windows\Apps\Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational: event ID 5961, message:
Activation for 88888888-6666-5555-4444-111111111111_abcdefgh!App failed. Error code: Unknown HResult Error code: 0x80040905. Activation phase: COM App activation
Internally, the C# part would try to construct a native class instance from the App constructor, the native class constructor would encounter an unrecoverable error and bail. From the UWP subsystem standpoint, and from the debugger standpoint, though, this looked as something distinct from the mere programmatic exit. I'll leave this answer here, 'cause I've spent some time chasing various UWP failure scenarios instead of running under a native debugger.
I've replaced the exit() call with throw ref new Exception(E_INVALIDARG). At least this way the error manifests in the managed debugger, and the message is descriptive.
I've been having this problem a lot with a UWP Windows 10 app on Visual Studio 2019...for me the reliable workaround is to bump the Build number in the Package.appxmanifest file (Packaging tab). It's a huge pain...really hope Microsoft will sort this out soon
Any existing error in the code can also cause this issue. Make sure your previous version of the code is working fine. Compare the difference and make sure all looks good.
I was getting this error and nothing else worked so I had to dissect my program. Turns out I referenced a StaticResource in my App.xaml that didn't exist.
Seems like a silly error but you'd also think Visual Studio would pick up on something like that and throw a different error so if nothing else works, double check your application resources.
As suggested by #Iman in a comment, in the UWP project settings, enable "Compile with .NET Native tool chain".
(After trying just about every answer in this question)

Could not change executable permissions on the application

Just updated to iOS 6 sdk and latest Xcode and get this when trying to build to my 3gs.
I 've added armv6 under valid architectures?
"Could not change executable permissions on the application"
I could solve it erasing an application that I had previously uploaded using the same Bundle Identifier (xcode get's confused doing the chmod). Try checking the log from xCode Organizer (Your device's Name -> Console) you should get information from that log. Good luck!
folks, i get this resolved
- because i already have the same app using the same bundle identifier installed on the phone.
- what you need to do is to delete all those apps on your iphone which is using the same bundle identifier name.
- you'll make it!!
You probably have a different target name. You can start the app from scratch, but you'll need the same target name and the same bundle identifier.
Delete the apps that were already installed on iphone/ipad with the same Bundle identifier.iphone/ipad gets confused with the apps with same bundle identifier. so change change the Bundle identifier of the current app or delete the app that was already installed.
It can happen when you launch the app from Xcode and you have the appstore version installed in the phone with the same bundle-id but a different name. In my case I'm using App_Beta when in the appstore is App.
If the two versions does not have the same product name you wont be able to test the upgrade from the old to the new version. To solve make the names match.
I went into the Organizer and selected the Applications underneath my test device. Even though I had deleted the application on my device itself, it still showed up in my list of applications. I deleted it there, and this took care of the issue for me.
You need to delete all the app's using the same bundle identifier. I did the same, but still the same error persisted on my iPod, i cleaned the (cmd + shift + k) the build and restarted the iPod and i was able to run the app on the iPod.
You just delete the apps that were already installed on your device with the same identifier.
I ran into the same problem, but I needed to keep the current installed App in the device for debug purposes. My solution was to use the same:
Target Name
Bundle identifier
Product Name
I had this error, and what fixed it for me was Product Name under Build Settings. I had changed it to something else, and started getting this error. I changed it back and it fixed it.
Just delete all the previous versions of the application. Due to mismatch/confusion about bundle identifier it happens.
I removed all the existing application with the similar identifier and was able to install.
I was able to resolve this error message simply by unplugging the USB cable, and plugging it in again after a few seconds. YMMV!
You need to make sure that your device is not set to two applications with the same Bundle ID.
I had this error when I tried copying and pasting one xcode project to build another app. What I had to do was change the bundle identifier name to something different than my previous app.
Could not change executable permissions on the application
Cause: I had icons in the files system named 29x29.png, 58x58.png, 72x72.png, etc. I had soft links (ln -s) with the required names per App Icons on iPad and iPhone. For example, Icon-Small.png was a link to the real file 29x29.png.
I did this because my program runs on different platforms, from mobile phones to desktops. Android, Apple and Microsoft all have similar requirements. So "one set of icons" and "different links for different OS" made the most sense to me.
Fix: Don't use links. Apple does not tell you that. And their error message of "Could not change executable permissions on the application" is useless.
Looking at all the different answers (and causes), it looks like lots fo things can cause it.

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