Solution: INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error in Android or Android Studio

Update Nov 2024

The INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error in Android or Android Studio typically occurs when your device or emulator runs out of available storage space to install the app. This can happen on both physical devices and Android emulators.

Common Causes:

1. Device/Emulator Storage Full: If there is not enough free storage space on the device or emulator, this error will occur.

   • Check the device's available storage by going to Settings > Storage.
   • For emulators, you can increase the storage capacity by modifying the AVD (Android Virtual Device) settings.

2. Large App Size: If your app's APK or bundle size is large and the device has limited storage, it may fail to install.

3. Cache or Temporary Files: Accumulated cache or temporary files can reduce available storage, especially if the device is heavily used.

4. App Data/Other Apps Using Space: Other apps on the device, or data from previous app installations, may be consuming space.

Solutions:

1. Free Up Storage:

   • Uninstall unused apps from the device or emulator.
   • Delete unnecessary files, such as images or videos, from the device storage.

2. Check Emulator Storage:

   • If you are using an emulator, increase the storage size in the AVD configuration.
     • Open Android Studio.
     • Go to Tools > AVD Manager.
     • Select your emulator and click Edit.
     • Increase the Internal Storage size and apply the changes.

3. Clean and Rebuild:

   • In Android Studio, try cleaning the project and rebuilding the APK:
     • Go to Build > Clean Project and then Build > Rebuild Project.

4. Check APK Size:

   • If your APK or app bundle is too large, consider optimizing your app by reducing its size.
     • Use Android App Bundles (AAB) instead of APK for smaller app sizes.
     • Compress images and assets to reduce the overall size.

5. Clear Cache and Data:

   • Clear the cache and data of the Google Play Store or other relevant apps on the device.
   • On the device, go to Settings > Apps > Google Play Store > Storage and select Clear Cache and Clear Data.

6. Use a Physical Device:

   • Sometimes emulators may not provide enough storage. If possible, test on a physical device with sufficient free storage.

Additional Debugging Tips:

• Logcat Output: Check Logcat in Android Studio for any additional error messages that can help diagnose storage issues.
• Check Disk Usage: Use adb shell or the Android Device Monitor to see disk usage in detail, especially if you're working with an emulator.

By following these solutions, you should be able to resolve the INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE error.

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Eclipse will sometimes say this:
[2010-11-20 11:41:57 - My Cool Ass Application] Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICIENT_STORAGE 
[2010-11-20 11:41:57 - My Cool Ass Application] Please check logcat output for more details. 
[2010-11-20 11:41:57 - My Cool Ass Application] Launch canceled!

This is cute and utterly annoying. In fact, this has caused me to completely give up on coding boated Android/Java for the day on a few occasions. waiting for the AVD to reboot – sucks. 

This Google Groups post says to restart the emulator. Yeah, thanks Google. At first I gave the emulator the benefit of the doubt and thought, “hey, my app has an mp3 compiled into it making it rather big (12MB), maybe I should move the mp3 to the SD Card upon installation or put the mp3 somewhere online and stream it to the system. 

 Then I clicked on     Settings->Applications->Manage Applications and the Android AVD said this:

You do not have any third party applications installed.

After hours of research, I figured out that this error means nothing at all. If you reattempt to upload your project (CTRL+F11) it will not solve the non-existent error. This means that you need to either restart the AVD (Android virtual machine you are testing the project on), or sometimes it gets so bad you need to restart the emulator too. If you still get it, you need to delete the AVD and create a new instance:

  Window->Android SDK AVD Manager->Delete->New...

Sometimes the Error console will say that it just brought the old version to the front screen! This is AFTER you tell the IDE to upload and install a new version. How disrespectful! Speed is another thing to consider. I use CTRL+F11 to hurry up and upload the app to the device and run it. If you edit your XML file to say wrap the contents of the LinearLayout tag in ScrollView tags, this causes Eclipse to slow down to a crawl. Not only that, the project will be loaded into the emulator AVD and you will see a nasty red X next time you go back to the XML to view it and not know why it’s there. – Take your time with this gigantic Cthulhuian slow IDE.

Or 

You need to increase the Android emulator's memory capacity, there are 2 ways for that: 1- Right click the root of your Android Project, go to "Run As" then go to "Run Configurations..." locate the "Android Application" node in the tree at the left, then select your project and go to the "Target" tab on the right side of the window look down for the "Additional Emulator Command Line Options" field (sometimes you'll need to make the window larger) and finally paste "-partition-size 1024" there. Click Apply and then Run to use your emulator. 2- Go to Eclipse's Preferences, then Select “Launch” Add “-partition-size 1024” on the “Default emulator option” field, then click “Apply” and use your emulator as usual.

  Want to see more details about this problem click these links 

 1.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6788996/installation-error-install-failed-insufficient-storage-during-runing-emulator  

2.http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4709137/solution-android-install-failed-insufficient-storage-error

3. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5359766/i-have-enough-memory-but-am-getting-the-install-failed-insufficient-storage-erro 

4. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2239330/how-to-increase-storage-for-android-emulator-install-failed-insufficient-stora 

5. http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/920db96745cff96f?pli=1   

Sources;- http://google-androidlovers.blogspot.com/