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Failed installation of system app contacts.apk

W

Wellbloud

Lurker
Hello,
i bought a new phone - Lenovo S890 with Android 4.0.4. I had it delivered from China (via etotalk.com), where they also rooted the phone with their app, so I can use it properly, without chinese crap in it. But they didn't remove everything, so I decided that I'll finish the job and I started to remove rest of chinese apps and replaced them with apps from Google play.

I also removed system app Contacts.apk, which later turned out to be a mistake - I need this app in order to sync all data between the phone and my Google account.

Now I can't seem to figure out how to install the system contacts app back.

I found the original Contacts.apk for Android 4.0.4 on the Internet, moved it to /system/app (via Root explorer) and tried to installed it, but after the installation i get message "Application was not installed".

So tried to install it via different apps and I still have the same result.

Then I tried factory reset, which did not help either. I got little desperate and tried to install that app via recovery mod by choosing .zip file from sdcard. That did not do the trick either... I downloaded several update.zip files and modified them, but neither of them worked. In recovery mod it says following:
-- installing: /sdcard/update.zip
Finding update package ...
Opening update package ...
Installing update ...
E:Error in /sdcard/update.zip
(status 0)
Installation aborted.

Can anybody help me solve my problem? I don't know what else I can try to install the app back to the phone... Thanks in advance!
 
Did you change the permission of the app? Thats something people forget, long press the apk file and go doen to permission, make the first column of three boxes checked and then in the middle column checked the top box and leave all the other boxes unchecked. Now reboot
 
qandres12 said:
Did you change the permission of the app? Thats something people forget, long press the apk file and go doen to permission, make the first column of three boxes checked and then in the middle column checked the top box and leave all the other boxes unchecked. Now reboot
Click to expand...
Yes, I did that as well, without any progress :/
 
Idk anything about your phone as i expect none of us do seeing how its a chinese brand phone but mayne you can find a stock image somewhere
 
qandres12 said:
Idk anything about your phone as i expect none of us do seeing how its a chinese brand phone but mayne you can find a stock image somewhere
Click to expand...
Phone may be chinese (as everything is made in China :D ), but software is the same, mabye slightly modified, but it should work the same way... Or not?:confused:
 
Open Terminal emulator (Free on Android Market) on your phone and type:

su
busybox cp /sdcard/downloads/contacts.apk /system/app
chmod 645 /system/app/contacts.apk
exit
 
nancy30 said:
Open Terminal emulator (Free on Android Market) on your phone and type:

su
busybox cp /sdcard/downloads/contacts.apk /system/app
chmod 645 /system/app/contacts.apk
exit
Click to expand...
Well, that'll just do the same as if i copy the apk file manually and set permissions on that file to read by all and write by owner (rw-r--r--)

But it still doesn't solve my problem. I copy the apk file to /system/app, set the permissions, restart the phone and the app is still not installed. I tried this obvious solution several times.

I also tried install the .apk file within the phone. Installation screen appears, a click the install button, installation is in progress and as a result it says Application not installed...
 
Have you looked to see if you have the app called people? That is what contacts is called on my ics tablet and jb phone.

And if a factory reset is not working then I think something else is the problem.
 
MacFett said:
Have you looked to see if you have the app called people? That is what contacts is called on my ics tablet and jb phone.
Click to expand...
No, i definitely had Contacts app. And, if i install any other contact app, i keep getting error message "Process android.process.acore was terminated" every 2 seconds on the screen.

I don't know what to do... When I do factory reset, the default contact app is not there. I even tried to reinstall ICS in recovery mode, and although installation was succesful, I still have the same broken version
 
Well a possibility is that Lenovo used a different contact app as compared to the stock Android, similar to what bigger manufacturers do. You may need to find the stock ROM for your phone.
 
Factory reseting the phome wont fix the issue as the issue is cause by the abscensce of the contacts app. Factory resetting only touches the data partition not the system. Besides since you completely removed it from the phone a factory reset cant reinstall whats not there to begin with. I figured someone else would have said that by now... Weird.
 
so its definately a .apk and not a .zip?
instead of moving the file to system/apps then installing, have you tried just installing the file from downloads or wherever in the user memory first and then moving the file?
 
funkylogik said:
so its definately a .apk and not a .zip?
instead of moving the file to system/apps then installing, have you tried just installing the file from downloads or wherever in the user memory first and then moving the file?
Click to expand...
yes I tried that as well...Installation screen appears, a click the install button, installation is in progress and as a result it says Application not installed...
 
qandres12 said:
Factory reseting the phome wont fix the issue as the issue is cause by the abscensce of the contacts app. Factory resetting only touches the data partition not the system. Besides since you completely removed it from the phone a factory reset cant reinstall whats not there to begin with. I figured someone else would have said that by now... Weird.
Click to expand...
Well, if I factory reset the phone, put the contacts.app back into /system/app, then it should reinstall it automatically, or not? Well this is the problem, that I just can't get the app back into the system, no matter what I try :/
 
After copy or move contacts.apk to system/app, change the atributes

property - 0-root
group - 0-root

i did this in solid explorer.

i hope that my english translation of that is good.
i copied the "odex" file too.

hope this help you
 
I think the other ways to solve you problem just instal custom rom for your device. But before you instal the custom rom you have to know how to do that or your device will bricks.
 
indrajcole said:
I think the other ways to solve you problem just instal custom rom for your device. But before you instal the custom rom you have to know how to do that or your device will bricks.
Click to expand...
Installing a custom ROM for an app is like getting a new car body for a custom mirror.
 
Wellbloud said:
Well, if I factory reset the phone, put the contacts.app back into /system/app, then it should reinstall it automatically, or not? Well this is the problem, that I just can't get the app back into the system, no matter what I try :/
Click to expand...

Use root explorer
You must be rooted.
Copy
Should work

Btw, contacts.apk
 
download the corect contacts apk for your phone.
i use es file explorer to move the contacts apk to sys/app.then change the perm. to rw-r--r--.
dont exit just powerdown your phone.if you have custom recovery.boot into recovery.wipe dalvik/cache.then reboot.
 
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