Android app - native lib not found error report on Google Play?

Question

I got the following crash report on Google Play developer console for my app. It seems to suggest that my native library (libcld.so, which _is_present_ in my APK for both ARM flavors and x86) could not be found, and the user comments "nicht mehr startbar" (German: does not start any more). The stack trace is below. Why should this happen??? A freak accident on one of thousands of devices using the app without such trouble? The only explanation I can think of comes from my Windows software experience: sometimes the anti-virus software has a "false positive" and deletes there my exe or one of the dll's as infected. The AV vendors usually fix "false positives" within 24 hours, although they do damage business.

Does this happen on Android too? Would be the first time for me. What could be another reason of not finding the native libraries included with the app?

Stack trace as reported on Google Play:

java.lang.RuntimeException: An error occured while executing doInBackground()

at android.os.AsyncTask$3.done(AsyncTask.java:200) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerSetException(FutureTask.java:273) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.setException(FutureTask.java:124) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:307) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:137) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1068) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:561) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:1096) Caused by: java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError at com.hyperionics.avar.SpeakService.setOriginalText(SourceFile:143) at com.hyperionics.avar.ContentsLoader.doInBackground(SourceFile:137) at com.hyperionics.avar.ContentsLoader.doInBackground(SourceFile:31) at android.os.AsyncTask$2.call(AsyncTask.java:185) at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(FutureTask.java:305) ... 4 more Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Library cld not found at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary(Runtime.java:461) at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:557) at com.hyperionics.avar.CldWrapper.(SourceFile:21) ... 9 more

Greg

Answer 1

I figured out what was the problem, inspired by comments left by Chris above. I noticed then that the reported error was on an old device, which can be upgraded max to Android 2.2, not higher.

In the most current release of my app, I made a small modification in my native library, and used asset_manager in it. I did not realize that the native code was compiled for android-14 platform (as my AndroidManifest.xml declares this as the targetSdkVersion), while my minimum supported platforms is android-8 (Android 2.2, Froyo). Turns out there is no asset_manager under the old platform. After I added to Application.mk the following line:

APP_PLATFORM := android-8

the native build immediately triggered an error and I could fix the issue. Well, the most important lesson from this adventure, which I have to learn and re-learn over and over again: before releasing anything, test on all the platforms you claim to support...

A big Thank you! again to Chris for responding to me and making me look again at the crash report.

Greg