MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · ApkFormatException

Missing {MANIFEST_FILE}

Error message

Missing {MANIFEST_FILE}

What it means

getAndroidManifestFromApk scans the APK's central directory records for the AndroidManifest.xml entry (MANIFEST_FILE) and throws ApkFormatException when the entry is absent. An APK without a manifest is not a valid installable package, so manifest extraction cannot proceed.

Source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/io/github/muntashirakon/AppManager/apk/ApkUtils.java:331

        }
        return writableExtDir;
    }

    public static int getDensityFromName(@Nullable String densityName) {
        Integer density = StaticDataset.DENSITY_NAME_TO_DENSITY.get(densityName);
        if (density == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown density " + densityName);
        }
        return density;
    }

    @NonNull
    private static ByteBuffer getAndroidManifestFromApk(
            @NonNull List<CentralDirectoryRecord> cdRecords, @NonNull DataSource lhfSection)
            throws IOException, ApkFormatException, ZipFormatException {
        CentralDirectoryRecord androidManifestCdRecord = findCdRecord(cdRecords, MANIFEST_FILE);
        if (androidManifestCdRecord == null) {
            throw new ApkFormatException("Missing " + MANIFEST_FILE);
        }
        return ByteBuffer.wrap(LocalFileRecord.getUncompressedData(
                lhfSection, androidManifestCdRecord, lhfSection.size()));
    }

    @Nullable
    private static CentralDirectoryRecord findCdRecord(
            @NonNull List<CentralDirectoryRecord> cdRecords, @NonNull String name) {
        for (CentralDirectoryRecord cdRecord : cdRecords) {
            if (name.equals(cdRecord.getName())) {
                return cdRecord;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0152f468fc)

Solutions

1. Verify the input is a real APK: unzip -l file.apk | grep AndroidManifest.xml must list the entry.
2. If using .apks/.xapk containers, extract the base APK first and pass that to getManifestFromApk.
3. Re-download or re-export the APK; a missing manifest entry usually means a corrupt or non-APK file.
4. Catch ApkFormatException and reject the file before attempting installation or further parsing.

Example fix

// before
ByteBuffer manifest = ApkUtils.getManifestFromApk(apkPath);
// after
try {
    ByteBuffer manifest = ApkUtils.getManifestFromApk(apkPath);
} catch (ApkFormatException e) {
    throw new IOException("Not a valid APK (no AndroidManifest.xml): " + apkPath, e);
}

try (ZipFile zf = new ZipFile(apkPath)) {
    if (zf.getEntry("AndroidManifest.xml") == null)
        throw new IOException("Not an APK: AndroidManifest.xml missing");
}

try {
    ByteBuffer manifest = ApkUtils.getManifestFromApk(apkPath);
} catch (ApkFormatException | ZipFormatException e) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Invalid APK: " + e.getMessage(), e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ApkUtils.getManifestFromApk on a file whose ZIP central directory lacks an AndroidManifest.xml record — e.g. the file is not an APK (a plain ZIP, XAPK/APKS container, or split), or the manifest was stripped during repackaging.

Common situations: Pointing the tool at .apks/.xapk archives instead of the base .apk, corrupted downloads where the central directory is truncated, or obfuscated/stripped APKs from modified toolchains.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to read AndroidManifest.xml
• Malformed APK: not a ZIP archive
• "manifest" has duplicate "application" tags.
• "manifest" tag not found.
• "manifest" does not have required attribute "package".

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1dddfa51ecf18464. Report an issue: GitHub.