MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · RemoteException

Unknown package: ...

Error message

Unknown package: ...

What it means

getInstallSourceInfo fetches the installer package name via IPackageManager. For unknown packages the framework throws IllegalArgumentException whose message starts with "Unknown package:"; the compat layer rethrows it as a RemoteException carrying the original message so callers can distinguish it from other failures.

Source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/io/github/muntashirakon/AppManager/compat/PackageManagerCompat.java:330

    @SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
    @NonNull
    public static InstallSourceInfoCompat getInstallSourceInfo(@NonNull String packageName, @UserIdInt int userId)
            throws RemoteException {
        IPackageManager pm = getPackageManager();
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.UPSIDE_DOWN_CAKE) {
            return new InstallSourceInfoCompat(pm.getInstallSourceInfo(packageName, userId));
        }
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.R) {
            return new InstallSourceInfoCompat(pm.getInstallSourceInfo(packageName));
        }
        String installerPackageName = null;
        try {
            installerPackageName = getPackageManager().getInstallerPackageName(packageName);
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            String message = e.getMessage();
            if (message != null && message.startsWith("Unknown package:")) {
                throw new RemoteException(message);
            }
        }
        return new InstallSourceInfoCompat(installerPackageName);
    }

    @Nullable
    public static Intent getLaunchIntentForPackage(@NonNull String packageName, @UserIdInt int userId) {
        Context context = ContextUtils.getContext();
        if (userId == UserHandleHidden.myUserId()) {
            PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager();
            return Utils.isTv(context)
                    ? pm.getLeanbackLaunchIntentForPackage(packageName)
                    : pm.getLaunchIntentForPackage(packageName);
        }
        UserHandle userHandle = Users.getUserHandle(userId);
        if (userHandle == null) {
            // No supported user present
            return null;

View on GitHub (pinned to 0152f468fc)

Solutions

1. Catch RemoteException around getInstallSourceInfo and treat it as package-not-found.
2. Validate the package is installed before querying its install source.
3. Parse the message (startsWith "Unknown package:") if you need to distinguish this case.
4. Use getInstalledPackages to build the set of valid package names first.

Example fix

// before
InstallSourceInfoCompat src = PackageManagerCompat.getInstallSourceInfo(pkg);
// after
InstallSourceInfoCompat src;
try {
    src = PackageManagerCompat.getInstallSourceInfo(pkg);
} catch (RemoteException e) {
    src = null; // unknown package
}

boolean known;
try { pm.getPackageInfoAsUser(pkg, 0, userId); known = true; }
catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) { known = false; }

try {
    InstallSourceInfoCompat src = PackageManagerCompat.getInstallSourceInfo(pkg);
} catch (RemoteException e) {
    if (e.getMessage() != null && e.getMessage().startsWith("Unknown package:")) {
        // handle unknown package
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getInstallSourceInfo(packageName) for a package that is not installed (or not known to the system server), causing the underlying binder call to throw IllegalArgumentException("Unknown package: ...").

Common situations: Checking install source right after uninstall; malformed/typo package names; querying packages from another profile where they don't exist.

Understand the failure class

Background: Record Not Found Errors: "not found", RecordNotFound, and "was not found" — what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• ${packageName}
• Could not retrieve info for package %s with flags 0x%X for u
• Package ${packageName} not found.
• IOException(REMOTE_ERR_MSG, throwable)
• IOException(remoteException)

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9a9420f095559be8. Report an issue: GitHub.