What causes "Failed to install Android NDK" in tauri-apps/tauri?

Run the exact sdkmanager command from the error output manually and read the failure reason

tauri-apps/tauri · error · tauri_cli::error::Error

Failed to install Android NDK

Error message

Failed to install Android NDK

What it means

sdkmanager was launched to install ndk;{NDK_VERSION} but exited non-zero. The command line is included in the error context; the sdkmanager output above it usually reveals the real cause (unaccepted license, download failure, disk space, or a broken Java installation).

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-cli/src/mobile/android/mod.rs:678

      "Running sdkmanager to install ndk-{NDK_VERSION} on {}...",
      android_home.display()
    );
    let status = Command::new(&sdk_manager_path)
      .arg(format!("--sdk_root={}", android_home.display()))
      .arg("--install")
      .arg(format!("ndk;{NDK_VERSION}"))
      .status()
      .map_err(|error| Error::CommandFailed {
        command: format!(
          "{} --sdk_root={} --install ndk;{NDK_VERSION}",
          sdk_manager_path.display(),
          android_home.display()
        ),
        error,
      })?;

    if !status.success() {
      crate::error::bail!("Failed to install Android NDK");
    }

    let ndk_path = android_home.join("ndk").join(NDK_VERSION);
    log::info!("Installed NDK: {}", ndk_path.display());
    std::env::set_var("NDK_HOME", ndk_path);
  }

  Ok(())
}

fn delete_codegen_vars() {
  for (k, _) in std::env::vars() {
    if k.starts_with("WRY_") && (k.ends_with("CLASS_EXTENSION") || k.ends_with("CLASS_INIT")) {
      std::env::remove_var(k);
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

Run the exact sdkmanager command from the error output manually and read the failure reason
Accept licenses: `yes | sdkmanager --licenses`, then retry the tauri command
Free disk space (NDK needs ~2GB+) and check network/proxy, then retry
Pin/cache the NDK in CI so the install step succeeds once and is reused

Example fix

# before
error: Failed to install Android NDK
# after
yes | $ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --licenses
$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager --install "ndk;27.0.0"
tauri android dev

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

yes | sdkmanager --licenses >/dev/null 2>&1
df -h "$ANDROID_HOME" | tail -1   # NDK archive is ~1-2GB

Try / catch

#!/usr/bin/env bash
for i in 1 2 3; do
  tauri android dev && exit 0
echo "retry $i: NDK install failed (licenses/network/disk?)"
done
exit 1

Prevention

Accept NDK licenses up front in CI
Cache the installed NDK directory between builds
Check disk space and proxy settings before builds that may download the NDK

When it happens

Trigger: `sdkmanager --sdk_root=... --install ndk;X` failing — most often 'License not accepted' for the NDK package, network errors downloading the ~1GB archive, or java.io errors.

Common situations: CI never accepting NDK licenses; flaky networks/proxies during the large NDK download; Docker layers running out of disk; ANDROID_HOME on a filesystem that ran out of inodes/space.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/308ebec60daf0561. Report an issue: GitHub.