Develop Reference

In Google Play, it says "You need to upload an APK or Android App Bundle for this application"

I'm on the review summary after my apk was uploaded. It says,
Errors
Resolve these errors before starting the roll-out of this release.
You need to upload an APK or Android App Bundle for this application.
You cannot remove all production APKs and Android App Bundles.
I've looked at various sources and am not sure what the solution is.

As you can see from the first screenshot you are deactivating your first APK (version code 1). But you haven't uploaded a new version of your APK. You can't do a release without any APKs live. You have two choices:
reactivate your old APK (Press the "Retain" (Now it is renamed to Include) button by the version 1 APK)
upload a new APK
I assume you know what you want to do.

This seems like a code version issue. update the code version 1 to 2.

check into your manifest file:
android:versionCode="8"
and increase it,
that was the problem by me.

Just discard the earlier release and add new one, the issue would be resolved.

Oh man! you are adding a second release or second version of the android app see your screenshot it says apks to be deactivated ..
see in that image actually you are deactivating the earlier version so just go to above button BROWSE FILES
https://i.stack.imgur.com/aNF1C.png
Click BROWSE FILES and then select your apk file....
Now make sure that you are selecting a version 2 apk i mean not the same which you are deactivating that was version 1 or earlier version
You need to upload an APK or Android App Bundle for this application.
You cannot remove all production APKs and Android App Bundles.
It means that you have not selecteed any apk till now so just click BROWSE FILES and select apk file and you have to change the version also because you are adding a another version
look closely at your image
and for changing the version go to
Build gradle file of your app and see the version number you have to increment that by 1 or any positive quantity... increment only the version no decrement
see Version written there Version name "1.0" change it to "2.0" and versioncode 1 to 2
because now playstore wont accept your earlier version apk i.e 1 it wil only accept incremented version like 2 3 or 4 etc

I figured out the problem (and yes I activated the APK beforehand as well). I didn't change the package name entirely in my .xml file. Once I did, I rebuilt my APK and it worked.

You need to use a different version code for your APK because you already have one with version code 2

I published my android application in Play Market two days ago. Today I made update of this application. I changed the versionCode in build.gradle from 1 to 2, and versionName from "1.1" to "1.1.1". When I had uploaded the apk file in Google Play Console, the browser crashed. When I had uploaded the apk file again, I got this error:
You need to use a different version code for your APK because you already have one with version code 2.
however there is only one version of my application in "APKs to diactivate" block and there are no APKs in "APKs to add" block.
How can I solve this problem? Thanks in advance!

I found the solution: I pressed "ADD APK FROM LIBRARY" button and there was my apk)

You can do this things
Try to push an apk with version code 3
Make sure the apk you are generating is the apk you are uploading

You are probably facing a very especific issue.
Just change your versionCode to 3 and move on ;)

Rename package name in android using commands

I want to change package name of an android project/apk so that i can have different version's of an application.
For this i have gone through some stackoverflow' questions for this { link1 , link2}. My project is build with gradle. In these stack's answer's i was not cleared where to change in [roject's build.xml or sdk's build.xml.
Is this possible to change package name with "–rename-manifest-package" and release application on google play store? or i need to do somthing else.

For different version, change version on gradle file and make another apk then release it on google plays store. There is an option on google store it should be release new version or something like that.
However, it is not possible to change current application's package name which is on google play store.
If you cannot do, I'll try to add step by step guide.
EDIT:
At first you need to change your app's version in here which is build.gradle(Module: app)
and then you need to create new signed apk since you want to publish it;
After creating signed apk you need to access your developer account and click APK section first and then upload new version of your application.

Android: updating apk from outside Google Play with greater versionCode

Android documentation says it is important that versionCode parameter is greater on a new apk than the old one when uploading a new release to the Developer Console, but it says also that versionCode is not really enforced on the system, if I am not wrong.
Here: http://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/versioning.html
Does it mean I could distribute newer apk files (not beta versions), let's say, on a web-site while the one on Google Play is updated less frequently (by my choice) without any problem?

The device won't let you install an application with the same package name as an existing application unless the new version code is greater than or equal to the existing version code.
So yes, you can have version 1 on your device and the Play store, then distribute newer apks with version code 1,2,3,4. Then the next apk uploaded via the console must be 5 to allow devices with code 4 to install it.

As you say you have two apk's.
Let suppose that we have
A.apk (versionCode = 40) - downloaded from Google Play. Installed on user device.
A.apk (versionCode = 41) - located on your website.
In this case you can send to your customers link to update your application. As you know Google Play waste some time to check your app, so
if you push 41 version in GooglePlay you will have next scenario :
User have application with versionCode = 40.
You send notification/link for update
You push 41 version into Google Play
User download 41 version and install it.
After Google check your app you dosn't receive any messages for update.
So, roll-back to your answer
- Does it mean I could distribute newer apk files (not beta versions), let's
say, on a web-site while the one on Google Play is updated less frequently
without any problem?
- Yes.

Can you update an Android app with a completly different APK? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
When updating an Android app does the APK need to be named the same as the original?
(2 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
I have an app (App1) and it is released and being used. I have made a major update, but originally wanted it to be a new app, so I made another app (App2) in my developer console and began testing there.
I have changed my mind about it being a new app though. I want to update the original App1. I should have just done this in the first place. If I try and upload the App2 apk to App1 I get errors about the signature. Is it possible to copy the signature from App1 to App2 so that I can use the App2 apk to update App1?

If you use the same package name and signing key for both you shouldnt have any problems.
Dont forget to increment the versionCode and the versionName in your build.gradle file or manifest according to your last version, or you will have trouble after uploading it to the playstore.

You need to check the following:
The package name should be same as it was before.
increase the versionCode and versionCode as required.
you need to use the same release keystore as before.
For your app2 to you should also prepare an update which just simply opens the Google Play Store page of app1 and notify the user: "This version is no longer supported please go to app1 download page".