You tap install and the screen says “App not installed” — not a word about why. The phone does know the reason. It just does not put it on the screen.
In short. We could reproduce five refusals, and on screen they all look the same. On 16 September 2026 we triggered each one on our own file and wrote down what the system says underneath: the file did not finish downloading, the same app is already installed from a different source (the signatures do not match), the build is older than the one you have, Android is older than the app needs, there is not enough space. The first three take a minute to fix: download again, remove the old copy, take a current file.
We make Mayak. Every refusal below was triggered on our own app and is quoted word for word — together with the parts we could not test. 7 days free after you confirm your email, no card needed. The trial is free and needs no card; without an email it is 3 days.
🍎 On iPhone Mayak works through the third-party Happ app — with the subscription link from your account. Happ is not in the Russian App Store; there incy (publisher LLC ITDEV) works instead, checked on 22 September 2026.
Five refusals and what the phone says underneath
Android shows you a short line and writes the real reason into its own install log. We triggered each refusal on our file and put both texts side by side.
| Reason | What you see | What the system says underneath |
|---|---|---|
| Broken download | “App not installed” | INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NOT_APK |
| Other source | “App not installed”, sometimes with a note about a package conflict | INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE — the signatures do not match |
| Older build | “App not installed” | INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE |
| Old Android | “Not compatible with your device” | The minimum version is written inside the file |
| No space | “Not enough space” | Both the downloaded file and the unpacked app need room |
⚠️ The middle column is what Android usually writes, and phone makers word it their own way — we did not collect those. The right-hand column is the system’s own words from our test on 16 September 2026.
The file did not finish downloading
This is the classic failure of a mobile connection: an 18 megabyte download breaks halfway,
and what stays on the phone still looks like a real file. The phone opens it, finds no table of
contents inside and gives up: in our test we cut our own file down to 80 %
(14.8 MB instead of 18.5) and got INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NOT_APK: Failed to parse.
How to tell. Look at the size of the downloaded file in your Downloads folder. On 16 September 2026 our file is 18,466,234 bytes — about 18.5 MB (version 0.7.32). Noticeably smaller means the download never finished.
What to do. Delete the file and download it again, ideally over Wi-Fi. An interrupted download can also be continued: our server supports that — on 16 September a request for the last piece of the file returned exactly that piece instead of starting over. Whether your browser uses that is up to the browser, and we did not measure it.
One app, two sources: the signatures do not match
Android knows an app by two things: its package name (ours is mayaknetworks.app)
and the signature the developer sealed it with. An update is only accepted if the signature is
the same one. That is how Android stops anyone from replacing someone else’s app with
their own.
Which leads to the refusal people hit most often: the same app from two different places will not install over itself. That is exactly our situation: the file on our site is signed with our key, while the build in Google Play is signed by the store — one package name, two signatures.
The test. We took our own file, signed a copy of it with a different key
and tried to install it over the app already on the device. The system answered:
INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE: Existing package mayaknetworks.app signatures do not
match newer version. Then we removed the app and installed the very same copy — it went
in without a question.
What to do. Remove the app and install it again from whichever source you want to stay on.
🔴 Before you remove it. Removing an app wipes its data, including the login. To sign in again you will need your email or your account number — nine digits like 472-918-563, shown in the app under “Settings” and in your cabinet — and your password. The subscription and the days you paid for live in the account, not in the phone, and removing the app does not touch them.
The build is older than the one you have
Android does not let an app “update backwards”. We installed the previous build over the current
one and got INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE: Downgrade detected — the system named both
numbers and refused.
This is how trips to third-party file mirrors usually end: what is stored there is six months old, and it carries a stranger’s signature as well — two reasons from this article at once. Take a current file: from the store, or from our site.
Our build from the site watches for updates on its own and offers you the new version, and the build from Google Play is updated by the store. Downloading a file over a file by hand is usually not needed at all.
The phone is older than the app needs
The minimum system version is written inside the app file itself. We read ours on 16 September 2026: Android 7.0 and newer, built against Android 16. On an older phone the store simply will not offer the Install button, and a manual install ends with “not compatible”.
One file of ours carries machine code for four kinds of processors (arm64-v8a,
armeabi-v7a, x86, x86_64), which is why the same file fits
a phone, a set-top box and an Android TV set alike. The store sends only the part your phone
needs, so the download from there is smaller; by how much, we did not measure.
⚠️ We did not test an install on Android 7 itself: the test ran on Android 15. The number comes from the build, not from a real old phone.
How much space it really takes
The file weighs 18.5 MB, but the installed app takes more: after the install its directory came to about 22 MB. And while the install runs, the phone holds both copies — the downloaded file and the unpacked app.
So the practical rule is about 40 MB of free space, not 18. Android publishes no exact figure — this is two of our measurements added up, not a specification. Once the app is installed, the downloaded file can go.
When the phone will not install a file at all
Installing an app from a file is a separate permission, and it is granted not to the app but to whatever you open the file from: your browser or your file manager. The first time, Android will ask — turn the permission on and come back to the install.
Next you may see a Play Protect warning saying it has never checked apps from this developer. That is not a virus alert — it is how the system greets any app that did not come from the store. Which button to press is walked through in our help centre: there is a trap in that window — the large button at the bottom cancels the install, and the grey line next to it continues it.
⚠️ We did not test those two windows on 16 September. The test ran on an emulator with no Google services, and the app was installed there with a developer tool that shows neither window. This section comes from our help centre, not from a measurement.
The simplest way never to meet those windows is to install from Google Play, where the install goes the ordinary way.
How to install Mayak
There are two routes, and both work.
- From Google Play. An ordinary store install, with none of the permissions or warnings above. Updates come from the store too.
- As a file from our site. It lives on the home page, in the Download block — the route for phones without Google services, and the spare one if the store is out of reach.
The file on the site is the very build we made. On 16 September we downloaded
it and compared it with what we built on 9 September: the same size to the byte and the same
checksum. The file is signed with our own key, CN=Mayak Networks Release, and the app checks
that signature on every self-update, so a swapped file will not install over it.
How long the download takes is arithmetic rather than a measurement: 18.5 MB is about 20 seconds at 8 Mbit/s and about a minute at 2.5 Mbit/s. We do not know the speed of your network.
Mayak is an Android and Android TV app. Install it from the store or as a file from the site; the account is the same either way. We ask for no payment details for the trial. A confirmed email opens the access — 7 free days. An email is optional: without one the trial is 3 days.
🍎 On iPhone Mayak works through the third-party Happ app — with the subscription link from your account. Happ is not in the Russian App Store; there incy (publisher LLC ITDEV) works instead, checked on 22 September 2026.
What we tested
- Which file. Our own app, version 0.7.32, downloaded from our site on 16 September 2026: 18,466,234 bytes. Its checksum matched the build we signed on 9 September, so the site really does serve that build.
- What is inside the file. Read out of it directly: package name
mayaknetworks.app, minimum system Android 7.0, code for four kinds of processors, signatureCN=Mayak Networks Release. - How the refusals were triggered. On an Android 15 emulator: a file cut down to 80 %; a copy signed with a different key installed over the app; the previous build installed over the current one. Every answer is quoted verbatim.
- That the cure works. After the app was removed, the copy with the other signature installed.
- Space. The installed app’s directory came to about 22 MB, measured on the same device.
- The download. The server states the size, does not compress the file and can serve a piece starting anywhere — which is what resuming a download needs.
What we do not know
We try to make sure nothing more can be read out of our text than we put into it.
- How the refusal looks on your phone. Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and others word these messages their own way, and we did not collect them. The test ran on one Android 15 emulator.
- The permission and Play Protect windows. They never appeared in the test — the emulator has no Google services. That section comes from our help centre.
- Installing on Android 7. The minimum was read out of the build; we had no old phone in hand.
- Other companies’ apps. Every number and every system message here is about our own file. Why someone else’s app fails to download, we did not test and will not guess.
- The store on a particular device. Our page in Google Play opened on 16 September 2026; whether the store offers it on your phone, we did not check.
- How browsers behave after a break. The server supports resuming, but whether a browser continues an interrupted download is up to the browser, and we did not measure it.
- How large a store install is. The store sends only the part a device needs; how much smaller that is than our file, we did not count.
Short answers
Why does it say “App not installed”? That one line stands for several different reasons. Most often the file did not finish downloading, or the same app is already installed from a different source, or the build is older than the one on the phone.
What does “conflicts with an existing package” mean? That an app with the same name is already on the phone and the new file carries a different signature. There is one cure — remove the old copy and install again — but first make sure you know how to sign back in.
Can I install the file from the site over the Google Play version? No, and not the other way round either: the package name is the same, the signatures are not. To switch sources you have to remove the app.
Why will it not download to my phone? If the download keeps breaking, it is usually the connection: 18.5 MB over a weak signal does not always arrive. Try again over Wi-Fi and check the size of the file you got.
How big is the app? The file is about 18.5 MB as of 16 September 2026, and it takes about 22 MB once installed. Leave about 40 MB free for the install itself.
Which Android do I need? 7.0 or newer — that is what is written inside our build. Android TV sets and boxes work too: which TVs can run a VPN and which cannot.
It will not install on my Samsung or Huawei — what now? We did not test those shells separately; the reasons are the same ones. Phones without Google services have no store at all, so the file from the site is the way in.
An app disappeared from the store — what does that mean? We do not know about other companies’ apps and answer only for our own. For ours there is a second route — the same file on our site, right next to the store link.
What about a computer or an iPhone? We have no app of our own for them yet. What already works today on Windows, Mac and iPhone with a config file is in our help centre.
If I remove the app, do I lose what I paid for? No: the time lives in the account. You only lose the login on that phone, so keep your email or account number and your password at hand before removing it.