"Default Activity Not Found" on Android Studio upgrade

Question

I upgraded IntelliJ IDEA from 12.0.4 to 12.10.

Now all the modules in my Android project give the error:

Error: Default Activity Not Found

I reverted back to 12.0.4 and it everything works again.

Any ideas? I think it might be an issue with a missing plugin. Since the plugin is not installed, it is not able to find the default activity. Another thing could have been a local configuration, but I doubt it. I deleted the configuration folder to verify and that didn't change anything.

Answer 1

If you see that error occur after upgrading versions of IntelliJ IDEA or Android Studio, or after generating a new APK file, you may need to refresh the IDE's cache.

Menu File → Invalidate Caches and restart...

Answer 2

I can't comment on why the upgrade of IntelliJ IDEA might cause this problem because I don't use it.

However, that error: "Default Activity Not Found" seems to be telling you that you don't have an activity declared in file AndroidManifest.xml that is marked as the main activity, to be launched when the application starts.

You should have at least one activity that looks something like this:

<activity
        android:name="com.your.package.name.YourActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
</activity>

If you don't have at least one activity with an intent filter like that, you would most likely see the error message you have included here.

You should add that intent filter to the Activity that you wish to open when you start the application, and that should fix your problem.

Additional details

(Android Studio 4.1.2) if the project is created as EmptyApplication then the developer must manually create below three files to avoid the Default Activity Not Found error:

File AndroidManifest.xml

File MainActivity.java

File activity_main.xml

Answer 3

If your app has a launch activity default, possibly this could be your mistake:

Step 1: Select Edit Configurations

Step 2: watch this warning: Default Activity not found

Step 3: select a default activity

Step 3: Save your changes and finish

Good Luck

Answer 4

If you are working on a widget app, this solution should work for you:

1. Go to Edit Configuration
2. Set Launch Option to Nothing

Answer 5

The correct way to do this is to add the following to the Manifest file:

<activity
    android:name="FULL_NAME_OF_YOUR_ACTIVITY"
    android:label="@string/app_name" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

This should be inserted between:

<application> </application>

No need in invalidating caches.

Answer 6

Try to right click on the project and choose Open Module Settings. Then go to the Sources tab in your module, find the src folder, right click on it and mark it as Sources (blue color).

There is no sources tab in later versions of Android Studio, but you can edit the build.gradle file instead: How to add a linked source folder in Android Studio?

Answer 7

In Android Studio 4.0, please change Launch to Nothing:

Run/Debug Configuration → Android App → app → General → Launch Options → set Launch to Nothing.

Answer 8

In Android Studio under Run/Debug Configuration -> Android Application -> General -> Activity -> select the option "Do not launch Activity".

Answer 9

Nothing in the previous answers helped me. After some time I found that IntelliJ IDEA changed action names to uppercase. Like:

<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="ANDROID.INTENT.ACTION.MAIN"/>
  <category android:name="ANDROID.INTENT.CATEGORY.LAUNCHER"/>
</intent-filter>

After reverting to normal, IDEA recognizes the default activity:

<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

Answer 10

Firstly make sure that you have the included default activity in manifest.

Example:

<activity android:name=".DefaultActivity">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

If you have tried everything and nothing seems to works then

• Delete the cache from your %Home%\.gradle\caches and sync project again.

Or check this answer:

Android Studio shows wrong file contents

Answer 11

This solution is 100% working

You must be seeing this:

First, open your manifest and check if this is present,

  <activity
      android:name="com.your.package.name.YourActivity"
      android:label="@string/app_name">
       <intent-filter>
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
   </activity>

If not present, add it

If the above is present, but still you see default activity not found, follow these steps:

1. Click edit configuration

   

2. On clicking edit configuration you'll see that the launch option is set on DEFAULT ACTIVITY

   

3. Change it to nothing.

   

Problem solved!

Note

Please make on the root of the manifest file you should have the package name

        <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
        package="com.package.name">

Answer 12

In my case menu File → Invalidate Caches / Restart... didn't help.

Everything was OK with my project and of course I had the following intent filter for my activity:

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

What really helped me was deleting the Android/Gradle cache folders (they can grow up to 10-30 GB).

Go to C:\Users\YOUR_USER_WINDOWS_NAME and delete the following folders

• .android
• .AndroidStudio3.2
• .gradle

(You may save some Android configurations from .AndroidStudio3.2 before deleting it if you want it.)

Answer 13

This method works for me. Click on the app icon and then choose edit configurations.

In the edit-configuration, choose the specified activity instead of the default activity. Then give the path of the activity below.

In the end, synchronise with the Gradle files.

Answer 14

Exit Android Studio.

Go to path C:\Users\YOUR_WINDOW_USER_NAME.AndroidStudio3.3\system

Remove the /caches folder and the /tmp folder.

Answer 15

As this question is a "landing page" for plethora of issues with manifests, resulting in no Default Activity found, here is another thing to check if you are having this problem.

Open your manifest and switch to Merged Manifest tab.

Sometimes the issue is related to merging all the manifests in the project to one, which can result to error and therefore "Default Activity not found". The problem is this error is not shown anywhere except this Merged Manifest tab as far as I know.

For example: in a project minSdkVersion 10, downgrade the version of implementation in build.gradle file: from 25.4.0 to 25.3.1 solve this problem.

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.3.1'
    implementation 'com.android.support:design:25.3.1'
    implementation 'com.android.support:mediarouter-v7:25.3.1'

Answer 16

I changed my Intent-filter to

<intent-filter>
    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>

Just add the DEFAULT option as well. I was using the Process Phoenix library and it prompted me to define a default intent. This addition solved my problem.

Answer 17

This occurred to me after my PC restarted unexpectedly. Strangely, I had made no changes and still got this error.

None of the above helped me. What solved my problem, was this.

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

If this doesn't solve the problem give other tries.

Try 1:

Menu File → Invalidate Caches / Restart...

Try 2:

Check whether the following two lines,

<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

are in your launcher activity declaration in file manifest.xml.

<activity
        android:name="com.your.package.name.YourActivity"
        android:label="@string/app_name">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
</activity>

Try 3:

1. Click as shown:

   

2. Run / Debug Configurations opens.

   

If this doesn't help either:

Try 4:

1. Menu File → Export to ZIP.

and

2. Import it as a new project.

Answer 18

I got this error.

And found that in the manifest file in the launcher activity I did not put action and category in the intent filter.

The wrong one:

<activity
android:name=".VideoAdStarter"
android:label="@string/app_name">

    <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

</activity>

The right one:

<activity
android:name=".VideoAdStarter"
android:label="@string/app_name">

    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>

</activity>

Answer 19

TouchBoarder almost had it. Although selecting "Do not launch Activity" results in nothing launching.

In Android Studio under Run/Debug Configuration → Android Application → General → Activity → select the option "Launch:"

Choose your Activity. This doesn't exactly fix the intended behaviour, but rather overrides it correctly.

Answer 20

All previous answers didn't help me.

Try to remove

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

in your AndroidManifest.

Then menu File → Sync Project with Gradle Files.

Answer 21

In case your application doesn't have an Activity (only a service for example), change the run/debug configuration 'Launch' option to Nothing.

Answer 22

I found this in my code:

<context android:name=".MainActivity">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</context>

If you look very carefully, it should be <activity android:name=".MainActivity"> instead.

Apparently, I refactored an "activity" somewhere, and it changed names in the AndroidManifest as well.

Answer 23

In my case I refactored a member variable that was named "activity". I renamed it to "context"...

I found out that the refactor was made to the activity tags in the manifest, and I found them to be context tags instead... this is really stupid from Android Studio side!

Answer 24

1. Menu Build → Rebuild Project
2. Menu File → Invalidate Caches... → Invalidate and restart

It works for me.

Rebuild the project to make sure that there aren't any errors in the project. Then we can invalidate the cache.

Answer 25

Error: Default Activity Not Found

I solved it this way:

Run → Edit Configuration → Android Application → *enter the path of your default activity class in the "Launch" Edit Box.

Answer 26

I have the same problem in Android Studio 3.3 Canary 3.

The project from the Android Studio 3.0 stable version works firstly correctly, but then after some cleans/rebuilds, it starts showing the No Default Activity error.

I tried to reinstall this alpha version of Android Studio: error again. But then I started it in the old stabile Android, and using APK install, and this APK file works correctly.

Moreover, my project was created with Instant App (base, feature, instant, and app subdirectories). I think this Android Studio has some problems with Manifest.xml files separated into this multiple directories.

So I have changed it in settings to this:

Answer 27

Sync Project With Gradle Files works sometimes.

To fix this overall issue you should:

1. Exit Android Studio
2. Go to folder USER → AndroidStudio → system → caches
3. Delete that folder
4. Start Android Studio.

It will re-index your files and that should work.

Thanks to kirtan403 from a similar question.

Answer 28

Since Android Studio 3.5 or 3.6 I started getting the Default Activity not found and I became tired of Invalidating Caches & Restart, rebuilding project, etc.

It turned out, the way I handle multi-modules and manifests was erroneous. I had the default Activity's Manifest in library module only, but it should've been in both app modules.

Assuming librarymodule appmodule1 appmodule2

1. Remove HomeActivity from librarymodule Manifest whatsoever.

2. Add:

   class AppModuleActivity1 : HomeActivity() to appmodule1
   class AppModuleActivity2 : HomeActivity() to appmodule2
   

3. To appmodule1 Manifest inside application tag, I added:

   <activity
       android:name="com.app.name.AppModuleActivity1">
       <intent-filter>
           <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
           <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
       </intent-filter>
   </activity>
   

4. Same about appmodule2 but change 2 for 1 in naming.

Answer 29

This is still happening with Android Studio 4.0, so I have to delete the following folder to fix this problem:

C:\Users\my_user_name.AndroidStudio4.0\system\caches

Answer 30

In my case, there was a typo in AndroidManifest.xml as shown below. Removing the "o" letter above the application tag solved it.

Apparently, Android Studio doesn't detect type errors in AndroidMainfest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>

o
<application android:name=".AppName"
             android:allowBackup="false"
             android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
             android:label="@string/app_name"
             android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Light.NoTitleBar">