Can't make APK without compiled .so

Hey all, I’ve recently set up a new machine to work from but I’m having issues deploying to Android.
I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled both Unreal and Android codeworks several times now but had no success, I’m not using the GIT version of Unreal either which from searches over the past few days most people have had issues with in the past.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

LogPlayLevel: ====08/07/2018 19:19:45====PREPARING NATIVE CODE=================================================================
LogPlayLevel: APK contains data.
LogPlayLevel: Fixing minSdkVersion; requires minSdkVersion of 14 with Gradle based on active plugins
LogPlayLevel: ==== Writing new GameActivity.java file to Y:\MassStorage\External\ConstructGames\Games\Parallax\Intermediate/Android/APK\src\com\epicgames\ue4\GameActivity.java ====
LogPlayLevel: ERROR: Can’t make an APK without the compiled .so [Y:\MassStorage\External\ConstructGames\Games\Parallax\Binaries\Android\Parallax-armv7-es2.so]
LogPlayLevel: (see C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Unreal Engine\AutomationTool\Logs\Z+Applications+Epic+Games+Unreal+Engine+UE_4.20\Log.txt for full exception trace)
LogPlayLevel: AutomationTool exiting with ExitCode=1 (Error_Unknown)
LogPlayLevel: Completed Launch On Stage: Deploy Task, Time: 1.003638
LogPlayLevel: BUILD FAILED
PackagingResults: Error: Launch failed! Unknown Error

I have the same problem! have you solve ?

Same problem here; “Can’t make an APK without the compiled .so”


Only, in my case it worked with all projects and now I have this error with all projects in 4.20.
Maybe its a coincidence but I upgraded yesterday from 4.20.1 to 4.20.2

Any suggestion what can be the cause and how to solve this?

edit:

  • tried de-installing 4.20.2 and reinstalling 4.20.2
  • tried re-installing AndroidWorks
  • tested a 4.19 project - it still builds ok.

edit 2: I managed to get something working again;

  • go to C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_4.20\Engine\Binaries\Android
  • copy the .so and .target file
  • go to your project \Unr\Binaries\Android
  • paste these two files and rename them conform the error in the UE output log.
  • change in project settings the packaging settings to Development. Un-tick ForDisiirbution

At least I can get a build going again from the menu. Launching to the GO from the top menu bar fails though with an error - this time it can’t find the UE4Game-Android-Shipping-armv7-es2.apk file

has anyone solve the problem ?

Same problem here. Before, I was able to start a new project, copy over my content and it would work again. But this issue happens with even a new project now. How has it not been fixed? Which hidden setting am I missing to even test a brand new project on a phone? So frustrating.

Maybe I spoke a little too soon. I can package my game using the trick mentioned in my previous message. However, it is still impossible to launch/test on my phone from the editor. Is this feature being removed? Is there a manual way to compile the nonexistent .so file?

What ‘fixed’ it for me was completely de-installing UE and Androidworks altogether, restart Windows and re-installing them again. Until now, its been 1 week, haven’t seen the error anymore.

G’Day Guys and Gals…I can confirm after myself en-counting this issue above, and freaking out as I have Beta testers starting to test my game from tomorrow, the uninstall and reinstall of both Engine and Android SDK works perfectly!!! I just wanted to confirm in case any one else finds this post also. I can also confirm the Launch also works, it did for me anyway. So definitely uninstall and reinstall and you should be good!

Regards
Shez

You use the UE 4.20.3 binary/launcher version or build from source? Thanks in advance for you reply!

Hey PavelHuerta,

Na haven’t tested it from source, which I also have. This was from the Binary/launcher. Had absolutely no dramas since!!!

Regards
Shez

I’ve managed get it to work through a bit of an unconventional method.
My project was a launcher project until 4.17, then it became a visual studio project 4.18, and then got converted to 4.20.3 back to the launcher version. That’s when i got the 'performing final apk package operation error : “Can’t make APK without compiled .so”

  1. Created an identical copy of the Unreal Project folder
  2. Used this copy to Generate Visual Studio Project Files (right click your yourproject.ueproject)(don’t forget to delete the intermediate folder before)
  3. Then I started up Microsoft Visual Studio
  4. With ‘Development’ Solution Configuration and ‘Android’ Solution platform , I build the project.
  5. This in turn generated the Binary/Android files, in the project folder. The files it creates are yourproject.target , yourproject-armv7-es2.apk, yourproject-armv7-es2.so
  6. I then copied them over to the original project folder. Create the Binary/Android folder if there is not one.
  7. Building worked fine and the error was gone and it would deploy and launch on android.

This probably is not the best approach. But it is a workaround solution. If anyone knows a better way to get rid of the .so error without sorting to visual studio, please feel free to post.

The renaming of the .so file ‘solution’ , from @maxbrown seems to work for building the project, for me, but once it is deployed, my app it launches and close in rapid succession.

Another idea I thought of was migrating the level to an empty 4.20 project.
Create an empty 4.20 project
Open your project and migrate your assets to the new empty 4.20 project.
This method however needs additional post-work to get it in into a functional gameplay state in which it used to be before.

I was having the same issue.

Everything was packaging perfectly but when I was trying to reduce my package size, I turned some settings on and off.
Right after that I got the " Can’t make an APK without the compiled .so" error.

**What worked for me:

  1. I created a new empty project
  2. Used Migration tool to migrate my game content folder to the newly created project
  3. For input mappings, I exported the file by clicking export button in Project Settings-Inout->Export
  4. Imported the input mappings in new project using import button in Project Settings-Inout->Import**

After that packaging worked for me.

But again trying reducing the packaging size, I turned off some plugins like Oculus Plugin etc. which my game doesn’t use, and the " Can’t make an APK without the compiled .so" error came again.

So, I am assuming that this error is related to plugins used and project settings because I have migrated my project about 3-4 times after getting the error and after each migration, I can package my game but changing some plugins causes the error again.

Hello Pankaj,

Thanks for your workaround.

The plugin issue is know and currently being tracked at:

Nice
I hope they correct it soon because it is wasting a lot of time in migrating everything to new project

Indeed, seems quite a few people have the ’ disable plugins’ issue Disabling any plugins causes launch to fail - Mobile Development - Unreal Engine Forums

Hoping for a fix very soon.