"Default Activity Not Found" on Android Studio upgrade

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...

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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

https://i.stack.imgur.com/oG6GY.png

File MainActivity.java

https://i.stack.imgur.com/gq569.png

File activity_main.xml

https://i.stack.imgur.com/kZUwy.png

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

https://i.stack.imgur.com/V2Z1a.png

Step 1: Select Edit Configurations

https://i.stack.imgur.com/KIgS8.png

Step 2: watch this warning: Default Activity not found

https://i.stack.imgur.com/eIoOV.png

Step 3: select a default activity

https://i.stack.imgur.com/q47xk.png

https://i.stack.imgur.com/6hBpr.png

Step 3: Save your changes and finish

https://i.stack.imgur.com/kr4Du.png

Good Luck

https://i.stack.imgur.com/6rHhz.png

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

Go to Edit Configuration Set Launch Option to Nothing

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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.

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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?

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In Android Studio 4.0, please change Launch to Nothing:

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

https://i.stack.imgur.com/5E84W.png

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

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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>

---

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

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This solution is 100% working

You must be seeing this:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/uL5Q9.png

First open your manifest and check if this 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:

Click edit configuration On clicking edit configuration you'll see that launch option is set on DEFAULT ACTIVITY Change it to nothing.

Problem solved!

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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.)

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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.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/GCYX8.png

https://i.stack.imgur.com/oODQN.png

In the end, synchronise with the Gradle files.

---

Exit Android Studio.

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

Remove the /caches folder and the /tmp folder.

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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'

https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQ5N7.png

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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:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/G2P0x.png

Step 2:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/K5y2M.png

Step 3:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/1kCfi.png

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:

Click as shown: Run / Debug Configurations opens.

If this doesn't help either:

Try 4:

Menu File → Export to ZIP.

and

Import it as a new project.

---

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.

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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>

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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.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/KwnsM.png

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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.

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

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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.

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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!

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Menu Build → Rebuild Project 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.

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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:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/gGsgW.png

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Sync Project With Gradle Files works sometimes.

To fix this overall issue you should:

Exit Android Studio Go to folder USER → AndroidStudio → system → caches Delete that folder Start Android Studio.

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

Thanks to kirtan403 from a similar question.

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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

Remove HomeActivity from librarymodule Manifest whatsoever. Add: class AppModuleActivity1 : HomeActivity() to appmodule1 class AppModuleActivity2 : HomeActivity() to appmodule2 To appmodule1 Manifest inside application tag, I added: Same about appmodule2 but change 2 for 1 in naming.

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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

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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">

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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.

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