Appcenter can't find APK file

Question

I have this weird error, I've been using appcenter for a long time, but never experienced this. I setup a build with appcenter which fetches from azure devops repo. The application is a Xamarin.Android native application. Once I run the build, everything goes well. Untill the signin step. When the step is about to start, I get this error:

##[error]No matching files were found with search pattern: /Users/runner/work/1/s/**/*.apk

Looks like the APK was not found, though the build runs successfully without error. Please I need your help to figure out a solution to this issue.

Answer 1

In your csproj file for the Android Application project. Check whether <AndroidPackageFormat>apk</AndroidPackageFormat> is set to apk or aab. If it is aab then you need to change the search pattern to search for /**/*.aab instead. Otherwise, it will be looking for stuff that wasn't produced during the build.

To change the search path of appcenter, go to your build configurations and toggle the switch with label: “Build android app bundle”.

Answer 2

the change <AndroidPackageFormat>aab</AndroidPackageFormat> for <AndroidPackageFormat>apk</AndroidPackageFormat> works for me

Answer 3

If you are developing Android Apps and publishing them through Play Store, starting August 2021, new apps are required to target API level 30 (Android 11) and use the Android App Bundle publishing format. (aab)

If you want to know more about the Android App Bundle publishing format, here you have more information. As Cheesebaron is mentioning, if you are using AppCenter for building and packaging your Apps, just use the flag "Build App Bundle" in the Build configuration