How to increment versionCode using APKTool?

Question

I need to increment versionCode in signed APK file.

I do following:

1. apktool d myapk.apk

2. open apktool.yml, increment versionCode and save

3. apktool b

4. jarsigner and zipalign

Apk works well on a phone, but versionCode has not been changed. Here's apktool.yml:

version: 2.0.0
apkFileName: iVet.apk
isFrameworkApk: false
usesFramework:
  ids:
  - 1
sdkInfo:
  minSdkVersion: '16'
  targetSdkVersion: '21'
packageInfo:
  forced-package-id: '127'
versionInfo:
  versionCode: '3'
  versionName: '1.1'
compressionType: false
sharedLibrary: false
unknownFiles:
  VERSION: '8'

Answer 1

Warning: What you are doing will invalidate the signature. You'll have to resign it afterwards to install it, and it won't look like the original dev made it. There's no way around this, except exploits.

You can just put the versionCode in AndroidManifest.xml and it will override the arguments given to aapt from apktool.yml with a warning. I just confirmed this myself.

Example changes to AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:installLocation="internalOnly" package="com.example.someApp" android:versionCode="12345" android:versionName="1.2.3.4.5">

Setting version information: https://developer.android.com/tools/publishing/versioning.html#appversioning

What the aapt command would look like if you changed apktool.yml:

Aug 11, 2015 12:56:52 PM brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources aaptPackage
INFO: [/var/folders/5m/jph9d7q573b5yl5ybnhhx4000000gn/T/brut_util_Jar_5616282982200298928.tmp, p, -v, --forced-package-id, 127, --min-sdk-version, 5, --version-code, 12345, --version-name, 1.2.3.4.5, -F, /Users/caleb/example/someApp.apk, -0, arsc, -A, /Users/caleb/example/./assets, /Users/caleb/example/./build/apk]

It's clear the values in apktool.yml are pulled from AndroidManifest.xml: https://github.com/iBotPeaches/Apktool/blob/0370416d9029d01f210556ab3662e3fa0f80c239/brut.apktool/apktool-lib/src/main/java/brut/androlib/res/decoder/XmlPullStreamDecoder.java#L96

For some reason they're not included in the decoded <manifest> attribute. This could be a bug.