Android Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK on Device

[2014-12-30 13:41:07 - AndApp] Android Launch!
[2014-12-30 13:41:07 - AndApp] adb is running normally.
[2014-12-30 13:41:07 - AndApp] Performing com.code2care.puzzle.app.MainActivity activity launch
[2014-12-30 13:41:21 - AndApp] WARNING: Unknown device API version!
[2014-12-30 13:41:21 - AndApp] Uploading AndApp.apk onto device 'S7514708552ce'
[2014-12-30 13:41:21 - AndApp] Installing AndApp.apk...
[2014-12-30 13:41:23 - AndApp] Installation error: INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK
[2014-12-30 13:41:23 - AndApp] Please check logcat output for more details.
[2014-12-30 13:41:23 - AndApp] Launch canceled!

If you are trying to run an Android Project on your device or emulator and you get the above error on your eclipse console, then the reason for such error is that your device Android Operating system SDK Version is Older and is not supported by the App, let's look into more details,

Why this error message ?

Just check your AndroidManifest.xml file and look for <uses-sdk> tag. It should have two attributes android: minSdkVersion and android: targetSdkVersion

<uses-sdk
    android:minSdkVersion="11"
    android:targetSdkVersion="21" />

In order to run the app on your device, the

android:minSdkVersion

should be less than or equal to the SDK version of the OS running on your device. For the above case if your device is running on Froyo it has an API level 8 whereas the app requires minimum API level as 11 i.e. Gingerbread, hence the App would not get installed and you will get the error.

How to resolve this issue ?

To resolve this issue you can either change the minSdkVersion to that of the device you are trying to run the App or if you can create a new emulator device that is higher or equal to the API level defiled in Manifest file.

⚠️ Note : You may get errors in your project folder as certain lines of code may not be compatible with the Older versions, so you may need to handle it first before getting it to work on the device.