Issue installing apps via APK after updating to Android 14

PintOfGuinness

Firstly, a huge thank you to the developers for all of the hard work in rolling out the Android 14 update!

Since updating my Pixel 7 (currently on the 2023101100 stable release), I've been encountering an issue when trying to install or update apps via APK downloads.

I don't use Google services, so the few apps that I have installed (such as Proton Mail) need to be manually updated by fetching the latest APK from their website whenever an update rolls out. My workflow would be:

Download the APK from, in this example, proton.me, using Vanadium (Incognito mode enabled). The file saves to the Downloads folder. Once downloaded, close Vanadium.
Open Settings > Apps > Special app access > Install unknown apps > Vanadium > Enable "Allow from this source".
Open Files > Downloads > Select the downloaded APK and run the update.
After successfully updating the app, disable installing unknown apps in Vanadium (I only enable it when it's needed).

So far I've never encountered an issue, however, after the Android 14 update, an unexpected message appears:

Following the same steps above, fetch and download the APK, save the file to the Downloads folder, and enable installing unknown apps in Vanadium.
Open Files > Downloads > Select the downloaded APK.

Here's where the unexpected message appears.
Despite having "Allow from this source" enabled for Vanadium, a message window pops up which says: "For your security, your phone currently isn't allowed to install unknown apps from this source. You can change this in Settings." On one attempt, this message indicated that the app requiring allowing this permission was "Downloads"; on another attempt, the app was "Sounds".

Never experienced this before. Any advice on how to proceed?

[deleted]

Have you tried downloading and installing the app with Incognito Mode disabled? I haven't encountered your issue on Android 14 and my apps have downloaded and installed perfectly fine.

PintOfGuinness

[deleted] Just tried with Incognito disabled, and that same message appears when trying to open the APK (with "Allow from this source" for Vanadium confirmed enabled).

de0u

PintOfGuinness if somebody else can reproduce, I suggest filing an issue: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues

[deleted]

I have experienced something similar on 13. After much head scratching, my issue was that I had disabled "App installs and updates" for that user/profile. In my case the solution was:

From the admin user-profile account

either, touch the "Manage Users" button on the "Select User" picker from the pull down shortcuts and enable "App installs and updates" for the user-profile you are having problems in.

or, from settings/multiple_users select the user-profile you are having problems in and enable "App installs and updates"

PintOfGuinness

[deleted] I have experienced something similar on 13. After much head scratching, my issue was that I had disabled "App installs and updates" for that user/profile.

Double checked, and that is enabled, though this has been occurring in the admin profile.

I did end up reporting an issue on GitHub, and another user has confirmed that they're experiencing very similar behaviour when trying to launch APKs. A similarly-related reported issue seems to indicate that the Download Manager is potentially mislabeled as "Sounds" in Android 14?

@matchboxbananasynergy mentioned in a separate discussion:

Priority is ironing out the Android 14 release (upstream came with a lot of little surprises [read: bugs], so we're dealing with those as they appear).

Possible this is another one of those unexpected bugs.