Android Studio error: "Manifest merger failed: Apps targeting Android 12"

I have updated my emulator version and Android SDK version to Android S (Android 12). After the update, I cannot run the project. I cannot run a Hello, World! project (empty project), but I can build Gradle as well as, but I can not run the project. I always got the error:

> Manifest merger failed: Apps targeting Android 12 and higher are > required to specify an explicit value for android: exported when the > corresponding component has an intent filter defined. See > https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element#exported > for details.

How can I fix it?

Here is a screenshot:

How can I solve this issue when using Android 12 SDK?

This question is about the issue after applying the solution to this, and is different than this question. Also, this question is older than this.

You need to specify android:exported="false" or android:exported="true"

Manifest:

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:exported="true"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyApplication.NoActionBar">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

as mentioned in the document:

> If your app targets Android 12 and contains activities, services, or > broadcast receivers that use intent filters, you must explicitly > declare the android: exported attribute for these app components. >

> Warning: If an activity, service, or broadcast receiver uses intent > filters and doesn't have an explicitly-declared value for > android:exported, your app can't be installed on a device that runs > Android 12.

Also check when to use true/false for the 'android:exported' value.

In your manifest, add android:exported="true" or android:exported="false " in your default launching activity attribute.

Done! You are all right to run your apps on Android 12.

<manifest ... >

    <activity
        android:name=".ui.dashboard.DashboardActivity"
        android:screenOrientation="portrait"
        android:exported="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme.Launcher">
        <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
        </intent-filter>
    </activity>
</manifest>

Set the android:exported value according to your requirement.

Whether the broadcast receiver can receive messages from non-system sources outside its application — "true" if it can, and "false" if not. If "false", the only messages the broadcast receiver can receive are those sent by the system, components of the same application, or applications with the same user ID.

If unspecified, the default value depends on whether the broadcast receiver contains intent filters. If the receiver contains at least one intent filter, then the default value is "true". Otherwise, the default value is "false".

This attribute is not the only way to limit a broadcast receiver's external exposure. You can also use permission to limit the external entities that can send messages (see the permission attribute).

From Android Documentation

If you didn't find in your manifest the place where there is an activity without the tag "android: exported = false" then it's likely that it is in your dependencies... in order to pinpoint where exactly, first downgrade "compileSdkVersion" to 30 and "targetSdkVersion" to 30 so it builds.

android {
    compileSdkVersion("android-S")
    buildToolsVersion "30.0.3"

    defaultConfig {
        ...
        minSdkVersion 23
        targetSdkVersion("S")
        ...
}

After that, in the main manifest.xml window there is a tab with "merged manifest". There you can inspect what activity exactly didn't have the "android: exported = false" attribute.

In my case it was because of third-party tools:

build.gradle (: app):

debugImplementation 'com.squareup.leakcanary:leakcanary-android:2.7'
//and
debugImplementation "com.github.markzhai:blockcanary-android:1.5.0"
releaseImplementation "com.github.markzhai:blockcanary-no-op:1.5.0"

Also, for services I had to add the attribute:

<service
    android:name=".autofillservice.MyAutofillService"
    android:exported="true"
    android:permission="android.permission.BIND_AUTOFILL">

and

<service
    android:name="com.demo.myApp.my_access.MyAccessService"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true"
    android:permission="android.permission.BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE">

As my problem was in a third-party dependency and it's not going to be updated soon, I just added a <activity> declaration with the flag android:exported="true" and exported="false" where needed to override the initial declaration, also as I need this dependency in Debug only I added a new AndroidManifest.xml file in src/debug:

For leak_canary:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <application>
        <activity
            android:name="leakcanary.internal.activity.LeakActivity"
            android:exported="true"
            android:icon="@mipmap/leak_canary_icon"
            android:label="@string/leak_canary_display_activity_label"
            android:taskAffinity="com.squareup.leakcanary.${applicationId}"
            android:theme="@style/leak_canary_LeakCanary.Base">

            <intent-filter android:label="@string/leak_canary_import_hprof_file">

                <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />

                <data android:scheme="file" />
                <data android:scheme="content" />
                <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
                <data android:host="*" />

                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\..*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\.hprof" />
                <data android:pathPattern=".*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\..*\\.hprof" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <activity
            android:name="leakcanary.internal.RequestStoragePermissionActivity"
            android:excludeFromRecents="true"
            android:exported="false"
            android:icon="@mipmap/leak_canary_icon"
            android:label="@string/leak_canary_storage_permission_activity_label"
            android:taskAffinity="com.squareup.leakcanary.${applicationId}"
            android:theme="@style/leak_canary_Theme.Transparent" />

        <receiver
            android:name="leakcanary.internal.NotificationReceiver"
            android:exported="false" />

    </application>
</manifest>

You might as well just use the tools:node="merge" attribute and declare the android:exported=true|false as LeoFarage kindly suggested.

I ran into the same issue after targeting Android 12 in my project.

The problem was the project was quite big, with multiple AndroidManifest.xml files, and android:exported missing in many places.

I ended up creating a Gradle task to fill the missing android:exported attributes automatically for me.

Here is the link.

Your question may have flagged for duplication because of this post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67654506/manifest-merger-failed-targeting-android-12, although yours was posted a week earlier. I don't see the flag now.

To clarify another answer, note that android:exported should be set true for your main activity, or it won't launch despite an encouraging 'Launch succeeded' message from Android Studio as no other app, or even the Android system itself, can launch it.

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:exported="true"

For other activities with intents buried in your merged manifests, this would normally be set to false.

I had to also add android:exported="true" to all my receivers declared in the manifest. So I had something like this:

<receiver android:name=".alarms.AlarmReScheduler"
      android:exported="true">
      <intent-filter>
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.LOCKED_BOOT_COMPLETED" />
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED" />
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.QUICKBOOT_POWERON" />
          <action android:name="android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REPLACED" />
          <!-- For HTC devices -->
          <action android:name="com.htc.intent.action.QUICKBOOT_POWERON" />
      </intent-filter>
</receiver>

---

I don't think you should add android:exported="true" to just everything. You should only add that when those Broadcast receivers need to be visible to Android OS. The Intent filters in that code mean that I wanted Android OS to wake up my Android app and perform an operation.

android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED is a very good example because Android OS sends broadcasts to every application installed in the device. So technically, it would mean that any Broadcast receiver that has an intent filter with actions should always declare android:exported="true".

For apps targeting Android 12

Change your app's targetSdkVersion to S(32 Or 31) to enable the new behavior.

Then Specify android:exorted="" attribute in Manifest either true or false depends on Activity

For Laucher Activity Such As Splash or MainActivity Use android:exported="true" and for the rest Activities use android:exported="false"

E.g:

    //it's **true** for laucher Activity
    <activity android:name=".SplashActivity"
              android:exported="true" />

     //it's **false** for rest Activities
     <activity android:name=".MainActivity"
              android:exported="false" />

In your launcher activity, declare "android: exported":

<activity android:name=".MainActivity"
          android:exported = "false">

    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>

</activity>

If true “android: exported= true” it means the activity is accessible to any app and can be launched by its exact class name.

If false “android: exported = false” it means the activity can be launched only by the components of the same application with the same user ID, or privileged system components.

For more details check here.

//Note required by launcher activity

<activity
    android:name=".MainActivity"
    android:exported="true"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyApplication.NoActionBar">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

required by recevier

<receiver android:name=".Musicreceiver"
      android:exported="true">
     
</receiver>

required by services

 <service
        android:name=".service.LoggerService"
        android:enabled="true" />

Update version of androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.1' to latest version like: - androidTestImplementation 'androidx.test.ext:junit:1.1.3' from build.gradle app level.

I was getting this error even when I added android:exported="true" in all activities, receivers etc. The thing that worked for me was to change compileSdkVersion and targetSdkVersion to 30.

This will help for 2021 users.

In one of your two build.gradle files you should be able to find the line targetSDK 31. Change that to 30 and then do a gradle sync (a small bar will appear above the main code window where you can click "Sync now") and you should be good to go.