RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application

When I run my application, everytime I am getting the below exception in my logcat:

 04-14 09:29:53.965: W/dalvikvm(1020): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x409c01f8)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application   android.app.Application: java.lang.NullPointerException
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:482)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:3938)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1300(ActivityThread.java:123)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1185)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.LoadedApk.initializeJavaContextClassLoader(LoadedApk.java:362)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.LoadedApk.getClassLoader(LoadedApk.java:305)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:474)
    04-14 09:29:53.985: E/AndroidRuntime(1020): 	... 11 more

Note: When I uninstall the app from the emulator and run it, then I don't get this exception but when I re-run the installed application in emulator, I am getting this. Please help.

This is a verbose error message raised by underlying framework when dalvik re-install .apk file and trying to reuse or recycle the previous opened activity/view from the same package (if you haven't closed the previous installed app yet). It has nothing to do with your app, moreover, it is very unlikely that your app will get freezed or crashed cause by this verbose error message on end user's device.

It seems that this dalvik verbose error log only happend on Android 4.0 system, I've tested it myself on Android 3.2 and 2.3.3 running environment, where you cannot replicate to get this message shown on neither of them. A similar question has been discussed before at here and someone has filled a bug report in Android Issues Tracker.

I don't think you should concern too much about this verbose error log at the moment, if you look more logs before and after this red error in Logcat, you can see the full story and find that the previous opened activity/view (which are marked as died state) get killed and the newly re-installed one get poped ultimately.

I realise it's a very old question, but this may be useful anyway. I've found that when I observe this error in my own development, it's due to the previously running instance of my app not closing down neatly, for example by shutting down background threads prior to exit.

I have been getting same error when I tried connect to the internet with JSOUP inside my application class. It was tricky, because application run on emulator but not on actual device. It turned out, that I just used JSOUP library wrong. Loading page in new thread solved my problem.

Hope I helped someone.

Hope this helps someone. Go to the running apps on your emulator by clicking this:

Close the app you are trying to install and then run it again. NO need to uninstall/reinstall app or clean project.

For me it helped to clean the Project. In Eclipse:

• Project --> Clean
  Please control that Project --> Build Automatically is CHECKED
  If the gen-Folder is empty after that, there's a mistake in the res-folder. Often, mistakes in the res-folder aren't shown by the red cross! Good luck and greetings

Simple Solution:

Just Restart your emulator or mobile device. And the problem is gone! Reason for this issue was due to a previous app activity was wrongly halted.

In my case this error appear after I've imported Android Maven project into new workspace, and SRC folder was not automatically added to build path.

Right click on the project/Build path/Configure build path/Source - check if there missing sources.

I got the same problem. Cleaning the project worked for me.

Select project go to Project --> Clean

In my case logcat show me it coudn't find the initial activity, but the Dex Path was different, it was ".../data/app/myapp-1" instead of ".../data/app/myapp". I soved this making click on the elcipse project name "myapp" in the Package explorer window. Then right click on it, ->refactor->rename... I set the project name to myapp-1, and then, ->refactor->rename... and back again to "myapp". Then it worked... some kinf of bug in eclipse?

I got the same problem. Uninstalling my app then reinstalling it solved the issue.

I experienced this when I imported my project which was built from a different machine. Just Invalidate caches and restart

File>Invalidate Caches/Restart>Invalidate and restart

I changed the applicationId to something different on (Module:app) build.gradle file, run the app again on my device. Then, I undo the change and run the app again and everything works. It works on Android Studio 2.3.1 and 4 different devices I have here, from 5.0 to 7.0.

I meet this question. When use gradle clean,gradle installDebug it work ok!

   AndroidRuntime  D  Shutting down VM
E  FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E  Process: tv.panda.live.broadcast, PID: 4685
E  java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate application tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication" o
   n path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/lib/arm, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]
E      at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:572)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4883)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:178)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1573)
E      at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:111)
E      at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:194)
E      at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5691)
E      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
E      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:372)
E      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:959)
E      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:754)
E  Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDi
   rectories=[/data/app/tv.panda.live.broadcast-1/lib/arm, /vendor/lib, /system/lib]]
E      at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
E      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:511)
E      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:469)
E      at android.app.Instrumentation.newApplication(Instrumentation.java:988)
E      at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:567)
E      ... 10 more
E      Suppressed: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: tv.panda.live.broadcast.PandaApplication
E          at java.lang.Class.classForName(Native Method)
E          at java.lang.BootClassLoader.findClass(ClassLoader.java:781)
E          at java.lang.BootClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:841)
E          at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:504)
E          ... 13 more
E      Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Class not found using the boot class loader; no stack available