android - Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE] even if app appears to not be installed

Question

When trying to deploy my app to the Android device I am getting the following error:

Deployment failed because of an internal error: Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE]

I am aware of this question but the app is not installed. It has been removed/partially removed by Visual Studio during the attempt to deploy.

In the past I solved this by downloading the app from the google play store and then removing it from settings->Application manager. However, now i am getting the error "incompatible update" when it is trying to install it.

I tried to remove it using Titanium Backup and few other things but no luck.

EDIT 1

I realised (from @Motz) that I haven't mentioned that the obvious solution doesn't work. Namely, the app doesn't appear in Settings->Apps

Answer 1

I've seen this several times. Usually, it's due to having a signed release version on my phone, then trying to deploy the debug version on top. It gets stuck in an invalid state where it's not fully uninstalled.

The solution that works for me is to open a command prompt and type:

adb uninstall my.package.id

That usually completes the uninstall in order for me to continue development.