The way to downgrade expo client on Android

#reactnative #javascript #expo

Intro

React Native is one of the most actively developed project in the world.
According to The State of the Octoverse, React Native has the second largest number of contributors in 2018.

This means React Native is often released.
The latest version at the beginning of 2018 is 0.52.0. And the latest version (at the beginning of 2019) is 0.57.8. How fast developing React Native was!

So, Expo that is a set of tools, libraries and services for React Native app is developing as fast as React Native is.

One day I met the error like No compatible manifest found. SDK Versions supported: 32.0.0, 31.0.0, 30.0.0, 29.0.0, 28.0.0, 27.0.0, 26.0.0 Provided manifestString: 25.0 in expo client.

This error means the expo sdk version in your app has not been already supported by expo client.
I strongly recommend to upgrade your expo sdk version when you meet the error!

I'll explain the workaround to continue developing your app in Android.
But I strongly recommended upgrade expo sdk as soon as possible.

Steps

Step1.

Check the client version compatible with your expo sdk version from https://expo.io/--/api/v2/versions

In my case, my app use expo sdk of v25.0.0, so the compatible expo client version is v2.3.0.

Step2.

Access https://expo.io/tools#client and click link of Download APK <Version>. You can download apk file from CDN.

Step3.

Modify CDN link to compatible version that you checked at Step.1

Example: https://d1ahtucjixef4r.cloudfront.net/Exponent-2.3.0.apk

Step4.

Download apk, transfer it to the Android device and install app directly from apk! That's all!

Conclusion

Though I explained the workaround that you continue developing the app using deprecated expo sdk, it is important to upgrade sdk as soon as possible.
Upgrade may need a lot of time and effort but you can benefit from new libraries and performance improvements as much.

I hope this article help you meet the same error.
Thanks for reading!