Windows Phone 8.1: Cannot install Company apps

I was helping customers with deploying Company apps to Windows Phone 8.1 through MDM and here are some of the errors encountered while installing apps and resolutions to those issues. 

 

Problem: We signed the company app(appx package) with SignTool and the user initiated dowload by clicking the link in company hub, but after download the installation fails with error:

Error:System.Exception: Install failed. Please contact your software vendor. (Error code: -2147009287 /0x80073CF9) 

Resolution: The appx package was not precompiled before singing and the reason for failure. The issues was resolved using the following PowerShell script to precompile and sign the app which automates the preparation of the package as well as the signing process. Using this script ensures that the package is in the proper state prior to signing.

powershell.exe –File "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\WindowsPhoneApp\v8.1\Tools\MDILXAPCompile\BuildMDILAPPX.ps1" -appxfilename C:\temp\fabk.appx -pfxfilename C:\temp\cert01.pfx -password mypassword  

 

Problem: Cannot install Company app(appx Package) on the device. There is no error message but the app doesn't get installed.

Resolution: There is known issue signing company apps(appx package) using the Visual Studio 2013 update 2 tools, it doesn’t sign the appx package correctly. The issues is resolved using the updated sign tools that is installed with Visual Studio 2013 update 3 .

 

 

Problem: Trying to install company app(xap package) using InstallationManager.AddPackageAsync() fails with following exception:

"An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800703f0)"

Resolution: The error occurs if you are using the debug build of xap package. You have to use release build of xap to resolve this issue.

 

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