AndroidManifest.xml duplication

Question

I use to make modifications in the Androidmanifest.xml file in the root folder of my project. But I discovered that there is an AndroidManifest.xml file in the \\bin folder too. Is it automatically created and updated by Eclipse? Or did I copy it there by mistake?

Sometimes this file in the \\bin folder is not aligned to the main AndroidManifest.xml, and in this case I see crashes and strange behaviours in my app.

Answer 1

It is system generated after successfully compiling your project. You need not to change anything under /bin folder. Clean your project if there is any mismatch, it will update itself.

Reffered from

The compiler uses the bin folder as a sort of staging area to prepare your files to be finally packaged into your APK. This includes compiling your Java code into class files and also putting your resources (including images) into a certain structure to be zipped into the APK. It's required to have a separate copy because the Android SDK does some preprocessing on these images before packaging.

Answer 2

The version in bin is put there by the build process and you should not modify it yourself. Only modify the manifest in your project root.

When the files differ, there was a build problem of some sort. If cleaning and rebuilding doesn't help, have a look at the console tab for specific build problems.