Installing apps and clones

On a farm you often need to roll one app out to a dozen phones at once, and sometimes you need several accounts of the same social network on a single device. The first is solved by installing an APK, the second by app clones. This article covers how to install regular APKs, what a clone is, how to install one, and where to see the list of installed clones and the run history.

Installing a regular APK

The fastest way is the Quick actions block in the right panel:

1. Select the phones you need on the Home page (click a card; the Select all checkbox ticks everything at once).
2. Click Install APK.
3. In the Select APK dialog, pick one or several files with the .apk extension.
4. Follow the progress on the Logs page: for every device a line is written when the install starts and another one with the result.

If nothing is selected and exactly one phone is connected, the app takes that one. If there are several phones, you will see the hint "Select a device (click a card) - several are connected.", and if there are none, "No connected devices. Connect a phone over USB."

The install replaces the version already present while keeping the app data. A large APK may take a few minutes, which is normal. Quick actions run directly and create no rows in the task list, unlike clone installation, which goes through the task dispatcher.

What an app clone is

A clone is an APK of the very same app but with a modified package identifier. To Android that is a different program, so it installs alongside the original with its own data, its own cache and its own login session. That is how several independent copies of Instagram or TikTok can live on one phone.

It is important to understand the division of roles: Lusiesta Studio does not create clones. Ready-made clone APKs are produced by the external NomixCloner utility, and the app takes a folder of such APKs, installs them on the selected phones and maintains a device-to-clones map. Clones of three apps are supported: Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Why run several accounts on one phone

The reason is usually economic: you have a limited number of phones and need more accounts than that. Clones keep sessions apart - each account sits in its own copy of the app and does not log the neighbour out when you switch.

An honest warning: several accounts on one phone always means a shared device fingerprint and, as a rule, a shared IP. Platforms are good at linking such accounts together, and no software changes that. If the accounts have to be as independent as possible, keep one account per phone and one proxy per device (see Why every device needs its own proxy). Use clones deliberately, when the risk is acceptable.

Step 1: Cloning - source and devices

Open the Clones section under TOOLS. The page is split into three step tabs, and the first one is called Cloning with the subtitle "APK source and devices".

1. Click the folder picker and point it at the directory with your ready-made clone APKs (the dialog is called "Folder with APK clones"). The app picks up every APK in the folder and detects the brand from the file name.
2. Below that, tick the devices you are installing to. The counter shows "Selected X of Y devices".

If no folder is chosen or no device is ticked, starting the run shows the message "Choose an APK folder and at least one device".

Step 2: Installation - queue and launch

The Installation tab, subtitled "Queue and installation launch", contains two blocks: Installation summary (what goes where) and Installation queue with the list of APKs. Every entry has a status: Pending, Installing, Done.

Click Start installation. You will get a message along the lines of "Started: N devices x M APKs - progress on the Tasks page". After that:

• one Clone installation task is created per device, and it installs the whole list of APKs one by one;
• the task caption is updated by a live counter, "Installed X/Y clones", so you can watch the progress right in the task list;
• the task can be stopped with the button in its row - the installation breaks off after the current APK;
• if some APK fails to install, the task result contains the list of errors, and a diagnostic report is sent to the server automatically.

The app also catches package collisions separately: if two APKs share the same identifier, only one of them lands on the phone, and the task result carries a note about the duplicate package with advice to rebuild the clone under a different name. This is the most common reason behind "I installed five clones and only three showed up".

Step 3: Management - list and history

The Management tab, subtitled "History and management", answers the question "what is actually installed on the phones".

• The Clones on devices block shows each device with an "on N / M" counter. Inside, you can enable or disable a specific clone: a disabled clone stays on the phone but takes no part in uploads.
• The Scan button polls the connected phones and refreshes the list. Use it after installing or removing apps manually on a device. The empty state reads "No clones found - connect devices and click Scan".
• Removing a clone from a phone is done in the same place and requires confirming "Remove from device?". If the device is offline, the record is at least removed from the app database.
• The Clone history table keeps a log of installation runs with the columns Time, Source, Devices, Clones, Status, Duration. Until you run one, it reads "History is empty - run a clone installation".

How clones take part in publishing

The New publication page has a Clones block subtitled "Publishing through the installed clones of the selected platforms". Clones are switched on by separate toggles per brand, independently of the main platform toggles, so a clones-only mode without the base app is possible. If there are no clones, you will see "No clones to upload with" and a hint to install them on the Clones page.

Uploading through clones works like this: every clone takes its own video from the queue, the phone gallery is cleared before each run and the required clip is placed there, the clone is launched, runs the scenario and is then force-closed. One failed clone does not bring the whole task down - the result reads something like "Succeeded on N/M clones". Details on preparing files and captions are in Preparing content for upload.

What to do if it did not work

• Clones are missing from the list - click Scan on the Management tab with the phones connected. Make sure the devices are online and USB debugging has been authorized.
• Only part of the folder installed - check the task result for duplicate packages and rebuild the problem clones in NomixCloner under different names.
• The clone is installed but the upload says the account is not logged in - signing in is done manually on the phone; the app does not log accounts in and does not store logins or passwords. Open the clone on the device and sign in yourself.
• Installation fails on every device - check that the file really is an APK, that installation from unknown sources is allowed on the phones and that there is enough free space.

If the cause is unclear, open Logs and filter by device: the clones module writes its messages there. A report on a failed task can be sent with a single click from the Tasks page.