Can't start Android 8.0 Oreo on emulator: "Decryption unsuccessful"

I managed to get the Android 8.1 images to run on the emulator. I figured out the main issue was to do with emulator itself which was rather outdated.

From the looks of things it seems the emulator (originally distributed as part of the Android SDK Tools) is no longer updated since version 25.2.3

The solution was to manually update the emulator, to make it compatible to run API level ≥ 26. The emulator tools (for windows) can be found here: https://dl.google.com/android/repository/emulator-windows-4266726.zip or linux

Instructions

• Download the latest emulator from the above link or here


• When done, decompress the downloaded emulator.zip file and extract the emulator package to %USERPROFILE%\Android\android-sdk\tools or relevant path (yes you have to merge it into that folder, since the emulator doesn't have all libraries and files)


• After this your emulator will be updated (to 26.1.4 in my case)


• Now prepare your AVD (API level 26 or 27) as usual and should be up and running.

Although, the standalone SDK Manager and AVD Manager (GUIs) have been deprecated in favour of command line sdkmanager tool found in android_sdk/tools/bin/, you can still update the emulator using the method mentioned here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/sdkmanager.