Android apps fail to start on Chromebook ChromeOS due to Android Google Drive Conflict

I recently encountered a new Chromebook that was displaying a problem with Android applications.

Out of the box, the applications installed and ran as expected. But after reboot, and subsequent reboots, Android apps would fail to start properly. They would launch but then freeze displaying the Android ‘busy spinner’ animation.

Android native Google Drive App

The problem turned out the the presence of the Android native Google Drive client. This appeared to be in conflict with the native ChromeOS Google drive client.

To resolve, I removed the Android Google Drive client and rebooted. Following removal, Android apps launched and ran successfully.