So, got the nook tablet this morning, and decided to perform the permanent root here
Getting following instructions I was able to root the device on my first try. I began to setup the normal functions for me, exchange email Facebook etc.
FB is not compatible, i'm familliar with the HD2 and market problems with the dpi setting causing some market apps not to be compatible. I'll play with the build.prop and try to find a few good settings....maybe.
well, while setting up email I began to get FC when it would try and allow permissions from the exchange server to control the device (wipe/lock/etc)
Then settings started to FC as well as browser. So what do you do when that happens? why, you FNR (format n restore) of course! So i decided to wipe the nook and start over.
That's where my real fun began.
I don't know how to use adb, so I didn't use that to push applications after the FNR, so don't say "why didn't you just use adb to blah blah..noob..."
I tried to run the script again from the link above, but of course the device was already rooted. Ok, I went looking for a unroot and found the one click unroot. Unfortunatly since I had already FNR the device, su and everything else was gone. the one click did not work for me because of the state I put it in.
dig....read...surf....found a reference to an app but all links to that article on xda were 404.
found online nomoarzergy.zip (giyf)
Ran this, rebooted, then I was able to use the nookandzergy.bat to reroot and debloat.
I have tried the go laucher and the honeycomb launcher but both FC on the mail app with exchange.
Do a search on exchange - I seem to remember a thread here discussing that exchange e-mail won't work on the NT.
~ G
i'll dig...playing with new toys right now.
servergod said:
I tried to run the script again from the link above, but of course the device was already rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you did not correctly do a factory reset, you did a soft reset. Start there and it should fix all the issues.
From what I have read, it looks like B&N crippled activesync security support in their code. Probably so that they could then sell users TouchDown from their app store. TouchDown will work, but it is pricey. I have been looking into the process of restoring or adding the activesync protocols back in to the NT, but haven't spent much time on it. Shafty023 has developed an e-mail apk that "fools" the Exchange server in some cases. You can find it by searching "Shafty023 email." I have not tried it yet, but another poster has reported that it allowed him to access his Exchange email on his NT.
Eustace2 said:
From what I have read, it looks like B&N crippled activesync security support in their code. Probably so that they could then sell users TouchDown from their app store. TouchDown will work, but it is pricey. I have been looking into the process of restoring or adding the activesync protocols back in to the NT, but haven't spent much time on it. Shafty023 has developed an e-mail apk that "fools" the Exchange server in some cases. You can find it by searching "Shafty023 email." I have not tried it yet, but another poster has reported that it allowed him to access his Exchange email on his NT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah this is the one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8007001&postcount=1 - Users just have to replace the original email.apk for this one MANUALLY. The same dev is also the creator of enhanced email which is an excellent app but it is not free.
Veronica
That is helpful information. I didn't know it was the same developer. EE is more reasonably priced than TouchDown. Do you know if EE will pull data into the Calendar and Contact apps loaded with the indirect root? I may test it with the file you link to and ,if it works, buy EE to get the upgrades.
Thanks,
David
Related
Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong place. But here goes.
My phone is trying to send text to paid numbers behind my back. I'm using prepaid so it doesn't work. I get a "You have insufficient funds to send this text" message daily, at random times.
I have no pirated apps. Everything on my phone came straight from the market. However, I've not installed a single one of the apps that was on the recent list all over tech sites.
I'm planning on reflashing with a different rom and changing all the passwords that were stored on my phone.
BUT.
Before I do this, I want to find out which app is causing this behavior. Any Ideas on how to find out what is sending random text from my phone (they don't show up in the messaging app)
viogrep said:
Ok, maybe I'm in the wrong place. But here goes.
My phone is trying to send text to paid numbers behind my back. I'm using prepaid so it doesn't work. I get a "You have insufficient funds to send this text" message daily, at random times.
I have no pirated apps. Everything on my phone came straight from the market. However, I've not installed a single one of the apps that was on the recent list all over tech sites.
I'm planning on reflashing with a different rom and changing all the passwords that were stored on my phone.
BUT.
Before I do this, I want to find out which app is causing this behavior. Any Ideas on how to find out what is sending random text from my phone (they don't show up in the messaging app)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install a android antivirus and firewall like Lookout.
Sent from my GingerBread Eris using XDA App
lookout finds nothing. All the other AV software fails to install. "Unknown error -18"
i have plenty of free space.
viogrep,
I wrote a novel, but then thought I should just ask a few preliminary questions:
Q1) does the error message contain any useful "hints", such as the destination number ?
Q2) if you use a logcat - capturing app, does anything show up in the logcat right around the time the message is generated which might provide some further clues?
There's a lot of different techniques you can use, but they require a bit of effort - not only to perform, but to explain, too.
Q3) Are you willing to post up the output of the "ps" command to a pastebin?
Q4) What apps on your phone request "SEND_SMS" privileges? You can find out with
Code:
strings /data/system/packages.xml > /sdcard/strings-pkgs-xml.txt
and then poking through the "strings-pkgs-xml.txt" file. When you see (for instance)
name="android.permission.SEND_SMS"
the immediately prior package is what requested it. Either that or you can do something tricky like
Code:
strings /data/system/packages.xml | awk '/<package name/{pkg=$2;}; /_SMS/{print pkg, $2;}'
bftb0
1. No destination number in the error. Sorry.
2. Also, no clues in logcat from what I've seen.
3. PS > http://pastebin.com/iUAfP9Yb
4. Besides the default gapps, the only other app with SEND_SMS priv. is Koxx Pure Messenger. (Purchased from the market, Have had for awhile, the sms sending is new)
Going to try to call my provider and see if I can get the number that's been denied because of funds.
*edit* No luck with provider.
I'd really like to know whats doing it so I don't install the same app once I flash. Luckily I keep nothing important on my phone. Its gmail account is actually a duplicate with my original forwarding to it. I'm a tiny bit overprotective over my email(address). :x
viogrep said:
4. Besides the default gapps, the only other app with SEND_SMS priv. is Koxx Pure Messenger. (Purchased from the market, Have had for awhile, the sms sending is new)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that it isn't necessarily this simple, but if that really is the only other app besides the GAPPs with SMS priveledges, especially coupled with the knowledge that the SMS capability is new, I think you have your answer.
If you tried a new ROM and restored all but that one app, and the problem never happens again then you can be 95% sure. Only way to be 100% sure is that after a certain length of time without a problem (a week?) you reinstall Koxx and then if the problem starts happening again.
I looked through your "ps" listing.
Didn't see anything too obvious sticking out at me; there were a couple of non-market apps running though. I know that there is no theoretical reason why non-market apps would be malicious - on the other hand, I sort of wonder why they are not on the market... you know what I mean? What is stopping them? (In the case of Tubemate - which was actually kicked off of Google's market, my suspicions are even higher. I realize it was not kicked off because of malware; but still...)
These were the only processes that were either not on my phone, or I didn't really recognize.
Code:
com.dylan.tube = [Non-Market App] Tubemate
com.gau.golauncherex.notification = GO Launcher EX (READ SMS)
com.levelup.beautifulwidgets = Beautiful Widgets (LevelUp)?
com.revsodev.volumecontrol = [Non-Market App] Volume Control (Cyrket?)
com.swype.android.inputmethod = Swype?
com.tencent.research.drop = QQPlayer (no perms req'd?)
net.bajawa.battery = BattStatt (no perms req'd?)
org.sipdroid.sipua = Sipdroid VoIP + video
The Road Warrior has an idea which is sort of useful; but I'll modify it to use binary division.
Start with a freshly installed, clean ROM, and only install half of your apps. (I would put all of your most frequently used apps in the first half, and delay any non-market apps as long as possible). Here's how this goes:
- if the "half" you put on the phone is trouble-free (long enough to know the SMS popup thing is not going on), then, install half of the remaining apps, and wait again to see if there is a problem.
- if the "half" you put on the phone develops trouble, then you know that the problem app is in that group. Wipe the phone and re-install all prior "halves" (that caused no trouble), but split the current half (the group containing the suspect app) in half, and only install that. Proceed in this fashion until you are down to the app which causes the trouble.
If you have 128 apps on your phone, and you wait 1 day between installations, it will take 7 days to find the malicious app. (And if you don't get a failure within the first two days, your phone will have 3/4s of it's apps installed - that's not too bad).
The thing is though, even if you had an app compromise your phone, it might not be an "app" that is doing the dirty work any longer. For example, the most recently discovered malware ran rooting exploits against the device, and once successful, downloaded and installed "other stuff". That "other stuff" could be native binaries. So, examining permissions in the system manifest doesn't necessarily guarantee that you have exhaustively looked at your phone, or discovered all possible means of interacting with the SMS system.
It might be "just an app", though - and if it were me, the first ones that I would suspect are non-Market apps, or apps that *cough* got downloaded from "freeware" sites.
Thanks for the responses. I actually did a fresh flash last night. First thing I installed was tubemate (running through non market apps) and it did it. Ironically I added some money to my account to see if I could get the number it was trying to text. Apparently it still couldn't go through.
Sent from my FroShedYo V10-ERIS using XDA App
I had a game from a Chinese developer that stole my gmail. Log into yours from the website and see if you get a red warning.
Sent from my GSBv1.9 ERIS using XDA App
viogrep said:
Thanks for the responses. I actually did a fresh flash last night. First thing I installed was tubemate (running through non market apps) and it did it. Ironically I added some money to my account to see if I could get the number it was trying to text. Apparently it still couldn't go through.
Sent from my FroShedYo V10-ERIS using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm always amazed when something I suggested actually works. LOL. It's just that I'm used to things being more complicated than I hope.
Glad you figured out the trouble!
Thanks bt and RW for the help.
As far as the gmail thing... I use a different gmail address on my phone with email forwarded (different pass)...
If it gets taken I just stop the forwarding and make a new one. Makes things a more simple. Sure, they can see past emails, but they cant request passes/info from other sites... (I also monitor the login IPs in gmail, religiously. Just a habbit.)
viogrep said:
Thanks bt and RW for the help.
As far as the gmail thing... I use a different gmail address on my phone with email forwarded (different pass)...
If it gets taken I just stop the forwarding and make a new one. Makes things a more simple. Sure, they can see past emails, but they cant request passes/info from other sites... (I also monitor the login IPs in gmail, religiously. Just a habbit.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. You could just change your password from the web if your phone gets stolen.
Especially since it's the gmail address you use on your phone that everything is sync'd to, not the one that's forwarding to it. So if you got another Android phone you'd lose all your contact info and bought and installed apps info, calendar and such. Unless you sync them manually which is so much harder in my experience.
Or you could use one of the many free apps out there that would let you remotely do many things to your phone. Turn the GPS on, triangulate your phone, make your phone scream, do a factory reset to erase everything...
Just a suggestion.
Has anyone gotten exchange to work? Not quite the same setup as my phone. Finishes wanting additional security settings. Touchdown worked, but I don’t want to have to buy it.
Thanks
miniblue said:
Has anyone gotten exchange to work? Not quite the same setup as my phone. Finishes wanting additional security settings. Touchdown worked, but I don’t want to have to buy it.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you Googled abot how to set it up in android
Sent from my LG GT540 Swift using XDA App
I have set it up many times on my Droid. The NT shoves fewer screens. I kind of wonder what will happen if I copy the backup files and do a titanium restore.
miniblue said:
I have set it up many times on my Droid. The NT shoves fewer screens. I kind of wonder what will happen if I copy the backup files and do a titanium restore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sent you a pm
I tried the titanium backup restore route and got further. It's still looking for updating security settings and then force closes. I'm really looking for how to get THIS app to work. B&N states their email app doesn't support exchange and to use touchdown. Touchdown does work and works well. I just don't like paying for something if I already have something that should function. I have 29 days left on my touchdown demo to get the native google app running.
Working with Address Book
Using shafty023's modified Email app, which fools exchange I got my company exchange server talking to the Nook Tablet. I found that Go Contacts EX works well for the contact list. Several others I tried force closed.
Thanks, shafty023
I have a NT rooted and setup to disable automatic downloads from BN following directions on this forum. Everythings been working pretty good but I would still like to purchase things from BN occasionally.
I then went out to the Android marketplace and downloaded Nook for Android, installed it and I can see it in my list of apps.
When I click on the icon for it though, all it does it take me back to the main page of my launcher.
Has anyone else had these issues?
Sounds like a bad install to me. I am rooted with zergy and have minor debloat, opting to keep all of the B&N stuff as I still buy books often. Which root method did you use? I also have the nook app on my phone with a few books in my dropbox. It works fine on that as well. Perhaps try clearing cache and data from the app and try signing in again?
I know there have been other threads on this, and I don't recall anyone getting it to work. I believe B&N has done something either to the app or to Android to prevent it from running.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
I had the same outcome after rooting. I suspect and accepted that it was most likely due to opting for a full B&N debloat.
Right, I did do a full debloat also.
If BN would let me just get the ebook, even to my computer, I suppose maybe I could transfer it over to the nook that way but I haven't tried it.
Thanks!
larrynooktb said:
Right, I did do a full debloat also.
If BN would let me just get the ebook, even to my computer, I suppose maybe I could transfer it over to the nook that way but I haven't tried it.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Calibre is a resource to assist in that. I find it a great library manager and it will act as a WiFi server to your Nook through the Calibre Library app
I'm unclear whether this post is about the nook software already baked into the device, or the "Nook for Android by B&N" available to download on the Market.
When you say "Nook for Android" I assume you mean the latter.
It's strange that the app will not even launch. I'm not sure how it differs from any other android app. The app works fine on my Droid and Droid charge, but won't download certain magazines saying they're unavailable on the app, when they clearly work just fine on the software baked into the Nook Tablet.
Perhaps after someone gets Cyanogenmod stable on the device we will see whether or not there was something baked in that specifically blocked the "Nook for Android" app in the Market.
I was referring to the B&N Nook app from Android market. MOst of the other B&N preloaded apps also stopped working after debloat too
As ckevinwelch mentioned there have been numerous posts about this - including one by me. What I did instead was find the reader.apk, shop.apk and library.apk apps in an old back-up of Ti-Backup I had and installed those after doing a full debloat using indirect's root. Have had no problems since then.... (I've re-rooted a couple of times to take advantage of updates, etc).
edit... I mispoke, it appears that after I did the freeze OTA block (9.9.9) recently, it now shows as unavailable under owner/account in settings, I don't have access to the B&N shop, but my old books are still on my NT and I can read them. It did work when I was listed under owner/account.
Sorry to get your hopes up.
~ G
If you did the debloat PRIOR to installing and backing up using TI-backup, is there some other place to find and reinstall these apps?
You can get them from the acclaim update zip file (for the magic restore card).
So did you decide not to sell yours?
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
TX Kevin, and no, didn't change my mind but the buyer flaked on me. So, still trying to make it worthwhile keeping if it ends up that way.
Does acclaim file require me to reroot? hate the idea of that...
Don't restore from the zip, just pull them out, move them to system/app and install.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk
of course none of these will actually do much until I reregister the device under my B&N account, correct? Presently, they run but don't access anything.
Speaking of...is there a way to reregister without rerooting?
of course none of these will actually do much until I reregister the device under my B&N account, correct? Presently, they run but don't access anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct...
Speaking of...is there a way to reregister without rerooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think so...
~ G
I did not do a full debloat and only removed games but I have the same problem and cannot use some of the originally installed B&N apps. I think it is something I have to accept since I rooted the device. I did not install the Nook for Android app.
OK - Did a test last night w/ the following results:
After backing up all my apps and go launcher settings, and using Indirect's unroot app and Indirect's root method I rooted once each using option 5 debloat and option 1 debloat. Both times I registered my NT when the initial welcome screens started.
- With option 5 debloat and OTA block I did not have access to the B&N Shop/Library and couldn't purchase new books. I could re-install the library & reader apps from my back-up and my old stuff was there but no access to buy/download new stuff. Device Info/About Your Nook showed Unavailable for Owner/Account.
- With option 1 debloat and OTA block I do have access to the B&N Shop/Library and was able to purchase and download a new book. Device Info/About Your Nook showed my name and e-mail for Owner/Account.
I find it takes about 45 - 60 min. to completely unroot, reroot and reinstall my apps from back-up (after installing Ti-Backup from the market). Since your computer has already been set-up w/ the drivers to root when you did your intitial root - just start the reroot process w/ the NookandZergy.bat that you have in your c:\ntroot folder.
HTH ~ G
So I've had the HDX 8.9" for a while and in general I love it. But there are some things about it that I don't like, and find myself wishing that I'd picked up an iPad Air instead of the HDX. I'm not sure what the current status of things is, but the fact that there's still a sticky post here saying there isn't a good way to recover bricked units doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. OTOH, maybe the problems I face are resolvable without having to root the unit entirely.
1) Restricted to the Amazon App store. There's a bunch of apps that are just way out of date (Trillian, looking squarely at you...) or not present on the Amazon app store. I've worked around this to some extent by loading up the 1Mobile Market store. This allowed me to get the newer version of Trillian, Chrome, Bluejeans, and such installed. But even apps that work in general have some gaps; for example Chrome works fine as a browser but I can't sign in to sync up my bookmarks and such... it crashes the app when I try to do that. Perhaps there's a better market than 1Mobile that I should be trying instead, since getting Google Play up and running would require a full root to my understanding?
2) Notifications. The notification system on the Kindle sucks. On the iPad I had, which I was using before I got the Kindle, an incoming IM or such would flash a banner across the top of the screen before going to the standard system bar up top as an indicator. This doesn't happen on the Kindle. Worse yet, if I'm doing something like watching a TV episode, I often will not actually hear any sound come through for a Trillian notification, and will only realize that I got a message after the episode ends. I'm not sure if this is specifically a Trillian-related sound issue, and perhaps I should try another IM client on the Kindle, or if there's possibly an app that will work that will help me get an on-screen display for incoming notifications when I'm doing something that hides the notification bar, like reading a book/Marvel Unlimited or watching a video.
3) Growl support. On the iPad I ran an app called Prowl that would receive forwarded Growl events from my Mac. This allowed me to get notifications from IRC/Hipchat/etc that come from my laptop but ping my tablet. As I'm partially disabled due to arthritis, I take various breaks throughout the work day when my back or such starts acting up, and I try to stay connected to my coworkers and family using the tablet. I found a few assorted Growl-related apps around, but can't seem to find any that work on the Kindle.
4) Google Authenticator / Authenticator plus. I used to use GA on my phone (Droid 4) and then switched to Authenticator Plus, as it stores the info for the accounts in Dropbox so you can have multiple devices generate codes. However, I can't find that even on 1Mobile. (The plugins for it seem to be there but not the main app?) Thoughts around this would be helpful, though it may tie into #1.
5) Email. I really dislike the native email client. The Android and iOS Gmail apps are really solid and do what I want them to do. At one point I found out how to sideload enough APKs to get the Android Gmail app working, but that kept generating weird app crashes (some of them the Google libraries like Google Service Frameworks, some of them actual apps, like it was crashing Trillian when the library crashes popped up). Eventually I uninstalled those and went back to using the native client. I'm not sure if there's a better way to get Gmail sideloaded at this point that doesn't do that (as this was something I did right when I got the device, not long after they came out), or if there's another app that works well with Gmail. Specifically, I don't want it to take forever to download my mail. I'd rather have a list of sender/subjects with no message preview and have the message get pulled up when I touch it, than have to wait for it to download the message contents for everything up to the message I want before I can tap into it and have the message display. (If you tap into the message before the download completes it seems like the native client won't refresh the message when it is downloaded, which is just... crap.)
I'm no slouch with tech (I'm a Unix Systems Administrator by trade), and I have access to Win 7, Linux, and OSX Mavericks machines to do whatever is needed, but I'm definitely not an Android wizard. I did root my Nook Color back in the day, and the wife's, so I'm familiar with the kind of process to go about things, but I'm very wary of bricking a very expensive piece of hardware. (I've got the 64G model, ostensibly so that I could have video content downloaded locally if desired, to have lots and lots of books loaded on the device, and for games. However, several of the games that I was playing on iOS aren't available on the Amazon store but do have Google Play versions. When all is said and done, I really like the Kindle as a device, but I am getting rather annoyed by some of the software side of things that just are non-existent issues on the iPad.)
stormerider said:
4) Google Authenticator / Authenticator plus. I used to use GA on my phone (Droid 4) and then switched to Authenticator Plus, as it stores the info for the accounts in Dropbox so you can have multiple devices generate codes. However, I can't find that even on 1Mobile. (The plugins for it seem to be there but not the main app?) Thoughts around this would be helpful, though it may tie into #1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I found that this was available as a native app (surprisingly so!), so this item is a non-issue.
stormerider said:
OTOH, maybe the problems I face are resolvable without having to root the unit entirely.
1) Restricted to the Amazon App store...
...I'm no slouch with tech (I'm a Unix Systems Administrator by trade), and I have access to Win 7, Linux, and OSX Mavericks machines to do whatever is needed, but I'm definitely not an Android wizard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Quit being afraid of root, there's no reason for it.
People are getting in trouble here because they haven't done much reading before they plunge in, and because they are messing with Safestrap and trying to install ROMs on a device with a locked bootloader. This is different than rooting, which is actually a pretty trivial and non-risky procedure, even for a nonslouch, nonwizard,
Follow instructions here and most of your problems will vanish:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2787813
earlgrey_44 said:
Quit being afraid of root, there's no reason for it.
People are getting in trouble here because they haven't done much reading before they plunge in, and because they are messing with Safestrap and trying to install ROMs on a device with a locked bootloader. This is different than rooting, which is actually a pretty trivial and non-risky procedure, even for a nonslouch, nonwizard,
Follow instructions here and most of your problems will vanish:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2787813
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Went ahead and did that, and got the play store working. Any thoughts about the notification system post-rooting?
stormerider said:
Thanks. Went ahead and did that, and got the play store working. Any thoughts about the notification system post-rooting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congrats. A firm step on the way to wizardom!
Native heads up notifications are a feature of a more advanced version of Android than the one we are chained to here. Otherwise, there are many apps that provide notification enhancements, but I don't have much experience to offer. Perhaps others may chime in to help with that.
I am wondering if there is a way to modify the Facebook APK to get contact sync working without modifying ContactProvider.apk as I am using a non rooted phone and don't want to root just for this. In the past I have used HaxSync but with the latest Facebook APIs that no longer works.
Is it simply a case of adding the WRITE_CONTACTS permission to the Facebook APK and if so is that (easily) possible?
Thanks for any help, if there is a better subforum for this type of thing please let me know also, thanks.
I don't believe it is app specific, it's through their servers, if I understand the problem correctly. The only thing I have seen from the apps that used to work is they say the contact has to grant permission to let them sync the info before it will work. This seems like just modding the app will not be enough to help accomplish what you are trying to do.
es0tericcha0s said:
I don't believe it is app specific, it's through their servers, if I understand the problem correctly. The only thing I have seen from the apps that used to work is they say the contact has to grant permission to let them sync the info before it will work. This seems like just modding the app will not be enough to help accomplish what you are trying to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For third party apps, (e.g. HaxSync, UberSync etc.) what you're saying is true. These apps no longer function due to server side changes by Facebook in the form of updated APIs (as I mentioned in the OP).
However I am talking about the official Facebook app. With this app, the contact sync still works perfectly, on ROMs where ContactsProvider.apk is modified to explicitly grant permission to the Facebook app (com.facebook.katana) to write contacts, without the app itself requiring the permission that every other app needs. OEMs such as Samsung modify ContactsProvider.apk in this way so as to allow Facebook to sync (by basically adding an exception to the permission check). There are also flashable mods for custom ROMs, as well as an Xposed module which performs this task. Obviously these require unlocked bootloader & custom recovery, or root & Xposed respectively.
However, I believe that if the app itself is modified to require this permission (i.e. android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS, it should also work, without requiring an exception in ContactsProvider.apk.
The reason modifying ContactsProvider is "preferred" by most is that doing it that way allows the app to be installed from the Play store and thus maintain auto-updates, whereas if you modify the APK you no longer get auto-updates, and would have to manually update. But that's worth it to me to get contact syncing working.
EDIT: On closer inspection, it may be more complicated than I thought. The Facebook app already has this permission, there must be something else preventing it from functioning. I still believe it is possible to get it working simply by modifying the APK, but it is likely beyond my capabilities.
SifJar said:
I am wondering if there is a way to modify the Facebook APK to get contact sync working without modifying ContactProvider.apk as I am using a non rooted phone and don't want to root just for this. In the past I have used HaxSync but with the latest Facebook APIs that no longer works.
Is it simply a case of adding the WRITE_CONTACTS permission to the Facebook APK and if so is that (easily) possible?
Thanks for any help, if there is a better subforum for this type of thing please let me know also, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually this fiasco started a couple of years ago. When Facebook & Google had a spat over data sharing. Facebook app has the support to sync contacts. But it is not natively supported. It is just a matter of 0 & 1. But OEM like Samsung, HTC have made contract with Facebook individually, so it is supported on those phones.
For syncing, if you are rooted you can use an Xposed module here in XDA. It's something like Xfbmod. And for the apps, Sync.me still works like a charm. I used it just a while ago.
Dexter_S said:
Actually this fiasco started a couple of years ago. When Facebook & Google had a spat over data sharing. Facebook app has the support to sync contacts. But it is not natively supported. It is just a matter of 0 & 1. But OEM like Samsung, HTC have made contract with Facebook individually, so it is supported on those phones.
For syncing, if you are rooted you can use an Xposed module here in XDA. It's something like Xfbmod. And for the apps, Sync.me still works like a charm. I used it just a while ago.
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I've seen a few forum posts referencing things along these lines, but I have found absolutely zero concrete evidence of such a "spat". There is nothing in Android to specifically disallow FB syncing, the OEMs that support it have modified the framework to explicitly grant the app permission. For a reference on this, check the CM gerrit issue about this. To quote Steve Klondik (founder of CM) on this:
Yeah, screw Facebook. We should not be hacking up the framework because they won't fix their app.
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The OEMs have decided to make a workaround, for their users benefit. Not because they have some contract, of which I have seen no evidence. The issue is with Facebook's app and their refusal to fix the issue.
As I mentioned in the OP if you bothered to read it, I am not rooted and do not want to be, and am also fully aware of the Xposed module.
As for Sync.ME, I installed it the other day and it asked straight away to upload all my contact data to their servers. It's not my place to put the details of my friends and family in the hands of some company I'm not particularly familiar with.
Tip: Installing Facebook APK version 28 or lower will give you the ability to sync contacts again. Updating to the latest version will still allow you to sync for a limited amount of time until it re-downloads updated configuration files (I think?). So I think the problem is just some config or database file disabling the feature.
ArmsAsuncion said:
Tip: Installing Facebook APK version 28 or lower will give you the ability to sync contacts again. Updating to the latest version will still allow you to sync for a limited amount of time until it re-downloads updated configuration files (I think?). So I think the problem is just some config or database file disabling the feature.
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I installed version 28 and got no option to sync. Are you on AOSP or some OEM/custom ROM? Version 28 was released long after sync stopped working on the official FB app for myself and many other people.
SifJar said:
I installed version 28 and got no option to sync. Are you on AOSP or some OEM/custom ROM? Version 28 was released long after sync stopped working on the official FB app for myself and many other people.
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I'm using Samsung Note 4 official rom. Try older ones? Mine doesn't have sync if I use versions above 28. It stopped working for me around October 1st week (Version 49). So when I want to sync, I have a titanuim backup of my version 24 data and just restore it (without restoring app itself). That way I can sync for a few minutes until the menu disappears again.
Edit: read the whole thread and I see that the problem was on other roms only. But nevertheless, Facebook disabled contacts syncing for all phones now since around version 40+. Only way to make it work is to downgrade or the steps I used above.