Develop Reference

Debugging the result of MSBUILD AndroidManifest merge

VS 2022 17.1.0
Xamarin Android SDK 12.2.0.4
We have a Xamarin Forms project that includes an Android target. That Android target has recently been updated to have a targetSdkVersion 31 (Android 12)
We are now getting the following errors when trying to upload our Signed APK to Google Play
Duplicate declarations of permission
android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION with different
maxSdkVersions. Duplicate declarations of permission
android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION with different maxSdkVersions.
If I look at the signed APK created by VS2022 build I can see these entries in AndroidManifest.xml
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission-sdk-23
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"
android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
<uses-permission-sdk-23
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"
android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
How can I see what is causing these permission values to be merged into our AndroidManifest?
Our currently released build has a targetSdkVersion of 30 (Android 11) and whilst these duplicate permissions are present in the merged manifest for that relesase, Google Play does not complain.
Other AndroidManifest values that might be important are
<manifest
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:versionCode="1"
android:versionName="3.7.0"
android:installLocation="0"
android:compileSdkVersion="31"
android:compileSdkVersionCodename="12"
package="com.OurCompany.OurApp"
platformBuildVersionCode="31"
platformBuildVersionName="12">
<uses-sdk
android:minSdkVersion="24"
android:targetSdkVersion="31" />
OTHER VALUES REMOVED
</manifest>

I finally managed to trace which component was adding ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION and ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission entries.
The only way I found to track it down was from all the entries in the "obj" folder under "lp" e.g. \obj\Debug\120\lp
This was wear the various libraries I was using would unpack themselves. I search that folder for occurences of "ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" and that gave me the library name that was the problem
The change I made in our AndroidManifest was
<uses-permission-sdk-23
android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"
tools:node="remove"
android:maxSdkVersion="30" /
Note the use of the tools:node attribute, the Android docs for this are here, https://developer.android.com/studio/build/manage-manifests

How to add permissions to Unity android application?

In native android application if I need to declare that my application is going to use any permissions first of all I need to add them to AndroidManifest.xml file, like here
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
package="com.co.ar">
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
...
And this way I can just open application settings on the phone and see what permissions this application is using.
In unity I don't see a way to declare permissions that application is going to use. I found out according to this documentation
https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.1/Documentation/Manual/android-manifest.html
There is LibraryManifest.xml that responsible for permissions, I found this file and add there permissions I need, but because of this file is generated so every time I make new build it rewrites.

Player Settings -> Tab (Android) -> Publishing Settings -> Check Custom Main Manifest -> Edit "AndroidManifest.xml" in Assets/Plugins/Android

There is LibraryManifest.xml that responsible for permissions, I found
this file and add there permissions I need, but because of this file
is generated so every time I make new build it rewrites.
There by the way an asset that can do this android permissions
I hope you find this useful

How to remove mms sending warnining in cordova app?

Cordova app after installing warns me about MMS Sending.
Appears only on Xiaomi RedMi Note3 (MIUI)
screenshot

you can add and remove any permission
navigate to <project directory>/platforms/Android/ and open AndroidManifest.xml
you will all see permissions at last like following
...other permissions....
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_MMS" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
...other permissions....
remove the line the line with MMS's permission in it.
Beware: Removing the permission added by plugin can cause app crash.

how to use SET_DEBUG_APP permission

I found the SET_DEBUG_APP permission - it seems to grant permission to do exactly what I need to do at the moment - unfortunately I found no documentation on how to use it - can anybody shed some light on how to use it?

Like any other permission, add it to the AndroidManifest.xml file.
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
package="com.somebody.amazing_app" >
...
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SET_DEBUG_APP" />
...
<application
...
</application>
...
</manifest>
Most of my devices don't need this; they debug just fine without this line. But one of my devices insists--it won't start running the app in debug mode without this line.

Figure out who is adding READ_PHONE_STATE to my manifest file?

I am compiling a project that does not explicitly request the READ_PHONE_STATE permission, but when I compile I am seeing the permission in my compiled Android Manifest file. I'm assuming some library that's being pulled in is adding it explicitly or forgot to set its minimum SDK version (which would add it).
The only thing I have to go on is that in the final manifest, the permissions I requested myself look like this:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />
<uses-permission android:name="com.android.vending.BILLING" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
And the READ_PHONE_STATE looks like this:
<android:uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />
Does the android prefix mean anything?
Is there any way to narrow down which library is adding this permission?

You can exactly see if a (or because of) library adds some extra Permission to your manifest. Check at file generated (see below) during build process and look for the unwanted permission within the file!
Go to your project folder and look for this path:
[ProjectFolder]/build/outputs/logs/manifest-merger---report.txt
open the file and search for the permission
In my case I found these lines at the
uses-permission#android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE IMPLIED from
C:\..\...\AppFolder\src\..\AndroidManifest.xml:2:1-14:12 reason:
com.some.evil.library has a targetSdkVersion < 4
This generated file show the output of the merge process described here in Android Developers site.

I would look at:
Android Library Manifest vs. App Manifest
This isn't really a duplicate so I won't flag, however I think he covers the topic fairly well in his answer to that question.
After that and assuming you can't figure it out, I would do the following:
Locate your gradle cache
Crack open the artifacts of each of your dependences (rename to .zip and extract is the easiest way to do this)
check if they have manifests included and see whats in the,