Develop Reference

Does Android app dynamically change its Target API Level

I have a Xamarin.Forms app targeting Android API Level 30 (Android 11) which had Xamarin.Twilio.AudioSwitch v1.1.3 installed. The app is available in Play Store and was working fine till the time Android 12 was not released.
As soon as Android 12 became available, I got complaints from users using the BLE functionality of the app that they are not able to connect with BLE devices supported by the application.
The Android 12 users were getting the following exception:
java.lang.SecurityException:
at android.os.Parcel.createExceptionOrNull (Parcel.java:2437)
at android.os.Parcel.createException (Parcel.java:2421)
at android.os.Parcel.readException (Parcel.java:2404)
at android.os.Parcel.readException (Parcel.java:2346)
at android.bluetooth.IBluetooth$Stub$Proxy.getRemoteName (IBluetooth.java:5470)
at android.bluetooth.BluetoothDevice.getName (BluetoothDevice.java:1889)
at crc....Adapter_Api21BleScanCallback.n_onScanResult (Native Method)
at crc....Adapter_Api21BleScanCallback.onScanResult (Adapter_Api21BleScanCallback.java:38)
at android.bluetooth.le.BluetoothLeScanner$BleScanCallbackWrapper$1.run (BluetoothLeScanner.java:646)
at android.os.Handler.handleCallback (Handler.java:938)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage (Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loopOnce (Looper.java:226)
at android.os.Looper.loop (Looper.java:313)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main (ActivityThread.java:8641)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke (Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run (RuntimeInit.java:567)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main (ZygoteInit.java:1133)
The above exception occurs due to the Android 12 Bluetooth permission changes. But this is required only if the app targets API Level 31. But since my app targets API level 30, I was not expecting these changes to be required in my app.
On investigating the issue, I found out that the issue is due to the native Audio Switch v1.1.3 targeting Android API Level 31 (Android 12) as mentioned here: Twilio Audio Switch v1.1.3 but the Xamarin.Twilio.AudioSwitch v1.1.3 binding library specifies MonoAndroid 9.0 (https://www.nuget.org/packages/Xamarin.Twilio.AudioSwitch/1.1.3) due to which I was able to install it for a project targeting API Level 30.
Does this mean that if the app has a package which targets an Android API Level higher than the app itself, the target API level would be dynamically change to higher API level?
Now the problem that I am facing is that I am not able to get this issue fixed for the users who already have the app installed.
I did a downgrade of Xamarin.Twilio.AudioSwitch to v1.1.2 as the native Audio Switch v1.1.2 library targets Android API Level 30 (Android 11) and found that the issue gets solved for new installations of the app. If a user already using a previous version of my app which had the Audio Switch v1.1.3 package and updates to the latest version of app which is using Audio Switch 1.1.2, the user still faces the above exception.
Is there any way that this can be fixed without making the app target Android API level 31 (Android 12) as that would require significant changes to the app?
Note: Asking the users to reinstall the app is not an option for me.

--- This is only supposed to be needed if you target SDK 31 (but need legacy Bluetooth support), but its worth a try ---
Close solution.
In a text editor, edit file YourProject.Android/Properties/AndroidManifest.xml, with changes below.
Rebuild solution.
CHANGE 1:
Bluetooth permissions, point 4., recommends:
Add android:maxSdkVersion="30" to each declared Bluetooth-related permission. Example from doc's code snippet:
<!-- Request legacy Bluetooth permissions on older devices. -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH"
android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"
android:maxSdkVersion="30" />
Perhaps this will clear whatever the OS is remembering re your app's Bluetooth access.
CHANGE 2 (experiments):
EITHER: REMOVE any Bluetooth permissions that were added in SDK 31. ONLY list permissions that existed in SDK 30.
OR: list the permissions app WOULD need if targeted SDK 31, but add android:maxSdkVersion="30", similar to above.
Also consider point 5.:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN"
android:usesPermissionFlags="neverForLocation" />
maybe as:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN"
android:maxSdkVersion="30"
android:usesPermissionFlags="neverForLocation" />
What we are doing here is not standard -- "should" simply be ignored on a "target SDK 30" app -- it is an attempt to get OS to clear something it is remembering related to this app.
Hypothesis is that during OS upgrade, OS noticed which apps were using Bluetooth in a way that required additional permissions [due to Twilio.AudioSwitch v1.1.3], and marked them as needing those additional permissions. But then failing when feature used, because permission not declared in manifest.

No, it can't be changed dynamically you have to change it from gradle by yourself.

Permission Handler - Storage Permission Not Working

I want user permission to read and write on external storage. I have used "Permission Handler" dependency v5.0.1+1 but failed to get storage permission. I have declared Read n Write storage permission in android manifest and have set minSdk to 23, target and compile sdk set to 30 in build file.
Error Encounter:
MissingPluginException(No implementation found for method requestPermissions on channel flutter.baseflow.com/permissions/method

You're getting MissingPluginException because platform-specific code is not generated
Just run flutter clean command and rebuild the app

GET_ACCOUNTS permission and Google API's

I'm using the Gmail API to send emails from an Android app.
Reading about GET_ACCOUNTS permission lead me to think it's no longer necessary but apparently, I was wrong.
I personally use Android 8 and everything is working just fine without the permission declared, however, running Android 7 raises an exception from the Google GMS Auth lib: (I know, the exception doesn't look related, it is the permission issue)
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: the name must not be empty: null
at android.accounts.Account.<init>(Account.java:48)
at com.google.android.gms.auth.zzd.getToken(Unknown Source)
at com.google.android.gms.auth.GoogleAuthUtil.getToken(Unknown Source)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.extensions.android.gms.auth.GoogleAccountCredential.getToken(GoogleAccountCredential.java:267)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.extensions.android.gms.auth.GoogleAccountCredential$RequestHandler.intercept(GoogleAccountCredential.java:292)
at com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequest.execute(HttpRequest.java:868)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.executeCurrentRequestWithoutGZip(MediaHttpUploader.java:545)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.executeCurrentRequest(MediaHttpUploader.java:562)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.executeUploadInitiation(MediaHttpUploader.java:519)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.resumableUpload(MediaHttpUploader.java:384)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.upload(MediaHttpUploader.java:336)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.services.AbstractGoogleClientRequest.executeUnparsed(AbstractGoogleClientRequest.java:427)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.services.AbstractGoogleClientRequest.executeUnparsed(AbstractGoogleClientRequest.java:352)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.services.AbstractGoogleClientRequest.execute(AbstractGoogleClientRequest.java:469)
So I guess I still need to declare it and ask the user to grant it on Android 7, but in what other SDK versions?
It looks like Android 8 doesn't need the permission, but what about Android 6 downwards?
I've looked all over the Google API's doc's but didn't find anything related...

Adding the Layer library dependency in Android suppresses requestPermissions dialog

I made a very, very small demo app reproducing the bug on a Nexus 5 running Android version 6.0.1. The app is on github here: https://github.com/lexi-sr/LayerPermission
I recently added 2 commits in which it targets API 23 and requests permissions at run time, but it still didn't work.
In these 2 commits, it has these settings:
Target SDK: 23
compiles Layer 0.20.3
1) In the commit "Removing layer dependency allows the popup dialog to request the perm…", where it does NOT have layer dependency:
The method ActivityCompat.requestPermissions opens a dialog that requests the Contacts permission, and a log statement within the onRequestPermissionsResult method logs that the permission has been granted.
2) In the commit "Requesting permissions does not work" where it DOES have layer dependency:
ActivityCompat.requestPermissions does not open up any dialogs, but a log statement within onRequestPermissionsResult still prints, logging that it does not have the permission.
It seems like adding the layer dependency is suppressing the ability to request for permissions at run time. Why is this happening?

Luckily, the layer support team was able to help me with this. It solved my problem in the demo app (which targeted SDK 23) and my real app (which targeted SDK 22, to avoid requesting permissions at runtime). After I put tools:node="replace" into my uses-permission line for GET_ACCOUNTS, the pop up dialog was able to appear and grant the permission in the demo app, and the permission was no longer missing in the real app which targeted SDK 22.
Here is the detailed explanation from the Layer support team:
The layer SDK requests the GET_ACCOUNTS permission using a
maxSdkVersion of 18. It would appear that when the manifests get
merged this is overwriting the permission request in your manifest,
thus not requesting that permission for 19+. Could you try appending
tools:node="replace" to the permission in your app's manifest? The
line should read as:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.GET_ACCOUNTS" tools:node="replace" />
See here for the maxSdkVersion documentation:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-permission-element.html
See here for the tools:node documentation:
http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/new-build-system/user-guide/manifest-merger#TOC-tools:node-markers
Peter

Permission Denial: this requires android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL

I am having an issue with sqlite db in Android. But as I made a quick research on the internet, I suspect that the problem is not related to sqlite but system user. My app is not recognized as authorized user to access db functionalities. I tried to apply possible suggested solutions in stack overflow but none of them made a difference. This is the LogCat I am facing every time I attempt to use db functionality.
12-14 02:35:17.721 2953-3355/? E/DatabaseUtils﹕ Writing exception to parcel
java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: get/set setting for user asks to run as user -2 but is calling from user 0; this requires android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL
at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.handleIncomingUser(ActivityManagerService.java:13082)
at android.app.ActivityManager.handleIncomingUser(ActivityManager.java:2038)
at com.android.providers.settings.SettingsProvider.callFromPackage(SettingsProvider.java:577)
at android.content.ContentProvider$Transport.call(ContentProvider.java:279)
at android.content.ContentProviderNative.onTransact(ContentProviderNative.java:273)
at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:388)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.run(Native Method)
I tried to add permission
android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL
but still no sound. The strange thing is when I try to add INTERNET permission Android Studio 0.3 (ide I use) suggests me possible permissions I can choose. But when it comes to INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL permission it behaves like it has no idea about this permission. My test device is Samsung S4 running on 4.3.
I assume that I am not the only one who tries to use db on android. So there is a solution.
How can I really add INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL permission to my application?

According to this answer: android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL is a signature level permission. Your app will not be able to use it until and unless it has the same signature as the system.
Which is not something you can achieve unless you either are the creator or the system build, or collaborating with them such that they are willing to sign your apk with their certificate. In other words, this is off limits for most developers.

I got the error android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL because I had some conflicts in the bin directory of the project. I did some changes to the my app package id and the app-file-1.apk in the bin directory doesn't match with the project.
I did a project > clean and checked that the bin folder was cleared and regenerated, and it works now.

I had the same issue and think that I can help you out. I had registered my app with my production keystore, but was using Eclipse debug to load it into my phone. The Eclipse debug uses debug.keystore which wont match the signature of your production key and throw this error. Use the debug keystore instead for testing or send the apk to yourself and download it onto your phone.

I get this error when I change my minSdkVersion from 8 to 11 in my Manifest. I changed it back to 8 or 9 and no more error.
Try changing your minSdkVersion in your manifest. I was able to repeat the crash and error results with versions 10, 11, and 12 (my app crashes and displays "requires android.permission.INTERACT_ACROSS_USERS_FULL" in the LogCat)

Try to disable auto-fill. It works 100% on Android Oreo. Check this link
Simply add this code to your app :
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
window.decorView.importantForAutofill =
View.IMPORTANT_FOR_AUTOFILL_NO_EXCLUDE_DESCENDANTS;
}