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I like many other have been experiencing Force closes on Google Play Music, Movies, and YouTube after the latest updates on ICS based roms. I have seen people report experiencing this problem on Stock, Liquid, AOKP, and CM9 on various devices. I myself have wiped data and even tried it on a completely fresh rom install from what I could tell there were no files on my SD card generated from previous versions of Google Play Music that would cause the problem. On my regular rom I uninstalled and wiped any existence of the old version multiple times. When I place the widget on my home screen it'll shuffle and play through my locally stored music on my sd card (not pinned music actually music I copied my self). It seems to be wanting to display an element but that it doesn't exist so it crashes.
I reported the crash inside the Stack trace it includes the error:
java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{com.google.android.music.activitymanagement.TopLevelActivity}: android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #6: Error inflating class android.app.MediaRouteButton
Here is a logcat for the Google Play Music FC as well http://pastebin.com/VP2cSmN1 It seems to be the same exact bug that causes YouTube to crash although the Play Movies is a slightly different but similar bug from what I can tell.
I think more people are needed so that this bug is noticed and fixed. I created a thread on the Google Support forums here I encourage everyone that is having this problem to make a post so that it is noticed and fixed.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/mobile/a6u2tK6a49g/-Juju-8C9vQJ
Please post in this thread if you are having this problem or if you have a solution to the problem. Now obviously the easiest solution would be for Google to update all the apps with a fix but possibly the problem could lie with the individual custom roms. Any information that anyone has on these issues would be welcome and needed to get this problem fixed.
EDIT: Here is the old Google Play Music APK to downgrade. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1533816
EDIT: After a little research I found this in the documentation for Android and apparently it's a class that is only found in Jelly Bean which brings me to the question why is it trying to use it on an ICS rom?
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/MediaRouteButton.html
EDIT: Raeled found out if you remove the res/layout-v16 folder from the apk file the apps no longer force close. The Movies app had an additional res/menu-v16 folder I had to remove. Keep in mind I don't know what side effects this will have on the apps but so far from what I have seen they work fine however I haven't rented any movies. Also because these are modified with an APKTool the signature was broken so you will have to uninstall your older versions to use them and I don't think you will be able to install any updates from the Google Play Store since the signature won't match. Anyways at least a solution until Google can fix the problem or our custom rom developers can find what causes the apps to want to use the Level 16 API.
EDIT: If you're a rom developer you can fix this problem in your rom by applying this change and recompiling from source. Explanations of why you need to do this can be found below.
https://github.com/aospX/platform_build/commit/a34ffcecc7c237ac9c9e263984f6a74d3a7c3831
I'm on AOKP and having the same issue. Would very much appreciate a fix :fingers-crossed:
Thanks for posting hopefully we get more attention to this issue!
I am using EOS ICS (4.0.4) on my Xoom 3G and aospx ICS on my Desire HD and was experiencing the FC's on both of them.
Have been doing some experimenting on altering the APK to get it to work on my device. I've been using APKTool to remove the "\res\layout-v16" folder from the APK. That seemed to do the trick and the modified app seemed to run fine on both the devices.
This raises the question for me why "layout-v16" would get used at all in the first place as my limited Android knowledge tells me it should not be used on API 15 (4.0.4).
I'm not completely sure what this all means but to me it looks like the devices are telling the apps that it is running on Jelly Bean while it is actually not.
Would you be able to post your modified apk files?
EDIT: I was able to do it however if you know how to do it without breaking signatures so that they can just update over the other apps that would be great.
Altering the APK without breaking the sign should not be possible. Even if it was we'd probably need to "fix" every new version anyways.
I have been looking in the android documentation and the resource should indeed not be used according to the specs on the Android development website.
To test further i have created a simple APK file (attached) that will print out the current API level. It also has to "res\layout" and a "res\layout-v16". When i run it on my device it will (just like music apk) select the v16 resource while the API level is 15. When i ask the API level using code it correctly reports 15.
Also changed folder to "res\layout-v17" quick just for a test but then the devices didn't pick this resource. So it will correctly skip API 17 content
So it seems the system does know it's API 15 but will still get API 16 resources.
If the case is that the problem is in the custom roms and the official ICS roms do not have this problem i think the change that Google is gonna fix this is pretty low.
Raeled said:
Altering the APK without breaking the sign should not be possible. Even if it was we'd probably need to "fix" every new version anyways.
I have been looking in the android documentation and the resource should indeed not be used according to the specs on the Android development website.
To test further i have created a simple APK file (attached) that will print out the current API level. It also has to "res\layout" and a "res\layout-v16". When i run it on my device it will (just like music apk) select the v16 resource while the API level is 15. When i ask the API level using code it correctly reports 15.
Also changed folder to "res\layout-v17" quick just for a test but then the devices didn't pick this resource. So it will correctly skip API 17 content
So it seems the system does know it's API 15 but will still get API 16 resources.
If the case is that the problem is in the custom roms and the official ICS roms do not have this problem i think the change that Google is gonna fix this is pretty low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah basically the Google Guy basically said our custom rom people need to fix it which is probably true however in my mind they could just as easily make a separate ICS APK like they have a separate APK for Gingerbread not a hard thing to do. But I hope that you're able to find the root of this problem I don't really have enough experience with this to know how to solve it in the rom. But you are saying that if there is API 16 material in the Apps it will pick it up and use it no matter what app it is?
I've used the android SDK to create 2 ICS Virtual devices. (4.0: API 14 and 4.0.3: API 15). These devices resolved the resources as they where supposed to do. After that i installed the Google Play Music app on them and also those worked perfectly fine.
The change that google is gonna fix this is next to none. The APK is not in error here. If they do this fix then they'd be saying that the specs are "more like guidelines"
And yes, this problem will spread to every app that will use API 16 only functionality in an API 16 only resource.
Yeah I've pretty much come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with the actual roms that need to be fixed by our developers! Just the root of the problem needs to be found.
The following are speculations as i messed up my Xoom by testing it. So use caution when trying to do what i did.
After some exploration in the Android source i found that the resource manager (the component that is responsible for loading the "res\layout", a.o.) is initialized not by using the "Build.Version.SDK_INT" (this has the correct value of 15), but by another property "Build.Version.RESOURCES_SDK_INT". This can be found in the source at: "\core\java\android\content\pm\PackageParser.java" (line 497 & 712).
Moving to source at "\core\java\android\os\Build.java" (line 120) we find out that "RESOURCES_SDK_INT" is based on "SDK_INT" but adds +1 if "CODENAME" is not equal to the value "RES". A few lines up we see that codename is read from the "ro.build.version.codename" key in the "build.prop" file. In the roms i use this value is "AOSP" so this means the resource sdk version gets +1 and will start to prefer Jelly Bean resources.
I tried to modify my "build.prop" file but this caused my xoom to not get past the boot animation. So once more: be carefull
doesn't this mean it should be 15 instead of aosp? This other rom theirs has the value of REL they claim not to have the same issue we are having but I can't confirm this.
Oh by changing this for whatever reason it thought apps weren't there and decided to wipe a bunch of the app data... I just backed up the system so that was awesome!
Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk 2
Link_of_Hyrule said:
doesn't this mean it should be 15 instead of aosp?
Sent from my ThunderBolt using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "ro.build.platform.codename" is automatically set by the flag PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME in build/core/version_defaults.mk when compiling from source..Which =AOSP stands for development build and REL is release build. But by changing PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME := REL this does in fact fix this issue as Raeled suspected (tested by installing latest Google Play Music and latest YouTube, both work fine now.. )..
https://github.com/aospX/platform_build/commit/a34ffcecc7c237ac9c9e263984f6a74d3a7c3831
thanks Raeled
But it requires recompiling the entire rom from source?
existz said:
The "ro.build.platform.codename" is automatically set by the flag PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME in build/core/version_defaults.mk when compiling from source..Which =AOSP stands for development build and REL is release build. But by changing PLATFORM_VERSION_CODENAME := REL this does in fact fix this issue as Raeled suspected (tested by installing latest Google Play Music and latest YouTube, both work fine now.. )..
https://github.com/aospX/platform_build/commit/a34ffcecc7c237ac9c9e263984f6a74d3a7c3831
thanks Raeled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So this means that your next rom build is going to be possible to use the google music and youtube app from the market without any problems?!?!
Link_of_Hyrule said:
But it requires recompiling the entire rom from source?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct..it seems that once compiled with =AOSP, all the system packages check this and if it doesn't return as a development platform (=AOSP) it crashes..this is why just changing it in build prop does not work..So the whole rom needs recompiled with =REL.
onesolo said:
So this means that your next rom build is going to be possible to use the google music and youtube app from the market without any problems?!?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, changes are already pushed to git and will be in next release.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda app-developers app
Well your devices are lucky to have a dev actively working on fixing this it seems us Mecha users will have to wait for a dev to come along and release a new build or new ICS rom with the fix.
EDIT: Finally got it fixed in the up coming build
can u please update to the latest yt version?
Bump
Sent from my MZ601 using XDA Premium HD app
Youtube app (v4.1.23) & Google Play Music (v4.3.615.481147):
Thanks raeld can you put up the latest version 4.1.47 to please?
Well then... now that android is a major contender in the mobile OS wars. Had the G1 from day one.
My only complaint from android... is the quality of apps. Also, repeat of the same apps over and over again in the play store. Recently I've been scouring the market place and I noticed that there are a lot of apps that seem kinda... a waste... For example... just how many weather apps and widgets do you need? most of the time they copy HTC, Samsung, or Sony apps (weather, clock, calendar etc) and slap on a generic name onto it.
Now Im all for "oh android is OPEN" but at least put some effort on making an app
this raises the question... should android have a tighter quality control over apps? Im not saying to make android "closed" but anyone that wants to submit an App on the play store needs to follow guidelines so there isn't repeats of apps that makes android fragmented. I mean there's 700,000 apps on the play store right now but prlly only a few 100 are only worth using because of how polished they are.
What do you guys thing? does Google need have tighter control of the play store?
I agree with you. I think holo ui on apps is the best thing ever happened to android. Apps started to look high quality and developers did great job with holo. But there are still tons of non-holo apps that hasn't been updated since 2009/2010 and most of them not even work on new devices they just give force closes. I think Google should give those developers 2 month to update their apps with their guideline and otherwise just delete it. I started get sick of these old apps.
The other thing bothering me is the themes. Go themes, adw themes, launcher pro themes, they are everywhere. I hate to see all those themes when I simply search "launcher" on play store. Most of them are not even compatible with the latest versions of their launcher. I hope Google will do something about it.
Google started letting Android turn into new Windows. Every manufacturer can put bloatware in it. Millions of useless programs in the Internet. Most of them aren't updated since XP. Most of the people choose Linux or Mac(I still like windows more than mac ) over windows just because of the bloatware. Think about the toolbars of ie . Google should manage apps better in play store. Otherwise Android will start killing itself.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
spunker88 said:
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so your saying that google should just let those junk apps stay in the play store. sure ios has junk apps but it isnt as bad as android.
yea discourage the developers that makes junk apps. thats the point. if a developer is constantly putting out updates then it shouldn't worry about having its apps being deleted. im just saying that google needs remove crappy apps from the play store. it just makes google play look lazy
leventccc said:
I agree with you. I think holo ui on apps is the best thing ever happened to android. Apps started to look high quality and developers did great job with holo. But there are still tons of non-holo apps that hasn't been updated since 2009/2010 and most of them not even work on new devices they just give force closes. I think Google should give those developers 2 month to update their apps with their guideline and otherwise just delete it. I started get sick of these old apps.
The other thing bothering me is the themes. Go themes, adw themes, launcher pro themes, they are everywhere. I hate to see all those themes when I simply search "launcher" on play store. Most of them are not even compatible with the latest versions of their launcher. I hope Google will do something about it.
Google started letting Android turn into new Windows. Every manufacturer can put bloatware in it. Millions of useless programs in the Internet. Most of them aren't updated since XP. Most of the people choose Linux or Mac(I still like windows more than mac ) over windows just because of the bloatware. Think about the toolbars of ie . Google should manage apps better in play store. Otherwise Android will start killing itself.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your right about some of the themes... some of those themes are copying other manufacturer's skins
look at beautiful widgets... they copied htc sense clocks. im suprised that htc didnt take them down.
spunker88 said:
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't thousands of outdated launcher themes and not working apps in the app store. The ones at app store still work on newer iphones and don't look outdated. But the ones at play store look stretched and outdated.
i agree with you
I believe one thing that would help is better search functionality in the play store. Seams to me that a major search engine would have better search options in their store.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
So i did a quick Google search, however, i didn't find anything answering my question.
So when we think about android we (at least the ones who knows their thing) we know it is related to google. However, so far i know that Android is open source, correct me if i'm wrong, but that means that anyone CAN "cook" their own rom of android. (As soon in the numerous threads in android development). So far so good.
A while back i recall reading Google forbidding Cyanogenmod of including their multi-window feature (the one that allows you to surf the web and watch a youtube video simultaneously as seen in Samsung devices(Note 1/2 probably S4 and S3(?)). Anyways, my guess is they came to terms where they can agree or did Samsung ignore what google had to say? So to make a long story short, what are google's rights when it comes to android?
Can google, for instance, if it doesn't like what a manufacturer is adding to their phone be it a feature or a skin say that they only want manufacturers to stick to the AOSP look and if they do add their own skin they will be taken to court? Can they do this?
Just curious to understand how things are running here. I wanna know the rights google has and if it could have went to court with samsung because of using the multi window feature.
I think that you are asking a good question, to which I have no answer, but would be interested in following this.
Personally, I would like to see an Android ROM devoid of Google.
____________________
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shadehh said:
So i did a quick Google search, however, i didn't find anything answering my question.
So when we think about android we (at least the ones who knows their thing) we know it is related to google. However, so far i know that Android is open source, correct me if i'm wrong, but that means that anyone CAN "cook" their own rom of android. (As soon in the numerous threads in android development). So far so good.
A while back i recall reading Google forbidding Cyanogenmod of including their multi-window feature (the one that allows you to surf the web and watch a youtube video simultaneously as seen in Samsung devices(Note 1/2 probably S4 and S3(?)). Anyways, my guess is they came to terms where they can agree or did Samsung ignore what google had to say? So to make a long story short, what are google's rights when it comes to android?
Can google, for instance, if it doesn't like what a manufacturer is adding to their phone be it a feature or a skin say that they only want manufacturers to stick to the AOSP look and if they do add their own skin they will be taken to court? Can they do this?
Just curious to understand how things are running here. I wanna know the rights google has and if it could have went to court with samsung because of using the multi window feature.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is while 'Android' or rather the AOSP is completely open source and free to use as you like, there are parts that Google have restrictive licensing over, or example the 'Gapp' (gmail, google+, play store etc). Manufacturers then also hold rights over the parts they add into Android (skins, other apps etc.).
Google has no control over manufacturers sticking Android on a device and that manufacture changing Android in anyway (hence the many many random Chinese devices), however Google can prevent a manufacturer from having a license to include the play store etc if they are unhappy with whats being done.
Google didn't forbid the CM team from including it, they said they would restrict access to the Play Store for devices running CM. The Play services is the only thing Google has power over, since that's their proprietary service. They cannot prevent someone from making a device that runs Android, since that's open source.
And I so believe Samsung's method is different, because apps require some changes before you can run then in multi windows, so you can't just run any app (officially, that is).
Lesicnik1 said:
Google didn't forbid the CM team from including it, they said they would restrict access to the Play Store for devices running CM. The Play services is the only thing Google has power over, since that's their proprietary service. They cannot prevent someone from making a device that runs Android, since that's open source.
And I so believe Samsung's method is different, because apps require some changes before you can run then in multi windows, so you can't just run any app (officially, that is).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see. Doesn't that in theory mean that Samsung could just take their sgs 3, remove all google services and smack their own play store onto it or am i missing something here?
shadehh said:
I see. Doesn't that in theory mean that Samsung could just take their sgs 3, remove all google services and smack their own play store onto it or am i missing something here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh they could. But then it would be blocked from other Google projects as well.
Wayne Tech S-III
Hi people,
Just to inform that Google Play Store 4.2.3 is out from Nexus 4 Android 4.3 system dump. You can download it here. For GPS 4.2.3 multi dpi normal or inverted for ics/jb go here. Enjoy.
Thanks
Any info about new features?
Edit: info from the site
What's New?
I've looked through it, and from what I can tell, it has some sort of additions related to the new functionality for restricting user access to Google Play. I suspect this is used in multi-user situations, where the primary user doesn't want secondary ones to be able to install things, but I haven't been able to confirm it just yet on the Nexus 7. Maybe there is a new menu that shows up in Android 4.3...
Another theory proposed by commenter Markus is that it's possible that this new functionality is meant for restricting Play Store's usage on devices that aren't licensed to use it and don't come with it pre-installed, which would... suck, though I don't see how Google could enforce it.
There is a new Activity called com.google.android.finsky.activities.AccessRestrictedActivity and this related new string:
Code:
<string name="limited_user_text">"You don't have permission to use Google Play Store."</string>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have stock ROMs, aosp, omni, paranoid versions and more.
As we all know mobile phone manufactures like to include there own apps. Now porting them seems like a complicates process which in most cases seems unlikely to happen.
I open this topic to hopefully get a better understanding of how apks are put together. Here I have a few question to start with and hopefully we could find a way to make porting of apps easier in the future.
1.how does the the android framework affect the app?
2.what files in the apk check the framework if compatible?
3.which files in the apk rely on the androids framework to function?
4.What are the main files to edit in an apk?
I know many apps are different but there's obviously something which stops the from being able to work on other phones. If apps in play store can played on all phones then manufacturer software must be able too.
Hopefully together we can make it possible. I've opened this to get some ideas and views from different people and more experienced developers.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
adry1988 said:
We have stock ROMs, aosp, omni, paranoid versions and more.
As we all know mobile phone manufactures like to include there own apps. Now porting them seems like a complicates process which in most cases seems unlikely to happen.
I open this topic to hopefully get a better understanding of how apks are put together. Here I have a few question to start with and hopefully we could find a way to make porting of apps easier in the future.
1.how does the the android framework affect the app?
2.what files in the apk check the framework if compatible?
3.which files in the apk rely on the androids framework to function?
4.What are the main files to edit in an apk?
I know many apps are different but there's obviously something which stops the from being able to work on other phones. If apps in play store can played on all phones then manufacturer software must be able too.
Hopefully together we can make it possible. I've opened this to get some ideas and views from different people and more experienced developers.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Sent from my GT-I9505 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
framework-res.apk basically contains the
elements of the Graphical User Interface for the
phone. This file is available at /system/ framework/framework-res.apk. Poking in this file would mean changing the
complete look and feel of your device. Since it is
the main element of your screen, replacing it
directly by pushing it through ADB would lead to
soft-brick. Therefore, this apk should carefully be
modified and replaced using the recovery module of the phone.