Google Awareness API SecurityException is thrown

Question

I'm using DetectedActivityFence from Google Awareness API. It's working fine on my own devices, but I received a several crashes in Crashlytics about SecurityException.

Fatal Exception: java.lang.SecurityException: Invalid API Key for package = [package_name] .Status code received = -1
   at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1540)
   at android.os.Parcel.readException(Parcel.java:1493)
   at com.google.android.gms.common.internal.zzu$zza$zza.zza(Unknown Source)
   at com.google.android.gms.common.internal.zzd.zzqz(Unknown Source)
   at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzpw$zzc.zzapl(Unknown Source)
   at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzpw$zzf.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:422)
   at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:237)
   at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1112)
   at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:587)
   at com.google.android.gms.internal.zzrn.run(Unknown Source)
   at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:818)

This happened without any correlations between Android versions, i.e. it affects devices from different manufacturers and different Android versions(5.x-6.x). These devices aren't rooted and look like working on Stock ROM. This problem appears for 10% of my users.

I'm sure that I'm using the right API key otherwise I can see the crash on my own device, can I?

Did anybody face the same issue?

@Amy yes, it works on my devices and I assume the key is right. — andrei_zaitcev, Sep 08 '16 at 12:15
@aeinsam The *API Key* which you generated with whichever *package name* the *package name* is differ. I mean check the package name of your app and which one you entered on developer console while generating *API Key*. — Jay Rathod, Sep 08 '16 at 12:16
@aeinsam, I'm seeing the same behaviour: works on all debug and release builds in house, for some users out there Crashlytics reports the SecurityException seen above. Have you been able to fix the issue? — Florian Barth, Sep 26 '16 at 16:31
@FlorianBarth no, I removed that feature from my application. Do you know where I can submit a bug related to Play Services? — andrei_zaitcev, Sep 27 '16 at 09:28
I reported the issue to the AOSP issue tracker, I hope that was the right one or they can give a hint on the right bug tracker: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=223751 — Florian Barth, Sep 27 '16 at 09:31

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 14 '16 at 23:18

5

There is a bug that erroneously mistakes some errors from the network operation to authenticate the app as indicating that the API key was not set up correctly, even though the actual error was something else. This has been fixed internally and will roll out in the next Google Play services release.

For now, the best workaround is to add an UncaughtExceptionHandler on the thread that calls GoogleApiClient.connect(). If you call GoogleApiClient.connect() on the main thread, then you can get the Thread instance via Looper.myLooper().getThread().

answered Oct 14 '16 at 23:18

mochu

74
3

2

Fix will be rolling out in early 2017. – mochu Oct 27 '16 at 22:02
1

how do you know that? – klimat Jan 18 '17 at 12:07
Seems to be paraphrased from a bug report. I have created a new answer that is properly referenced. It is important to keep an eye on that thread and make updates there. From what I read, there is disagreement as to whether that "best workaround" even works. Downvote for not attributing your source. – Bruno Bronosky Feb 06 '17 at 21:23
@mklimek: mochu was my colleague at Google on the Awareness API. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 27 '17 at 20:41
Is this bug fixed? – klimat Mar 03 '17 at 14:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '17 at 21:19

From: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=223751#c2

There is a bug in our checks that is sometimes throwing this SecurityException when there is a network error to authenticate. The fix will rollout in the next version of Google Play services.

For now, the best workaround would be set up an UncaughtExceptionHandler on the thread that you call GoogleApiClient.connect(). For most folks, this would be on the main thread, which you can get via Looper.myLooper().getThread().

But you will also notice that replies indicate that is not a solid work around.

You may also notice that the OP of that thread references this SO post, but the accepted answer doesn't back reference the thread, even though they copied from it verbatim. Very bad form!

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 08 '17 at 14:55

I came across this issue as i was getting the same error, and i thought it might be the Awareness API keys not syncing to the Google Developer Console, after lots of looking and getting the same error, I went back to the Awareness API on Google Developer Console and realized my Awareness API was not enabled even though, I had the package set and had a valid API key. Also make sure that API key is set in your Manifest. Hope this helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 13 '17 at 11:28

I struggled almost a day and found another answer. Although accepted answer was correct at that time.

The only thing helped me that is generating API key on Google Developer Console using debug keystore for testing purpose and replacing same with release keystore while going to production.

How generate API key? Please check out Google's word itself Here

Hope it will help someone in future.

Google Awareness API SecurityException is thrown

4 Answers4

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