Question for users of Ceton MyMediaCenter Companion (phone)

[DSperber]

(1) MMC is not shown as one of my apps on the Google Play Store. I clearly never got it from there way back.

I must have gotten it originally from the Amazon store for $4.99. That is exactly the process I repeated last week and which failed to deliver the APK to "my Amazon cloud" where theoretically the Amazon Appstore app on my phone should have shown it as available for retrieval and installation. I would then have been able to retrieve and install it... and this must have been what I did 10 years ago.

But this process no longer works. The purchase of the phone app for $4.99 proceeds normally and completes and charges me $4.99. But the APK itself apparently never gets sent to "my cloud". And then the Amazon Appstore app on the phone simply doesn't see anything in the cloud that needs to be to be retrieved/installed. This is what I showed up earlier in pictures. So I was never able to actually re-install the newly re-purchased app using Amazon Appstore on my phone. Obviously this worked 10 years ago, but not now.

(2) Nevertheless, since I actually do (or at least did) have the MMC Companion app on my phone from its install 10 years ago (even though it no longer launches, instead giving the 'unlicensed" error message), I decided to uninstall it from the phone using the APPS in Settings. Can't hurt to see if I can somehow then reinstall it another way (from the APK file which i have), since it can't start anyway by just tapping on it.

So I uninstalled it, and it is now gone from my phone's APPS list.

(a) And then I installed a highly regarded Google Play Store app named "APK Installer". Then I launched it, and it presented the following:



(b) I then pushed the "APK files" button, and it apparently did a search of the Android data folders looking for APK files. I had long ago previously installed and run a Google Play Store app named "APK Extractor" in order to extract the APK for MMC Companion, which obviously had put the APK file somewhere. And so when "APK Installer" now automatically discovered it wherever APK Extractor had placed it I was very pleased.



(c) I then tapped on that MMC APK file, expecting APK Installer to go ahead and install it. Well... it tried. HOWEVER...



(3) That result is of course identical to what using ADBLINK2 on my PC produced, although with a more detailed explanation. ADBLINK2 showed in its LOG file that the packaging for MMC (which was done back in 2014) specified a target minimum SDK of 18, but my phone now with Android 14 and OneUI 6.0 requires a minimum target SDK of 23.

So I'm guessing something very much the same is why APK Installer also says "app is incompatible with my phone".

Or, perhaps it's the no longer valid Google license for the app, which appears relevant even though I didn't get the app from the Google Play Store. It's an Android app, so it seems reasonable that a license from Google to run on an Android device would seem appropriate no matter where the app was obtained from.

(4) There's still the real enigma about my theory that it is Android 14 and OneUI 6.0 that is at the heart of the matter. But that contradicts why I couldn't even launch the app from my old S4 running Android 5. Seems to give more weight to the disappearance of the Google license (after 10 years?) as more likely the culprit. But then why does the app STILL LAUNCH SUCCESSFULLY on Gary's S20 running Android 13 OneUI 5.2m since the Google license should no longer be valid for his situation as well?

Again... this is just perplexing. Unclear what the bottom line explanation is, given all the clues and forensic evidence. Still would be helpful if anybody else who's got previously working MMC Companion on their phone could chime in with their current results experience.

(a) But for sure my purchase from Amazon last week of the app for theoretical installation on my phone by the Amazon Appstore app on my phone failed to see the purchased APK delivered to the cloud, resulting in Amazon Appstore being unable to install this newly purchased item on my phone.

(b) ADBLINK2 on the PC fails to install the APK on the phone, complaining of an "unacceptable minimum SDK version" problem.

(c) APK Installer on the S21U phone (Android 14) fails to today install the known previously installed APK for MMC Companion, claiming "incompatible with my phone". I have not yet tried the same experiment using APK Installer on my S4 (Android 5), to see if the same "incompatible with your phone" error message occurs or something else.

(d) Before I uninstalled the app from my S21U a little while ago, trying to launch it produced the "Google license expired" message. This seems the most reasonable explanation, except for the fact that Gary claims it still starts with no problem on his S20 which seems impossible if it's the same app Google license that is seen as expired on my own two S21U and S4 phones.

[Jacoats]

My Goodness. My friend, that is a lot of information. I just wanted to say that I purchased a S23 FE a few months ago because someone here posted that you could still buy the MMC app from the Amazon App Store, which I also had never heard of. It works as intended minus the images. After seeing your post I ran to my Samsung to see if it’s still works, and it does as I just checked it. I am on One UI version 6, android version 14. Relieved. Now if you could focus some of that amazing insight and understand you have of how these things work on getting the images back I know there would be a lot of grateful users here…

[DSperber]

So, two current problems for me right now, along with my theories as to why these issues are occurring.

There has to be some explanation why MMC even is allowed to start normally on some of our phones, but not on others. And whatever the explanation it seemingly cannot be tied directly to the Android version 5, 13, or 14 running on the phone, because we have reports that the app opens on some Android 14 phones but not on other Android 14 phones. So the answer must lie elsewhere.

The Google license for the Ceton app is clearly universally and undeniably no longer present or valid (as the app is no longer present on the Google Play Store). And so if/when that license is checked for by the installed MMC when the app opens and a valid license is no longer found to exist then the app MUST FAIL TO START! And yet on some phones it does not fail and actually still starts successfully!

So why is that? How can that be happening? Clearly a valid license must not be being checked for on the phones where MMC still starts, while still performing a valid license check on the other phones where MMC now no longer starts successfully.

My theory is that it must relate to whether (a) the app was originally obtained and installed freely through the Google Play Store (in which case it now fails to start because of no valid license any longer), or (b) the app was originally obtained from Amazon $4.99 purchase and then installed "from the cloud" onto the phone through the Amazon Appstore app on the phone.

My theory is that the Amazon version of the app doesn't check for a valid Google license at startup. That's the only possible explanation for how it is allowed to start and operate today whereas the Google Play Store version of the app does check for a valid license and fails because it no longer exists. So the Amazon MMC installed app permissions (if looked at through Settings -> Apps -> MMC -> permissions on those phones) must show that there is no item to checking the Google license.

That's my theory.

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(1) Coincident with the disappearance of the MMC app from the Google Play Store it appears Google has also expired/deleted the original valid Ceton license that allowed the installed app to run on Android phones. The license is now gone. So at least for any phone running any Android version no matter how new (Android 14) or old (Android 5), if the currently installed MMC app originally came through the Google Play Store path (as opposed to through the more recent Amazon path), when it launches it will automatically check with the Google Play Store for a valid license as its "App Permissions" indicate will happen:



And this license check is apparently no longer successful and the app fails to start.



Note that the error message offers two options: (a) EXIT which will close the app, and (b) BUY APP which goes to the Google Play Store to try and buy the app there, but since it is now no longer available on the Google Play Store a distracting secondary and extraneous error message is presented:



In my opinion this is what is happening on my own two phones , both of which are running what I believe is that originally 2014 installed Google Play Store version of the MMC app.

[DSperber]

The Google Play Store version of the APK package for the MMC app was created by Ceton back in 2014. At the time Android version 4.3 was out, soon to be upgraded to Android 5 (as is currently in my own S4 phone). Apparently for applications which were intended to be minimally compatible with Android 4.3/5.0, they had to declare that minimal compatibility level by specifying an SDK / API value of 18 in the APK package itself:



It appears that all versions of Android through 13 have been back-level compatible with the MMC app which was defined in the APK as having been written with the older API 18 tools. Up through Android 13 the back-level APK was still supported. But it now appears that Android 14 has now dropped back-level compatibility support for at least some much older apps, and in particular for the Google Play version of the MMC app from 2014 which is packaged with API 18 tools.

And what this means is that MMC built with API 18 tools CAN NO LONGER BE NEWLY INSTALLED ON ANY PHONE WITH ANDROID 14 OR NEWER. Note that if MMC is already installed on a phone it can be most likely still be succesfully "migrated en masse" (using Smart Switch) from the old phone over to a newly purchased phone and still be able to run there (assuming it doesn't check for a valid Google license because that most definitely and certainly no longer exists). But if the app had to actually be reinstalled from scratch, because it is API 18 and Android 14 now requires API 23 at a minimum, MMC can now no longer be installed on Android 14 phones.

Again, that is my theory.

(a) To demonstrate this difference of the ability to even just install MMC as it relates to Android version 14 or newer vs. Android 13 and older, I first uninstalled the previously installed MMC app from my S4 phone which is running Android 5. I then used APK Installer (on the phone) to reinstall MMC from the APK I've been working with (presumably that one obtained from the Google Play Store). The process began normally, with APK Installer discovering the APK file I'd placed where it could be found:



(b) Next, the app compatibilty level (18) was checked against the minimal allowed version for Android 5, and apparently found to be acceptable. I was then offered the confirmation to INSTALL:

[DSperber]

(deleted)

[DSperber]

(c) The install process now began for real, with its first screen showing what the app will have access to and asking for my confirmation to proceed:



(d) The installation then continued and completed normally, and when finished I pushed the OPEN button to launch the just-installed app for the very first time (as all previous configuration data from the 10-year old previous installed program was deleted when I UNINSTALLED earlier to begin this reinstall experiment). The program started properly, and presented its opening screen, prompting me to start configuring things to point to WMC PCs on my network. Clearly this first-time configuration process is not dependent on a valid Google license existing since it's obviously been allowed to proceed:



(e) I completed the configuration of one WMC PC on my network, and MMC was happy with its preliminary first-time setup which obviously had no problem running:



(f) I then pushed the "Start My Media Center" button to actually launch the now fully configured app. It immediately first checked for a valid Google license and failed with the familiar "no Google Play license" error message:



==> I believe this is now inevitable, for any previously installed or newly reinstalled MMC which originally was obtained from the Google Play Store. That is what the corresponding app produced from that APK will perform upon startup, i.e. checking for a current still valid Google license. And if no valid license is found the app will terminate. Plain and simple.

[DSperber]

(g) Now, if I try the very same thing on my S21U with Android 14 (where MMC was uninstalled last week and I've now not been able to reinstall it because the S21U is at Android 14), if I actually do use APK Installer to try and install that same APK originally obtained from the Google Play Store and built with API 18 tools, it cannot even be installed:



And I believe there is nothing that can be done to address this issue. It's not just an APK packaging issue I would bet. I'm sure it is the internal programming SDK API 18 tools that were used for the code development that is simply no longer usable on Android 14 and newer, which requires SDK API 23 tools.



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(3) I have a special request for you, @Jacoats...

You say you have an essentially brand new current and contemporary setup with your newly purchased S23FE that you obtained several months ago. I suggest that this is CRITICALLY CRUCIAL that you purchased it "several months ago", because at that time we were all still running with Android 13 OneUI 5.2 (I believe). Android 14 OneUI 6.0 didn't start coming out until December at the earliest but more likely January. So depending on when you actually bought your S23FE, you almost certainly were still on Android 13, which IS STILL COMPATIBLE with MMC and its APK built using API 18 tools. And this has to be the reason why you were even able to install MMC back then. I'll bet if you uninstalled/reinstalled today now that your phone is running on Android 14 IT WOULD FAIL TO INSTALL with that same "incompatible with your phone" message that I show above. Your still operating MMC is in "legacy" mode, and will not be installable again since its installer is incompatible with Android 14 requirements.

NOTE: inside the MMC app, clearly the Android services being used are no different than they were back in 2014 with Android 4.3, and I'm certain they are all still available today in Android 14. That is how a currently installed program like yours which was installed on Android 13 but continues to operate properly now that your phone is on Android 14 can even happen. So I'm theorizing that if the original Amazon version APK itself can somehow be "unpacked into its components" and then re-packaged with a new "installer" that is at version API 23... changing absolutely nothing of the internal Ceton MMC code itself, but just re-packaging into a new APK that satisfies the API 23 standard for Android 14... this would mean that MMC would then be installable and usable into the far distant future, no matter that it's no longer licensed or present on the Google Play Store. Again, that's another of my theories.

Furthermore, you say that you bought the app from Amazon for $4.99, and were obviously able to get it installed on your phone. So you must have also installed the Amazon Appstore app on your phone. And apparently the Amazon purchase for you DID put the app in "your Amazon cloud" which then appeared as expected in the "My Apps" list on Amazon Appstore on your phone. And this is what allowed you to complete the actual installation of MMC onto your phone using the Amazon Appstore app on your phone.

So, successful Amazon purchase (not obtained from the Google Play Store as mine was 10 years ago, but rather for you of the today-version customized for purchase from the Amazon store). And successful placement in "your Amazon cloud", so that your Amazon Appstore app on your phone presumably showed (and presumably still does show) MMC in "My Apps". And you installed it, and that install was successful, under Android 13 at the time. And apparently the app still works now even though your phone has been updated to Android 14.

So how can this be? And yet I cannot duplicate this on my S21U?

My theory is that the Amazon version of the app APK must not have that "permission" to check for a Google license that I highlighted in a screenshot above. My guess is that if you look on your phone, in Settings -> Apps -> MMC and look at "Permissions", that you might NOT see that very crucial "Google license check" access permission. That's my theory now, that the only way your installed version of the Amazon version of MMC can possible still start and run properly is if it is NOT CHECKING FOR A VALID GOOGLE LICENSE (which we know is no longer)!

==> So, can you please look at Settings -> Apps -> MMC and see if your PERMISSIONS looks the same as mine do above?

In fact, if you will just install the "APK Extractor" app on your own phone (it is a very useful app):



that would be a very easy way for you to just provide all the vital information about your installed MMC to help figure out what's going on here... i.e. its API tools version as well as whether or not it requires a valid Google license.

And furthermore you can then extract the actual APK (obtained from your Amazon purchase, which presumably is slightly different that the APK I have which was obtained 10 years ago from the Google Play Store). If you would then provide me with that APK I will see if can the install it on both my S4 (Android 5) as well as my S21U (Android 14), and then if it can launch successfully and run one one if not both phones. That would be terrific, and APK Extractor is the tool you need to create the Amazon version APK file for you to make available for this research.

(a) When you launch the program it will automatically just examine all of your installed apps and present the following screen, with your apps listed in alphabetical order.



(b) scroll down to the MyMediaCenter app and tap on it. That will present an overlay that looks like the following (note that the image below shows my just freshly uninstalled/reinstalled version of MMC on the S4, with today's installation date)



(c) In the top-right of this overlay is a "gear" icon. Tap on that "gear" to get more in-depth app information. If you then scroll all the way to the bottom of that additional in-depth app information you will see the complete list of "permissions" that the app is authorized for. As you can see from my own screenshot below, my MMC app (obtained from Google Play Store) will absolutely perform a Google valid license check, which is preventing my installed MMC from working (on both S4 and S21U). What does it look like for "permissions" on your installed MMC?????

[DSperber]

Partial breakthrough: I've been in touch with the software developer of ADBLINK2 regarding that blockage of the APK from being side-loaded onto my S21U running Android 14, because of a too far back-level SDK API 18. Android 14 apparently now requires a minimum of API 23 for newly installed apps.

(1) Turns out ADBLINK2 facilitates a command-line invocation method (i.e. ADB) which supports optional additional parameters, one of which does exactly what I'm looking for, which is to simply ignore this minimum SDK problem and just proceed as if things were fine with the APK.



So I've now got the MMC app once again reinstalled on my S21U.



But for now, anyway, it is still derived from what I believe is the APK obtained from Google Play Store back in 2014 which still checks for a valid Google license when main functionality is started. It is still not from the APK obtained from the Amazon app store which I believe could not be checking for a valid Google license since it is reported to actually still function today on other people's phones.

==> I am still asking someone to please send me that Amazon APK, so that I can try it for myself now that I have gotten ADBLINK2 to side-load successfully to my S21U.

(2) First-time launching of the now installed MMC app works "fine", although there is a warning presented about being very old.



And I am offered a first-time opportunity to define my first WMC PC. Again, all goes well, and I am finally offered the "Setup Complete. Let's Go" with the "Start My Media Center" button. I pushed it to now begin its "main functionality" GUI.

(3) Unfortunately, because the APK I installed from is still the Google Play Store version which requires a valid Google license, the MMC app now fails to properly start its main functionality. As I've stated previously, the warning about being an old app that might not be compatible with current Android, this is not critical. It's just a warning and turns out not really a problem at all. The critical and fatal problem is that of the missing valid Google license, which in fact does prevent the MMC app from going forward and operating. It terminates, and must be exited.




==> I am still asking somebody reading this who is using MMC obtained for $4.99 from the Amazon app store to please use the "APK Extractor and Analyzer" app I've described previously to please extract that APK and send it to me. Thank you.

[DSperber]

One more note, this time about the "APK Extractor and Analyzer" app itself. I now see that it presents itself differently when running on Android 14 (on my S21U) than when running on Android 5 (on my S4).

(1) So now, once again tapping on the MMC app from its main screen alphabetical list of apps presents the Android 14 version of the opening info screen for that app:



(2) While there is still a "gear" icon in the upper-right (which if tapped on will actually then present the phone's Settings -> Apps -> MMC's settings), the now COMPLETE set of "granular permissions" for the app is now presented by tapping the "permissions" button which is on that first opening info screen. In the case of MMC/Google there are 13 such "granular permissions", with one of them being "CHECK_LICENSE":




You can now push the "extract app" button down in the lower-right of that opening info screen for the MMC/Amazon app, in order to place the extracted APK in a folder of your choosing.

And then you can email or PM or text me that APK file for MMC/Amazon that has been stated to actually still work properly with its main functionality on your Android 14 phone. I will then be able to install it on my own S21U and see if that MMC/Amazon will also work for me... which is of course the goal.

[DSperber]

Looks like we're racing against time here. Turns out the "My Media Center" app is NO LONGER ACTUALLY STILL AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR $4.99 ON AMAZON SHOPPING!

It still shows up as a hit in a "search" for "My Media Center". But once you see it you actually can't buy it. There is no "add to cart" yellow button or any way at all to buy it.

This must have been Amazon's response to my purchase/refund three times over the past few weeks, trying to get it onto my phone. Although the purchase was still accepted the app never actually was delivered automatically to my phone. Nor did it show up in "My Apps" available for manual install through the Amazon Appstore app on my phone. They probably decided there is something wrong with the app now (i.e. no longer licensed from Google) and decided to yank it from being sold.

Which makes it only available by "extracting the APK" and sharing that, which I have requested here from anybody who still claims to have their currently installed Amazon version of the MMC app still working successfully on their phone, i.e. talking to their Windows Media Center host MMC service and presenting GUIDE, RECORDINGS, just like it is supposed to.

So please, can either Gary or @Jacoats use that "APK Extractor and Analyzer" app I pointed to earlier, and then share the extracted APK which you say you obtained from Amazon and not the Google Play Store, with me. You are apparently among the last few people for whom the MMC phone app still is working, even with Android 14. Your APK is priceless. Can you please share it with me. Thanks.

[DSperber]

Well, I've now got "all the answers, " which is placed IN THIS OTHER THREAD located in the more appropriate "Ceton My Media Center" forum, to all of my questions posted here in this thread.

So please look there for all the details and pictures.

In summary, here is the bottom line:

(1) There were actually TWO separate versions of the MMC Companion app: (a) "Google Play Store" version that is no longer available for download and for which the original valid Google license no longer exists, and (b) "Amazon Appstore" version that is still available for purchase ($4.99) and download from Amazon.

(2) The Google version no longer has a valid license from the Play Store. Any currently installed instance of this version of the app (on any phone, and under any Android version) "always phones home to the Google Play Store" when the app gets launched, in order to check for a valid Google license. Finding no valid Google license any longer, the app will immediately terminate with an error message about "no valid Google license". There is NO WAY TO PREVENT THIS. In other words the Google version of the app IS NOW DEAD and will no longer be talked about.

(3) The Amazon version also "phones home to the Amazon Appstore" when the app gets launched, in order to check for "user has paid for content" so that licensed use of the validly purchased Amazon app on this phone is allowed. Currently installed Amazon app instances on phones which might have been Android 13 and older when the app was first installed, but for which upgraded Android 14 is now running, will still work mostly normally... except perhaps for the "pictures are missing" symptom now complained about by many. NOTE: if you currently have the Google version of the app installed (and which no longer starts because of the "no valid Google license" issue, you can replace it with a newly purchased still-working Amazon version of the app but only after first UNINSTALL'ing the currently installed "dead" Google version of the app.

(4) The Amazon version can only be installed "automatically" (i.e. resulting automatically from the $4.99 purchase from Amazon) onto phones running Android 13 or older, for which the underlying SDK 18 used to produce the APK is still acceptable. For phones running Android 14 or newer, for which the underlying minimally acceptable SDK is now 23, the MMC APK is theoretically no longer acceptable and attempts to install it using "automatic" methods will fail, producing a "the app is incompatible with your phone" error message. Similarly, attempting to "manually install" the purchased and downloaded Amazon APK using the theoretically appropriate Amazon Appstore app will also fail for the same reason, if used on an Android 14 phone

(5) The Amazon version CAN BE INSTALLED MANUALLY (i.e. "side-loaded") onto an Android 14 phone (but only Galaxy S23 or older) using the command-line "ADB INSTALL" version of the ADBLINK2 (GUI) program, along with an overriding command-line operand specifying --BYPASS-LOW-TARGET-SDK-BLOCK to force the ignoring of the otherwise fatal back-level-API problem.

(6) The Amazon version CANNOT PHYSICALLY BE "SIDE-LOADED" INSTALLED AT ALL ON GALAXY S24 AND NEWER PHONES (which are also at Android 14), because of the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU hardware and machine architecture inside these newest phones. Apparently the newest hardware is simply now physically incompatible with the physical machine instructions and/or machine architecture implied by the old software libraries used to compile and package the Ceton MMC APK back in 2014. Attempts to "side-load" the APK onto an S24 phone will result in a fatal "INSTALL_FAILED_NO_MATCHING_ABIS" error message, and the "side-load" ADB install attempt will immediately terminate.

(7) The "pictures are missing" symptom WILL OCCUR when the app is installed on any phone running Android 14. This is the result of a change in design of the \ANDROID\DATA folder structure and security measures now in place with Android 14 which prevent the storage/retrieval of graphics and images. When installed onto older phones running Android 13 and older, "pictures are still present" and the app still performs properly to present channel logos and TV/movie program thumbnails. NOTE: if there was a "pictures are missing" symptom several years ago, involving older phones running older versions of Android than 14, the cause of that older "pictures are missing" issue is unresearched.