Seriously, every time I do a new build the return value of system.getInfo(“deviceID”) changes. I was hoping there would be a way for my app to detect the device it is on if it were uninstalled and reinstalled.
Am I doing this the wrong way or is the info required not available in Corona?
I thought that system.getInfo( “deviceID” ) was some what negated by iOS6+ changes. i.e. Not a real ID, but unique, so useful as an identifier in general.
I’m surprised however it is returning a new value each time. I thought it was supposed to be a hash of the devices ID, which should not change unless I’m confused here.
Have you considered, the UDID plugin: http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/plugin/openudid/index.html
Have I totally missed the point (happens sometimes)?
Cheers,
Ed
PS - Uninstalled and re-installed? Are you trying to detect if the app was uninstalled and re-installed on the SAME device or moved to another device, as in a pirated app?
@horacebury
The Corona deviceID gets its value from the identifierForVendor property of the UIDevice Class.
Unfortunately this ID can change when a user deletes/reinstalls an app.
From the UIDevice Class reference page:
The value in this property remains the same while the app (or another app from the same vendor) is installed on the iOS device. The value changes when the user deletes all of that vendor’s apps from the device and subsequently reinstalls one or more of them. The value can also change when installing test builds using Xcode or when installing an app on a device using ad-hoc distribution. Therefore, if your app stores the value of this property anywhere, you should gracefully handle situations where the identifier changes.
Thanks guys.
I’d really like to know how to identify when my app has been installed onto the same device, different version or not. Is this possible outside of the UDID (which I thought (?) was deprecated and doesn’t work on Android (?))
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen apps which detect that they’re on the same device as before - I assumed this was by registering the device ID on a server.
It’s a bit of a problem to ensure that you get the same ID across installations. Apple’s UDID is long gone, but I think that the OpenUDID plugin that Ed posted a link to above might be your answer.
However, the developer of the library has deprecated it (for iOS at least) in favor of Apple’s advertisingIdentifier, so I assume that there’s going to be no active support for it anymore.
http://blog.appsfire.com/udid-is-dead-openudid-is-deprecated-long-live-advertisingidentifier
OpenUDID claims to generate a persistent unique ID per device. I haven’t used it myself so I don’t know how it will work across installations. Even though it’s deprecated I guess it’s OK to use for the kind of things you have in mind.
I was reading about OpenUDID, and it looks like there are issues with it under iOS 7+. So it appears we’re back at square one again…
It appears as though “advertisingIdentifier” is not available in iOS through Corona. Am I right here? It looks like this would be a pretty good solution, though obviously not what Apple is intending it for, I guess.
The advertising identifier (IDFA) found in the AdSupport framework, was removed from the Corona core (I think in build 2169), since Apple started rejecting apps that could reference the AdSupport framework without using it for advertising.
Apple has implemented strict rules on how the IDFA is used, and if it isn’t used according to their rules the app will be rejected. Basically the only allowed usage of the IDFA is for ad tracking.
I thought that system.getInfo( “deviceID” ) was some what negated by iOS6+ changes. i.e. Not a real ID, but unique, so useful as an identifier in general.
I’m surprised however it is returning a new value each time. I thought it was supposed to be a hash of the devices ID, which should not change unless I’m confused here.
Have you considered, the UDID plugin: http://docs.coronalabs.com/daily/plugin/openudid/index.html
Have I totally missed the point (happens sometimes)?
Cheers,
Ed
PS - Uninstalled and re-installed? Are you trying to detect if the app was uninstalled and re-installed on the SAME device or moved to another device, as in a pirated app?
@horacebury
The Corona deviceID gets its value from the identifierForVendor property of the UIDevice Class.
Unfortunately this ID can change when a user deletes/reinstalls an app.
From the UIDevice Class reference page:
The value in this property remains the same while the app (or another app from the same vendor) is installed on the iOS device. The value changes when the user deletes all of that vendor’s apps from the device and subsequently reinstalls one or more of them. The value can also change when installing test builds using Xcode or when installing an app on a device using ad-hoc distribution. Therefore, if your app stores the value of this property anywhere, you should gracefully handle situations where the identifier changes.
Thanks guys.
I’d really like to know how to identify when my app has been installed onto the same device, different version or not. Is this possible outside of the UDID (which I thought (?) was deprecated and doesn’t work on Android (?))
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen apps which detect that they’re on the same device as before - I assumed this was by registering the device ID on a server.
It’s a bit of a problem to ensure that you get the same ID across installations. Apple’s UDID is long gone, but I think that the OpenUDID plugin that Ed posted a link to above might be your answer.
However, the developer of the library has deprecated it (for iOS at least) in favor of Apple’s advertisingIdentifier, so I assume that there’s going to be no active support for it anymore.
http://blog.appsfire.com/udid-is-dead-openudid-is-deprecated-long-live-advertisingidentifier
OpenUDID claims to generate a persistent unique ID per device. I haven’t used it myself so I don’t know how it will work across installations. Even though it’s deprecated I guess it’s OK to use for the kind of things you have in mind.
I was reading about OpenUDID, and it looks like there are issues with it under iOS 7+. So it appears we’re back at square one again…
It appears as though “advertisingIdentifier” is not available in iOS through Corona. Am I right here? It looks like this would be a pretty good solution, though obviously not what Apple is intending it for, I guess.
The advertising identifier (IDFA) found in the AdSupport framework, was removed from the Corona core (I think in build 2169), since Apple started rejecting apps that could reference the AdSupport framework without using it for advertising.
Apple has implemented strict rules on how the IDFA is used, and if it isn’t used according to their rules the app will be rejected. Basically the only allowed usage of the IDFA is for ad tracking.