Issues on Asus Zenfone 8 stock ROM

[HyperCriSiS]

Hi,

I would like to switch to the stock ROM but I have some issues with some apps concerning cloud messaging and play services detection.

After installing the latest version from 24 Aug 2021 I got rid of most issues, except some apps like Signal, Threema and Whatsapp do not detect the push service, and Whatsapp says the play services are not installed. The strange thing is, that all of them are properly registered in MicroG.

Do you have any idea whats the problem here?

Thanks, Hyper

[FriendlyNeighborhoodShane]

Hi,

I would like to switch to the stock ROM but I have some issues with some apps concerning cloud messaging and play services detection.

Based on your symptoms, I'm going to assume you mean you are already on that mentioned stock ROM, correct? And/or you have recently restored app data from a backup?

[HyperCriSiS]

Yes, I am already running the stock ROM. I first tested without any restore. In Signal and Threema I used in app restore mechanism. Whatsapp failed to load backups.

In MicroG self test, everything is checked. But in the Logcat I just found entries with "GooglePlayServicesUtil: Google Play services signature invalid"

I used the FakeGapps XPosed module to get signature spoofing, which normally works very well.

[FriendlyNeighborhoodShane]

If you haven't restored app data from backups, then I can only guess that the problem is some conflict with some remnant of the stock ROM's gapps. How did you debloat them?

I don't recommend using microg on a stock ROM that came with gapps, because trying to rip them out after the fact is always going to cause problems like this, and more.

You could also try the troubleshooting steps for push-notifs given in INSTALL.md. But I doubt that's the problem you have here.

[HyperCriSiS]

This time I did not debloat anything because it seems debloating even cripples it more. If I debloat Phonesky for example, the patched Playstore is not available after I installed the Magisk module. After reinstalling it while the module is installed, it is available again.

[FriendlyNeighborhoodShane]

Well, there's your problem. We can't expect microG to just magically start working if all of the conflicting gapps are still there.

And this is why trying to make things work with stock ROM is a headache.

If I debloat Phonesky for example, the patched Playstore is not available after I installed the Magisk module.

You're probably using some debloater that disables those apps. Which makes the microg/related apps disabled when they're installed too. What you need is to remove gapps from your system altogether.

And again, as I said, even after you do that, there's no guarantee things will simply start work smoothly.

[HyperCriSiS]

I also mounted system R/W now and debloated everything, but still I can't get it to work. The strange thing is, I have the exact issue now also on Lineage :cry: I think something with the signature spoofing does not work properly.

This phone really kills me. On my old S7 MicroG runs so nice -.-

[FriendlyNeighborhoodShane]

The strange thing is, I have the exact issue now also on Lineage 😢 I think something with the signature spoofing does not work properly.

Still using fakegapps, right? Does that signature error you saw in your logcat earlier still appear?

Are both of the ROMs you tried this on Android 12?

[HyperCriSiS]

Both ROMs are on Android 11. It really was the signature shit. I finally could get it working! With this FakeGapps fork: https://github.com/whew-inc/FakeGApps/releases

I think the stock ROM would also work now.

So, thanks again, your module still just works ;)