Your device has been modified and now Now TV is broken - Sony XPeria Z tablet

[Anonymous User]

Probably the same as the Hudl 2 post. My Xperia Z tablet has been migrated to 5.1.1 and by official Sony updates, 5.1 and now 5.1.1. As soon as it went to 5 Now TV started whining that the device had been modified and it would no longer run. I even hid my soldering iron as I thought this was probably the only physical way of "modifying" the device! As this was an official Sony update, the device has never been rooted and Sony aren't what you might call a small company I rather thought a solution would be forthcoming. However, several months down the line, an even newer software update from Sony, not side loaded or anything else of that nature, and the problem still persists. It can't be beyond Sky's budgets to go out and get a Hudl 2 and a couple of Sony tablets, reproduce the issue and fix it! 

I have tried, at Now TV's insistance, a complete device reset, have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, cleared caches and app data and still it whines on. To be honest I've uninstalled it and basically given up on it, but just by some slim chance it does ever get fixed I'll keep an eye on this thread.

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Anonymous User

Can I just check that your using the latest NOW TV App for Android ?

There was an update last week that ersolved this issue for many devices with the same issue.

Thanks

Andy

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the info, I've just installed the latest from the Play store but the device continues to tell me it's been modified and still refuses to play anything.

[Anonymous User]

+1 for this on a OnePlus One running Cyanogen. AFAIK the OS isn't rooted by default (certainly I can't escalate privileges in a terminal session).

The NowTV L1/L2 Dilberts at the end of the chat window couldn't help. If there are any NowTV dev's who read these posts - please confirm your app works on non-rooted OPO's

😕

[Karl-F]

Hi @Anonymous User, 

Thanks for getting back in touch. 

Please can you let us know if you are still experiencing this issue? 

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app? The only other option is if you can back up your phone, and try to factory reset your phone.

Thanks, 

Karl

NOW TV Team

[Anonymous User]

Hi Karl,

As I mentioned in my post I deleted and re-installed the app and have done a factory reset of the device but I am still experiencing the issue.

I concluded that the error message only comes after the device has interacted with the NowTV service so I've removed it from my devices list. The tablet now correctly says it's not in my list. However, I'll now need to wait unitl Feburary before I can re-add the device in!! So the next test can't be attempted for several weeks!

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Anonymous User

You should be able to test it now. Let us know what happens.

Birgit

NOW TV Team

[Anonymous User]

Hi Birgit,

Thanks for doing that. Unfortunately it didn't make any difference. So how in the world does it "know" that the device has been modified when the device has been wiped and the device profile removed from NowTV?! Surely the app developers must know under what circumstances this error message is produced, some input here might lend a bit of clarity.

[Anonymous User]

Just had an update from the Play store but the problem still persist. This surely is a reason why DRM, as I'm lead to believe is the root cause for this issue, is so crap; great idea for copyright holders, content providers and big corps but utter rubbish for the end user.

[Anonymous User]

Hi @Anonymous User

That's pretty much it - our app can detect (don't know the exact way) whether or not the app has been modified. And you're correct by saying that this is to protect the studios and content providers to make sure no one can copy the shows. 

Very sorry about this 😞

Birgit

NOW TV Team

[Anonymous User]

The thing is nothing has been modified on the device expect legitimate Android updates direct from Sony! Will there ever be a solution? Can I post bug reports to the developers?

[Anonymous User]

The Z2 OS update was broken when moved to 5.1.1 its not the only app that died because of the Sony mobiles error...

The Z1s and Z3 have allready had the Sony created errors patched by Sony as long ago as the 12/12/2015..

Z2 has not...

Don't by Lenovo tabs either they also broke there update...

[Anonymous User]

Hi Birgit,

So basically you're saying tough luck, you device is no longer supported? Is this because NowTV relies on SilverLight which is not really being updated?

[Anonymous User]

@Anonymous User it has nothing to do with Silverlight. All Sky apps run some checks on the device to check for root status, if they told you exactly what they were people would try to find workarounds. Sky's methods have been pretty secure and I'm unaware of a single work around. However occasionally these produce false positives and then Sky/NOW TV need to find out why. On some occasions it's because manufactures have left bits of code from testing around which flag phones as rooted and those require a further software update from your manufacturer, other times Sky will modified their code.

[Anonymous User]

Hi artesea.

Thanks for the helpful post. I can see now what I couldn't before, and also why the last few NowTV app patches could work around this issue on some devices but not others. So the solution will have to wait until the NowTV app developers can see a workaround for the Xperia Z tablets with Android 5.1 or Sony releases an update the the "offending" false positive removed. One of the root checkers told me that the device was not rooted but /sbin/su and some other files were present so maybe it's one of those files which is causing the false positive.

[Anonymous User]

I just wanted to confirm that the Sony tablet Z is nowtv supported device. I have this tablet, on android 5.1.1 and it works fine for me. I have to assume you have done something with your tablet, but couldn't guess what.

[Anonymous User]

I am using a tablet Z1, SPG321. The only thing that's happened to the tablet is the update pushed by Sony. NowTV worked fine when the tablet was running 4.4. Did you install NowTV before or after the update  to 5.1? I've done a device reset and reinstalled the app but it still doesn't work. Is it possible NowTV set somerhing in 4.4 that survived the reset? Nothing else has happened to the device.

[Anonymous User]

I only just joined nowtv, so I already was on android 5.1.1 before I installed the app.
By device reset, i assume you mean a full factory restore???
And you keep mentioning 5.1, are you on 5.1.1? As that is the most recent version of Android for this tablet.
Don't know what else to suggest. Something has gone wrong on your tablet somewhere.

[Anonymous User]

Ignore me, I can see you've done factory reset and on 5.1.1. Don't know what to suggest. The app works fine on my tablet.
You definitely have never rooted the tablet or sideloaded any questionable apps or installed any custom Rooms???

[Anonymous User]

Hi Samxool,

As far as I know nothing has happened to the device, although I can't say before I owned it. The root detection tools I have tried all tell me the device is not rooted, but because it isn't rooted they can't examine the state of the bootloader, but assuming it has never been rooted the bootloader should be fine also. I've never sideloaded any apps.

I keep having to go back to the fact that the app was happy and running just fine before the upgrade to 5.1. Please could you tell me a) was the app installed before or after your device was updated to 5.1 and b) you definitely have an SPG321.

If there was a way of going back to 4.4 I'd be happy to try reverting the device and trying NowTV again.

Thanks,

[Anonymous User]

I installed the app AFTER I updated to 5.1.1.
My tablet is SGP311. Its exactly the same as yours except mine is WiFi only.
There's an update for the app out today. Have you tried updated app today?
I confirm mine is still working on my tablet