Problem connecting to Google Drive when participating in "Advanced Protection Program"

SailReal · February 25, 2020, 10:28pm

If you’re enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program and haven’t used Cryptomator for Android or iOS before enrolling, you can not access your files located in Google Drive:

You can still sign into apps and services with Google. If they request access to your Gmail or Drive data, access will be denied.

Cryptomator for Android indicates a general error and in the log you find

Caused by: com.google.android.gms.auth.GoogleAuthException: ServiceDisabled
Caused by: com.google.android.gms.auth.a: ServiceDisabled.

If you run into this problem, follow these steps:

Unenroll from the Advanced Protection Program
Access the cloud using Cryptomator (Android or iOS)
Enroll again the Advanced Protection Program

Cryptomator will keep working since it is already enrolled.

We will try to provide a better workaround (if at all possible) in the future but this is how it works at the moment.

Many thanks to a kind user for reporting the source of this problem and providing this workaround, you’re awesome!

Thaurcam · April 17, 2020, 7:58pm

Hi,

after reading this I decided to buy the Android app and give it a try. Unfortunately, unenrolling the Advanced Protection Program, using Cryptomator and enrolling again does not work for me. The moment I enroll again, I lose access to Google drive and cannot open previously added vaults.

Any suggestions? All my data is on Google drive and without access, the Android app is useless for me.

BR
Thaurcam

SailReal · April 18, 2020, 7:58am

Hey and welcome in the community !

Thanks for your feedback, we’ll look into it and search for other solutions.
Maybe they changed the way they handled existing grants, because I was able to reproduce that at the time.

Thaurcam · April 18, 2020, 1:30pm

Thanks for your help. After using the desktop app for more than a year now, I’m looking forward to use this great software also on my Chromebook.

Thaurcam · September 10, 2020, 7:47am

Hey guys,

do you have any news regarding this topic or another workaround?

Thanks for your help!

Thaurcam

ss2020 · January 30, 2021, 7:03pm

I’m running into the same issue with a education account with advance protection enabled. (but works fine on desktop using Google File Stream).

Please let me know if you see a viable pathforward.

SailReal · January 30, 2021, 9:17pm

Hey and welcome to the Cryptomator Community,

Is it the same for you?

Google File Stream works because google apps are on the “allowed list” even in advance protection contrary to third party apps like Cryptomator.

Unfortunately, I do not currently know of any other workaround.

fommio · March 14, 2021, 7:13pm

Hey!

I may have found a potential solution. First of all: I am an IT admin and not a programmer.

I use ShareX, a screenshot tool that offers a lot of features, including connections to various cloud providers. Here is the thing: I was able to successfully link ShareX to my Google Drive, and that was with an Advanced Protection Program activated.

When you open the authorization page from the program, a verification code is displayed at the very end, which you enter into ShareX in turn, and boom: It’s connected.

The tool is writing all important auth-stuff locally inside the “UploadersConfig.json” file (C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\ShareX).

I took some screenshots, to show you the steps on Windows:

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1gn18saWKzO186w8njDc4U3inJTvEDd-X

ShareX Github:

github.com

ShareX/ShareX/blob/master/ShareX.UploadersLib/FileUploaders/GoogleDrive.cs

#region License Information (GPL v3)

/*
    ShareX - A program that allows you to take screenshots and share any file type
    Copyright (c) 2007-2020 ShareX Team

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
    as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
    of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

This file has been truncated. show original

Maybe the same thing can be implemented in Cryptomators Android app?

Greets,

fommio

fommio · March 18, 2021, 5:07pm

By the way, I am very surprised that this kind of authentication method for a third party exists. This is against the Advanced Protection Program philosophy, isn’t it?

wizix · February 18, 2023, 2:50am

This work around does not work.

dishangti · February 23, 2023, 3:22pm

There must be some solutions, because when I turned on Advanced Protection Program, it cut off all the third apps. When I tried to add them back, I found Notability, Goodnotes and WhatsApp can still back up to Google Drive, while a plug in on my WordPress can’t. I believe Google must have a white list for third apps.