[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S 5] BruceElliott:
Google's "uncertified device" scheme is driving me mad!

Good job, Vamp!

Were you able to determine if the method that you described resolved the Google "uncertified device" problem? Also, does it bypass Google SafetyNet?

The Google's "uncertified device" scheme is driving me mad. I went through several cycles of installing stock Play Services and Play Store. Each time I would immediately re-gain access to Play Store and the gremlins in my phone would immediately disappear. (Gremlins such as "Running Applications" app and widget becoming intermittant, Total Recall recorder not responding to incoming calls, "Android Services" (with the fanbelt and pulley icon) increasing to 30-40% CPU utilization, etc.) In the meantime, some apps (notably in my case "NOAA Weather" app, which I have subsequently come to believe must be a Google shill) would complain about not being able to work without updating Play Services. I had to update Play Services to avoid the pop-ups. But doing that appears to be a final nail in the coffin. Soon after, symptoms reappear and it becomes increasingly difficult to get into the Play Store by reverting to old Playstore/Play Services versions.

Finally I finally white-listed my SuperSu rooted S5 stock MM on Google's "ROM developer" white-list website. In a twinkling of an eye, Google obviously "flipped the switch" for my phone and I had immediate access to Play Store. I then began locking down the same misbehaving apps as always by freezing with Ti and blocking Internet access with Netguard. As I did each lockdown step, I made sure that I could open Play Store and see my apps. After finishing, I assumed that all was well, as I could still see my apps in Play Store.

Not to be... After the passage of a few hours or less, enough time for the Play Store app, the tweaked Google Services, and whatever installed apps are tightly integrated with Play Services and are reporting the phone state back to Google (e.g., the NOAA Weather app) provide enough information back to Google, another switch appears to gets flipped. The phone again enters the same chaotic state described above, finally sutting down from thermal overload caused by "Android System" swallowing up an enormous quantity of CPU cycles.

Thus it appears to me (after much experimentation) that the new Play Services (12.6.75 and then 12.6.85) appear to enforce or re-enforce the "SafetyNet" scam. It appears that Google may be scrambling to get the lockdown tweaked without burning customers' batteries too much, as they seem to be updating Play Services at an alarming rate.

Peeking at some of the Google Services databases at /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases using SqLite is enough to make the devil blush; and those likely to be most incriminating are encrypted. For the latter, only their structure and key field identifiers are visible, not the data. NOAA Weather appears by itself in one of the visible databases. I stored away a TWRP image of the entire phone in this state in a safe place should I need to prove up this nightmare in the future.

The bottom line is that I bought an $850 phone several years ago with an OS (subsequently force-updated to Marshmallow) and a set of Google system apps, in a technical and legal environment that did not exclude customizing my phone or the use of privacy tools such as Ti and Netguard. Now Google appears to be intruding physically into my phone in order to suck out data (even though sync is off) and change my settings ("sync data" continues to get re-enabled as does "auto-update" in the Play Store). And, (at least as it appears tentatively) software (probably the new Play Services) is being planted that could eventually phsically destroy my phone by causing too many thermal overload shutdowns.

I am seriously hacked, both literally and emotionally!:(