It took me a while to figure out why many of my self-hosted services were intermittently failing to connect on my phone after updating to Android 17. I eventually figured out there's a new ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK permission which means the "Nearby devices" permission is now required to access devices on the same network subnet. For an avid self-hoster, this can be quite a bit.
I had my DNS configured so my public-facing server resolved to a local IP address when on my LAN. This meant that my web, immich, xmpp, NTP, jellyfin and DoH servers all resolved to a local IP address on wifi. On Android 17, it all broke without warning. No error messages. No asking for extra permissions. Just silent packet dropping.
I've solved it by configuring my public-facing services to resolve to my external (static) IP address, even when inside the network. I couldn't make any internal services resolve to the external address (SMB, CUPS etc) because they are (obviously) not bound to my WAN interface.
I get why the change was made. A lot of apps were snooping around people's networks to gather intel. A potentially massive privacy violation.
Has anyone else had this issue? Is this the cleanest solution?
Haven't been brought to 17 yet thankfully.
My long term solution is to not use android. My short term solution will likely be to use android even less, and be even more pissed at Google.
Solution is to just enable the permission on apps that need it.
The solution is to avoid google going forward, for many reasons.
That's why I use graphene but the permission is still there in base android.
I'm actually using GrapheneOS.
The problem with graphene, unfortunately.
It doesn't actually get away from google, at best its plugging holes in a (to me) sinking ship.
I wish there were some viable "fully cooked" alternatives. I won't touch apple products with a 10 foot poll, and I owned the first and second iPhone.
As for Linux phone i have tinkered with it but its nowhere close to being a daily driver, yet.
Strangely sometimes I wish the Microsoft phone was not a total flop...
I guess the only thing left if a completely dumb phone, but that does not help if you use your phone more as a "pocket computer" then a phone at all.
Completely agree
My current decision is between a new Motorola signature 27 with graphene (running under the assumption Linux will be able to make the jump there, which isn't an unreasonable conclusion to jump to), or getting a mostly basic flip phone that can hotspot and using a umpc with it.
Where Linux phones have failed for me is the limited options for phones and on the actual phone part, so I feel like separation that out with a nice umpc and letting a phone be a phone is a worthwhile option.
We'll see how things play out though!
It would be annoying to do that for everyone who uses my wifi.
I found that "Conversations" (XMPP) was blocking a connections even when the permission was enabled. I suspect Android no longer allows connections on port 5xxx on a local network. It works fine when the IP is external.
How is this added permission not a good thing? Surely adding a local network only permission is a positive, you can allow apps internet permission and decline them access to your local services.
The permission structure sucks.
Its a silent drop (no errors are returned), webview breaks connected to WiFi even without a local resource being requested, it lives inside nearby_devices so giving permission there includes this (and gives a broader spectrum of access such as Bluetooth and WiFi).
Its just shuffling the problem around.
Also, fuck Google.
Linux phone?
Flip phone
Telephone
Bananaphone
Ring ring ring ring ring banana phooooone
It's cellular, modular, intellective, oddular!