[Fostel]

WTF! This is the most ridiculous thing Uber done (aside from all the price drops). Rooting on Android is almost necessary and used for a million other things that have nothing to do with Uber. It's kind of the whole point of using Android to begin. Not having root is like buying a sports car that you never go over 20mph with.

So much for Uber's new driver-focused "180 days of improvement" bullsh*t... the obliviousness and incompetence of this company is staggering.

You can run recent version with root. Just play with rootcloak. See forum xda I mentioned above. You will need to log off uber driver app, close it, kill process and log in again.

 

[werty]

Yep, but that's a tedious workaround for an issue that shouldn't exist, and will probably be patched out soon. It resets every time the app is killed, which for many drivers is every day since they don't want the app constantly in the background while offline.

We need to very loudly let Uber know that blocking root is complete overreaction to the 0.00000001% of drivers that attempt location spoofing, something that Uber has already blocked anyway via other means.

Send Uber app feedback via this form.

 

[Fargle]

You can run recent version with root. Just play with rootcloak. See forum xda I mentioned above. You will need to log off uber driver app, close it, kill process and log in again.

Rootcloak didn't seem to work for me.

 

[NGOwner]

I'm rooted, and I have no problem running Uber Driver. No root cloak.

[NG]Owner

 

[werty]

I'm rooted, and I have no problem running Uber Driver. No root cloak.

[NG]Owner

Because you're not on the latest version of the app.

 

[NGOwner]

v3.143.2.

Several versions later than the initial report.

[NG]Owner

 

[werty]

v3.143.2.

Several versions later than the initial report.

[NG]Owner

Interesting. I have that version and it blocks root, my apologies. What happens when you force kill and restart the app? Like the other poster said, everything after v3.136.2 has blocked root on my device.

Also, stating the obvious here but just in case: "blocked root" means it prevents you from going online (goes offline after a second).

 

[Brandon2510]

Yep I have a root phone there is a work around but it's buggy.But I litterally had to log out of Uber because of the annoyance of them texting my phone so much that I can't go online. Uber' s security team has definitely stepped it up making it very difficult to use a root phone and or fake gps. I have found a solution still doing testing but it's tedious. No matter what the new standard if you want to use root and fake gps is your going to have to kill the Uber app often and clear data.

 

[NGOwner]

I don't have to do anything. The app loads and runs and I can go online without issue. No force kill. No restart. No root cloak. There're no shenanigans I have to perform on my rooted phone to get the Uber driver app to run and to get online.

It's a Nexus 6 on Android 6.0.1. Rooted with SuperSU.

[NG]Owner

 

[Brandon2510]

I don't have to do anything. The app loads and runs and I can go online without issue. No force kill. No restart. No root cloak. There're no shenanigans I have to perform on my rooted phone to get the Uber driver app to run and to get online.

It's a Nexus 6 on Android 6.0.1. Rooted with SuperSU.

[NG]Owner

Have you done the recent update on Uber? My theory is tablets aren't affected yet only Android phones especially the newer ones.

 

[NGOwner]

I'm not running a tablet. I'm running a phone. A Nexus 6.

I'm on the latest Uber Driver version, v3.143.2.

[NG]Owner

 

[werty]

I'm not running a tablet. I'm running a phone. A Nexus 6.

I'm on the latest Uber Driver version, v3.143.2.

[NG]Owner

What happens when you fully restart the app (meaning force kill it, not just pressing the home button)? Uber sometimes doesn't enable new features until the app is relaunched.

 

[NGOwner]

No problems. Phone has been rebooted multiple times in the past week. Yesterday was the last time I rebooted. When I checked the app particulars just now, force stop was greyed out, meaning the app wasn't opened since the last reboot.

Started it up. Went online. No problems.

Went offline. Went to app particulars. Forced close.

Started it back up. Went online. No problems.

For me at least (and likely for lots of other folks) rooted Android phones are not an issue.

Also, I've never used the mock locations to spoof locations. Never saw the need. Perhaps those who are caught in the no Android root are the same people who have attempted (successfully or otherwise) mock locations. Maybe there's another reason altogether. But as for me, rooted Android and Uber Driver are playing nice together.

[NG]Owner

 

[werty]

Thanks for the detailed info. That is a good theory.
This thread should just forget about location spoofing and focus on getting Uber to unblock root again. Location spoofing is dishonest and probably hasn't even been worth it for a while now. It's mostly likely the only reason Uber decided blocked root in the first place.

Edit:

Just tried a newer version, v3.144.1. Root is still not allowed. Either there's some bug where you got lucky or Uber is lying on their very own page where they explicitly say root is not allowed: "Your device is rooted. You will need to unroot the device in order to restore standard factory settings."

Can anyone else here that's rooted and on the latest version please respond?

 

[More Cowbell]

Can anyone else here that's rooted and on the latest version please respond?

Im running 3.144.1 on both a rooted (& custom 7.11 nougat rom) and a stock non-rooted 5.11 marshmellow release. One for uber, other for lyft, both apps loaded on each phone and i change up which phone is running what app.

Both phones have intermittenly given me the settings message last few days. I logout of uber, clear cache, and restart uber successfully. It sometimes takes multiple attempts, or waiting, not sure which to log back into uber & go online.

Interesting it also affects my non-rooted phone at the same time. Tells me its account related, the uber server apparantly saves info saying this driver account is on a rooted phone.

 

[werty]

Turns out that Uber is not specifically blocking root. It's blocking apps that it thinks you might use for location spoofing. Note my emphasis on "think" and "might", because this latest attempt has cast a net so wide that it's breaking other mostly unrelated apps. Uber has gone completely overboard and figured out a deeper way to detect location spoofing, but in doing so it has accidentally blocked what is arguably the most important Android app these days: privacy manager XPrivacy.

This XPrivacy app is vital to Android because it is the only way to effectively and automatically prevent the unfortunately common practice where apps slurping up your sensitive/private information (like contacts or your phone number). XPrivacy is also powerful enough to block many other parts of apps that need blocking. And it has a rudimentary and finicky location spoofer that DOESN'T EVEN WORK IN UBER, so Uber's blocking of XPrivacy is completely unnecessary.

To provide a metaphor for those that still don't get it: it's the equivalent of banning cars because they can be used to run people over. A gross overreaction.

So until Uber reverses this latest rash decision of theirs, sadly the only workaround is to just disable XPrivacy (meaning turning it off in Xposed, not uninstalling or disabling it for Uber). Also disable any similar apps and of course, anything that's actually related to location spoofing.

This deserves its own thread because it's not directly about rooting, by the way.

 

[Brandon2510]

]Thanks for the detailed info. That is a good theory.
This thread should just forget about location spoofing and focus on getting Uber to unblock root again. Location spoofing is dishonest and probably hasn't even been worth it for a while now. It's mostly likely the only reason Uber decided blocked root in the first place.

Yes I agree Werty using location spoofer isn't necessarily worth it but its not against company policy not to use it. Location spoofer was used mostly for the airport before they enacted the queue system. Is it still worth while using the location spoofer at the airport? Eh not really its only for convenience is you like to sit at home while having your app at the airport. Here's the thing though I dont see anything in the company policy that says the will deactivate you for a rooted phone or mock location.

Ubers Policy

Fraudulent activity undermines the trust on which Uber is built. That's why we are constantly on the lookout for fraud by riders and drivers who are gaming our systems.
What leads to you losing access to your account? We will deactivate any account or accounts associated with fraudulent activity, which may include: deliberately increasing the time or distance of a trip; accepting trips without the intention to complete, including provoking riders to cancel; creating dummy rider or driver accounts for fraudulent purposes; claiming fraudulent fees or charges, like false cleaning fees; and intentionally accepting or completing fraudulent or falsified trips.

Turns out that Uber is not specifically blocking root. It's blocking apps that it thinks you might use for location spoofing. Note my emphasis on "think" and "might", because this latest attempt has cast a net so wide that it's breaking other mostly unrelated apps. Uber has gone completely overboard and figured out a deeper way to detect location spoofing, but in doing so it has accidentally blocked what is arguably the most important Android app these days: privacy manager XPrivacy.

This XPrivacy app is vital to Android because it is the only way to effectively and automatically prevent the unfortunately common practice where apps slurping up your sensitive/private information (like contacts or your phone number). XPrivacy is also powerful enough to block many other parts of apps that need blocking. And it has a rudimentary and finicky location spoofer that DOESN'T EVEN WORK IN UBER, so Uber's blocking of XPrivacy is completely unnecessary.

To provide a metaphor for those that still don't get it: it's the equivalent of banning cars because they can be used to run people over. A gross overreaction.

So until Uber reverses this latest rash decision of theirs, sadly the only workaround is to just disable XPrivacy (meaning turning it off in Xposed, not uninstalling or disabling it for Uber). Also disable any similar apps and of course, anything that's actually related to location spoofing.

This deserves its own thread because it's not directly about rooting, by the way.

I agree with this I tried the same apps as When and when I disabled them the uber app worked fine but you still need an app to hide your root. Or at least I do.

 

[werty]

[truncated due to formatting fail]

Please fix the formatting of that post. Most of it is quotes from other replies and sites.

But to answer your question: Uber has been against location spoofing for years (for good reason). They've actively blocked it for years. This is nothing new, and your inability to find an explicit statement from them about it is irrelevant. The only new part is that now they're doing it in a manner that also breaks other apps rather than only blocking location spoofing.

 

[arhackbom]

U may still online with rooted phone. Use magisk instead of supersu. But theres no way to use Xposed(if u know what i mean what you all can do with xposed framework with uber). But at least u can still using on rooted phone. For me, i still using phone with root and xposed installed, but i can't go online if xposed active, so the solution i've got is inactive ur xposed while u want to uber go online. Find me on Watsapp on +6285779208486 for further info.