Android: How to ask for only a subset of DEVICE_ADMIN permissions

Question

I got these two in my Manifest.xml:

<android:permission="android.permission.BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN">
<action android:name="android.app.action.DEVICE_ADMIN_ENABLED"/>

Meta-data:

<meta-data
android:name="android.app.device_admin"
android:resource="@xml/device_owner_receiver"/>

And this in my MainActivity:

Intent intent = new Intent(DevicePolicyManager.ACTION_ADD_DEVICE_ADMIN);
intent.putExtra(DevicePolicyManager.EXTRA_DEVICE_ADMIN, mAdminName);
intent.putExtra(DevicePolicyManager.EXTRA_ADD_EXPLANATION, "Click");
startActivityForResult(intent, REQUEST_CODE);

This works nicely, but in the Activity where the user should grant admin rights, the system lists a lot of things I don't want to do, like "Erase all data". Can I ask for only a subset of the admin rights, like "Lock Screen"?

Thanks.

You should have a `` element in your manifest, with a name of `android.app.device_admin`, pointing to an XML resource listing the specific policies that you want. Do you have this element? If so, edit your question and post the contents of that XML resource. — CommonsWare, Feb 25 '17 at 19:03
Perfect, this is the answer, the referenced xml is selfexplanatory! — Vertago, Feb 25 '17 at 19:09

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 25 '17 at 19:14

The <receiver> element for your subclass of DeviceAdminReceiver should have a <meta-data> element, with a name of android.app.device_admin. This will point to an XML resource, listing the specific policies that you want. My interpretation of your question and comment is that you started with a resource that listed a bunch of policies, such as:

<device-admin xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
  <uses-policies>
    <limit-password />
    <watch-login />
    <reset-password />
    <force-lock />
    <wipe-data />
    <expire-password />
    <encrypted-storage />
    <disable-camera />
  </uses-policies>
</device-admin>

You can trim back the list to just the policies that you need. Anything else will be unavailable to you, even if the user makes your app be a device administrator. Unfortunately, the roster of possible XML elements seems to be undocumented at the present time.

Android: How to ask for only a subset of DEVICE_ADMIN permissions

1 Answers1