When Google first announced its new Android Jelly Bean operating system, the company also unveiled the new encryption system of the OS. The aim was to help reduce the pervasiveness of Android app piracy. However, as cool as that sounds, the system is filled with more bugs than you could guess, which has caused a number of apps to stop working completely.
The DRM feature which came pre-loaded with the latest version of Android was expected to sabotage app piracy. The move to incorporate app-encryption feature had become particularly necessary, considering the various fiascos which had hit the Android Play Store recently.
However, this move has obviously backfired after users complained that they were unable to access the apps, despite having bought legal copies from the Play Store.
Basically, the root of the issue, as of now, seems to be linked with the AccountManager. The Android AccountManager runs on phone boot up before secure storage is properly mounted. However, when AccountManager cannot find the apps it is looking for, it deletes the associated account info and renders them unusable.
The "app-encryption" feature was purportedly going to prevent illicit copies of paid apps by encrypting those apps which a user downloads with a unique device-specific key. What this means is that only the device which downloads a particular app should be able to use it and people who used to copy apps manually from one device to another would have a tough time and lament their decision.
However, shortly after the feature's debut in July, reports started flowing in that some users were not able to download the app despite having downloaded its legitimate copies. According to developers, the root-cause for this would be some bug in Android's 4.1 start-up code, which has been tweaked to corrupt any malicious/illegal apps during the boot-up itself.
Google, nonetheless, is aware of the problem, but some developers are not satisfied with the company's response. The company, on its part, has been less than willing to discuss the bug. The issue is now marked to be fixed in a future Android release.
Google has decided to sidestep the unwanted behavior by having the Play store now deliver traditional unencrypted apps, which can be installed to the standard apps directory instead of secure storage.
Even if this procedure stops the ongoing problem, for now, it appears that the company's initiative for an entirely new Jelly Bean protection has been dealt with a major blow. From this point onwards, it will be quite interesting to follow what Google actually does about this.
[Note: If you're a Jellybean user and need a workaround to this app-corruption problem, you will need to uninstall all the paid apps from your device and download them again via Play Store. Though these apps would be installed in the unencrypted section of Android memory, it will, pretty much, resolve the issue.]
