How to find serial number of Android device

Question

I need to use a unique ID for an Android app and I thought the serial number for the device would be a good candidate  How do I retrieve the serial number of an Android device in my app

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I know this question is old but it can be done in one line of code  String deviceID   Build SERIAL

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TelephonyManager tManager    TelephonyManager myActivity getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE   String uid   tManager getDeviceId      getSystemService is a method from the Activity class   getDeviceID   will return the MDN or MEID of the device depending on which radio the phone uses  GSM or CDMA      Each device MUST return a unique value here  assuming it s a phone    This should work for any Android device with a sim slot or CDMA radio   You re on your own with that Android powered microwave  -

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Unique device ID of Android OS Device as String   String deviceId      final TelephonyManager mTelephony    TelephonyManager  getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE           if  mTelephony getDeviceId      null               deviceId   mTelephony getDeviceId                        else              deviceId   Secure getString getApplicationContext   getContentResolver      Secure ANDROID ID                 but I strngly recommend this method suggested by Google    Identifying App Installations

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Another way is to use  sys class android usb android0 iSerial in an App with no permissions whatsoever   user creep    adb shell ls -l  sys class android usb android0 iSerial -rw-r--r-- root     root         4096 2013-01-10 21 08 iSerial user creep    adb shell cat  sys class android usb android0 iSerial 0A3CXXXXXXXXXX5   To do this in java one would just use a FileInputStream to open the iSerial file and read out the characters  Just be sure you wrap it in an exception handler because not all devices have this file    At least the following devices are known to have this file world-readable    Galaxy Nexus Nexus S Motorola Xoom 3g Toshiba AT300 HTC One V Mini MK802 Samsung Galaxy S II   You can also see my blog post here  http   insitusec blogspot com 2013 01 leaking-android-hardware-serial-number html where I discuss what other files are available for info

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As  haserman says   TelephonyManager tManager    TelephonyManager myActivity getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE   String uid   tManager getDeviceId      But it s necessary including the permission in the manifest file    lt uses-permission android name  android permission READ PHONE STATE   gt

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There are problems with all the above approaches   At Google i o Reto Meier released a robust answer to how to approach this which should meet most developers needs to track users across installations     This approach will give you an anonymous  secure user ID which will be persistent for the user across different devices  including tablets  based on primary Google account  and across installs on the same device   The basic approach is to generate a random user ID and to store this in the apps shared preferences   You then use Google s backup agent to store the shared preferences linked to the Google account in the cloud   Lets go through the full approach   First we need to create a backup for our SharedPreferences using the Android Backup Service   Start by registering your app via this link  http   developer android com google backup signup html  Google will give you a backup service key which you need to add to the manifest   You also need to tell the application to use the BackupAgent as follows    lt application android label  MyApplication           android backupAgent  MyBackupAgent  gt               lt meta-data android name  com google android backup api key          android value  your backup service key    gt   lt  application gt    Then you need to create the backup agent and tell it to use the helper agent for sharedpreferences   public class MyBackupAgent extends BackupAgentHelper          The name of the SharedPreferences file     static final String PREFS    user preferences           A key to uniquely identify the set of backup data     static final String PREFS BACKUP KEY    prefs           Allocate a helper and add it to the backup agent      Override     public void onCreate             SharedPreferencesBackupHelper helper   new SharedPreferencesBackupHelper this           PREFS           addHelper PREFS BACKUP KEY  helper             To complete the backup you need to create an instance of BackupManager in your main Activity   BackupManager backupManager   new BackupManager context     Finally create a user ID  if it doesn t already exist  and store it in the SharedPreferences     public static String getUserID Context context                private static String uniqueID   null          private static final String PREF UNIQUE ID    PREF UNIQUE ID       if  uniqueID    null            SharedPreferences sharedPrefs   context getSharedPreferences                  MyBackupAgent PREFS  Context MODE PRIVATE           uniqueID   sharedPrefs getString PREF UNIQUE ID  null           if  uniqueID    null                uniqueID   UUID randomUUID   toString                Editor editor   sharedPrefs edit                editor putString PREF UNIQUE ID  uniqueID               editor commit                   backup the changes             BackupManager mBackupManager   new BackupManager context               mBackupManager dataChanged                         return uniqueID      This User ID will now be persistent across installations  even if the user switches devices   For more information on this approach see Reto s talk here http   www google com events io 2011 sessions android-protips-advanced-topics-for-expert-android-app-developers html  And for full details of how to implement the backup agent see the developer site here  http   developer android com guide topics data backup html  I particularly recommend the section at the bottom on testing as the backup does not happen instantaneously and so to test you have to force the backup

User · Answer

The IMEI is good but only works on Android devices with phone  You should consider support for Tablets or other Android devices as well  that do not have a phone   You have some alternatives like  Build class members  BT MAC  WLAN MAC  or even better - a combination of all these    I have explained these details in an article on my blog  see   http   www pocketmagic net  p 1662

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There is an excellent post on the Android Developer s Blog discussing this   It recommends against using TelephonyManager getDeviceId   as it doesn t work on Android devices which aren t phones such as tablets  it requires the READ PHONE STATE permission and it doesn t work reliably on all phones   Instead you could use one of the following    Mac Address Serial Number ANDROID ID   The post discusses the pros and cons of each and it s worth reading so you can work out which would be the best for your use

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String serial   null    try       Class lt   gt  c   Class forName  android os SystemProperties        Method get   c getMethod  get   String class       serial    String  get invoke c   ro serialno      catch  Exception ignored        This code returns device serial number using a hidden Android API

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Since no answer here mentions a perfect  fail-proof ID that is both PERSISTENT through system updates and exists in ALL devices  mainly due to the fact that there isn t an individual solution from Google   I decided to post a method that is the next best thing by combining two of the available identifiers  and a check to chose between them at run-time   Before code  3 facts    TelephonyManager getDeviceId    a k a IMEI  will not work well or at all for non-GSM  3G  LTE  etc  devices  but will always return a unique ID when related hardware is present  even when no SIM is inserted or even when no SIM slot exists  some OEM s have done this   Since Gingerbread  Android 2 3  android os Build SERIAL must exist on any device that doesn t provide IMEI  i e   doesn t have the aforementioned hardware present  as per Android policy  Due to fact  2    at least one of these two unique identifiers will ALWAYS be present  and SERIAL can be present at the same time that IMEI is    Note  Fact  1   and  2   are based on Google statements  SOLUTION  With the facts above  one can always have a unique identifier by checking if there is IMEI-bound hardware  and fall back to SERIAL when it isn t  as one cannot check if the existing SERIAL is valid  The following static class presents 2 methods for checking such presence and using either IMEI or SERIAL   import java lang reflect Method   import android content Context  import android content pm PackageManager  import android os Build  import android provider Settings  import android telephony TelephonyManager  import android util Log   public class IDManagement        public static String getCleartextID SIMCHECK  Context mContext           String ret                TelephonyManager telMgr    TelephonyManager  mContext getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE            if isSIMAvailable mContext telMgr                Log i  DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER  telMgr getDeviceId                 return telMgr getDeviceId                       else              Log i  DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER   Settings Secure ANDROID ID                return Settings Secure ANDROID ID              return android os Build SERIAL                        public static String getCleartextID HARDCHECK  Context mContext           String ret                TelephonyManager telMgr    TelephonyManager  mContext getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE           if telMgr    null  amp  amp  hasTelephony mContext                           Log i  DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER  telMgr getDeviceId                       return telMgr getDeviceId                          else              Log i  DEVICE UNIQUE IDENTIFIER   Settings Secure ANDROID ID                return Settings Secure ANDROID ID              return android os Build SERIAL                        public static boolean isSIMAvailable Context mContext               TelephonyManager telMgr            int simState   telMgr getSimState             switch  simState            case TelephonyManager SIM STATE ABSENT              return false          case TelephonyManager SIM STATE NETWORK LOCKED              return false          case TelephonyManager SIM STATE PIN REQUIRED              return false          case TelephonyManager SIM STATE PUK REQUIRED              return false          case TelephonyManager SIM STATE READY              return true          case TelephonyManager SIM STATE UNKNOWN              return false          default              return false                       static public boolean hasTelephony Context mContext                TelephonyManager tm    TelephonyManager  mContext getSystemService Context TELEPHONY SERVICE           if  tm    null              return false             devices below are phones only         if  Build VERSION SDK INT  lt  5              return true           PackageManager pm   mContext getPackageManager             if  pm    null              return false           boolean retval   false          try                       Class lt   gt     parameters   new Class 1               parameters 0    String class              Method method   pm getClass   getMethod  hasSystemFeature   parameters               Object    parm   new Object 1               parm 0     android hardware telephony               Object retValue   method invoke pm  parm               if  retValue instanceof Boolean                  retval     Boolean  retValue  booleanValue                else                 retval   false                    catch  Exception e                        retval   false                     return retval              I would advice on using getCleartextID HARDCHECK  If the reflection doesn t stick in your environment  use the getCleartextID SIMCHECK method instead  but take in consideration it should be adapted to your specific SIM-presence needs   P S   Do please note that OEM s have managed to bug out SERIAL against Google policy  multiple devices with same SERIAL   and Google as stated there is at least one known case in a big OEM  not disclosed and I don t know which brand it is either  I m guessing Samsung    Disclaimer  This answers the original question of getting a unique device ID  but the OP introduced ambiguity by stating he needs a unique ID for an APP  Even if for such scenarios Android ID would be better  it WILL NOT WORK after  say  a Titanium Backup of an app through 2 different ROM installs  can even be the same ROM   My solution maintains persistence that is independent of a flash or factory reset  and will only fail when IMEI or SERIAL tampering occurs through hacks hardware mods

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Build SERIAL is the simplest way to go  although not entirely reliable as it can be empty or sometimes return a different value  proof 1  proof 2  than what you can see in your device s settings   There are several ways to get that number depending on the device s manufacturer and Android version  so I decided to compile every possible solution I could found in a single gist  Here s a simplified version of it    public static String getSerialNumber         String serialNumber       try           Class lt   gt  c   Class forName  android os SystemProperties            Method get   c getMethod  get   String class            serialNumber    String  get invoke c   gsm sn1            if  serialNumber equals                  serialNumber    String  get invoke c   ril serialnumber            if  serialNumber equals                  serialNumber    String  get invoke c   ro serialno            if  serialNumber equals                  serialNumber    String  get invoke c   sys serialnumber            if  serialNumber equals                  serialNumber   Build SERIAL              If none of the methods above worked         if  serialNumber equals                  serialNumber   null        catch  Exception e            e printStackTrace            serialNumber   null             return serialNumber

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I found the example class posted by  emmby above to be a great starting point   But it has a couple of flaws  as mentioned by other posters  The major one is that it persists the UUID to an XML file unnecessarily and thereafter always retrieves it from this file   This lays the class open to an easy hack   anyone with a rooted phone can edit the XML file to give themselves a new UUID   I ve updated the code so that it only persists to XML if absolutely necessary  i e  when using a randomly generated UUID  and re-factored the logic as per  Brill Pappin s answer   import android content Context  import android content SharedPreferences  import android provider Settings Secure  import android telephony TelephonyManager   import java io UnsupportedEncodingException  import java util UUID   public class DeviceUuidFactory       protected static final String PREFS FILE    device id xml       protected static final String PREFS DEVICE ID    device id        protected static UUID uuid       public DeviceUuidFactory Context context             if  uuid   null                 synchronized  DeviceUuidFactory class                    if  uuid    null                        final SharedPreferences prefs   context getSharedPreferences  PREFS FILE  0                       final String id   prefs getString PREFS DEVICE ID  null                         if  id    null                               Use the ids previously computed and stored in the prefs file                         uuid   UUID fromString id                          else                            final String androidId   Secure getString context getContentResolver    Secure ANDROID ID                               Use the Android ID unless it s broken  in which case fallback on deviceId                             unless it s not available  then fallback on a random number which we store                            to a prefs file                         try                                if    9774d56d682e549c  equals androidId      androidId    null                                      final String deviceId     TelephonyManager  context getSystemService  Context TELEPHONY SERVICE    getDeviceId                                     if  deviceId    null                                                                        uuid   UUID nameUUIDFromBytes deviceId getBytes  utf8                                                                       else                                                                       uuid   UUID randomUUID                                            Write the value out to the prefs file so it persists                                     prefs edit   putString PREFS DEVICE ID  uuid toString     commit                                                                                                else                                                               uuid   UUID nameUUIDFromBytes androidId getBytes  utf8                                                              catch  UnsupportedEncodingException e                                throw new RuntimeException e                                                                                                                         Returns a unique UUID for the current android device   As with all UUIDs  this unique ID is  very highly likely         to be unique across all Android devices   Much more so than ANDROID ID is                The UUID is generated by using ANDROID ID as the base key if appropriate  falling back on        TelephonyManager getDeviceID   if ANDROID ID is known to be incorrect  and finally falling back        on a random UUID that s persisted to SharedPreferences if getDeviceID   does not return a        usable value                In some rare circumstances  this ID may change   In particular  if the device is factory reset a new device ID        may be generated   In addition  if a user upgrades their phone from certain buggy implementations of Android 2 2        to a newer  non-buggy version of Android  the device ID may change   Or  if a user uninstalls your app on        a device that has neither a proper Android ID nor a Device ID  this ID may change on reinstallation                Note that if the code falls back on using TelephonyManager getDeviceId    the resulting ID will NOT        change after a factory reset   Something to be aware of                Works around a bug in Android 2 2 for many devices when using ANDROID ID directly                 see http   code google com p android issues detail id 10603                return a UUID that may be used to uniquely identify your device for most purposes              public UUID getDeviceUuid             return uuid

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For a simple number that is unique to the device and constant for its lifetime  barring a factory reset or hacking   use Settings Secure ANDROID ID   String id   Secure getString getContentResolver    Secure ANDROID ID     To use the device serial number  the one shown in  System Settings   About   Status   if available and fall back to Android ID   String serialNumber   Build SERIAL    Build UNKNOWN   Build SERIAL   Secure getString getContentResolver    Secure ANDROID ID

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As Dave Webb mentions  the Android Developer Blog has an article that covers this   I spoke with someone at Google to get some additional clarification on a few items   Here s what I discovered that s NOT mentioned in the aforementioned blog post    ANDROID ID is the preferred solution   ANDROID ID is perfectly reliable on versions of Android  lt  2 1 or   2 3   Only 2 2 has the problems mentioned in the post  Several devices by several manufacturers are affected by the ANDROID ID bug in 2 2  As far as I ve been able to determine  all affected devices have the same ANDROID ID  which is 9774d56d682e549c   Which is also the same device id reported by the emulator  btw  Google believes that OEMs have patched the issue for many or most of their devices  but I was able to verify that as of the beginning of April 2011  at least  it s still quite easy to find devices that have the broken ANDROID ID    Based on Google s recommendations  I implemented a class that will generate a unique UUID for each device  using ANDROID ID as the seed where appropriate  falling back on TelephonyManager getDeviceId   as necessary  and if that fails  resorting to a randomly generated unique UUID that is persisted across app restarts  but not app re-installations    import android content Context  import android content SharedPreferences  import android provider Settings Secure  import android telephony TelephonyManager   import java io UnsupportedEncodingException  import java util UUID   public class DeviceUuidFactory        protected static final String PREFS FILE    device id xml       protected static final String PREFS DEVICE ID    device id       protected static volatile UUID uuid       public DeviceUuidFactory Context context            if  uuid    null                synchronized  DeviceUuidFactory class                    if  uuid    null                        final SharedPreferences prefs   context                              getSharedPreferences PREFS FILE  0                       final String id   prefs getString PREFS DEVICE ID  null                       if  id    null                               Use the ids previously computed and stored in the                            prefs file                         uuid   UUID fromString id                         else                           final String androidId   Secure getString                              context getContentResolver    Secure ANDROID ID                              Use the Android ID unless it s broken  in which case                            fallback on deviceId                             unless it s not available  then fallback on a random                            number which we store to a prefs file                         try                               if    9774d56d682e549c  equals androidId                                     uuid   UUID nameUUIDFromBytes androidId                                          getBytes  utf8                                   else                                   final String deviceId     TelephonyManager                                           context getSystemService                                              Context TELEPHONY SERVICE                                                getDeviceId                                    uuid   deviceId    null   UUID                                          nameUUIDFromBytes deviceId                                                  getBytes  utf8      UUID                                          randomUUID                                                            catch  UnsupportedEncodingException e                                throw new RuntimeException e                                                        Write the value out to the prefs file                         prefs edit                                    putString PREFS DEVICE ID  uuid toString                                     commit                                                                                          Returns a unique UUID for the current android device  As with all UUIDs         this unique ID is  very highly likely  to be unique across all Android        devices  Much more so than ANDROID ID is                 The UUID is generated by using ANDROID ID as the base key if appropriate         falling back on TelephonyManager getDeviceID   if ANDROID ID is known to        be incorrect  and finally falling back on a random UUID that s persisted        to SharedPreferences if getDeviceID   does not return a usable value                 In some rare circumstances  this ID may change  In particular  if the        device is factory reset a new device ID may be generated  In addition  if        a user upgrades their phone from certain buggy implementations of Android        2 2 to a newer  non-buggy version of Android  the device ID may change         Or  if a user uninstalls your app on a device that has neither a proper        Android ID nor a Device ID  this ID may change on reinstallation                 Note that if the code falls back on using TelephonyManager getDeviceId           the resulting ID will NOT change after a factory reset  Something to be        aware of                 Works around a bug in Android 2 2 for many devices when using ANDROID ID        directly                  see http   code google com p android issues detail id 10603                 return a UUID that may be used to uniquely identify your device for most                purposes              public UUID getDeviceUuid             return uuid

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String deviceId   Settings System getString getContentResolver                                    Settings System ANDROID ID     Although  it is not guaranteed that the Android ID will be an unique identifier

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public static String getManufacturerSerialNumber       String serial   null     try         Class lt   gt  c   Class forName  quot android os SystemProperties quot          Method get   c getMethod  quot get quot   String class  String class         serial    String  get invoke c   quot ril serialnumber quot    quot unknown quot        catch  Exception ignored       return serial     Works on API 29 and 30  tested on Samsung galaxy s7 s9 Xcover

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Yes  It is a device hardware serial number and it is unique  So on api level 2 3 and above you can use android os Build ANDROID ID to get it  For below 2 3 API level use TelephonyManager getDeviceID      you can read this http   android-developers blogspot in 2011 03 identifying-app-installations html

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Starting in Android 10  apps must have the READ PRIVILEGED PHONE STATE privileged permission in order to access the device s non-resettable identifiers  which include both IMEI and serial number  Affected methods include the following  Build getSerial   TelephonyManager getImei   getDeviceId   getMeid   getSimSerialNumber   getSubscriberId   READ PRIVILEGED PHONE STATE is available for platform only

[android] How to find serial number of Android device?

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