[FIX FOUND] Idle Skilling Android cloud save crashing — gRPC/SSL error

After hours of troubleshooting, I managed to get Idle Skilling working again on my Samsung S25 Ultra.

Device information:

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
• Android: 16
• One UI: 8.5
• Game: Idle Skilling (Google Play version)

The problem

Every time I tried to initialise my cloud save, Google Smart Lock would open and Idle Skilling would crash. After that, the game would repeatedly crash on startup.

My original save worked perfectly through the official Google Play Games application on PC, so I knew my progress wasn't corrupted.

The actual error

I connected my phone to ADB and captured the following crash:

java.lang.AssertionError: Method getAlpnSelectedProtocol not supported

The error originated from io.grpc.okhttp while connecting to firestore.googleapis.com.

It appears to be an incompatibility involving the game's older gRPC networking implementation and Android's restrictions on internal APIs.

The workaround

WARNING: This changes an Android security/compatibility restriction system-wide. It is an experimental workaround, not a permanent fix, and may have security or stability implications. Proceed at your own risk.

1. Download Google's official Android SDK Platform-Tools on your PC.
2. Enable Developer options and Wireless debugging (or USB debugging) on your Android phone.
3. Connect your phone to ADB.
4. Check your current policy: adb shell settings get global hidden_api_policy Mine originally returned null.
5. Run: adb shell settings put global hidden_api_policy 1
6. Force-stop Idle Skilling: adb shell am force-stop com.lavaflame.IdleSkilling
7. Reopen Idle Skilling and try loading your existing cloud save.

My results

• Default policy (null) → Game crashes.
• Policy set to 1 → Game works.
• Reverted to null → Game crashes again.
• Re-enabled 1 → Game works again.

I also tested restarting my phone, force-stopping the game, re-enabling Google Password Manager's Auto sign-in and switching networks. The game continued working.

IMPORTANT: Check your crash logs first

I strongly encourage anyone experiencing this issue to capture their Android crash logs before attempting the workaround.

Not every Idle Skilling crash necessarily has the same cause. This workaround was tested against a specific gRPC/SSL error, and we don't know whether it'll help with unrelated crashes.

Here's how to check:

1. Install Android SDK Platform-Tools on your PC.
2. Connect your phone through USB or Wireless debugging.
3. Open a terminal in the Platform-Tools folder.
4. Run: adb logcat -b crash -c
5. Launch Idle Skilling and reproduce the crash.
6. Run: adb logcat -b crash -d > idle-skilling-crash.txt
7. Open the generated text file and look for: FATAL EXCEPTION: grpc-okhttp-0 java.lang.AssertionError: Method getAlpnSelectedProtocol not supported io.grpc.okhttp.OkHttpProtocolNegotiator

If you see those errors, you may be experiencing the same underlying issue.

If your logs show a different exception, please share the relevant stack trace (after removing personal information) so we can determine whether it's related.

Additional Smart Lock issue

Before applying the workaround, I also had to temporarily disable Auto sign-in under Google Password Manager to get the Google account selection screen to appear.

After applying the workaround and restoring my cloud save, I was able to re-enable Auto sign-in without further crashes.

Reverting the workaround

To restore Android's original default hidden API policy:

adb shell settings delete global hidden_api_policy

This is important because policy 1 relaxes Android's hidden API restrictions for all applications, not just Idle Skilling.

Technical references

Related gRPC bug:
https://github.com/grpc/grpc-java/issues/7519

Android hidden API documentation:
https://developer.android.com/guide/app-compatibility/restrictions-non-sdk-interfaces

Android Platform-Tools:
https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools

Final notes

This workaround consistently resolved the crash on my S25 Ultra, but I haven't verified it on other devices or Android versions.

Ideally, the game's developer can fix the underlying issue by updating its outdated networking dependencies.

If you try this, please reply with:

• Your phone model.
• Your Android version.
• Whether your crash log matches mine.
• Whether the workaround worked.

Hopefully this helps other people recover their Idle Skilling progress!

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Hey, i made this scriptbuilder for myself, but now its better than any free alternative out there so i decided to share it
https://github.com/gtjevptje/Macronaut
Hope you enjoy!

DM me on discord with any questions or feedback (much appreciated) - gtjevptje -

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