MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · PermissionException

Unknown permission

Error message

Unknown permission ${permissionName}

What it means

PermissionResolver.resolve looks up a permission's PermissionInfo through the platform. If the platform returns null for the requested permission name, the resolver cannot determine protection level or flags and throws PermissionException('Unknown permission ...').

Solutions

1. Verify the permission name exists on this device (adb shell pm list permissions | grep <name>) before resolving
2. Filter out permissions unknown to the current platform when importing rules from another device
3. Catch PermissionException and skip that permission entry instead of aborting the whole batch
4. Update the rules export to include only permissions declared by installed packages

Example fix

// before
Permission perm = resolver.resolve(packageInfo, "vendor.foo.CUSTOM_PERM", userId, false);
// after
try {
    Permission perm = resolver.resolve(packageInfo, "vendor.foo.CUSTOM_PERM", userId, false);
} catch (PermissionException e) {
    Log.w(TAG, "Skipping unknown permission", e);
}

Set<String> known = platform.getAllPermissions(); // or pm list permissions
if (!known.contains(permissionName)) {
    Log.w(TAG, "Skipping unknown permission " + permissionName);
    return;
}

boolean isKnownPermission(String name) {
    try {
        return platform.getPermissionInfo(name, null) != null;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        return false;
    }
}

try {
    Permission p = resolver.resolve(packageInfo, name, userId, appOpAllowed);
} catch (PermissionException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Unknown permission")) {
        skippedPermissions.add(name);
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling resolve() with a permissionName that the platform's getPermissionInfo() does not know: a typo, a permission declared only in an uninstalled app, or a vendor permission absent on this ROM.

Common situations: Applying permission rules exported from a different device/ROM where a vendor-defined permission existed; renamed permissions across Android versions; custom ROMs (e.g. LineageOS) lacking OEM permissions.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• An uninstallation was necessary but couldn't perform it.
• App Manager does not have the required permission
• Could not create directory
• Could not create directory named
• Could not create package staging directory

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/754e407353b0fe13. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/io/github/muntashirakon/AppManager/permission/PermissionResolver.java:33

/**
 * Builds the permission model from current platform state.
 */
final class PermissionResolver {
    private PermissionResolver() {
    }

    @NonNull
    static Permission resolve(@NonNull PackageManagerPermissionPlatform platform,
                              @NonNull PackageInfo packageInfo,
                              @NonNull String permissionName,
                              @UserIdInt int userId,
                              boolean appOpAllowed) throws PermissionException {
        try {
            PermissionInfo permissionInfo = platform.getPermissionInfo(permissionName,
                    packageInfo.packageName);
            if (permissionInfo == null) {
                throw new PermissionException("Unknown permission " + permissionName);
            }
            boolean granted = platform.checkPermission(permissionName, packageInfo.packageName,
                    userId) == PERMISSION_GRANTED;
            int flags = platform.getPermissionFlags(permissionName, packageInfo.packageName, userId);
            int appOp = AppOpsManagerCompat.permissionToOpCode(permissionName);
            int protection = PermissionInfoCompat.getProtection(permissionInfo);
            int protectionFlags = PermissionInfoCompat.getProtectionFlags(permissionInfo);
            if (protection == PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_DANGEROUS
                    && PermUtils.systemSupportsRuntimePermissions()) {
                return new RuntimePermission(permissionName, granted, appOp, appOpAllowed, flags);
            }
            if ((protectionFlags & PermissionInfo.PROTECTION_FLAG_DEVELOPMENT) != 0) {
                return new DevelopmentPermission(permissionName, granted, appOp, appOpAllowed,
                        flags);
            }
            return new ReadOnlyPermission(permissionName, granted, appOp, appOpAllowed, flags);
        } catch (PermissionException e) {
            throw e;

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