[Article Transfer] How to use OCULUS VR apps on Note 7 (after disable)

October 20, 2016
jspofford

[Article Transfer]: This article is an old article I wrote, that was transferred over from my old portfolio website. It is here for archival purposes.

[Disclaimer] I’m not condoning or suggesting to do this. This is merely from an R&D standpoint. I’ve been with iPhone for the last 8 years and have just opted to switch when the Note 7 was released. I’ve spent years finding exploits/bugs, etc within iOS/jailbreaking, etc. Now I’m learning about Android and going from there. But, figured I’d share the knowledge.

[Update @ 11/1/2016]: As of yesterday EZ Disabler released an update because of Terms of Service compliances with Samsung that prevents users from disabling a handful of services. I’d suggest disabling auto-update for EZ Disabler to ensure no unwanted push updates from Samsung.

Now that the Oculus no longer offers support for the Note 7 via Gear VR I’ve put together a small guide that illustrates how to run Oculus-specific apps on the Note 7 without having to use Oculus Home (which loads on default for any Oculus app). It’s a lot easier than it looks after you’ve gone through the process once.

This method does not allow you to use Oculus Home.

App(s) I used:

EZ Disabler (only if you need to disable ‘Gear VR Service’ to use Google Cardboard apps)
ES File Explorer
My Files (Default File Explorer on Android)
SideloadVR

I interfaced this process with my Surface Pro 4 (Windows 10) computer. I cannot attest for whether or not this will work on Mac OS.

For Windows you’ll need:

JRE (Java SE Runtime Environment)
SideloadVR Standalone Injector via http://sideloadvr.com (direct download: http://sideloadvr.com/SideloadVRInjector.zip)
Oculus Developer Signature File (easy)

Once everything is downloaded and ready to go, follow steps:

1) Open SideloadVR, follow introduction instructions. Step 1 via SideloadVR will tell you your PROPER device ID Go to: http://developer.oculus.com/osig on your computer Type in your device ID in the box at the top of the webpage from Step 1 Generate + Download your signature file. Save your signature file to your desktop Extract SideloadVRInjector.zip to desktop Move signature file into SideloadVRInjector’s folder

When you install an app via Oculus store or library it makes it virtually impossible to find it’s *.apk or application file without having to jump through flaming hoops (at least in my experience so far) Luckily, there’s a loophole when using ES File Explorer.

2) On phone, open ES File Explorer (app that you should have downloaded)

Navigate to your “APPS” tab

Locate the Oculus application you’re so desperately in need of using (in my case, I tested this with an Insurgent demo I had installed prior to Oculus disabling support)

Hold finger down on App (Insurgent) until additional options appear along the bottom. Hit backup. It should prompt you that it has been successfully backed up

3) Back to computer. Plug phone into computer via USB cable. It will probably prompt you on the phone if you allow/disallow access to the device. Hit allow.

Start -> This PC(My Computer) -> Choose Phone -> backups -> apps -> Insurgent_1.0.16.apk (choose the *.apk file you chose to backup).

Copy/paste *.apk file to Desktop\SideloadVRInjector (which you created earlier and should also contain your newly generated signature file)

Open SideloadVRInjector on your desktop Read USAGE.txt. If you don’t understand what it’s saying, i’ll give brief directions providing you have general knowledge using cmd.

Start -> Run -> Cmd -> Type: “cd in my case “cd c:\users\John\desktop\SideloadVRInjector” it will bring you to this directory.

From there, you now need to initiate the process of injecting your signature file into the *.apk file (Insurgent)

[MY CMD COMMAND LINES]
C:\Windows\System32> cd c:\Users\John\Desktop\SideloadVRInjector

c:\Users\John\Desktop\SideloadVRInjector>run.bat Insurgent_1.0.16.apk oculussig_3FE4474744C3BA0E

Once in the SideloadVR Directory, you want to type:

run.bat Insurgent_1.0.16.apk oculussig_3FE4474744C3BA0E Or
run.bat (don’t add the < >’s)

It will then start to inject the signature file into the *.apk file. Just give it a minute. It may appear that it’s not doing anything but just wait until after you see that it’s “Building the APK file…”

Once the process is complete and your new *.APK file is built, go back to your SideloadVRInjector folder on your desktop. In the main folder, you should now see whatever *.apk file you picked prefixed with signed_ (in my case, signed_Insurgent_1.0.16).

4) Plug phone back into computer via USB. Navigate back to ‘backups’ folder from Step 3. Copy/paste signed_*.apk (signed_Insurgent_1.0.16) from SideloadVRInjector (on your desktop) into your backups\apps folder.

Once it transfers, disconnect phone and navigate to ‘Settings’ on phone. Uninstall the pre-existing Oculus application that you just signed. In my case, I uninstall Insurgent from my apps directory. Once you uninstall the original version of whatever app you’re doing this for, open ES File Explorer app.

Navigate to your ‘Home’ folder and find the backups\apps folder. Within this folder should be the signed_Insurgent (or *.apk) that you just moved over from your computer. Choose it and hit ‘Install.’

Once it successfully installs hit open. Attach your phone to your Gear VR (as it will ask you to). Once you do, it should immediately start to play Insurgent (or whatever *.apk you did this with.)

I’m not sure if it works with them ALL. I’ve only tested this with THREE Oculus application because I saw a lot of people complaining about not being able to and saw no available solutions, so don’t hate me if it doesn’t work for them all <3

[Note] I didn’t proof-read this because I just figured this process out and wanted to document my steps as there are many. Apologies for any mistakes. I will eventually read through and edit/format properly. For now, I’ll try to answer any questions as quickly/best I can, should there be any.