UK Banking Apps - Starling Bank Not working

Apologies for my slow reply. I have managed to get Starling to work but I am not sure if I know why. I assume you have Magisk running and within that modules MagiskHide Props Config and Universal SafetyNetFix running and on. I am not sure how much detail to go into…here goes.
Quick Fix (possibly): log into your Starling account via a web browser on your phone (not on PC). This directs you to the Starling App and then I found I could login. Bizarre - because the Starling App would not allow me to login.
I did experience problems installing Magisk on Motorola Edge because the recovery file (modified in Magisk) exceeds 100MB and that creates a problem loading it into a partition through “flash boot”. I tried altering the size of file that a partition could accept using the “-S” command but could not get it to work. The alternative is to flash into recovery. It is a little more fiddling around but the instructions work on this link https://droidwin.com/root-lineageos-magisk-boot-img/.
There is a further wrinkle - the Safety NetFix software did not seem to be working - there is a work around that you should be able to find on Github (File name may help search: safetynet-fix-v2.3.1-MOD_3.0.zip). Once I went through all this all my apps that refused to work on a rooted phone worked - except one (an EV charging app).
EV Charging problem - default privacy settings are to block all trackers but there is one that always seems to cause problems “Mobile Engagement” which has to be on to get a lot of apps to work. BTW that app does not apply to Starling Bank.
Sorry it has taken so long to answer and my rather wordy reply.

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A solution I have seen but not sure how it would work is to block a DNS request. More information here

Otherwise I am not sure what to do. In a similar position and not really wanting to move banks.

I do not have Magisk installed, i have never needed it in the past, but it is looking like this is something i need to do. Having never installed Magisk, do i need to do a re-install os?
I tried your quick fix, and that also worked for a short period of time, but would like to get it fixed permanently
Paul

Hi,
You don’t need to re-install recovery Magisk will run with your current OS.
However, you will need to follow the install procedure which is a bit circuitous. Depending on the recovery you have (ie phone) you might have up follow slightly different process.
There is plenty of help on the internet, eg https://droidwin.com/root-lineageos-magisk-boot-img/
Bit there will be specific for your phone.
If you get stuck let me know.

Thought I’d share how I’ve managed a work around to get the Starling app to function, however I appreciate that this won’t be ideal for everyone as it involves having a working app on another device. In my case an iPhone 13 Mini.

On my OnePlus Nord I logged into Starling account via a web browser (Firefox Focus for me) at https://app.starlingbank.com/login

To complete the login I had to use the Starling app on the iPhone to to verify. This then caused FF web browser session to open the Starling app on the Nord, whereby I was able to do the video recording verification.

Verification was complete within 30 mins and hey presto a working Starling app on /e/os.

The only thing that isn’t working for me is the Cards management tab.

Mark,
When I saw your post I tried your method but ended up with Starling rejecting me. However, yesterday, I gave it another go (subsequent Starling App update and also new /e/OS update to 1.12.s - running on One+ 6T) and it worked. I did get the usual complaint about the app was on a non standard ROM to start with but it asked for my fingerprint and it worked fine. Confirm that the card management option does not seem to work.
Thanks for your trial and efforts. Maybe there should be a dotted line through the list of banking apps regarding Starling - I suspect it might all fall over after the next OS release or app update!

Hi all,
it seems that current (3.8.1.83687) and future versions should be working.
I did spend some time convincing them to change course but it might have worked.

Hi,
I installed the current version of Starling Bank app (3.8.1.83687) and as soon as i opened the app, the warning about not passing security checks was shown. I have managed to login the app by attempting to login via the website, and now the app works.
@strugk did you mention you had spoken to starling bank about this issue?

Paul

Hi @Paule1020 - yes I did have a few chats at various levels and I’ve sent them some error reference numbers and argued that /e/OS is not (necessarily) a rooted system.
Cant say convincing always works, but with Starling and on one other occasion (with HiyaCar) it worked :slight_smile:

My starling app has just reverted to the ‘Your device has hasn’t passed out security checks’.
Should this still be happening?
Paul

I had few updates in the meantime, currently on ver. 3.11.1.84908 and I had no issues for a month or so.
Maybe they did some dirty trick of whitelisting only something that is more narrowly aimed at me rather than at /e/OS as a whole - I have no idea.
Also had some issues for a month or two with few random apps (co-op, cushon) before the last e/OS update to 1.13-s-stable. Currently everything works smoothely.

Kris

Do you have a contact email address for starling?

It is super secret, nowhere to be found, I called them, they wrote first with some case numbers from an email which is quite intuitive “help” at their main domain. Not sure if they monitor it for new cases but you can give it a try.

BTW Starling appears to be working just fine on both rooted and non-rooted version of Murena for me without any intervention or warnings (as previously existed).

My Starling Bank is also ok now, and has been for the last Month. Infact most of the apps that did not work before, are now working

This is now happening again, as of Starling app v3.47.0.97816. Clearing app storage, uninstalling and re-installing 3.46.0.97655 seems to fix it.

Same is happening with my Starling bank app, which had been working fine for a few months. App is saying “your device hasn’t passed our security checks”.
Looks like it’s on v3.49.1.98645 but I have no idea how to install an earlier version of the app?
I’m not very tech-y, so any advice/support much appreciated!

I have been speaking to Starling Bank support about this over the last few weeks.
My app failed last year and then, after a few app updates, started to work again.
This was maintained for nearly a year, and I almost started to trust the app once more when…suddenly, it stopped again and I received the security failure warning.
This went on through three or so updates and, in the interim, I made a complaint to Starling Bank since, we know it’s not a security issue right!?
They didn’t agree however and kept referring to Graphene OS for some reason but, I persevered.

The app version that failed this year for me was:
3.52.0.99378
Then, about 48 hours ago, I installed version 3.55.1.100703 and it worked again as if nothing had ever been wrong. This was after having uninstalled Starling around three weeks ago
I wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience? Has the Starling Bank app now started working again? Perhaps you haven’t tried it recently?
Anyway, I have left my complaint open and spoke to a charming young man at Starling Bank this morning who was very interested in my situation and took down lots of detail to pass on to my complaint handler (who had decided to send me a message in app when my complaint was I couldn’t access the app!)
I have been told that a lot of work has gone into the Starling app in order to fix it’s incompatibility with Graphene OS so, it’s possible that this was the same reason it didn’t work in /e/OS?
We will have to wait and see.
I will report back and information I get from Starling in the meantime but would be interested to hear if any of you have no managed to get the app to work.

Thanks for listening.

J

help@starlingbank.com

I’m interested in using Starling so I’ll join the conversation. I emailed them as a potential customer to ask what their strategy is.