How to differentiate android device from another similar device?

[ghostanime2001]

Is there an android device where it contains some unique indentifier like specific model number or whatever to differentiate it from another similar device ?

For example, my mom and dad at one point had 2 of the same galaxy A70, then if they took a picture, how do I know which device took the photo from 2 similar phones ? is there metadata to differentiate one device from the other ? Are there any devices currently on the market which assigns a unique ID ?

[CWCorrea]

Hello.

Most cell phones do not have a tag that allows one device to be differentiated from another of the same model. That being said, it's possible that by reviewing all the metadata of an image taken with a Galaxy A70 you could find a tag that includes a serial number, but that would be very rare.

In my experience, the same thing happens with iPhones and iPads.

Christian W.

[StarGeek]

You can try and run the command in FAQ #3 to see if there's something that would differ between the two, but as @CWCorrea says, it's unlikely.

Dedicated cameras often have a serial number embedded in the metadata, but it's much less common in phones/tablets.

[ghostanime2001]

It's not just with the galaxy A70 but also with my mom and dad's old iphone 6, white was for mom and dad's was black iphone 6, same problem how to identify pictures from the 2 iphones. Another same delimma is my brother's Xiaomi Mi max phones, he has 2 of them also same problem, can't determine which phone took a particular photo. Although with xiaomi mi max it is a little different because:

1. There were pictures taken with either one xiaomi mi max or both phones which backed up to google photos
2. There were pictures taken with either one xiaomi mi max or both phones which backed up to xoaomi mi cloud

Since then xiamo mi cloud has been discontinued I believe in July 2023.

3. A note 8 had a micro sd card with pictures taken with xiaomi mi max photos on them and a samsung smart switch backup was made of the note 8

So Now, im still trying to determine which photo originated from one of the two xiaomi phones. I took a photo of the about section from the 2 phones:

These are the two identical xiaomi mi max phones:





These are all the program names found for all the photos taken with xiaomi mi max on my system

hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.0.2.0.MBCMIDG release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.1.2.0.MBCMIDI release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.1.3.0.MBCMIDI release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.1.4.0.MBCMIDI release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.1.6.0.MBCMIDI release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.2.1.0.MBCMIDL release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.2.3.0.MBCMIDL release-keys
hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.2.5.0.MBCMIDL release-keys
hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V8.5.1.0.NBCMIED release-keys
hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V9.1.1.0.NBCMIEI release-keys
hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V9.2.1.0.NBCMIEK release-keys
hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V10.2.2.0.NBCMIXM release-keys

[CWCorrea]

Could you share a picture taken with each one of the Xiaomi phones? Your pictures show that both phones have different patch levels and MIUI version. Maybe we can find differences in the metadata that would enable you map a picture to an specific phone.

Christian W.

[ghostanime2001]

Could you share a picture taken with each one of the Xiaomi phones? Your pictures show that both phones have different patch levels and MIUI version. Maybe we can find differences in the metadata that would enable you map a picture to an specific phone.

Christian W.

I tried to update both phones to the latest firmware version but they don't find any new versions. So I'm assuming there is a slight difference between these two phones since the firmware versions don't match




This photo is taken with xiaomi mi phone having firmware version 9.2.1.0 and having program name hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V8.5.1.0.NBCMIED release-keys



The above is from a program called 'Everything' from voidtools to show additional information.




This photo is taken with the xiaomi mi phone with firmware 9.2.1.0 and having program name hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.2.5.0.MBCMIDL release-keys

[CWCorrea]

It looks like you can differentiate the images using the Software tag

I used the command

exiftool -s -filename -software DIR

and got the following output:

Code Select Expand

======== ./IMG_20171008_180044_HDR.jpg
FileName                        : IMG_20171008_180044_HDR.jpg
Software                        : hydrogen-user 7.0 NRD90M V8.5.1.0.NBCMIED release-keys
======== ./IMG_20170610_171530.jpg
FileName                        : IMG_20170610_171530.jpg
Software                        : hydrogen-user 6.0.1 MMB29M V8.2.5.0.MBCMIDL release-keys
    1 directories scanned
    2 image files read

I would put the pictures taken by both devices in a folder and run the command

exiftool '-directory<software' DIR

where DIR is the name of the folder with your pictures. You will end with two new folders with the pictures classified by the Software tag. It might work with your other android devices too. Just give it a test.

Hope this helps.

Christian W.

[ghostanime2001]

The problem is that hydrogen 6.0.1 had continuous file naming from Nov 2016 - June 2017 then there was a abrupt interruption until Oct 2017 - Dec 3, 2017 with various versions with hydrogen 7.0 and another abrupt interruption until May 3, 2020 - Oct 24, 2020

Basically what happened was that, one of the xiaomi mi max phones I was looking through, had photo thumbnails in the gallery app with the little cloud icon on the bottom which meant that the photo could be downloaded from xiaomi mi cloud into internal storage but it was not actually present inside the phone. So I had assumed that those pictures in the cloud were taken with the phone i was presently looking through, not realizing that those pictures which were already in the clooud COULD have been taken with the other xiaomi phone. So, when I cross referenced pictures taken with xiaomi mi max in google photos and mi cloud pictures I found that photos were not present inside one of the xiaomi mi phone and not present in xiaomi mi cloud but present inside google photos. While other pictures were present in google photos and xiaomi mi cloud but not present inside either phones.

[CWCorrea]

I understand your problem now. I don't see a way to further differentiate the pictures taken with two phones of the same model.

Christian W.

[ghostanime2001]

Right I think the problem is, when pictures were inside xiaomi mi cloud, I could only see these with one of the xiaomi phones, therefore thinking that it must not be visible on the other phone because, similar to iphones, if a photo is deleted from internal storage and "remove" it gets put inside the cloud storage but that could mean the photo could have come from another device, in my case, another device of the same model.