How do I get an apk file from an Android device?

Question

How do I get the apk file from an android device? Or how do I transfer the apk file from device to system?

Answer 1

Yet another bash script (i.e. will work for most unix-based systems). Based on the answer by Pedro Rodrigues, but is slightly easier to use.

Improvements over Pedro's version:

1. Original approach did not work for me on Android 7: adb pull kept complaining about no such file or directory while adb shell could access the file. Hence I used different approach, with temporary file.
2. When launched with no arguments, my script will just list all available packages. When partial package name is provided, it will try to guess the full package name. It will complain if there are several possible expansions.
3. I don't hardcode destination path; instead APKs are saved to current working directory.

Save this to an executable file:

#!/bin/bash
# Obtain APK file for given package from the device connected over ADB

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Available packages: "
    adb shell pm list packages | sed 's/^package://'
    echo "You must pass a package to this function!"
    echo "Ex.: android_pull_apk \"com.android.contacts\""
    exit 1
fi

fullname=$(adb shell pm list packages | sed 's/^package://' | grep $1)
if [ -z "$fullname" ]; then
    echo "Could not find package matching $1"
    exit 1
fi
if [ $(echo "$fullname" | wc -l) -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "Too many packages matched:"
    echo "$fullname"
    exit 1
fi
echo "Will fetch APK for package $fullname"

apk_path="`adb shell pm path $fullname | sed -e 's/package://g' | tr '\n' ' ' | tr -d '[:space:]'`"
apk_name="`basename ${apk_path} | tr '\n' ' ' | tr -d '[:space:]'`"

destination="${fullname}.apk"

tmp=$(mktemp --dry-run --tmpdir=/sdcard --suffix=.apk)
adb shell cp "${apk_path}" "$tmp"
adb pull "$tmp" "$destination"
adb shell rm "$tmp"

[ $? -eq 0 ] && echo -e "\nAPK saved in \"$destination\""

Answer 2

I haven't used code to pull .apk file from mobile but i have been using software to extract .apk file from mobile and software i have used are below with google play link:

1. ES File Explorer File Manager
2. ASTRO Cloud & File Manager 3.Software Data Cable

Hope it helps You.

Answer 3

No Root and no ADB tools required method. Install MyAppSharer app from the play store.

Answer 4

1. Open the app you wish to extract the apk from on your phone.

2. Get the currently opened app with:

   adb shell dumpsys activity activities | grep mFocusedActivity
   

3. Get the path to the package name

   adb shell pm path <packagename.apk>
   

4.Copy the path you got to the sdcard directory

    adb shell cp /data/app/<packagename.apk> /sdcard

5.Pull the apk

    adb pull /sdcard/base.apk

Answer 5

Completing @Yojimbo 's answer, this is what I did (Linux/Mac only, will not work out of the box on Windows... maybe in git's bash shell):

for i in $(adb shell pm list packages -f -3 | cut -d= -f 1 | cut -d ":" -f 2); do adb pull $i; done

This is ugly bash, but works :)

EDIT: It no longer works on AndroidM: all files are named "base.apk" under another dir. Should be "trivial" to fix.

Answer 6

One liner which works for all Android versions:

adb shell 'cat `pm path com.example.name | cut -d':' -f2`' > app.apk