android adb, retrieve database using run-as

Question

On a non-rooted android device, I can navigate to the data folder containing the database using the run-as command with my package name. Most files types I am content with just viewing, but with the database I would like to pull if from the android device.

Is there a download copy or move command from this part of adb shell? I would like to download the database file and view its content using a database browser.

One answer here involves turning entire application package into a compressed archive, but there is no further answer on how to extract that archive once this is done and moved to the machine, leaving me very sidetracked when there might be a more direct solution to begin with

Answer 1

I couldn't get anything else to work for me but this:

adb shell
run-as package.name
cat /databases/databaseFileName.db > /sdcard/copiedDatabaseFileName.db
exit
exit
adb pull /sdcard/copiedDatabaseFileName.db /file/location/on/computer/

The first exit is to exit out of the run-as, the second exit is to exit out of adb shell to do the pull.

Answer 2

The accepted answer doesn't work anymore for me (blocked by Android?)

So instead I did this:

> adb shell
shell $ run-as com.example.package
shell $ chmod 666 databases/file
shell $ exit                                               ## exit out of 'run-as'
shell $ cp /data/data/package.name/databases/file /sdcard/
shell $ run-as com.example.package
shell $ chmod 600 databases/file
> adb pull /sdcard/file .

Answer 3

For app's debug version, it's very convenient to use command adb exec-out run-as xxx.yyy.zzz cat somefile > somefile to extract a single file. But you have to do multiple times for multiple files. Here is a simple script I use to extract the directory.

#!/bin/bash
P=
F=
D=

function usage()
{
    echo "$(basename $0) [-f file] [-d directory] -p package"
    exit 1
}

while getopts ":p:f:d:" opt
do
    case $opt in
        p)
            P=$OPTARG
            echo package is $OPTARG
            ;;
        f)
            F=$OPTARG
            echo file is $OPTARG
            ;;
        d)
            D=$OPTARG
            echo directory is $OPTARG
            ;;
        \?)
            echo Unknown option -$OPTARG
            usage
            ;;
        \:)
            echo Required argument not found -$OPTARG
            usage
            ;;
    esac
done

[ x$P == x ] && {
    echo "package can not be empty"
    usage
    exit 1
}

[[ x$F == x  &&  x$D == x ]] && {
    echo "file or directory can not be empty"
    usage
    exit 1
}

function file_type()
{
    # use printf to avoid carriage return
    __t=$(adb shell run-as $P "sh -c \"[ -f $1 ] && printf f || printf d\"")
    echo $__t
}

function list_and_pull()
{
    t=$(file_type $1)
    if [ $t == d ]; then
        for f in $(adb shell run-as $P ls $1)
        do
            # the carriage return output from adb shell should
            # be removed
            mkdir -p $(echo -e $1 |sed $'s/\r//')
            list_and_pull $(echo -e $1/$f |sed $'s/\r//')
        done
    else
        echo pull file $1
        [ ! -e $(dirname $1) ] && mkdir -p $(dirname $1)
        $(adb exec-out run-as $P cat $1 > $1)
    fi
}

[ ! -z $D ] && list_and_pull $D
[ ! -z $F ] && list_and_pull $F

Hope it would be helpful. This script is also available at gist.

Typical usage is

$ ./exec_out.sh -p com.example.myapplication -d databases

then it will extract all files under your apps databases directory, which is /data/data/com.example.myapplication/databases, into current directory.

Answer 4

If someone is looking for another answer that can be used to retrieve Database as well as Shared Preferences then follow this step:

In your build.gradle file of your app add line

debugCompile 'com.amitshekhar.android:debug-db:1.0.0'

now when you run your app in non-release mode then your app will automatically open 8080 port from your device IP address make sure your device is connected via wifi and your laptop is sharing the same network. Now simply visit the url

http://your_mobile_device_ip:8080/

to watch all data of database along with shared preferences.

Answer 5

#!/bin/bash
#export for adb
export PATH=$PATH:/Users/userMe/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
export PATH=$PATH:/Users/userMe/Library/Android/sdk/tools

adb -d shell 'run-as com.android.app  cp /data/data/com.android.app/files/db.realm /sdcard'
adb pull sdcard/db.realm /Users/userMe/Desktop/db

You can use this script for get Realm database.

Answer 6

Here's a solution that works on a device running Android 5.1. The following example is for Windows.

You need sed ([https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html] or sed.exe on windows, e.g. from cygwin.) ( On Unix, it'll just be there ;) ). To remove bad '\r' characters, at least on windows.

Now just run the following command:

adb exec-out "run-as com.yourcompany.yourapp /data/data/com.yourcompany.yourapp/databases/YourDatabaseName" | c:\cygwin\bin\sed.exe 's/\x0D\x0A/\x0A/'>YourDatabaseName.db

The sed command strips out trailing /r characters.

Of course you should replace "com.yourcompany.yourapp" with the package name of the app and "YourDatabaseName" with the name of the database in the app.