Hi,
This is my first post so first I'd like to say hello to all of users
I'd like to understand more how apk files are installed on android file system. So there go my questions:
1. After installation (via market for example) apk files are stored somewhere in file system - data/app for example from what i've heard - are those apk only backed up installation packages or actual "executable" and program itself?
2. Where are stored application settings, user preferences etc?
3. Is process of uninstallation always means removing ALL leftover from each application or after some time system gets cluttered with those (I know it is not windows with registry leftovers etc but even in linux from what i know there could be some problems if app won't remove all dependant libraries and file when uninstalling)
Thanks in advance
Related
i just bought an x10 phone and wanted to know how to install applications and themes... PLEASE HELP ME...
OK,
for apps:
From the market it should be pretty obvious, so I'm assuming you mean from an apk on your SD card.
You'll need a file explorer like Estrong (from the market) or RootExplorer (only works with 'root' (see below)).
You also need to allow 'applications from unknown sources' (Settings -> Applications)
Then just browse to the apk in the file explorer and selecting it should prompt the installation. After that you're good to go.
Themes:
this is a bit trickier (is that a word).
1. First up, you'll need root (kind of like admin rights on windows). The easiest way is to use the one-click root app from the development section, this installs as above and then on launching there's a 'Root' and an 'Unroot' button. Click root and you're done.
2. What you're doing when you install a theme is replacing the apk files for the phones framework and certain key apps. The modified versions that are copied mostly just contain updated resources (almost always .png files).
This is the reason you need root, you are replaced protected system files. It is also the reason that you can only have one theme at a time and can't 'hot-swap' them like in timescape, for example.
The best way to go about this, in my opinion, is to download one of chewitts themes. Before you install it take a look at the installer bat - open it in Notepad - sorry I'm just assuming everyone uses windows , probably get shot for those sort of assumptions here
It is my firm belief that, if you don't understand what is going on in that installer file then you need to do some more research, start with the stickies here (maybe the one about how to use chewitts installer) and check this thread out as well:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=714288&highlight=modify
Hope this is enough to get you started. Let me know if something isn't clear.
Hi everyone, I'm trying to clean up my phone to make it faster and free up some memory. But while I was looking for files and folders that can be thrown away, I wasn't sure about few of them & couldn't determine whether I can get rid of them or not! Here are the folders and files I'm asking about (they're all located in the internal memory):
1- (.droidga)
contains some unknown files like (gad_ds), (gad_gt), (gad_install), and some other files with the extension of (.p)
2- (iten)
contains only one file (iten_v2.db)
The following ones are located inside (Android/data) folder:
3- (com.chartboost.sdk)
contains a file (chartboost.cb)
4- (ly.font)
contains a cache folder with many different files
can anyone please explain what these folders are & if it's safe to remove them or not!
Thanks a lot!
- Ramy
r.romyo said:
Hi everyone, I'm trying to clean up my phone to make it faster and free up some memory. But while I was looking for files and folders that can be thrown away, I wasn't sure about few of them & couldn't determine whether I can get rid of them or not! Here are the folders and files I'm asking about (they're all located in the internal memory):
1- (.droidga)
contains some unknown files like (gad_ds), (gad_gt), (gad_install), and some other files with the extension of (.p)
2- (iten)
contains only one file (iten_v2.db)
The following ones are located inside (Android/data) folder:
3- (com.chartboost.sdk)
contains a file (chartboost.cb)
4- (ly.font)
contains a cache folder with many different files
can anyone please explain what these folders are & if it's safe to remove them or not!
Thanks a lot!
- Ramy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These files and folders are generated by the apps that you have installed. If you want to delete unnecessary folders then use Android Assistant(18 Features) from Play Store and do cleanup. This will also give you a slight performance gain.. But if you delete these folders then again it will be regenerated by the corresponding app.
One more advice if you are rooted and find reduction in performance then Wipe cache from cwm from time to time this will also help you.
Hope you got your answer.
Thanks
kk9999gada said:
These files and folders are generated by the apps that you have installed. If you want to delete unnecessary folders then use Android Assistant(18 Features) from Play Store and do cleanup. This will also give you a slight performance gain.. But if you delete these folders then again it will be regenerated by the corresponding app.
One more advice if you are rooted and find reduction in performance then Wipe cache from cwm from time to time this will also help you.
Hope you got your answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I'm actually using another app called "Clean Master" & it does the job very well, but still these folders & files exist.
I know they're are not a big deal even in terms of the space they occupy, but the thing is I had tons of apps installed on my phone previously then I decided to do the factory reset few days ago. It feels much lighter and faster now, but even after the reset some folders created by apps I had before were not completely removed. I removed everything I know, but also wanted to go further and remove any other unnecessary files. I just wasn't sure whether the files I mentioned are system files or not.
& no my phone is not rooted.
Thanks a lot for the tips! :good:
Hello folks,
I am tired of restoring all my apps settings and replaying my games from the beginning each time I install a new rom or do a factory reset so I was looking (a couple of hours ago) for how to restore my apps setting and especially my games progress after every data wipe......
I read that many users faced problems using helium and some similar apps (Titanium Backup seems to be perfect for this job but it's a paid app and that is the problem:laugh and after all this I figured out that what were doing these apps to make a full backup of an app is just making a copy of the app.apk and the app folder in /data/data where app is the name of the considered app(sorry if this is well-known but I really didn't know)
So I made this tutorial on how to backup/restore your apps and data MANUALLY because this let you choose which app to backup/restore...
This tutorial is for noobs (because I am noob!!!!!)
Requirements:
Galaxy SL or any other android device.
ES explorer or any other file explorer with root access support.
Your phone needs to be rooted.
Backing up app and data:
Enable your explorer read/write permissions (for ES explorer >>settings>>root options).
Go to /data/app and copy the app.apk to your SD card backup folder.
Go to /data/data and copy app folder to your SD card backup folder.
that's it, now your app is fully backed up.
Restoring app and data:
Install app.apk from backup folder
Go to /data/data and remove the existing app folder (don't launch the app now because it won't start)
Copy the app folder from the backup folder to /data/data
launch your app now, it should work!
that's it, now your app is fully restored.
Notes:
I tried this to backup and restore NFS most wanted progress and it WORKED!!!!
Maybe this methode don't work for some apps but it should work for the rest of them.
For system apps go to /system/app .
app folder should start with "com." (for example "com.ea.games.nfs13_na" for NFS most wanted).
I don't know what is the difference between this methode and the adb methode so can someone tell me if there is a difference.
Restoring apps settings from/to different android versions may not work
hey guys, this is my first thread so please don't blame me if it's not good enough
sorry for my bad English and hope this will be helpful for you
Best regards
any replays here???
how to restore helium backup manually????
:fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
ASMI1 said:
3. Copy the app folder from the backup folder to /data/data
4. launch your app now, it should work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, it works!
But there is some small point. The Android system uses technical users to separate the data of the apps from each other. If you copy the files this way then the copied files will belong to root and be accessible for all apps.
So you should also take care that the file and folder attributes for rights, users and groups are correctly set. Therefore start and stop the installed app again, it will create its folder in /data/data. You can then see (and set) the attributes in the properties entry of ES file explorer. And only then overwrite the files with the backup and after this set the attributes.
Unfortunately this is not very comfortable with ES file explorer, because it has to be done for each and every file/folder separately and the technical user has to be chosen from a long list...
ThemGo said:
Thanks, it works!
But there is some small point. The Android system uses technical users to separate the data of the apps from each other. If you copy the files this way then the copied files will belong to root and be accessible for all apps.
So you should also take care that the file and folder attributes for rights, users and groups are correctly set. Therefore start and stop the installed app again, it will create its folder in /data/data. You can then see (and set) the attributes in the properties entry of ES file explorer. And only then overwrite the files with the backup and after this set the attributes.
Unfortunately this is not very comfortable with ES file explorer, because it has to be done for each and every file/folder separately and the technical user has to be chosen from a long list...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi ThemGo! You have reopened a bit old thread :laugh: Now a days, the play store is bull of useful apps to backup almost everything on your android device. I found that Titanium backup Pro is the best among them all. Its a paid app but it really deserve it
Kind Regards
ASMI1 said:
the play store is bull of useful apps to backup almost everything on your android device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, but what - as happened to me last month - if your phone dies suddenly, you get yourself a new one and fortunately have a not too old backup made with cwm recovery, what will you do?
Yes, extract the necessary data from the backup and then copy it manually to the new phone.
ThemGo said:
Of course, but what - as happened to me last month - if your phone dies suddenly, you get yourself a new one and fortunately have a not too old backup made with cwm recovery, what will you do?
Yes, extract the necessary data from the backup and then copy it manually to the new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Havent really tried that but if both phones are using same android version that may work. Because some of my apps that were backed up on Jellybean are not working on Kitkat & Lollipop even when using the same phone so I guess the backup procedure is not just a matter of copying & pasting.
Phone: Koodo Moto G with Motorola Android 4.3
I've seen a post or two about not being able to install Android APK files on the Moto G, and I've seen some solutions. As far as I'm aware, on this particular release of Android this is to prevent malicious apps from installing from SD memory, which makes a lot of sense given the amount of malware, etc. targeting Android. Anyway, conjecture aside, here is my preferred route to installing apk files (like f-droid), since I don't like ES File Manager, and I don't like random hacks which in all probability are just going to introduce another security hole anyway.
First, be sure you have enabled the proper settings under Settings --> Security --> Unknown sources.
Get root. This is mandatory, and why do you want to muck about away from the relative safety of the Play Store if you aren't getting root anyway?
Install a file manager built for accessing protected partitions. My fave is Root Explorer (purchased).
Open your "Download" folder on the SD memory (where your web browser will have saved the apk) and select your apk for copying or moving. Now open the root folder, and here you have a choice. You will need to create a folder in the phone's protected storage. (Delete/Move random files anywhere in here at your own peril!) For simplicity and security, I used
Code:
/data
. I then created a folder named APKs (/data/APKs) and moved my apk files to that location. Now your files are somewhere the operating system considers "safe".
Click, install, enjoy!
Hi,
I have an issue. I need to install an APK, that’s already install on the phone (old version). As this APK is install by default in the phone by manufacturer, I can’t remove it ( I could root this phone to remove it but I don’t want (for many reasons…)). Installation failed because of conflicting name.
My question is: How I could rename the new APK (deep inside the APK), not just the file name, to avoid conflicting name?
Thanks
KR
Use Apktool to modify the package name and install it
Use apka editor available on Google play.
Else create Second space app on your phone and install it