Database Info

Apps to sdcard Problem(zip. instead of apk.)

i am moving my apps to the sdcard obviously, and when i copied my apps to the sdcard(cp -R /data/app/ /sdcard), i get a zip file for one of the apps. it should be an a apk. but the res, resources, and the android manifest, are all in this zip folder and i dont know a way to install that app to my sdcard to make it work.i tried the package installer on the phone, it worked by recoginzing the app but it said install uncessfull. so does anyone know a way so i can install the app someway or get it to a apk. format?
id appreciate it very much and thank you!!!!

mybackup saves backups in a "zip" file, could this be what you are seeing?

davidhooper4 said:
i am moving my apps to the sdcard obviously, and when i copied my apps to the sdcard(cp -R /data/app/ /sdcard), i get a zip file for one of the apps. it should be an a apk. but the res, resources, and the android manifest, are all in this zip folder and i dont know a way to install that app to my sdcard to make it work.i tried the package installer on the phone, it worked by recoginzing the app but it said install uncessfull. so does anyone know a way so i can install the app someway or get it to a apk. format?
id appreciate it very much and thank you!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i noticed the paid apps are showing up in /data/app as *.zip and in /data/app-private as the *.apk .. things like pac-man etc

Changing Market App Icons

Hello,
I did some searching before posting this and have come up with little results that are working for me. I have been able to change my stock icon apps using the method on androidcentral (sorry, can not post links yet). However, trying the same thing with Free Market Apps, I have been unsuccessful.
I am able to get the com.*.*.apk file off of my phone, and can extract the res folder, but after editing and pushing the file back onto the phone, the application is "uninstalled." I believe that I have to sign the apk file again, which I've tried doing with no success.
What I do not understand, is the app Bettercut has the ability to change these Market App Icons, so I thought we should be able to do so as well. If anyone has any knowledge of how to do this, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

Hey you
Change your graphics. Uninstall the app from your phone, put the edited .apk on your sd card and install it with astro (or another app that installs apk files). If you update from market you'll lose customizations.

Hiya.
Yeah, I tried that, but I keep getting unable to install. I do have non-market apps checked, but still no luck. I'm basically just editing the graphic from the com.*.*.apk file, opeing the com.*.*.apk file with 7zip, placing the new graphic in the res/drawable folder, closing 7zip, then I put the com.*.*.apk file onto my SD card (after uninstalling original app) then use astro to install. Doing this is not working. I thought I might have to sign the apk file, rename it or something. Not really sure at this point.

ccapasso said:
Hiya.
Yeah, I tried that, but I keep getting unable to install. I do have non-market apps checked, but still no luck. I'm basically just editing the graphic from the com.*.*.apk file, opeing the com.*.*.apk file with 7zip, placing the new graphic in the res/drawable folder, closing 7zip, then I put the com.*.*.apk file onto my SD card (after uninstalling original app) then use astro to install. Doing this is not working. I thought I might have to sign the apk file, rename it or something. Not really sure at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got it to work by pushing the .apks back through adb and not using a File Manager. I changed a bunch of my Market icons without any problem. No fc's or install failures.

So say for example you were to change the Market Icon for Spare Parts. I assume you did the following:
Pulled com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk from /data/app
Edited the app_icon.png file within the res/drawable folder
Uninstalled Spare Parts
Pushed com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk back to /data/app
Or did you do it differently?
Thanks again for all the help on this. Not sure exactly what is going wrong on my end.

I never uninstalled the apk. I just drug a copy of the .apk to my computer, edited the image, and then pushed it back over the original one. Im in no way any kind of expert, but it worked when I did it.

Hmm. So are you going into /data/app and pulling the com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk (for example), editing, then pushing back w/ out signing or anything? I assume you are pushing back the same file, name exactly the same and everything.
So for example you would have pulled com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk from /data/app, edited the png within the apk file, then pushed com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk back to /data/app and it worked?
No rebooting, signing or anything?
I'm using Fresh 1.1 with MCK and again, do not have SD card partitioned for apps2sd yet.
Thanks again.

Yep, that's what I did. No updating, signing, nothin. I did reboot after I was all done. And I dont mess around with that apps2sd business either. So it should be the same.

gomorrah said:
I never uninstalled the apk. I just drug a copy of the .apk to my computer, edited the image, and then pushed it back over the original one. Im in no way any kind of expert, but it worked when I did it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that worked pretty nicely! I was trying to change the little slide bar that moves as you change screens. I kept upzipping the file and modifying it, then rezipping and trying to reinstall. 7zip lets you modify the .apk with out opening it up...glad this subject came up and you answered this!

Ok. Step by step here is what I did just now:
1. adb pull /data/app/com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk C:\Users\Chris\Desktop
2. Used 7zip to open the apk file.
3. Moved my app_icon.png file into the res/drawable folder and overwrote the current one
4. adb push C:\Users\Chris\Desktop\com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk /data/app/
5. adb shell
6. reboot
Doing this did not work. It only made the icon on my home screen for Spare Parts go away, and the app is no longer listed as being installed. I can still see the file in my /data/app/ directory, but it is not installed or showing up anywhere.
Any ideas?

ccapasso said:
Ok. Step by step here is what I did just now:
1. adb pull /data/app/com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk C:\Users\Chris\Desktop
2. Used 7zip to open the apk file.
3. Moved my app_icon.png file into the res/drawable folder and overwrote the current one
4. adb push C:\Users\Chris\Desktop\com.androidapps.spare_parts.apk /data/app/
5. adb shell
6. reboot
Doing this did not work. It only made the icon on my home screen for Spare Parts go away, and the app is no longer listed as being installed. I can still see the file in my /data/app/ directory, but it is not installed or showing up anywhere.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try pulling the original icon and editing it. Just make it a solid black square. Then put it back in and push to the phone. Sounds like your new icon changes the filesize enough that it needs resigned.

[HOWTO] MANUALLY save/backup apps and games and more importantly their PROGRESS

Well I browsed through all the forums and I could not find anything that I am going to explain. There are some tits-bits here and there, but I hope this proves to be useful.
I will also explain if you have a xrecovery backup, then how to extract your games and progress from there.
Many of you might be switching ROMs very frequently or upgrading/downgrading their Android. While doing this, we lose all our apps and games and more importanly the game's PROGRESS, if we do not save them.
There are apps available to save apps/games and progress but there is a way to do all these thing MANUALLY. This for those who want the control in their hands , like me.
PART A:
Here's how you do:
1) Create a backup folder on the sdcard with a name that you like. eg. mybackup
1) from your filemanager or from the shell, browse to the directory /data/app and do ls -l. You will get a list of apps which you have installed.
2) Select the app that you want to save/backup and move it to sdcard folder that you have created. The names here would be long but it will be almost similar to the name you see in the UI.
For eg.
Code:
cp uk.co.aifactory.moveitfree.apk /sdcard/mybackup
. would be the command to backup Move It game.
3) Now go to the the directory /data/data and do a ls -l. browse through the list and find a directory which matches the name of the apk without the .apk extension.
for Eg. for the 'move it' game, you will find a directory uk.co.aifactory.moveitfree
Move this directory to the backup folder
Code:
cp -r uk.co.aifactory.moveitfree /sdcard/mybackup
.
For those working on shell, remember to do cp "-r" as you are copying a directory.
You are done!!. You have backed up your app and all the progress related to that app.
Now you can copy mybackup folder to your PC or keep it in the sdcard if you have enough space. Its your choice...
PART B:
How to get the progress and games back after flashing the ROM or after wipeout.
Its easy. Just reverse the steps mentioned above.
1) copy the .apk file from your backup folder to /data/app through filemanager or shell.
Eg.
Code:
cp /sdcard/mybackup/uk.co.aifactory.moveitfree.apk /data/app
2) copy the data directory to the location /data/data.
Eg.
Code:
cp -r /sdcard/mybackup/uk.co.aifactory.moveitfree /data/data
You are back to business, just browse through your apps and enjoy the games from where you left.
UPDATE :
For Angry Birds, when you are done with the above steps, delete the file
/data/data/com.rovio.angrybirdsrio/files/settings.lua
It app will not open up if you dont do it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those who have already backedup their ROMs and not saved their apps as mentioned above, dont worry, I have a solution for that too. I am specifically going to explain the method to get it from xrecovery backup.
When you backup your ROM or system using xRecovery, it stores all the data inside /sdcard/xrecovery/backup/<date>.
Inside that folder, there are 3 img files.
cache.img
system.img
data.img
data.img contains all the data/app/games that you had installed, while system.img contains everything that came bundled with ROM. It might differ a bit per devices, but mostly its data.img
I tried to open this file ".img" with a lot of extraction tools but none could help. Atlast, i got help from our great <zdzihu>, and he said, he saves the archive with yaffs2 compression.
There is an app "unyaffs2" which you can use to extract the contents of the archive. Get it from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=910255
This app will extract the contents to the folder where you ask it to. Once you have your data, repeat the above mentioned steps to get your apps and games running!!

Thank you for the how to

it not change owner
this is very big problem

Hi dateno1, can you be more specific?
What app are you trying on
What method u used to copy
What error r u getting exactly
Which device and on which step
Sent from my X10mini using XDA App

ronaksv said:
PART B:
How to get the progress and games back after flashing the ROM or after wipeout.
Its easy. Just reverse the steps mentioned above.
1) copy the .apk file from your backup folder to /data/app through filemanager or shell.
2) copy the data directory to the location /data/data.
You are back to business, just browse through your apps and enjoy the games from where you left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have question on the process of getting it back.
on step 1 you said copy.
is it also ok if you are going to reinstall it then proceed to step 2.
thanks.

[Q] Update.zip to restore apps?

hey guys i just wanted to ask something. Its possible to install apps via update.zip immediately after flashing ROM rite? I searched XDA and found this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=917922
but im not sure how to do it and anyway the meaupload link for that download is down. Btw since all my app data together is more than the data partition of the phone (>200mb), is it possible to make the apps link to my second partition of sd card via update.zip script or something? Hope u guys can help me!!

Does anyone know how to do this? if possible i think it would save a lot of time as when reinstalling via titanium backup. this way would be more hassle-free if possible.

So no one knows how to do this? ok then nvr mind i guess it must be too hard or something....

Why not just use an ext partition and app2ext?
Creating an update.zip is possible, but it's not very convenient. Esp keeping it up-to-date.

Mioze7Ae said:
Why not just use an ext partition and app2ext?
Creating an update.zip is possible, but it's not very convenient. Esp keeping it up-to-date.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
srry if im asking a really dumb qn but does that mean that if u install apps to ur ext2 via link2sd, u dont have to install them again on new ROM?

App2ext is different from link2sd (but they both use ext partition.
In link2sd you usually create /sd-ext/link2sd folder, reboot and then use the Link2SD app to manually move apps to /sd-ext/link2sd. This is good if you want to mix apps on SD and internal.
In app2ext (which I'm suggesting) you instead create /sd-ext/app folder on sdcard and reboot. All your installed apps will be moved there from internal memory and new apps will be installed there automatically. They will still be there after you factory reset or install a new ROM. (To preserve application data you need something else such as titanium backup)

Ohhhhh. Thx a lot!! Ok I just wanna try a bit of programming that's why I asked how to make update.zip. haha. Anyway Thx!!
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App

androidlover123 said:
Ohhhhh. Thx a lot!! Ok I just wanna try a bit of programming that's why I asked how to make update.zip. haha. Anyway Thx!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can learn by studying the gapps package used by CM or any other update.zip. The "magic" is inside the META-INF folder. META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script has the installer commands that do things like mount /system and extract files, set permissions etc. The final step is to sign the update. OpenRecovery allows unsigned updates, but you should sign anyway even using testkeys--it forces a sha1 verification of the zip files to detect corruption before the update is applied.

Mioze7Ae said:
You can learn by studying the gapps package used by CM or any other update.zip. The "magic" is inside the META-INF folder. META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script has the installer commands that do things like mount /system and extract files, set permissions etc. The final step is to sign the update. OpenRecovery allows unsigned updates, but you should sign anyway even using testkeys--it forces a sha1 verification of the zip files to detect corruption before the update is applied.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oooh i can kinda understand the code in the updater-script. for eg: ui_print to print to screen, package_extract_dir to extract files to the directory in whatever folder u state. but what is the update-binary file?

The update-binary is the program that reads and executes updater-script.

Mioze7Ae said:
The update-binary is the program that reads and executes updater-script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that something you must write yourself or something? Or just copy from other update.zips?

I just copy it. It's probably in the AOSP source somewhere but I've never looked.

[Tutorial] Install problematic APKs in /system (or /preload)

You may have tried to move some APKs to /system/app/ and end up with continuous crashes, usually resulting in abandoning your plan to save some otherwise wasted space (or preventing to accidentally uninstall all keyboards...)
This is often said to be a permissions issue, yet that's not enough for some packages: those with external libraries.
Copy the APK to /system/app/, then `chmod 644` it as usual.
You can also install to /preload and symlink to system
On your computer (easier but not required), open the APK (as a renamed ZIP).
Go to ./lib/{architecture}/, where on the Ace2 this is lib/armeabi-v7a.
Extract all the (.so) files here and put them in /system/lib.
There's no step 5!

Ryccardo said:
You may have tried to move some APKs to /system/app/ and end up with continuous crashes, usually resulting in abandoning your plan to save some otherwise wasted space (or preventing to accidentally uninstall all keyboards...)
This is often said to be a permissions issue, yet that's not enough for some packages: those with external libraries.
Copy the APK to /system/app/, then `chmod 644` it as usual.
You can also install to /preload and symlink to system
On your computer (easier but not required), open the APK (as a renamed ZIP).
Go to ./lib/{architecture}/, where on the Ace2 this is lib/armeabi-v7a.
Extract all the (.so) files here and put them in /system/lib.
There's no step 5!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much :good:

All of the above is still true if you want to package apps in CWM format, but people who just are tight on /data (and don't want to repartition) can just use the convert to system app in Link2SD, which now actually works on apps with libraries