Extract an APK From Android Devices using ADB

July 20th at 4:51pm

While working on a side project I had a need to extract an APK from my Android phone. This post briefly describes the process on how to do that.

Equipment used: Samsung phone with Android 9, Laptop running Ubuntu 18.04

References

adb - How do I get an apk file from an Android device? [stackoverflow.com]
Android Studio - How to Change Android SDK Path [stackoverflow.com]
How to Install and Use ADB, the Android Debug Utility [howtogeek.com]

Ensure Android is in Developer Mode

Each phone might be a little different in this respect, but the process is generally:

Go to Settings
Find 'About Phone' (or similar)
Scroll down to view the Build Number
Tap the build number 7 times
Go back to Settings and you should see a Developer Options entry

Identify where ADB is installed

I used the Jetbrains Toolbox to install Android Studio and wasn't sure where it placed the Android SDK. To find the SDK location within Android Studio:

File -> Project Structure...
In the left-hand sidebar select SDK Location

(In my case the SDK was installed to /home/username/Android/Sdk and the ADB tool was found in the platform-tools subdirectory)

Use ADB to connect to my device and list packages

I ran these commands to ensure my device was correctly connected and list all the available packages:

/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb devices

* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
List of devices attached
5832555546523551  device

/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb shell pm list packages

...
package:com.amazon.kindle
package:com.google.android.apps.restore
package:com.samsung.android.app.vr.input.service
package:com.instantpot.app
...

/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb shell pm list packages | grep -i instant
```
package:com.instantpot.app
```

Get the package path and pull down the APK

/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb shell pm path com.instantpot.app
```
package:/data/app/com.instantpot.app-bbb_fikgz0fAxuyjXwRCcc==/base.apk
```
/home/user/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb pull /data/app/com.instantpot.app-bbb_fikgz0fAxuyjXwRCcc==/base.apk
```
/data/app/com.instantpot.app-bbb_fikgz.... 23.7 MB/s (46654418 bytes in 1.876s)
```

At this point I was able to start manipulating the Android application package.