I want to use 'abd pull' to transfer some folders from my android phone to my Computer.
I've done a lot of research online but there isn't much information about how to properly use this command.
I want to transfer entire folders(with their contents) and
not just specific files. is that possible ?
If it is, I am not super familiar with the android data structures.
How do I specify the location, more specifically where do I start ?
(for example: \system\xx or maybe \storage\xx I really don't know
how to format this) I am looking for folders and files in the
Internal Storage
Thank you all !
All guides on google or youtube show how to transfer specific files and only do so from sd cards. I want to transfer entire folders from the internal storage
Edit:
Thanks for all the comments, I find no definite answer so I gave trial and error a go. adb pull worked fine but an entire new problem came up.
Related
So, I want to read a very specific file from any connected USB OTG drive. It's a text file that should be stored on a USB stick and I need to read that file, which has a specific name, say myFile.txt. While I understand this kind of getting user input is dumb and not user-friendly, it's what I'm told to implement.
But my problem is, that there are many mount points for USB Drives. on my phone it's /storage/USBStorage1, while on my friend's it's /storage/[HEX_ID]. I tried to get all of them, but it's not possible. in Nexus phones it mounts on /mnt/media_rw/[HEX_ID] which requires root access.
I searched around a little and found SAF, but I didn't find anything on how to use it to open any file without user's direct selection. I don't want the picker to show up. I just want to check if [USB_OTG_PATH]/myFile.txt exists or not, and if it exists I want to read it.
And on a sidenote, do I need to have root acces to read /mnt folders (except media_rw)?
I didn't find anything on how to use it to open any file without user's direct selection
That is because there is no option for this.
I just want to check if [USB_OTG_PATH]/myFile.txt exists or not, and if it exists I want to read it.
That is not supported.
If your file is located in one of the directories returned by getExternalFilesDirs(), getExternalCacheDirs(), and getExternalMediaDirs(), then you can access it directly using normal Java file I/O. However, AFAIK, that directory needs to be created as part of running your app — another developer ran into problems trying to create the directories ahead of time. So, for your use case, this approach is unlikely to be practical, though with luck I am wrong and it proves useful to you.
do I need to have root acces to read /mnt folders (except media_rw)?
In general, yes, though in practice the answer varies by device, Android OS version, etc.
i'm writing an application that needs to store some data,and picture. For example place's information. this information don't need to change very often. and
I have seen that databases are
stored under /data/data/package_name/databases
I decided to store my data under /data/data/package_name/files.
With the emulator i can see all these files (databases)
under the proposed directories but moving the application on a real
device and installing a file system browser i cannot see any file
under /data. i know that there are some security constrain in (not-rooted) device. However, are there any suggestion about the solution.. where can i store these data and how? because i'm quite new to android. Thanks so much for your help.
The reason you can't see it on the device is basically just as you said; the device isn't rooted, so other apps don't have access to the /data folder.
This is okay though, because you can still store your files there. Your app has access to anything under /data/data/package_name/, you just won't be able to see it in a file browser unless you root. This is normally a good thing, to keep average users from mucking around with your databases/files.
Read up more on storage methods here.
Is there a specific View/Widget available for browsing files on the device? Or is there another solution that has become accepted? Searching has yielded very little useful information for me.
Unfortunately there's no special View/widget for browsing files. But it's not very difficult to write it yourself. Googling would find number of public sources/intents for file browsing. General idea is simple: just use File.listFiles() and fill appropriate ListView keeping in mind SD card root and phone FS root.
My android application needs another NATIVE application executable to run before the android one, so that they can communicate through sockets. Android application has a JNI layer for handling the client-side communication.
Now i need to bundle up the native executable along with the apk file, so that when it is installed on a device it gets unzipped into either the phone memory or the memory card.
How do i do this?
I tried keeping the native executable in res/asset and in res/raw folders, but they still don't get unzipped in /data/data/ folder.
One way I could find is to use AssetManager and then with help of InputStream and OutputStream, i can write this file onto the device the first time it is run and then use it. But there is no point to write it manually on phone memory as it might eat up the memory. ( the case where if memory card is not present. )
Can anyone help me on how can i achieve this? It would be great if there is an option to unzip the necessary files automatically at the time of installation.
How do i do this?
You don't. You unpack it yourself on first run of your application.
One way I could find is to use AssetManager and then with help of InputStream and OutputStream, i can write this file onto the device the first time it is run and then use it.
Correct.
But there is no point to write it manually on phone memory as it might eat up the memory.
Then why did you want it automatically unpacked there in the first place?
It would be great if there is an option to unzip the necessary files automatically at the time of installation.
No, sorry, this is not possible.
We have the same issue ... the direction we are exploring is to have two separate installs - the first one is the app and the second one is the data-app. When the data-app installs it copies the binary files to the SD card. When we uninstall the data-app it frees up the internal storage.
We don't have this one completely licked yet, and would love to hear other input and maybe find someone to help us by writing a couple of skeletal sample applications for us.
There are so many people who are in this boat (based on my googling) that if this approach doesn't work I suggest we (or someone) set up a generic file delivery web server and generic file delivery Android service and make it available to developers for a very low cost.
This isn't a typical use of OBBs but why not use one? It would then be a file separate to your apk installed in a pre-determined location. It doesn't have to be compressed.
I have 2 binary files that i would like to package with my apk. (/res/raw)
i need to copy these 2 files to /sdcard when the application is run
how can i do this?
We have the same issue ... the direction we are exploring is to have two separate installs - the first one is the app and the second one is the data-app. When the data-app installs it copies the binary files to the SD card. When we uninstall the data-app it frees up the internal storage.
We don't have this one completely licked yet, and would love to hear other input and maybe find someone to help us by writing a couple of skeletal sample applications for us.
There are so many people who are in this boat (based on my googling) that if this approach doesn't work I suggest we (or someone) set up a generic file delivery web server and generic file delivery Android service and make it available to developers for a very low cost.
You need to use the AssetManager.
That will give you can InputStream that you can copy to a FileOutputStream.
It all depends on what your goal is by doing this.
Are you trying to be nice to the user and conserve disk space on the device by moving files to the sdcard? Or do you merely want to ensure that these files are on the sd card?
If you just want to put the files on the sdcard then you should use the AssetManager as CaseyB mentioned
If you are trying to conserve phone memory then consider distributing the apk file without the 2 raw files, and then on first run download the files from a server that you have set up. This may cause a bit of a problem due to the time needed to download the files, but some users on devices with limited memory available on the device itself will be appreciative of it.