Develop Reference

Android - bundletool.jar install-apks - How to reinstall apk with data/cache

Android bundletool helps to install apks file. But install-apks is replacing app, if the app is already installed.
How to install apks file with out deleting cache/data, similar to "adb install -r" ?
$bundletool install-apks --apks=tmpapp-11121JEC202553.apks --allow-test-only

How do I install bundletool?

Although the docs mentioned
If you haven't already done so, download bundletool from the GitHub
repository.
However, the repo contains only a jar file. How do I install it so that I can run with the 'bundletool' command just like the docs' example?

If you have brew installed simply run brew install bundletool and the alias will be set up for you as well. It did the trick for me.

You can create an alias (or doskey on Windows), e.g.
alias bundletool='java -jar bundletool-all.jar'

Another alternative is access Bundletool release page and download the bundletool-all-[LAST-VERSION].jar file into some directory.
After that you could run it on the directory calling:
java -jar bundletool-all-0.10.2.jar your_arguments_here
If you want, rename the jar file to bundletool.jar, then run it calling:
java -jar bundletool.jar your_arguments_here
If you don't want call java every time, you can create an alias for that, and after that run quicly:
alias bundletool='java -jar bundletool-all.jar'
bundletool your_arguments_here

On a mac, it can be easily done using homebrew
brew install bundletool
then you can run commands like this
bundletool install-apks --apks=release.apks
you can use the command below to generate apks
bundletool build-apks --bundle=aab_path.aab --output=release.apks
The above command generates apks file which can later be extracted to give various apk files.

To make shortcut/alias in Windows 10, in cmd run:
#doskey bundletool=java -jar <youPath>\bundletool-all.jar $*
You must be already added Java folder path to system environment variables or just google it.

Apparently for Linux you have to download the jar from: https://github.com/google/bundletool/releases
and then run java -jar <PATH_TO_JAR> ...
to simplify things you can add in /usr/local/bin/ a bundletool script
#!/usr/bin/env zsh
exec java -jar "$HOME/path/to/jar" "$#"
and sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/bundletool
Now you can run bundletool from wherever you want

As for me, on windows, I just set assoc and ftype so that .jar will open with java -jar
First I download bundletool.someversion.jar into some folder under PATH env (so that it would exposed)
Open cmd as admin and link .jar to jarfile with cmd assoc .jar=jarfile (actually can be any name, make it jarfile is just convention in the same way as other file)
Then ftype jarfile=^%JAVA_HOME^%\bin\java.exe -jar %1 %~2
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/ftype
Then we could execute bundletool.someversion.jar or any jar to open it as java directly

You don't need to have
brew.
Install it somewhere, but not in your project directory
npm install bundletool

Generate Apk file from aab file (android app bundle)

Is there any way to generate an apk file from an Android Application Bundle (aab) via Terminal or using Android Studio?

So far nobody has provided the solution to get the APK from an AAB.
This solution will generate a universal binary as an apk.
Add --mode=universal to your bundletool command (if you need a signed app, use the --ks parameters as required).
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--mode=universal
MAIN STEP: Change the output file name from .apks to .zip
Unzip and explore
The file universal.apk is your app
This universal binary will likely be quite big but is a great solution for sending to the QA department or distributing the App anywhere other than the Google Play store.

By default, the IDE does not use app bundles to deploy your app to a
local device for testing
Refer bundletool command
For Debug apk command,
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
For Release apk command,
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
Edit:
I have been using following commands while testing my release build for aab:
Download bundletool jar file from Github Repository (Latest release > Assets > bundletool-all-version.jar file). Rename that file to bundletool.jar
Generate your aab file from Android Studio eg: myapp-release.aab
Run following command:
java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" build-apks --bundle=myapp-release.aab --output=myapp.apks --ks="/path/to/myapp-release.keystore" --ks-pass=pass:myapp-keystore-pass --ks-key-alias=myapp-alias --key-pass=pass:myapp-alias-pass
myapp.apks file will be generated
Make sure your device is connected to your machine
Now run following command to install it on your device:
java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" install-apks --apks=myapp.apks
Edit 2:
If you need to extract a single .apk file from the .aab file, you can add a extra param --mode=universal to the bundletool command:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks \
--mode=universal \
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks \
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd \
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias \
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
and execute
unzip -p /MyApp/my_app.apks universal.apk > /MyApp/my_app.apk
this will generate a single a /MyApp/my_app.apk file that can be shared an installed by any device app installer

Ok here is the complete way I had to do:
Download bundletool-all-0.10.3.jar from this link, download the latest version available
Create an app bundle using android studio and locate its path:
In my case its E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab
Copy the bundletools jar to some location and get its path
In my case its E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar
Use this command:
java -jar "BUNDLE_TOOL_JAR_PATH" build-apks --bundle="BUNDLE_PATH" --output=YOUR_OUTPUT_NAME.apks
In my case it will be
java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" build-apks \
--bundle="E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab" \
--output=out_bundle_archive_set.apks
This will create a file out_bundle_archive_set.apks , rename it to .zip out_bundle_archive_set.zip , extract this file and done You will have multiple apk files
To install directly on external device use :
java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" install-apks --apks=out_bundle_archive_set.apks
Check this blog post for more info . also check out official site

People have already explained on how to do this with the command-line. For completion, I thought I'd also show the way to do it via the UI in Android Studio.
When you open your "Run/Debug Configurations", you can select "APK from app bundle" (instead of "Default APK").
See screenshot:

Refer Geek Dashboard for more info.
For those who are looking to generate a single universal APK file from your Android App Bundle, you must use --universal flag while running the build-apks command.
java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks --bundle=your_app.aab --output=your_app.apks --mode=universal
Where
bundletool.jar is the bundletool jar file you downloaded here
your_app.aab is the Android App Bundle of your App
your_app.apks is the output APKs Archive File that will be generated once you run the command.
While running the above command make sure you place bundletool.jar and your AAB file in the same folder.
Now, you need to change the your_app.apks file format to your_app.zip and extract it to find the universal.apk file
Note: Use –overwrite flag to overwrite the APKs file if there is already one with the same name. Otherwise, bundletool command will throw you a fatal error.

on mac it can be easily done using homebrew
brew install bundletool
you can use the command below to generate apks
bundletool build-apks --bundle=aab_path.aab --output=release.apks
above command generates apks file which can later be extracted to give various apk files. To see all generated files change the extension from .apks to .zip and just extract the files.
then you can install apk using this command on connected device
bundletool install-apks --apks=release.apks

There's a tool called bundletool, which can create APK's out of your AAB file:
Find details about this tool here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/bundletool
But here some highlights taken from that site:
Building APKs
When bundletool generates APKs from your app bundle, it includes them in a container called an APK set archive, which uses the .apks file extension. To generate an APK set for all device configurations your app supports from your app bundle, use the bundletool build-apks command, as shown below:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Note that the command above creates an APK set of unsigned APKs. If you want to deploy the APKs to a device, you need to also include your app’s signing information, as shown in the command below.
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
Installing APKs
bundletool install-apks --apks=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Generate a device-specific set of APKs
bundletool build-apks --connected-device --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks

I have developed a windows tool for converting .aab files to .apk in Python.
It supports creating both debug and signed apk which can be directly installed to default android device connected through USB.
It uses google’s bundle tool in the backend.
https://aabtoapkconverter.com/
Edit:
The Source code is now available now on github.
This is first tool that I have developed and shared with the world. Hope it is useful. I am open to suggestions and bug reports.

Here is what i did.
First thing is, i am on a Mac.
So in this official guide https://reactnative.dev/docs/signed-apk-android, followed below steps.
Run this command sudo keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-upload-key.keystore -alias my-key-alias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
you can change the name of my-upload-key to your choice
Setup the gradle variables as per the guide
Also do the same as per the guide for point "Adding signing config to your app's Gradle config"
Now rather than continuing (which will generate an AAB file) what you can do is below.
4.1 I open the same project(android folder) in Android Studio
4.2 From the Menu Options > Build > Clean Project
4.3 Click on the Make Project button and let it complete (if you can run using npm run android, then this should finish without any issues)
Make Project
4.4 Once done, click on Menu options > Build > Generate Signed Bundle/APK...
Generate Signed Bundle/APK...
4.5 In the next Screen Choose APK radio button and Click Next
Choose APK option
4.6 In the next screen, Browse to the keystore file which you generated as the first step, its password, alias name and its password, click Next.
Final Step
Wait for it to complete. You may see some errors but more importantly in the end you should get a popup in the right bottom corner saying "Locate". Click on that and you will find your app-release.apk.

I think this method much more efficient

Generate Universal APK from Android App Bundle

I have an app bundle file, now I want to generate a universal APK that can be installed to all devices. I have tried to use this command to generate universal APK:
$bundletool build-apks --bundle=myapp_bundle.abb --output=myapp.apks --universal
However, what I got is .apks (not .apk) where I cannot install directly to any devices. Anyone know how to get a universal .apk file instead of .apks?
Thank you very much.

Use --mode=universal in place of --universal. For example, you can run something like this:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=myapp_bundle.aab --output=myapp.apks --mode=universal
At the end you have myapp.apks, this file is something like a zip file. You can extract the content into a folder, for example:
unzip out.apks -d apks
Now in the folder apks you have only one apk, in my case universal.apk, that you can install as usual on any device.

Use either the extract-apks or the install-apks command to respectively extract the APK from the APK Set to a directory, or install them on a connected device.
Alternatively, just unzip the .apks using your favourite zip tool. But that might not always work in the future.

How to build .apk file from Windows command-line?

How can I build and signed (keystore) the .apk file using 'apkbuilder.bat' via windows command-line ?
I try to run the following line:
apkbuilder.bat %APK_File_Name% -u -z %Project_Path%\bin\resources.ap_ -f %Project_Path%\bin\classes.dex -rf %Project_Path%
but I'm getting the following exception:
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
at com.android.sdklib.build.ApkBuilderMain.main<ApkBuilderMain.java:61>
Please help. Thanks

You can do it in command line (.bat) in windows using ant.
with:
"ant release"
You build the apk unsigned.
Then you need to add the call to "jarsigner" and "zipalign" in the bat to complete the task.
You can find an example of the command line to call these tools here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/app-signing.html#signapp
Best,

I would suggest using Ant and the build files generated by the Android tools rather than trying to handroll your own. If nothing else, you can use the build files as a reference to determine how it uses the various tools to perform each step.