Develop Reference

ADB Backup - location of the resulting file?

I used an adb command to backup a file in data/data of an Android phone. After the command ran, my phone said it was successfully backed up, but where is the backup file?

If you use adb backup -all command then it will create backup.ab file in the current working directory.
If you want to specify path use -f like below
adb backup -f <path_to_backup_file> -all

So if you run
adb backup -noapk com.masimo.merlin.consumer
then backup.ab gets stored in the present working directory by default.
In unix/linux, you can know your present working directory by typing pwd and in windows you can know it by typing cd
More Info about backup

Phone is rooted but can't pull files from /data/data folder

My phone Samsung Galaxy S5 mini is rooted. I'm trying to pull files from /data/data/myapp.package/ to folder on my PC.
adb pull /data/data/myapp.package E:\myapp\myapp.package
it gives me this error
adb: error: failed to copy '/data/data/myapp.package' to 'E:\myapp\myapp.package': Permission denied
I found many questions like mine but no answer solved my problem. Some suggested to execute this command adb root before pulling files. Some suggested to install adbd insecure app to enable root access. In fact after installing that app, phone disappeared from adb terminal. Both solution didn't work for me.
BTW, I can copy files using cp command from adb shell but I have to copy files to sdcard and then pull from sdcard. I'm looking for solution which allows me to copy files directly from /data/data/myapp.package to my PC
Any solution?

For your adb to be able to access /data/data directly (for adb pull), your adbd should be running as root - which can generally be done by adb root command.
adb root would not work on commercial devices like Samsung Galaxy S5 mini as commercial devices have ro.secure=1, i.e., the adbd can't be restarted as root due to a check of property called ro.secure. adbd insecure app circumvents this and restarts adbd in root mode to enable adb pull, etc. to work.
In short, if adbd insecure app doesn't work for you, it's not possible to do adb pull from /data/data in your existing ROM. It might be possible if you change the ROM / do some boot.img tweaks, but I would probably suggest trying latest version / different versions of adbd insecure app before going for ROM changes.
Read more on rooting here.

First you need to hit these two command from command line
adb root
adb remount
then
adb pull /data/data/myapp.package E:\myapp\myapp.package

This is my example pulling DB file from the root directory
adb -e shell "run-as com.example.project cp /data/data/com.example.project/databases/project.db /sdcard"
The key is run-as

Here's a one-liner that lets you pull a file without installing anything else and without having to copy it to a public location on the device to then pull it to your computer:
adb exec-out su -c cat /data/data/myapp.package/my_file.apk > my_file.apk
What this does:
adb exec-out runs a command and outputs the raw binary output
su -c runs the provided command as root
cat <file> prints out the file contents
> <file> redirects the output from adb (i.e. the raw file contents) to a local file.

Copy folder from Android app to local Windows directory

I'm trying to use the Android Adb Command Prompt to copy a folder inside the app container to a local Windows folder. The device is running Android 5.1.1 and is not rooted.
adb pull or cp aren't working. How can I copy a folder?
The following approaches aren't working:
Approach 1
adb shell
adb pull /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs C:/temp/test
error: device not found
Inside the shell you can't see to do adb pull. See here.
Approach 2
DDMS can't access the data folder.
Approach 3
adb shell
run-as DroidSample.DroidSample
cp /files/MetroLog/MetroLogs/ C:/temp/test
cp: /files/MetroLog/MetroLogs/: No such file or directory
Approach 4
adb shell
run-as DroidSample.DroidSample
cp /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs/ C:/temp/test
cp: /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs is a directory (not copied).
This is also not working.
Approach 5
adb shell
run-as DroidSample.DroidSample
chmod 777 /files/MetroLog/MetroLogs
exit
exit
adb pull /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs C:/temp/test
adb shell run-as DroidSample.DroidSample
chmod 700 /files/MetroLog/Metrologs
remote object '/data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs' does not exist
So also this isn't working.
Approach 6
adb shell
mkdir /sdcard/tmp
cp /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs /sdcard/tmp
cp: /data/data/DroidSample.DroidSample/files/MetroLog/MetroLogs: Permission denied
This is also not working.
Approach 7
The only thing which half work is this
adb exec-out run-as DroidSample.DroidSample cat "files/MetroLog/MetroLogs/Log - 20160509.log" > C:/temp/test/test.log
But here I don't get the original file and I also have to know the exact file name. Additionally, that I loose line breaks and I have to do this for each file. Not that what I want.
So I'm running out of ideas. How can I access the internal stored files and copy them over?

You have almost solved the problem. As the storage of this kind is secured, you need to do one additional step. You need to copy the file from secured location to sdcard of the device. And then you can copy it anywhere via usb or android pull. Here are the command sequence I executed successfully.
adb shell
run-as DroidSample.DroidSample
cd shared_prefs
cp DroidSample.DroidSample_preferences.xml /sdcard/DroidSample.DroidSample_preferences.xml
exit
exit
adb pull /sdcard/DroidSample.DroidSample_preferences.xml C:/test/
That's it.
And I really appreciate the way you posted your question. Best of luck.

You're trying to gain read access to /data partition on actual android device. Such thing is not possible without root access, even if the app folder is yours. For the reason that permissions to read /data partition are not granted and cannot be granted, unless you're using an emulator. On emulator, which by default is with admin privileges for developer, you can access the data partition to read and write. On actual device you cannot. Not with adb, not with DDMS.
So basically speaking, anything that requires access to those files under /data is not going to work. Whether you sue cp command or pull command. The moment your kernel reads the beginning of your path which starts with /data/... it says: Oops, no can do.

You are trying to access /data folder of android device which is not accessible in unrooted device.

How to use adb command to push a file on device without sd card

How to push a file from computer to an Android device having no SD Card in it. I tried:
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/local
3399 KB/s (111387 bytes in 0.032s)
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/opt
3199 KB/s (111387 bytes in 0.034s)
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/tmp
3884 KB/s (111387 bytes in 0.028s)
Above commands to move a file anand.jpg to a device but I didn't get this jpg file in the device.
I didn't get any success result on cmd prompt, I only got:
3399 KB/s (111387 bytes in 0.032s).

From Ubuntu/Mac Terminal, the below command should work.
./adb push '/home/hardik.trivedi/Downloads/one.jpg' '/data/local/'
For adb v33 and above if you are getting a permission denied error, try what I tried. The following command and it works fine.
The only caveat is you might need to use tmp directory on such an emulator.
adb shell //Entering into shell
su //Super user mode
chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/ //Grantint RWX access
exit
chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/ //Grantint RWX access
exit
And then try
./adb push '/home/hardik.trivedi/Downloads/one.jpg' '/data/local/tmp/'

I did it using the push command, which has syntax:
adb push filename.extension /sdcard/0/
Example of copying directory, and sub-directory content:
adb push C:\my-location\data\. /storage/emulated/0/Android/data
Note that push did just hang in latest platform-tools (33.0.1, at time of writing) for a certain amount of files, beside the adb.exe suddenly taking 5MB+ instead of 1.5MB, hence I just did replace the adb.exe with one I had from 28.0.0 version of platform-tools (I did not downgrade the entire platform-tools, because adb.exe is kind of stand-alone).
I don't say there is any conspiracy around data folder,
But my Samsung device puts limits on my USB file transfer, beside Android v11+ not allowing access to data folder anymore, hence I needed above command to work with 100% speed (without hanging one hour for little more files).

Follow these steps :
go to Android Sdk then 'platform-tools' path on your Terminal or Console
(on mac, default path is : /Users/USERNAME/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools)
To check the SDCards(External and Internal) installed on your device fire these commands :
1) ./adb shell (hit return/enter)
2) cd -(hit return/enter)
now you will see the list of Directories and files from your android device
there you may find /sdcard as well as /storage
3) cd /storage (hit return/enter)
4) ls (hit return/enter)
you may see sdcard0 (generally sdcard0 is internal storage) and sdcard1 (if External SDCard is present)
5) exit (hit return/enter)
to come out of adb shell
6) ./adb push '/Users/SML/Documents/filename.zip'
/storage/sdcard0/path_to_store/ (hit return/enter)
to copy file

Sometimes you need the extension,
adb push file.zip /sdcard/file.zip

run below command firstly
adb root
adb remount
Then execute what you input previously
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/local
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/opt
C:\anand>adb push anand.jpg /data/tmp

After Trying all the answers this worked for me
Where I am Pushing a file on Desktop to Android Device (Redmi K20 pro) connected Over the air using adb.
This command pushes the file to the downloads folder on my phone
adb push ~/Desktop/notifications.drawio ./storage/emulated/0/Download
after running this if you get a permission denied error
try running these commands in order (which basically changes the directory permission)
adb shell
chmod 777 /data/local/tmp
exit
and then run try the adb push command
I have documented this here feel free to share your views and help improve it.

Try this to push in Internal storage.
adb push my-file.apk ./storage/emulated/0/
Works in One plus device, without SD card.

My solution (example with a random mp4 video file):
Set a file to device:
adb push /home/myuser/myVideoFile.mp4 /storage/emulated/legacy/
Get a file from device:
adb pull /storage/emulated/legacy/myVideoFile.mp4
For retrieve the path in the code:
String myFilePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath() + "/myVideoFile.mp4";
This is all. This solution doesn't give permission problems and it works fine.
Last point: I wanted to change the video metadata information. If you want to write into your device you should change the permission in the AndroidManifest.xml. Add this line:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

I've got a Nexus 4, that is without external storage. However Android thinks to have one because it mount a separated partition called "storage", mounted in "/storage/emulated/legacy", so try pushing there: adb push anand.jpg /storage/emulated/legacy

As there are different paths for different versions. Here is a generic solution:
Find the path...
Enter adb shell in command line.
Then ls and Enter.
Now you'll see the files and directories of Android device. Now with combination of ls and cd dirName find the path to the Internal or External storage.
In the root directory, the directories names will be like mnt, sdcard, emulator0, etc
Example: adb push file.txt mnt/sdcard/myDir/Projects/

This might be the best answer you'll may read.
Setup Android Studio
Then just go to view & Open Device Explorer.
Right-click on the folder & just upload a file.

In Mac: To push files via adb
adb push /Users/Downloads⁩/amazon.sdktester.json '/mnt/sdcard/amazon.sdktester.json'

You are trying to write to system folders. With ADB you have root (admin) access so you see the system folders of which sdcard is one of them so to send a picture you could use
D:\Program Files\Android\sdk\platform-tools\adb push am files\android sdk\adb.exe push C:\Downloads\anand.jpg /sdcard/pictures/
NB: C:\Downloads\anand.jpg replace with path and name to picture..

Certain versions of android do not fire proper tasks for updating the state of file system.
You could trigger an explicit intent for updating the status of the file system.
(I just tested after being in the same OP's situation)
adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_MOUNTED -d file:///
(You could pass a specific filepath instead of file:/// like file:///sdcard )

In my case, I had an already removed SDCard still registered in Android.
So I longpressed the entry for my old SDCard under:
Settings | Storage & USB
and selected "Forget".
Afterwards a normal
adb push myfile.zip /sdcard/
worked fine.

To push all the files at your directory to the Android device use:
PS D:\myFiles> adb push . '/data/local/tmp/'

Android: adb pull file on desktop

Trying to copy file from device to desktop, here is a command:
adb pull sdcard/log.txt Users/admin/Desktop
But this command creates a folder Users/admin/Desktop inside platform-tools folder where adb is located. How to pull file to my desktop ?

Use a fully-qualified path to the desktop (e.g., /home/mmurphy/Desktop).
Example: adb pull sdcard/log.txt /home/mmurphy/Desktop

Judging by the desktop folder location you are using Windows. The command in Windows would be:
adb pull /sdcard/log.txt %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\

Be root, Define file on device and define new filename.
adb root
adb pull /data/data/.../databases/launcher.db launcher.db

On Windows, start up Command Prompt (cmd.exe) or PowerShell (powershell.exe). To do this quickly, open a Run Command window by pressing Windows Key + R. In the Run Command window, type "cmd.exe" to launch Command Prompt; However, to start PowerShell instead, then type "powershell". If you are connecting your Android device to your computer using a USB cable, then you will need to check whether your device is communicating with adb by entering the command below:
# adb devices -l
Next, pull (copy) the file from your Android device over to Windows. This can be accomplished by entering the following command:
# adb pull /sdcard/log.txt %HOME%\Desktop\log.txt
Optionally, you may enter this command instead:
# adb pull /sdcard/log.txt C:\Users\admin\Desktop\log.txt

List item
Use following command to pull data from ADB
adb pull data/user/0/project package name/files/.local/share/dbname C:\Users\vijayalaxmi.k
data/user/0/project package name/files/.local/share/dbname this path you will get when you debug application. i.e database path
project package name example => com.example
instead of C:\Users\vijayalaxmi.k user your own path where you want to save your file. for example, c:\documents

do adb pull \sdcard\log.txt C:Users\admin\Desktop