How to rename a file in the root-directory in Android? - android

I am trying to rename the SystemUI.apk in the directory /system/app to something else on my rooted device (Tablet with ICS) just like Root Browser is able to.
It doesn't work the same way as it works in the /sdcard directory. I tried this:
String s = "/system/app";
File from = new File(s, "SystemUI.apk");
File to = new File(s, "_SystemUI.apk");
from.renameTo(to);
(This code works for file in SD-Card)
And I set the permission to write to the external storage:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
However, there is no such permission for the "internal" storage. Do I need to do this via Runtime.getRuntime().exec(some command)?
Thanks for any help.

You need root access, this can not be done with standard java classes.
Run this commands via SU binary
mv /system/app/SystemUI.apk /system/app/_SystemUI.apk
Obviously you can change the cmd as need to do what you need.

Related

Androidemulator - Access files in LocalApplicationData

I'm using xamarin forms to develop an Android app. I can save a file via
var fileName = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.LocalApplicationData), $"appsettiings.txt");
var data = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(this);
File.WriteAllText(fileName, data);
When I debug I can see that the file should be stored at
/data/user/0/<applicationame>/files/.local/share/appsettiings.txt
I like to see if the file is actually saved and what the content is. I opened the Android device monitor but the data folder was 'empty'. From some other SO case I took that I should but myself in root-mode by executing
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb root
Now the data folder contains data and I can drill down up to the files folder, but that one seems to be empty.
When I run the app again and check in code if the file exists, it actually does.
Any further suggestions how to get access to that file from any tooling. I want to delete that file and run the app again.
You can use adb pull to copy the file to local machine and look at it content like this:
adb root
adb pull /data/user/0/<applicationame>/files/.local/share/appsettiings.txt [LOCAL_FOLDER]
then you can use adb shell then rm -f to remove it, like this:
adb shell
su
rm -f /data/user/0/<applicationame>/files/.local/share/appsettiings.txt
Since the file you are requesting is inside /data folder, you need to have the corresponding root priviliege to get it, so you need to do adb root before the adb pull command, and you need to do su before removing the file.
If I am not mistaken, if you save a file with your approach, it should exist, as you already proofed with the .Exists method.
I am not quite sure, are you just trying to read the content out of the file? Or do you want to access it from outside of the application?
If your desire is to just read the content, you could access it with
string content= File.ReadAllText(your file path);
and set a breakpoint (F9) on the next line.

Best practise for storing files to device

Currently
I'm storing my file(images/videos) like this:
File directoryToStore;
directoryToStore = getBaseContext().getExternalFilesDir("MyImages");
This will return this path:
/storage/emulated/0/Android/data/pacageName/files/MyImages/
Now, I want to store the files in root directory /storage/emulated/0/MyImages/. I have tried this by doing:
File directoryToStore;
directoryToStore = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(), "MyImages");
This works perfectly fine when running on pre-Marshmallow devices, but In Marshmallow the files are not found.
My Question
How should/can I store files in the root directory so that the file will be found in all API's?
Firstly, make sure you have the permissions bellow in your Android Manifest file, because you are trying to save files into the device's external storage.
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
Secondly, check if storage permissions are granted to your application (when you execute on Marshmallow or higher OS version devices).
Finally, make sure if there is directory named "MyImages" and check it's chmod. If directory does not exist, create it (mkdir() will create the directory in your example) and then try to save your files again.

How to create folder in Computer\Nexus 5\Internal storage folder

First of all, I'm an android newbie. Now my question...
I want to create a folder with some files, so I can easily access them when I plug in my droid via USB.
"directory.exists" returns true, saying the folder exists, but when I go to Windows File Explorer, Computer\Nexus 5\Internal storage, I do not see my app folder listed in there.
getExternalStorageDirectory returns: /storage/emulated/0/MyAppName
File directory = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath() + "/MyAppName/");
if (!directory.exists()) {
directory.mkdir();
}
I have added
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
in manifest.
What am I doing wrong?
You're not doing anything wrong. Android does.
That MTP connection is unreliable as contents displayed is not in sync with the latest files wrote on the phone.
You can cause a manual rescan or reboot the phone... see below:
android bug
similar question with workarounds

Access to permission files

I am trying to connect a zwave device to android tv box.
For that I need to edit handheld_core_hardware.xml file situated in /system/etc/permissions, but I can't do that since it is a read only file.
Can somebody tell me any trick by which I can edit the file?
You cannot access that file without root (superuser) permissions.
Every files located in /data or /system dirs are protected and you can read or write it only with root permissions.
Try something different or your app will run only on rooted devices.
Read more about that :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_rooting
http://www.androidcentral.com/root

How to access data/data folder in Android device?

I am developing an app and I know my database *.db will appear in data/data/com.****.***
I can access this file from AVD in Eclipse with help of sqlite manager
But I can't access this file in my Android phone.
I googled it and it says I need to root my phone to do it, but I don't want to do that.
How can I access my data/data/..... directory in my Android phone "without rooting it"?
Can I change user permissions for the directory data/data..... without rooting it?
Accessing the files directly on your phone is difficult, but you may be able to copy them to your computer where you can do anything you want with it.
Without rooting you have 2 options:
If the application is debuggable you can use the run-as command in adb shell
adb shell
run-as com.your.packagename
cp /data/data/com.your.packagename/
Alternatively you can use Android's backup function.
adb backup -noapk com.your.packagename
You will now be prompted to 'unlock your device and confirm the backup operation'. It's best NOT to provide a password, otherwise it becomes more difficult to read the data. Just click on 'backup my data'. The resulting 'backup.ab' file on your computer contains all application data in android backup format. Basically it's a compressed tar file. This page explains how you can use OpenSSL's zlib command to uncompress it.
You can use the adb restore backup.db command to restore the backup.
If you are using Android Studio 3.0 or later version then follow these steps.
Click View > Tool Windows > Device File Explorer.
Expand /data/data/[package-name] nodes.
You can only expand packages which runs in debug mode on non-rooted device.
You could also try fetching the db using root explorer app. And if that does not work then you can try this:
Open cmd
Change your directory and go into 'Platform tools'
Type 'adb shell'
su
Press 'Allow' on device
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/com.application.package /data/data/com.application.package/*
Open DDMS view in Eclipse and from there open 'FileExplorer' to get your desired file
After this you should be able to browse the files on the rooted device.
To do any of the above (i.e. access protected folders from within your phone itself), you still need root. (That includes changing mount-permissions on the /data folder and accessing it)
Without root, accessing the /data directly to read except from within your application via code isn't possible. So you could try copying that file to sdcard or somewhere accessible, and then, you should be able to access it normally.
Rooting won't void your warranty if you have a developer device. I'm sorry, there isn't any other way AFAIK.
The easiest way (just one simple step) to pull a file from your debuggable application folder (let's say /data/data/package.name/databases/file) on an unrooted Android 5.0+ device is by using this command:
adb exec-out run-as package.name cat databases/file > file
Open your command prompt
Change directory to E:\Android\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20140702\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20140702\sdk\platform-tools
Enter below commands
adb -d shell
run-as com.your.packagename cat databases/database.db > /sdcard/database.db
Change directory to cd /sdcard to make sure database.db is there.
adb pull /sdcard/database.db or simply you can copy database.db from device .
Use File Explorer in eclipse. Select Windows => Show View => Other ... => File Explorer.
An another way is pull the file via adb:
adb pull /system/data/data/<yourpackagename>/databases/<databasename> /sdcard
To backup from Android to Desktop
Open command line cmd and run this:
adb backup -f C:\Intel\xxx.ab -noapk your.app.package.
Do not enter password and click on Backup my data.
Make sure not to save on drive C root. You may be denied.
This is why I saved on C:\Intel.
To extract the *.ab file
Go here and download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/
Extract the downloaded file and navigate to folder where you extracted.
run this with your own file names: java -jar abe.jar unpack c:\Intel\xxx.ab c:\Intel\xxx.tar
I had also the same problem once. There is no way to access directly the file within android devices except adb shell or rooting device.
Beside here are 02 alternatives:
1)
public void exportDatabse(String databaseName)
{
try {
File sd = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
File data = Environment.getDataDirectory();
if (sd.canWrite()) {
String currentDBPath = "//data//"+getPackageName()+"//databases//"+databaseName+"";
String backupDBPath = "backupname.db";
File currentDB = new File(data, currentDBPath);
File backupDB = new File(sd, backupDBPath);
if (currentDB.exists()) {
FileChannel src = new FileInputStream(currentDB).getChannel();
FileChannel dst = new FileOutputStream(backupDB).getChannel();
dst.transferFrom(src, 0, src.size());
src.close();
dst.close();
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
}
}
2) Try this: https://github.com/sanathp/DatabaseManager_For_Android
On a rooted device, the correct solution is this:
Open cmd
Change your directory and go into 'Platform tools'
Type 'adb shell'
su
Press 'Allow' on device
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/*
Open DDMS view in Eclipse/IntelliJ and from there open 'FileExplorer' to get your desired file
The original solution worked, but the chmod would return unknown directory. Changing the chmod command to /data/data/* gave access to all subfolders in the data directory from DDMS in Intellij. I assume the same solution is true for Eclipse DDMS.
UPDATE
So, what I've found is strange. I'm running a Nexus 6 using DDMS in IntelliJ (Android Device Monitor). I have built a little starter app. Said app saves data to a .csv file in data/data/com.example.myapp/files
When I first started to try to access this file on my Nexus 6, I found that I have to root the device.. I could see the data folder, but trying to open it would not work. As mentioned online in other places, the expand + would vanish then reappear shortly thereafter (note, there are solutions on the web that claim to allow access to these folders without rooting, I didn't find them till too late, and I'm not sure if I prefer not to root anyway ((I'd rather be able to do it manually than rely on an app or command prompt to give me my solutions))). I rooted my 6 and tried DDMS again.
At this point, it showed me the data folder and I could expand the folder and see the com. directories, but I could not open any of them. That is when I discovered the above solution. The initial instructions would not work on this part:
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/com.application.pacakage /data/data/com.application.pacakage/*
That is when I tried the solution I posted:
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/*
That solution seemed to work, but only on certain folders. I now could expand my myapp folder, but could not expand the files directory in it.
At this point, I played around for a while then figured why not just try it on the directory I need rather than trying these wildcard entries.
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/com.example.myapp/*
Followed by:
chmod 777 /data /data/data /data/data/com.example.myapp/files
These commands allowed me to expand and view the files in my app's directory to confirm that the .csv was being saved correctly.
Hope this helps someone. I struggled with this for hours!
(to compound on this a tad further, oddly enough, the permissions did not pass to the .csv file that passed to the files directory. my files directory permissions read drwxrwxrwx and my log.csv file permissions read -rw-rw---- .. just fyi)
may be to access this folder you need administrative rights.
so you have two options:-
root your device and than try to access this folder
use emulator
p.s. : if you are using any of above two options you can access this folder by following these steps
open DDMS perspective -> your device ->(Select File Explorer from
right window options) select package -> data -> data -> package name
->files
and from there you can pull up your file
You can download a sigle file like that:
adb exec-out run-as debuggable.app.package.name cat files/file.mp4 > file.mp4
Before you download you might wan't to have a look at the file structure in your App-Directory. For this do the following steps THelper noticed above:
adb shell
run-as com.your.packagename
cd files
ls -als .
The Android-Studio way Shahidul mentioned (https://stackoverflow.com/a/44089388/1256697) also work. For those who don't see the DeviceFile Explorer Option in the Menu: Be sure, to open the /android-Directory in Android Studio.
E.g. react-native users have this inside of their Project-Folder right on the same Level as the /ios-Directory.
adb backup didn't work for me, so here's what I did (Xiaomi Redmi Note 4X, Android 6.0):
1. Go to Settings > Additional Settings > Backup & reset > Local backups.
2. Tap 'Back up' on the bottom of the screen.
3. Uncheck 'System' and 'Apps' checkmarks.
4. Tap detail disclosure button on the right of the 'Apps' cell to navigate to app selection screen.
5. Select the desired app and tap OK.
6. After the backup was completed, the actual file need to be located somehow. Mine could be found at /MIUI/backup/AllBackup/_FOLDER_NAMED_AFTER_BACKUP_CREATION_DATE_.
7. Then I followed the steps from this answer by RonTLV to actually convert the backup file (.bak in my case) to tar (duplicating from the original answer):
"
a) Go here and download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/adbextractor/
b) Extract the downloaded file and navigate to folder where you extracted.
c) run this with your own file names: java -jar abe.jar unpack c:\Intel\xxx.ab c:\Intel\xxx.tar
"
Simple answer is NO. On upcoming Android 13, you can't access anything in
/storage/emulated/0/Android/*
directory without Rooting your device or hooking up to a PC, certainly not in Pixel devices.
Read Android Source page for such App data access using ADB here:
https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/manage-all-files
One of the simple way is to create your database on SD-Card. Because you cannot get access to your phone's data folder in internal memory, unless you root your phone. So why not simply create your database on SD-Card.
Moreover, if you want, you may write some file copying-code to copy your existing database file (from internal memory) to external memory without requiring any root.
you can copy this db file to somewhere in eclipse explorer (eg:sdcard or PC),and you can use sqlite to access and update this db file .
You can also try copying the file to the SD Card folder, which is a public folder, then you can copy the file to your PC where you can use sqlite to access it.
Here is some code you can use to copy the file from data/data to a public storage folder:
private void copyFile(final Context context) {
try {
File sd = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
File data = Environment.getDataDirectory();
if (sd.canWrite()) {
String currentDBPath =
context.getDatabasePath(DATABASE_NAME).getAbsolutePath();
String backupDBPath = "data.db";
File currentDB = new File(currentDBPath);
File backupDB = new File(sd, backupDBPath);
if (currentDB.exists()) {
FileChannel src = new FileInputStream(currentDB).getChannel();
FileChannel dst = new FileOutputStream(backupDB).getChannel();
dst.transferFrom(src, 0, src.size());
src.close();
dst.close();
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Manifest:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_INTERNAL_STORAGE" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_INTERNAL_STORAGE" />
SQLlite database is store on user's Phone and it's hidding under path:
/Data/Data/com.companyname.AppName/File/
you have 2 options here:
you can root your phone so that you get access to view your hidding
db3 file
this is not a solution but a work around. Why not just create test
page that display your database table in it using 'select' statment.

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