Is it possible to install an .apk on a phone without using developer tools? Can it simply be dragged to a mounted SD card? My beta testers are not very tech-savvy or comfortable with the command line.
Thanks in advance,
Barry
Copy the .apk file to DropBox (or any other cloud storage program. Box is another popular one).
Load DropBox on your Android device, navigate to the location of the .apk file and click Export.
Choose a location on the SD card to copy the .apk file to (eg /downloads).
Use a file explorer program (I use ES File Explorer) and navigate to the location on the SD card where you exported the .apk file to in step 3.
Click the .apk file, which will install the application to your device (Note that you will have to turn on 'Unknown Sources' so that non-Android Market apps can be installed on your device if this setting is off).
You can install it from an SD card if you have a file browser on the phone, or you can download it via a webserver using the browser.
You could set up a web server that hosts your APKs. N.B. it would need to send .apk files with the right MIME type: application/vnd.android.package-archive.
Related
I know that the location for system apps is '/system/app' and the location for user apps is '/data/app'.
But I can't find the location of apk for the ones that I moved to/installed on sdcard.
Apps installed on the SD-Card are stored within the directory ".android_secure".
If I remember correctly you won't find the APK files directly in that folder because the content is encrypted. This is for preventing direct access to the APK file of paid apps.
The encrypted part is mounted somewhere else into the file system.
For me at least using cyanogenmod9 on a Samsung galaxy s 2 i777 I found them in /mnt/asec/
This location works differently than /system/app/ and /data/app/ because the system is actually creating a mount for each app rather than just stuffing them in a folder.
Make sure you take note of symbolic links.
You will not be able to add to here like you can the other two, but you can extract an apk. A better solution would be MyAppSharer from the market.
It will be in mnt -> asec -> -> pkg.apk
On Android 5.0+ (Lollipop, Marshmallow) almost every installed non-system app will be placed in:
/data/app/
Access to /data requires root.
Use su when you are working with adb shell to gain root access, this of course requires your phone to be rooted in the first place.
The directory contains a sub directory for every app.
Each sub directory is named by his package, following Androids app naming convention:
tld.author.appname-N
Where N represents a number greater or equal to 1
e.g. for Firefox it will look something like:
org.mozilla.firefox-1
Inside every app directory you will find a base.apk which is representing the installed app.
So if you want Firefox simply download:
/data/app/org.mozilla.firefox-1/base.apk
using adb pull/scp or copy it to your sdcard and download it using MTP.
Cheers
it is in
File Explorer--> mnt/sdcard
Install ES file explorer. Go to Home Page there will be link App...under that you will find all the apps installed on sd card or phone memory.. select app and share...enjoy...
On lineage 14, Android 7 , all sdcard apps are stored in /mnt/expand/
And apk in folder "app"
I have come up with a small camera application. It is working as expected in the Android emulator, but when I load the same in the SD card of an Android phone, the apk is not listed in the app installer of the phone. Please advise.
It sounds like you are simply copying the APK file onto the SD card. That is not the same as installing an application. To install the application you need to open the APK file, so the operating system can properly install it.
There are many ways you can open an APK file on an Android device:
Put the app in the Android Market (or other Market)
Email the APK to the device
Use a file manager app to open the APK from the SD card
Open the APK from a network location, perhaps using Dropbox
Open a web link on the phone pointing to the location of the APK (you may need to set the mime-type for APK files on the web server)
I uploaded an apk file to a web server and attempted to access the link from the browser on the phone. When I attempt to download from that link I receive an error message that reads "An SD card is required to download." I do not have an SD card installed, but the internal memory is not full, so I would expect the app to install to internal memory.
The obvious solution is to install an SD Card. Putting an SD card in the device does allow the app to install. So, the question is why is this necessary?
Nowhere in my app do I specify that this needs to be installed on an SD Card. I've tried leaving the installLocation blank and setting it to "auto" and "internalOnly". I've scoured the forums and not found a reason for this.
You can install apk files on your phone's internal memory(even if an SD card is not present) using adb(Android Debug Bridge).
First enable USB debugging and connect phone to your computer. Open terminal and type:
adb install [path to apk file]/app_file.apk
You will get a response as below:
1516 KB/s (190984 bytes in 0.123s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/app_file.apk
Success
Your apk file will be installed on phone's internal memory.
It's not about where the application is installed, but rather where the downloaded .apk file is stored. Before the application can be installed, the package has to be downloaded and stored somewhere first, typically on the SD card. Once the downloaded file is stored, it can then be installed, but with no SD card, the browser has nowhere to put the file.
When downloading from the browser, the APK, or any downloaded file, needs to be stored on the SD card. Downloading from the Market, however, can handle downloading apps without an APK. If you have country restrictions, perhaps alternative markets like SlideME can do the same thing.
You can use default browser to donwload apk by direct link.
It is important to have a SD CARD on your phone ,to stored downloaded apps,and to manage your downloaded apps to your SD,CARD that is why that you can't download apps to your phone even if your internal storage is not full .....
I want to test my build on my device. Please provide some tool/information regarding installation of application on device ?
thanks and regards,
Connect your device with the PC, install the Android SDK (you should have that already) and than: http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html
Open phone web-browser.
Enter url: file:///sdcard/[nameofyourapkfile].apk
No need for file browser programs.
If you just want to install the apk file on the mobile without the need of any debug information you can simply upload the apk file (which is located in the /bin directory of your project) to a webspace and grab it with the mobile's browser (e.g. http://www.mywebspace.com/myapp.apk)
You can also copy the apk to your phone - SD card or internal memory- and then click on it. This should install the apk in most devices, though some devices may block the installation of non-market apks.
Or download SD Folder or something like that just type SD Folder into Googleplay and then youll be able to simply open apk files or Pics you couldnt access trough the office suit.
I need to install a program on the Droid. I can get it onto the memory chip. I can't get the droid to find it. TIA.
I believe what you are trying to say is that you have an apk file on your SD card you are trying to install onto your phone. You need to use a file browser like Astro File Manager to browse your SD card and install the app.
Let's say you are trying to install an APK which is in your SD card.
There's no need to use a file manager, just open the Browser and enter the URL
file:///sdcard/MyApp.apk
you will be prompted to accept the installation of the package.
To install the apk you will also need to allow installations from Unknown Sources, located in Settings --> Applications.