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How to pull out APK file of any installed App

Hi Guys!!!
I'm back after a long and mentally tiring break.I was busy in competitive exams and results,so no prizes for guessing why I'm tired :P

For those who're not interested in what's happening in my suffering life,I'm returning to the topic,I will help you get that nasty APK file out of your phone.



You might want that for one or more of the following reasons:

  • To backup any App you downloaded from Google Play,so that you don't have to download it again. (Helpful when you have a slow connection and also want to save bandwidth)
  • When you want to share any App with any friend or with your other device
  • When you just want to crack open the app,and see the contents (Renaming the file to xyz.apk.zip and opening with winzip/any other zip viewer shows you the contents,this might help you to theme any App,if you're an advanced user.
  • To get paid apps for free,You can buy any app from the Market/Play store,download it,backup (copy to sd card) the apk with the method  I shall state below and ask for a refund.You need to be quick though because you won't get any refund after 15 minutes of your refunding the app.You will need to have root access and some luck so that the App you backup-ed doesn't check market link,verifies licenses etc.
  • To leak Apps from a phone not released yet and get famous!
As of now,I will tell you how to pull the apps using your phone itself.A post on how to pull and push APKs to your phone will be on its way,once I write an article on how to setup ADB/Fastboot on your PC.You can get quite a few awesome things working once you set that up correctly.Finally,rolling out the sweet,little steps:

  • You need to have root.Know more about it here and do it here.Rooting is recommended to everyone who wants to really "want to do whatever they want" on their Android.
  • Download Root Explorer or any other file explorer with root access. (Get any free one like Astro or ES,they are both literally awesome)
  • Go to /data/app on the file explorer.You will find all the "User Apps" here (And most of the apps you download from Play store,too)
  • Copy and paste them to any suitable directory in your sd card.Cutting and pasting them will lead to uninstallation.
  • For System Apps,Go to /system/app,and copy whatever you want to your sd card.Don't cut Apps from here,as it might lend you unable to boot up the next time you reboot your phone,that's why taking a nandroid backup is recommended before doing anything with root power.
  • That's it,You've successfully "pulled" the leg and hands and everything of the APK and you can murder it (delete?),or allow your friend to play around with it.

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Got any problems? In a fix? I might be able to help you,just drop a sweet comment below and I shall reply in Quick Gun,Muruguna style,i.e. really fast.Hope you enjoyed the read and it served the purpose for which you read this.You might also want to subscribe to this blog via email :D