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I have installed the same application on

  • a device running Android 7.0 (not rooted) and

  • on a tablet running Android 4.4 (root),

but nevetheless I noticed that the application data (databases/files etc) is stored in different locations on each device:

On the tablet device the files are located at: /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.packagename and can be easily manipulated (i.e copy, back up etc) but not on the smartphone which likely leaves the storage location being: /data/data/com.packagename which I have no access to.

I understand that it is usually stored on /data/data (protected internal app storage) or /storage/sdcard0/Android/data (storage on user's internal storage partition), else on a SD card if present. In addition, a related question has been asked here: Where Android apps store data?

My biggest surprise is why is this happening on the same application (same version - sideloaded)?

This reference page also explains how a developer can configure the default location of application data. It would have been understandable if there were different versions of the application, but here I am only dealing with the same application (i.e .apk file). Is there something I am missing here or things have changed in recent versions of Android?

My concern is that I can't access these files on /data/data without root and since these are large files and I need to back them up just in case the app data is accidentally cleared (and I have already done that by mistake :(.

Most importantly I don't want to continuously download them over again.

Note: Both devices have no external storage attached.

From the look of things the biggest obstacle is not being able to access files on /data/data (device 1), hence no backup possible...(I would appreciate if there is another reliable workaround to achieve this)

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  • Hasn't it always been /data/data? Can you tell what location app data is being stored at? Do you know if the files are data files? Also how do you really know without root?
    – SSS
    Commented Jul 8, 2018 at 19:55
  • I'm certain clear data also wipes data at /sdcard/Android/data, in fact I just tried it on a certain app and it did so. Also, I think /Android/data and /data/data have different purposes. I've found that /Android/data is used more for caches/files related to ads whereas /data/data is more for private things (eg storing login info).
    – SSS
    Commented Jul 8, 2018 at 20:59
  • @SSS I get your point,but at least on the tablet I can easily back up its data, even if I clear it by mistake it won't have too much harm :)
    – xavier_fakerat
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 18:48

2 Answers 2

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All apps have private storage in the protracted /data folder. Some apps choose to temporarily store data in public locations. Unfortunately I cannot say for certain what the exact results of this were, but I know the way shared data is handled changed in Android 7 for security reasons.

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  • so can I possibly back up the app data stored in /data folder on this non rooted device
    – xavier_fakerat
    Commented Jul 30, 2018 at 16:51
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As strange as it sounds, I had a successful workaround to this issue:

  • I had to manually move the necessary application data (files) from /data/data to /Android/data (with exception of shared_preferences folder and database folder i.e the normal config).

  • Second I had configure the app to use a private directory by modifying the userDefault.xml file (maybe different depending on application in question) and adding this necessary line of code:

    <int name="app_private_dir"value_"1"/>

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  • I temporarily magisk'd to fully achieved this :)
    – xavier_fakerat
    Commented Dec 24, 2018 at 20:48

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