57
Disable your screen dimming app. :)
Some screen dimming apps work by overlaying the whole screen with a translucent window, and letting touch events pass through to the activity below, but for security reasons, you can't interact with system dialogs (such as the package installer) through another activity.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but it could be the ...
52
Apkmirror.com is run by the same people behind AndroidPolice.com, one of the biggest Android news websites. All uploads are manually vetted and approved, and only free apps are allowed so you won't find any 'cracked' apks or 'warez'.
As you already have the Play Store installed, only an apk signed with the same key as the currently installed version will be ...
44
An Android APK usually contains these things.
assets/
lib/
META-INF/
res/
AndroidManifest.xml
classes.dex
Upon installation, the APK file is copied to /data/app, and classes.dex is extracted and "optimized" by running dex2oat on it (on Android 5+ lib/ is also extracted). Result of the optimization is stored in /data/dalvik-cache/ so an app needs to be ...
25
The answer is: It depends. It's the way supposed to work:
adb backup -f myapp.ab -apk com.myapp # backup on one device
adb restore myapp.ab # restore to the same or any other device
But an app can "opt out of Backup" declaring ALLOW_BACKUP:FALSE (see: adb backup not working for certain app), in which case (without root powers) all you get ...
21
That's done easiest using adb (see the ADB tag-wiki for details on what ADB is and how to get/install it on your machine). As you don't state the OS you're using on your desktop, I write how it could be done on Linux (which I work with); should be easily adaptable to other platforms:
put all your downloaded .apk files into a single folder
connect your ...
20
One (rather crude) way to see what architecture an APK's native libraries are built for is to unzip it (it's only a zip file) and take a look at the libs folder - if the application contains any native libraries, they will be split into the following subfolders inside (with the compiled libraries inside these):
armeabi: compiled code for the older ARMv5 ...
14
The correct way to verify an APK file is to use apksigner.
apksigner is part of the Android build tools, therefore you may find multiple versions installed, one for each build-tools version installed.
One example path within the Android SDK to apksigner is:
android-sdk/build-tools/29.0.2/apksigner
Execute apksigner this way:
apksigner verify --verbose --...
10
Answering my own question, thanks to the method found on this View app's full package name? thread and the hint provided by Google App's URL in Google play.
I typed:
adb shell 'pm list packages -f searchbox'
And received:
package:/data/app/com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1.apk=com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
10
Such Issues generally occur when you try to open the file from within an Application (Messenger, Whatsapp etc.) other than File Manager (any such application with similar privileges) or Play Store.
So, please make sure you are accessing it from File Manager.
If you are not aware of the source of the APK and if it's not from a trusted source please don't ...
10
Summary
The warning you have encountered only applies to the APK signature v1, but as the APK file is signed with additional signatures of the newer signature schemes you can safely ignore this message as every modification on the APK file can be detected by the newer signature schemes.
However even if the signature can be verified it does not mean that the ...
9
The minimal requirements for building an Android app are usually the Android SDK and ant. Then, you are able to build the majority1 of projects with the following steps.
If there is no build.xml generate it
android update project -p . -n $PROJECT_NAME -s
Then build the project with
ant debug
which will create an .apk signed with your debug key.
All ...
9
You can e.g. use Raccoon for that – a phantastic Java app I'm using:
Raccoon (source: Tutonaut; click image for larger variant)
The app requires credentials of a Google account (you can either use your own, in which case you also can access apps you've bought – or use Raccoon's companion-app DummyDroid to create an alternative profile, including fake-...
9
There are multiple possibilities for this. One is using the appropriate counter-parts from the µg project (pronounced "micro-G"; formerly known as NOGAPPS) – in this case Phonesky (the inofficial Google PlayStore Client) or BlankStore (same thing, basically). Each of these two would run directly on the device, no Google-Apps required (hence the name "NOGAPPS"...
9
Adblock forums says
this product is outdated (not maintained anymore), eventually use adblock browser for android
Also, see this post
see what said an eyeo moderator:
"Unfortunately at the moment we have no Android developer, therefore solving real issues is kind of difficult."
That's probably why all links on the official site are dead. They ...
8
I did a bit of digging and it is possible without System permissions from API 21 onwards https://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/PackageInstaller.html.
In fact, there is a code sample by Google which shows how to do it. https://github.com/googlesamples/android-testdpc/blob/master/app/src/main/java/com/afwsamples/testdpc/cosu/CosuUtils....
7
Try ES file explorer
Under settings select App Manager and select all apps. And select backup on the action bar below.
A backup of all apps apk is created to your SD card probably under backups folder(or check /set backup folder on your es file explorer, settings-> directory settings )
Now you've got all apps apk.. You can either transfer them through ...
7
Well... finding an old package, looking at those files I discovered the answer. Sometimes it takes very long to find it and the solution is simple.
Short Answer
You should also move "Phonesky.apk" to /system/app/ folder and then restart your phone.
Summary
Download the latest Play Store .apk (Try for example Android Police): http://www....
7
Short answer: No.
Simple repacking cannot solve the compatibility problem. If an app requires "at least Android XX", that usually means it needs some conditions not met before it. There are new OS features introduced with each Android version, libraries get additional APIs/features, etc. – nothing of that can be solved by "repacking" the installation ...
7
Apk and zip files are essentially the same, compressed. Before the system can use the file it needs to decompressed. So the file is one size when downloaded and another size when installed.
Also note sometimes when apk's are installed, after being opened some data may need to be downloaded. So file size file will increase again.
Differences in size are ...
7
The Google play store, and other app stores, only list the main application (APK) size, not the total app size, which includes the OBB (Opaque Binary Blob) expansion files. OBBs are the extra files that an app downloads to run. There should be no difference in file size before the extra files are downloaded.
From the Play Store Developers section:
The ...
7
It won't be shown in Google Play Store because you have not uploaded it to the store. To uninstall the app go to
Settings -> Apps -> find your app -> Uninstall
7
What is Android doing when it says “optimizing apps/system”?
Basically the android system will be creating an optimised version of each application. This process makes each app start as fast as possible with the new Android version.
While it says ‘optimising,’ operating system generates ‘odex’ files
for your apps from scratch. As a simple explanation, ...
7
Split APK file formats
Various app download sites were confronted with the same problem. They solved by defining custom file formats and installer for apps that consist of multiple APKs files:
There is the APKS file format which is is just a ZIP file containing the APK files. They can be installed using the APK Split installer app. Optionally APKS files can ...
6
There is (now) an apksigner tool in build-tools that does what you want. From the docs:
Check whether the APK's signatures are expected to be confirmed as valid on all Android platforms that the APK supports:
apksigner verify [options] app-name.apk
6
Carl Parker writes about it on Android Authority:
(partly reproduced here in case the original post goes down)
For Apps Installed on the Device
Assuming you have installed the app on your device, go to the app’s
Google Play Store link and take note of the words after “?id=” and
ignore the rest.
Connect your device to the computer via USB
...
6
As mentioned on Eldarerathis' comment, no matter what, you are going to need a newer version of Android, which probably means (CyanogenMod will only get you to 2.3.7) that you'll need a newer phone.
The good news is that from 4.0+ it only gets easier to easily run Chromium safely on Android. For Android 4.4, there's a free and open-source app getChromium ...
6
According to this question/answer, the .asec files are actually dm-crypt containers which can be mounted, and contain the unencrypted .apk. The keys are stored in /data/misc/systemkeys/AppsOnSD.sks.
The mounting process depends on the tools available, but it can be as simple as running (on Linux) losetup /dev/loop0 /path/to/file && cryptSetup open --...
6
Running an APK without installing it?
No matter if you won't accept the answer, running an APK is not possible.
It's not an executable, it's an archive containing the application and instructions on where all it's resources should be placed so that the app can run.
Android APK File Format
Asking this question is the same as asking how you run an iso ...
6
Using the command,
adb install -r whatever.apk
will install the application in 2nd user of android 5.0.2 .
Source
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible