Get app data on android device without root through adb backup
We find that the data on one of our app has problem, but we save the data on the app’s internal storage, that is /data/data folder, if the device didn’t root, we can’t get the data from /data/data folder, I am thinking how to get data from android device without root the device.
Backup data with adb backup
After search the internet, and I get the answer to backup the data with adb backup command from How to access data/data folder in Android device?.
The backup command is:
adb backup -noapk com.your.packagenameThe are some details about backup and unpack the backup files on the page Unpacking Android backups.
Unpack the ab file
After we execute the backup command, the default backup file is named backup.ab , but how to get the data from the ab file?
Unpack with openssl zlib
On the page Unpacking Android backups, it mentioned the unpack command is like below:
dd if=backup.ab bs=24 skip=1|openssl zlib -d > backup.tarUnpack on mac with python
But on mac when we execute the command above, it will report the following error:
openssl:Error: 'zlib' is an invalid command.Standard commands
asn1parse ca certhash ciphers
crl crl2pkcs7 dgst dh
dhparam dsa dsaparam ec
ecparam enc errstr gendh
gendsa genpkey genrsa nseq
ocsp passwd pkcs12 pkcs7
pkcs8 pkey pkeyparam pkeyutl
prime rand req rsa
rsautl s_client s_server s_time
sess_id smime speed spkac
ts verify version x509Message Digest commands (see the `dgst' command for more details)
gost-mac md4 md5 md_gost94
ripemd160 sha1 sha224 sha256
sha384 sha512 streebog256 streebog512
whirlpoolCipher commands (see the `enc' command for more details)
aes-128-cbc aes-128-ecb aes-192-cbc aes-192-ecb
aes-256-cbc aes-256-ecb base64 bf
bf-cbc bf-cfb bf-ecb bf-ofb
camellia-128-cbc camellia-128-ecb camellia-192-cbc camellia-192-ecb
camellia-256-cbc camellia-256-ecb cast cast-cbc
cast5-cbc cast5-cfb cast5-ecb cast5-ofb
chacha des des-cbc des-cfb
des-ecb des-ede des-ede-cbc des-ede-cfb
des-ede-ofb des-ede3 des-ede3-cbc des-ede3-cfb
des-ede3-ofb des-ofb des3 desx
rc2 rc2-40-cbc rc2-64-cbc rc2-cbc
rc2-cfb rc2-ecb rc2-ofb rc4
rc4-40
I also get the help from network, the link is Error: ‘zlib’ is an invalid command, and on mac, we can use the following commands:
dd if=backup.ab bs=1 skip=24 | python -c "import zlib,sys;sys.stdout.write(zlib.decompress(sys.stdin.read()))" | tar -xvf -# Export to a tar file
dd if=backup.ab bs=1 skip=24 | python -c "import zlib,sys;sys.stdout.write(zlib.decompress(sys.stdin.read()))" > backup.tar
Backup Podcasts In practice
I will use Google Podcasts app as an example to demonstrate how to get the data for Podcasts.
I connect my android device with adb via wifi, the android serial is like below:
List devices
$ adb devices -l
List of devices attached
adb-816d824e-2lp6Pe._adb-tls-connect._tcp. device product:curtana_eea model:Redmi_Note_9S device:curtana transport_id:11
emulator-5554 device product:sdk_gphone64_x86_64 model:sdk_gphone64_x86_64 device:emulator64_x86_64_arm64 transport_id:10Get package for Podcasts
# Connect device with adb shell
adb -s adb-816d824e-2lp6Pe._adb-tls-connect._tcp. shell# List package to get package name of Spotify
pm list packagesThe output is something like below, so I get the package for Podcasts is com.google.android.apps.podcasts...
package:com.google.android.apps.podcasts
...
Backup Podcasts data
adb -s adb-816d824e-2lp6Pe._adb-tls-connect._tcp. backup -noapk -f podcasts.ab com.google.android.apps.podcastsUnpack backup file on mac
dd if=podcasts.ab bs=1 skip=24 | python -c "import zlib,sys;sys.stdout.write(zlib.decompress(sys.stdin.read()))" | tar -xvf -After unpack the backup file, the files for the Podcasts are like below:
tree -L 3
.
└── apps
└── com.google.android.apps.podcasts
├── _manifest
├── d_f
├── db
├── f
└── spHow to prevent adb backup
When I tried for some apps, such as Spotify, and I can’t get the backup for the app, so I also searched how to prevent backup the app data with adb backup .
Setup android:allowBackup="false" on application setting on AndroidManifest.xml file.
<application android:allowTaskReparenting=["true" | "false"]
android:allowBackup=["true" | "false"]
android:allowClearUserData=["true" | "false"]
android:allowNativeHeapPointerTagging=["true" | "false"]
android:backupAgent="string"
android:backupInForeground=["true" | "false"]
android:banner="drawable resource"
android:dataExtractionRules="string resource"
android:debuggable=["true" | "false"]
android:description="string resource"
android:enabled=["true" | "false"]
android:extractNativeLibs=["true" | "false"]
android:fullBackupContent="string"
android:fullBackupOnly=["true" | "false"]
android:gwpAsanMode=["always" | "never"]
android:hasCode=["true" | "false"]
android:hasFragileUserData=["true" | "false"]
android:hardwareAccelerated=["true" | "false"]
android:icon="drawable resource"
android:isGame=["true" | "false"]
android:killAfterRestore=["true" | "false"]
android:largeHeap=["true" | "false"]
android:label="string resource"
android:logo="drawable resource"
android:manageSpaceActivity="string"
android:name="string"
android:networkSecurityConfig="xml resource"
android:permission="string"
android:persistent=["true" | "false"]
android:process="string"
android:restoreAnyVersion=["true" | "false"]
android:requestLegacyExternalStorage=["true" | "false"]
android:requiredAccountType="string"
android:resizeableActivity=["true" | "false"]
android:restrictedAccountType="string"
android:supportsRtl=["true" | "false"]
android:taskAffinity="string"
android:testOnly=["true" | "false"]
android:theme="resource or theme"
android:uiOptions=["none" | "splitActionBarWhenNarrow"]
android:usesCleartextTraffic=["true" | "false"]
android:vmSafeMode=["true" | "false"] >
. . .
</application>Another issue is that adb backup and adb restore is deprecated, and they might be removed in the future release.
