copy db file with adb pull results in 'permission denied' error

Question

You can use run-as shell command to access private application data.

If you only want to copy database you can use this snippet, provided in https://stackoverflow.com/a/31504263/998157

adb -d shell "run-as com.example.test cat /data/data/com.example.test/databases/data.db" > data.db

I had the same problem. My work around is to use adb shell and su. Next, copy the file to /sdcard/Download

Then, I can use adb pull to get the file.

Did you try adb remount after giving adb root?

This generic solution should work on all rooted devices:

 adb shell "su -c cat /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db" > contacts2.d

The command connects as shell, then executes cat as root and collects the output into a local file.

In opposite to @guest-418 s solution, one does not have to dig for the user in question.

Plus If you get greedy and want all the db's at once (eg. for backup)

for i in `adb shell "su -c find /data -name '*.db'"`; do
    mkdir -p ".`dirname $i`"
    adb shell "su -c cat $i" > ".$i" 
done

This adds a mysteryous question mark to the end of the filename, but it is still readable.

If you get could not copy and permissions are right disable selinux.

Check if selinux is enabled.

$ adb shell
$su
# getenforce
Enforcing

Selinux is enabled and blocking/enforcing. Disable selinux

# setenforce 0

do your stuff and set selinux to enforcing.

# setenforce 1

I had just the same problem, here's how to deal with it:

1. adb shell to the device
2. su
3. ls -l and check current access rights on the file you need. You'll need that later.
4. go to the file needed and: chmod 777 file.ext. Note: now you have a temporary security issue. You've just allowed all the rights to everyone! Consider adding just R for users.
5. open another console and: adb pull /path/to/file.ext c:\pc\path\to\file.exe
6. Important: after you're done, revert the access rights back to the previous value (point 3)

Someone mentioned something similar earlier.

Thanks for the comments below.

This answer ended up working for me: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15559278/53001

Backup to a file, pull the backup, and then convert it to a tarball and extract it.

adb backup  -f myAndroidBackup.ab  com.corp.appName

dd if=myAndroidBackup.ab bs=1 skip=24 | python -c "import zlib,sys;sys.stdout.write(zlib.decompress(sys.stdin.read()))" | tar -xvf -