Retrieve database or any other file from the Internal Storage using run-as

Question

On a non-rooted android device, I can navigate to the data folder containing the database using the run-as command with my package name. Most files types I am content with just viewing, but with the database I would like to pull if from the android device.

Is there a download copy or move command from this part of adb shell? I would like to download the database file and view its content using a database browser.

One answer here involves turning entire application package into a compressed archive, but there is no further answer on how to extract that archive once this is done and moved to the machine, leaving me very sidetracked when there might be a more direct solution to begin with

Answer 1

By design user build of Android (that's what you have on your phone until you unlock the bootloader and flash the phone with userdebug or eng software) restricts access to the Internal Storage - every app can only access its own files. Fortunately for software developers not willing to root their phones Google provides a way to access the Internal Storage of debuggable versions of their packages using run-as command.

To download the /data/data/debuggable.app.package.name/databases/file from an Android 5.1+ device run the following command:

adb exec-out run-as debuggable.app.package.name cat databases/file > file 

To download multiple files in a folder under the /data/data/debuggable.app.package.name/ at once - use tar:

adb exec-out run-as debuggable.app.package.name tar c databases/ > databases.tar adb exec-out run-as debuggable.app.package.name tar c shared_prefs/ > shared_prefs.tar 

Answer 2

The accepted answer doesn't work anymore for me (blocked by Android?)

So instead I did this:

> adb shell shell $ run-as com.example.package shell $ chmod 666 databases/file shell $ exit                                               ## exit out of 'run-as' shell $ cp /data/data/package.name/databases/file /sdcard/ shell $ run-as com.example.package shell $ chmod 600 databases/file > adb pull /sdcard/file .