I was wondering how to make a system apk such as idk the browser into a regular installable apk so that someone with no knowledge of pushing apks can install it along side their apk.
Generally system apps are just normal apps, only installed on a system partition. If you pull a system apk from a device, then you should be able to install it normally on any other device.
There are exceptions from this rule:
You can't install an app if you have it installed already. Many system apps are installed on most devices by default and this is the reason, why you can't install e.g. Browser.apk pulled from other device - most probably you have it installed already.
There are 2 solutions: you could remove system app before installation of new one or just replace it - but this isn't what you want. To create normal, installable apk you would have to modify its package name as I did with Google Maps.
Some system apps use system internals, private APIs or privileges, some additional libraries, etc. For example Settings.apk changes internal settings of OS - you can't do that in normal apk.
You can't easily move/install such apps, they're integrated with system.
thanks for this long great reply. So lets say I pulled my dialer apk changed the package name, could I install it on a friends phone NOT on the system partition ?
I'm trying to pull the dialer apk from gingerbread and port it into a normal apk using apk tool, but once and changed the package name and all that and compile it I go to install it on my phone but it says that it could not open it as an apk file. Any ideas?
Newklearx3 said:
thanks for this long great reply. So lets say I pulled my dialer apk changed the package name, could I install it on a friends phone NOT on the system partition ?
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I think not. Note that Phone.apk is only one app that can dial, you can't add such feature to your own app, so most probably it uses private APIs to do that. It's integrated-with-system one. Same for Settings.apk and PackageManager.apk, but you should be able to pull Browser.apk, Launcher.apk, MMS.apk, Gmail.apk, Talk.apk, etc., change their package name and install on another device.
Ahh, there is one more group: SenseUI, Motoblur, etc. apps, which use additional framework resources: images, colors, texts. They won't work on a device lacking this framework, but it should be possible to make these apps framework-independent by copying all dependencies to app itself. Not that easy, but possible
Brut.all said:
I think not. Note that Phone.apk is only one app that can dial, you can't add such feature to your own app, so most probably it uses private APIs to do that. It's integrated-with-system one. Same for Settings.apk and PackageManager.apk, but you should be able to pull Browser.apk, Launcher.apk, MMS.apk, Gmail.apk, Talk.apk, etc., change their package name and install on another device.
Ahh, there is one more group: SenseUI, Motoblur, etc. apps, which use additional framework resources: images, colors, texts. They won't work on a device lacking this framework, but it should be possible to make these apps framework-independent by copying all dependents to app itself. Not that easy, but possible
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Dude, you're amazing! So how would I go about porting the gingerbread dialer to workable installable apk?
I might be doing something wrong but I pulled the launcher and changed the package name and still the same error
Okay, i guess I'm not. I copied the apk ( unmodded ) from the rom zip and placed it on my SD card to install it and the same error, so there must be something wrong.
figured out it was the sdk version, got it to show up but wont install now.
im also interested in porting specific development apk, lets say.. CM Settings into a non Cyanogen. Tried that once by pulling CM*.apk and push it to other non Cyanogen but got cant be installed message.. any hints on this?
phoezies said:
im also interested in porting specific development apk, lets say.. CM Settings into a non Cyanogen. Tried that once by pulling CM*.apk and push it to other non Cyanogen but got cant be installed message.. any hints on this?
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Use logcat as a start to see dependencies
XDA App
Hello,
I have the new Honeycomb dialer apk and I was under the impression if you just placed the new dialer apk in the systems/app folder of the rooted android device it would change to the new apk on reboot.
Well, I have placed the apk in systems/app, deleted the old apk and rebooted and no change. What is interesting is I have opened the new Honeycomb dialer apk in Super Manager and tried to install and I keep getting the error "Application not installed".
What am I doing wrong?
Just as a note, I have installed the new Honeycomb music player with no problems. My phone is an EU HD2 and I am on a custom Gingerbread ROM.
Thank you in advance for any help.
Are you talking about a literal Honeycomb (Android 3.0) dialer application, or just a themed dialer from a different version? If you have an actual Honeycomb apk please post it or link to it; I was unaware one existed at this point, seeing as the OS is only for tablets so far.
In reference to your question, apps generally need to get installed as opposed to just copied/pasted into system folders. Either try installing it via something that calls the app installer process (browse to the apk in ASTRO File Manager for example) or try manually installing it via adb. If adb fails then it's probable that it simply can't be installed on your device or ROM.
Hope that helps.
I have a question. You download an app from google play store to your device. And it fails to install due to device incompatibility or certificate error.
So where is the downloaded apk file stored in the device. Like in windows we have a temp folder, do we have a temp folder where the apk file is stored temporarily?
I don't think you can grasp the apk file after install failed as you can't even see the file after it installed correctly. (please correct me if that is wrong) I think this is about copyright protection issues.
Anyways as (almost) always there is an app for that: Try "appmonster". There is a free trial availbe in google play. It saves downloaded apk's to your sd card so you can install it again and again.
I hope that helped you ;-)
Manipur, try to look into /data/apps folder. You may require root permission to access this folder. There should be all user installed apk packages stored. But I'm not sure if there are also apks of applications that failed to install. Just look there and you'll see
boelze said:
I don't think you can grasp the apk file after install failed as you can't even see the file after it installed correctly. (please correct me if that is wrong) I think this is about copyright protection issues.
Anyways as (almost) always there is an app for that: Try "appmonster". There is a free trial availbe in google play. It saves downloaded apk's to your sd card so you can install it again and again.
I hope that helped you ;-)
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Thanks. But applications that failed to install are not backed up.
t-fuse said:
Manipur, try to look into /data/apps folder. You may require root permission to access this folder. There should be all user installed apk packages stored. But I'm not sure if there are also apks of applications that failed to install. Just look there and you'll see
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Apps that failed to install are not backed up though.
There is a program called "APK Downloader" (codekiem.com) which is able to download apk's from Google Play. It only works with free apps so it is "not illegal" but it is against the ToS of Google Play. Use at your own risk!
I have not tested it though...
I have installed fresh stock copy of gingerbeard 2.3.5 and my kernel version is attached in this photo. when I installed the copy, I couldn't find Google play store and I manually downloaded it some where from here. when I open the Google play store and when it asks to add account the application exist! anyone?
your system also needs google services framework.apk to run play store properly
search for gapps abd flash the .zip file you download via cwm or download a rom which includes playstore and extract the above.apk and copy pasge it in your system/app folder. you need root to do the 2nd
I'm on G928CXXU3CQC7 android N update and every time ı tried to install apks like new touchwiz or another samsung apks i take 'The package conflicts with an existing package by the same name' error and it doens't installs. How ı can install them?