Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order

From	Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com>
Newsgroups	comp.mobile.android, alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.os.linux
Subject	Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order
Date	2026-06-01 16:26 -0600
Organization	BWH Usenet Archive (https://usenet.blueworldhosting.com)
Message-ID	<10vl0to$2kjk$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <10vhov4$2bb2$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <10vhpca$1htb$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <10vhqe0$nr5$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <10vhs7m$28hi$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com> <10vhsh1$2h2m$1@nnrp.usenet.blueworldhosting.com>

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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Just for the record, I keep an archive of every single app I've ever
installed so it can be done, but since APKs come from different places, it
has to be done with an overall tactical plan in mind.

The strategy, of course, is save every APK before it's installed.
The tactics can vary.

My tactics are to put all the APKs on a separate USB drive, for the obvious
reasons of portability and because they serve no purpose on a computer.

My download tactics are to use a PC web browser (any browser I want) to
download the APK for all APKs which are not on the Google Play Store repo.

If they're on the Google Play Store repo, then my tactic is to use any
replacement FOSS Google Play Store app to *download* the split APK.

Notice you'll almost always, if not always get a split APK from the Google
Play Store repo, while you'll almost always, if not always NOT get a split
APK from all the other repositories, so you have to learn how to handle
split APKs (because Android doesn't come with a native split-apk
installer).

The split APKs are saved as "apks" while the regular APKs are saved as
"apk" so you know which are which (sometimes split APKs are saved as a zip
file, which is what they are anyway).

The strategy is to first save the APK(s) and then install them.
The tactic to install them is as simple as copying them temporarily to the
Android phone and tapping on them in Android to install them, or, since
they serve no purpose on the Android phone, just installing them from the
PC on the Android phone, over Wi-Fi (or USB) using adb on the desktop.

I jsut did that, for example, when I downloaded Canta & Shizuku.

1. Download the Canta/Shizuku APK onto the desktop using a PC browser
<https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.samolego.canta/>
<https://f-droid.org/repo/io.github.samolego.canta_225.apk>
Name: io.github.samolego.canta_225.apk
Size: 4698310 bytes (4588 KiB)
SHA256: 5A646D366905C0BE2033AA270B008B3EF79FDA99FBC95988445B0F430283A1ED

<https://github.com/rikkaapps/shizuku>
<https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku/releases/tag/v13.6.0>
<https://github.com/RikkaApps/Shizuku/releases/download/v13.6.0/shizuku-v13.6.0.r1086.2650830c-release.apk>
Name: shizuku-v13.6.0.r1086.2650830c-release.apk
Size: 2571773 bytes (2511 KiB)
SHA256: 6E273AB0E991C4E79BC8B1BBB9B9DD739CCAC1A8712A541A214078886B7B790F

2. Install the Canta/Shizuku APK onto the phone using the PC adb
adb install "C:\temp\io.github.samolego.canta_225.apk"
adb install "C:\temp\shizuku-v13.6.0.r1086.2650830c-release.apk"

It's that easy to implement the strategy of saving every APK before you
install it on the phone. The tactics vary depending on how much you know.
--
Sharing what I learn so others do not have to dig as hard.

Thread

PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 10:46 -0600
  Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 10:51 -0600
    Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 11:16 -0600
      Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 11:47 -0600
        Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 11:52 -0600
          Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-01 16:26 -0600
    Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-31 20:29 +0100
      Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 14:19 -0600
        Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 18:36 -0600
          Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 20:25 -0600
            Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-05-31 21:28 -0600
              Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Skeptic <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-01 20:45 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Ch1ffr3punk <ch1ffr3punk@gmail.com> - 2026-06-01 20:12 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-01 22:39 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-01 23:45 +0200
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-01 15:55 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-02 12:49 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-02 17:50 +0200
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-02 18:45 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-03 11:21 +0200
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-03 06:59 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order AJL <noemail@none.com> - 2026-06-02 16:55 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-02 20:37 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order AJL <noemail@none.com> - 2026-06-03 14:56 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-03 18:08 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-04 08:31 +0200
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-04 08:58 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Ch1ffr3punk <ch1ffr3punk@gmail.com> - 2026-06-02 09:33 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-02 12:55 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Ch1ffr3punk <ch1ffr3punk@gmail.com> - 2026-06-02 11:58 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-02 06:41 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Ch1ffr3punk <ch1ffr3punk@gmail.com> - 2026-06-02 19:28 +0000
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-02 20:53 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-02 20:55 -0600
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-01 15:56 -0600
              Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Jeff Layman <Jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-01 21:17 +0100
                Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-01 16:07 -0600
          Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-06-01 12:05 +0200
            Re: PSA: Using the PC adb to save a list of all Android apps installed by the user in order Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-01 10:14 -0600

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