ADB Pull Help

[GrumpyAeroGuy#AC]

Was reading and studying the (fantastic) tips/tricks and getting started threads written by milominderbender (hope I got this screen name correct). In any case, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to provide all of the excellent write ups. Helps an Android new-bie like me get over the initial speed bumps in getting familiar with Android. Many kudos, sir.

My question revolves around the console adb pull command and backing up my installed apps as the/your example/tutorial describes.

I downloaded the sdk as described.... after a little tinkering, got the adb driver to recognize my phone (or vice-versa)... bottom line, phone was recognized with no driver errors reported by windows.

Turns out that the adb.exe command now resides in a folder named "platform-tools" rather than tools, but, got all of that figured out and defaulted to the appropriate directory in the command shell to be able to run the command.

Tried to run c:/.../adb pull /.../ \output_dir etc., etc....

I received a 0 files pulled message or something of the sort, and am kind of at a wall.

What else do I need to try/do, to get this working? Again, total newbie to Android, but otherwise fairly computer/IT saavy.

Particuars:

Phone: MyTouch 4G, USB debugging "on"

OS: Win7x64 Pro, AMD quad-core 64

Latest SDK downlaoded from Google yesterday:Android SDK Updater Rev 8.

hellllllllp (pleeeeez) LOL

 

[2CupsWithString]

Hey Grumpy, I'm not sure of the original post that you're speaking of, but to use adb pull just:

go to your command prompt where adb is installed and type:

adb pull /path/to/file/Filename.apk

For example, if I wanted to pull the Email.apk out of the system folder, this is what I'd type:

adb pull /system/app/Email.apk

This is linux so everything is case sensitive, after that command is given the "Email.apk" file now appears in my tools folder (or with the newer SDK the platform-tools folder).

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

Just a note -- things have changed a bit, and for most phones to have general access to the /data/app/ folder you need to be root. I'm pretty sure that's what you're experiencing here.

 

[GrumpyAeroGuy#AC]

Just a note -- things have changed a bit, and for most phones to have general access to the /data/app/ folder you need to be root. I'm pretty sure that's what you're experiencing here.

OK, may have experienced brain faltulence.

Maybe a ADB pull \...\*.* would help (?)

I didn't type the wildcards today when I was playing. No worries, gives me something to try tomorrow.

sooooooo, I assume you are/were saying I may need to *root* the phone to accomplish this?

Don't know if I have researched stuff enough to be confident to do that. I'll read some more, try the above with wild cards and report back.....

Thank you for your responses, BTW... much appreciated.

Oh, and, yes, as an FYI.... Back in a previous life (LOL) I did a lot of stuff with UNIX and still do some stuff with Linux, so I have some familiarity with these OSs.

 

[GrumpyAeroGuy#AC]

I have provided several screen shots.

adb pull ... shows 0 files and folders

adb ls ... shows no files

(not sure if this is because no files are there, or I do not have PERMISSIONS to see them --- if the latter were the case, I would assume that a "permissions error" would pop up, but, again, NO expert here what-so-ever)

INTERESTINGLY... adb logcat pulls a log, which I redirected to a .txt file, a screen shot of which is provided here as well.

THIS would tell me (unless I have missed the ship completely) that, at the very LEAST, I have access to the phones innards, at least enough to pull this log --- and, thus, the phone is connected and recognized by the sdk and there is no issue THERE.... (correct? )

I dunno. I suspect I have to be root to do this on this phone. Any insight is appreciated.

 

[Jerry Hildenbrand]

You are correct. You have everything set up correctly, and are issuing the right commands in the right syntax. You just need to have adb running as root to read /data/app/

If you do decide to root, leave /data/app/ mounted with the permissions it has. I've tried editing the fstab to change this before -- it's not a pretty sight

 

[GrumpyAeroGuy#AC]

You are correct. You have everything set up correctly, and are issuing the right commands in the right syntax. You just need to have adb running as root to read /data/app/

If you do decide to root, leave /data/app/ mounted with the permissions it has. I've tried editing the fstab to change this before -- it's not a pretty sight

Thank you for your response. All is good. At least it wasn't something I was/wasn't doing --- which was my primary interest on this exercise.

As to whether I am going to root --- not sure yet. I sure as heck don't feel like I know enuf to do this yet. Maybe after some more careful research I may take the plunge at some point.

As of right this moment, I do not have a pressing NEED to do it, but the intellectual curiosity of ACTUALLY doing it will probably push me there at some point.

In any case, thank you very much for your time and expertise... much appreciated...