Copy app to android device

How to Transfer Apps to a New Android Device

Ben Stockton is a freelance tech writer from the United Kingdom. In a past life, he was a UK college lecturer, training teens and adults. Since leaving the classroom, he’s been a tech writer, writing how-to articles and tutorials for MakeUseOf, MakeTechEasier, and Cloudwards.net. He has a degree in History and a postgraduate qualification in Computing. Read more.

A new Android device means transferring all of your content, including your favorite apps, from old to new. You don’t have to do this manually as Google offers built-in support for backing up and restoring your content. Here’s how you do it.

These steps may vary based on your device manufacturer, Android version, and may only be available on newer builds of Android. If you don’t have these steps available at all, you can use a third-party app provided by your device manufacturer to transfer your apps instead.

Using the Google Backup Method

Google uses your Google account to back up your content, including apps, using your included Drive storage. You’ll need to make sure you’ve enabled Google Backup on your old device before you make any transfers.

Switch On Google Backup

To start, access your device “Settings” menu in the app drawer or by swiping down to access your notification shade and then tap the gear icon.

Next, tap on “System.” If you have a Samsung device, the option is “Accounts and Backup.”

In the next menu, Samsung owners will need to tap “Backup and Restore.” Other Android device owners can ignore this step.

Tap on “Backup.” Samsung owners, ensure that “Back Up My Data” is toggled on and then select “Google Account.”

Make sure that “Back Up to Google Drive” is toggled on and tap “Back Up Now” to ensure your apps are completely backed up.

You can also tap “App data” to scroll through and check that every app you want to transfer is listed. If they are, you’re ready to start transferring, so switch over to your new device.

Transfer Your Apps to Your New Device

When you power up a new Android device or a device that has been reset to factory settings, you’ll be given the option to restore your content (including apps) from your Google Drive backup.

Again, it’s important to note these instructions may also vary depending on your version of Android and your device’s manufacturer.

Power on your new device and follow any initial instructions until you’re given the option to begin restoring your data. Choose “A Backup from the Cloud” to begin the process.

On the next screen, you might be asked to sign in to your Google account, so do this first. You will then see a list of recent backups from the Android devices linked to your Google account.

To proceed, tap the backup from whichever device you want to restore.

You’ll be given a list of content options to restore, including your device settings and contacts. “Apps” might be deselected, so tap the checkbox next to it and then select “Restore.”

As your data is restored, you can finish the rest of the setup process and begin using your device.

Once the restoration is complete, your apps (and other content) will be transferred to your new device from your Google Drive backup, ready for you to use.

Checking Your Google Play Store App Library

If you already set up your new device before restoring or transferring data, it might be worth looking at what apps you have previously installed using your Google account. Your apps library on the Play Store will let you quickly install any apps you might be missing on your new device.

To start, open the Google Play Store app and then expand the hamburger menu in the top-left corner.

Tap “My Apps & Games.”

Listed in the library tab will be devices “Not on This Device.” Tap “Install” next to any (or all) of the apps you want to install on your device.

Using Third-Party Apps

The best and most reliable method for most users is to use the built-in Google Backup method to transfer your apps and other content. If that option doesn’t work for you, third-party apps are available.

Like the Google Backup method, these will allow you to transfer your apps from one Android device to another. Most of these options are available from the Google Play Store and sometimes preinstalled.

The best and most reliable are those offered by device manufacturers such as LG Mobile Switch, Huawei Backup, and Samsung Smart Switch. You can also find other third-party apps, but these have a mixed reputation, with users reporting they don’t work as well on certain devices.

Samsung Smart Switch, for instance, will let you transfer apps and your other content from one Samsung device to another. You can do this wirelessly or connect your devices together using a suitable USB cable.

Transferring from iPhone to Android

Android and iOS are two entirely different environments, so it isn’t possible to directly transfer your iPhone apps to an Android device. Many developers offer their apps across both platforms, however, and Google can look for any matching apps for you during the new device setup process.

When you begin setting up a new Android device, rather than choosing to transfer from a Google Drive backup, tap the option to transfer data from your iPhone and then follow the on-screen instructions.

Samsung device owners can also use the Smart Switch app, which offers its own “Download Matching Apps” option during the transfer process.

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Copy app to android device

Android offers multiple ways to transfer apps and data between phones. The usual way of transferring apps from your old device to a new one is by using the Tap & Go feature.

In addition to Tap & Go, Android also allows you to copy apps and data using ADB. If you just want to copy one specific APK, ADB can be used to grab a copy of APK or create a backup file with the APK and related data.

If you want to bring your Android skills to the next level, I highly recommend checking out some of the Udemy courses. Disclaimer: I’m participating in the Udemy Affiliate Program and I might get a small commission if you purchase something via the provided link. However, your price won’t be affected and I do believe the courses can help your career/business.

There are 2 methods that I want to show in this post. Using the first method you only copy the APK file, but this method should work most of the time.
The second method allows to copy also app data, but the particular app has to support this.

Disclaimer: I don’t support copying of paid apps or violating app licenses! Always check the license and conditions of the APK you’re trying to copy to make sure you comply.

Grab APK and Install It to Another Device

This method allows you to install one specific APK file that you’ve grabbed from another phone. To copy the APK file do the following:

Get APK file path from package name

The pm command executed above should print something like this

You should substitute your package name in the previous command. I used the package name from my example app from the post about device owner — eu.sisik.devowner .

If you’re not sure how to get the package name of the app you want to copy, you can use my Power APK app for this. The main screen will display a list of installed apps and package names. You can search the app on the list by its name. Alternatively, you can start the app you want to copy. Once it’s foreground, you can get the package name with adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep «mCurrentFocus» . I described this method in one of my posts.

Note: Sometimes the app is split into multiple APK files. This usually happens when using the Instant Run feature of Android Studio. These files are usually highly customized for the device they were deployed to and are additionally running a bit differently than apps installed from regular APKs, so the method I’m describing here won’t work for this kind of APK files.

Pull the APK file from Android device to your PC

This will pull the APK file to current directory. You should use the path to APK obtained in the previous step

Install APK to target Android device

This will push the APK to the target device and execute the pm install -r command on the device. The -r option means that the app should be reinstalled in case it already exists on the target device. However, app’s data won’t get erased with this option.

Use ADB Backup to Copy APK

This method has the advantage that you can also copy app’s data together with the APK. The disadvantage is that not all apps can be copied this way. Only apps that set the allowBackup flag to true in their AndroidManifest.xml can be copied. Luckily, the apps that target Android 6 and higher have this value set to true by default, so even if the developer did not set this flag explicitly to true, it should still be possible to perform a backup.

To check if a particular app supports backup do the following

This gave me the following output for my DevOwner app

The flags show that it should be possible to perform a backup for this specific app.

You should execute the following command to create a backup

A dialog box asking for password and confirmation should appear on your Android device. Type in your password and tap on «BACK UP MY DATA». This will backup the APK file and app data for your specified package into app.backup file. In some cases this might not work reliably. Therefore you might need to add quotes to arguments or experiment with different ADB versions.

To copy the APK and data from the generated backup file to your target Android device, use the restore command

Copy APK with Bugjaeger

If you don’t want to install ADB on your PC, you can do the same stuff as described before using the Bugjaeger app. The device that contains the original APK file should have Bugjaeger installed. To copy the app do the following

1. Connect the devices with USB OTG cable and confirm the authorization dialogs (similar to what you do when you’re using regular ADB)
2. Switch to the Packages tab
3. Tap on the add button
4. Pick «Select from installed Apps» option and tap on OK
5. Select the apps that you want to copy from the list and tap on INSTALL

Pulling APK Files From Android Device With Bugjaeger

In case you are only interested in getting the actual APK files from the device, you can do this simply with the Bugjaeger app.

1. Switch to the Packages section
2. Find the package you’re interested in and click on the download icon

If you’re not sure how to get the package name of the app you’re interested in, check out my Power Apk which can extract various information from installed APK files. Power Apk is also able to pull the APK file from the device.

Use Backup & Restore with Bugjaeger

You can also perform ADB backup and restore with the Bugjaeger app.

To create a backup with Bugjaeger do the following

1. Connect the devices with USB OTG cable and confirm the authorization dialogs (similar to what you do when you’re using regular ADB)
2. Switch to the Backup tab
3. Tap on the backup button at the bottom right of the screen
4. Type a name for your backup
5. Tick the checkbox next to Include .apk files
6. Select the app package from the list and tab on BACKUP

Once you’ve provided a password and confirmed, there should be a new entry in the Backup section of Bugjaeger. You can now restore the backup by tapping on the restore button

Note: Not all apps will allow you to create a backup. This is influenced by the allowBackup flag defined in AndroidManifest.xml .

Examining Android Backup Files and Extracting Their Content

Bugjaeger app allows you to examine the content of ADB backup files. Once you’ve successfully created a backup as described in previous section, you can tap on the created backup item in Backup section, and the app will show you the content of the backup file. You can also import ADB backups made before with ADB by tapping on the Import button

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