Good day,
I need help on modifying an apk, its basically a game that can be dowloaded on playstore. I read alot in the forum and I saw this APK tool reverse engineering an app.
apktool. I already ask a question but maybe it's better to create a new thread that I can monitor..
Now. what I achieved now is that I can decompile the apk, edit some things like splash.png, values on strings.xml and few line on androidmanifest.xml. I tried to recompile it and I have done it with no problem. Now i have the modified apk. I signed it using apk signer and followed all the procedure with no error. I copied it to my phone and test run it but sadly it says "App not installed". I also tried using zip signer from playstore and got the same result.. I dont know where am I messing it. Please help thanks.
There is Windows app called Virtuos Ten Studio, designed to do exactly that - it works pretty well and makes the whole process much easier (no need to use cmd line at all if I remember correctly).
Related
Well, I was going to put an app up on the market for a seminar , [and yes, i did use that Google app Builder], so when i tried to upload it, it told me that some value in the AndroidManifest.xml had to be a 32-bit integer.
So, I opened up that apk, viewed the manifest.xml file, but it just looks like a load of gibberish to me -__-
Now, I'm a bit new to all of this, considering that 11th grade's keeping me a wee bit occupied, so I guess I'll need some help with this.
[And note: Umm. Do not flame me for coming up with this, I'm not blaming google's app builder, or anything like that, anyway]
I've come across a couple of things like apktool, but each time i run it, it tells me that there's a file in jre7 that cannot be opened, apparently. Touche :|
It's an old question, so I guess you don't care too much about the answer by now, but to help others with a similar query, there are 2 ways to read the AndroidManifest file if you have the apk file.
1) If you extract the apk to a PC, you can use the apktool or similar to get a text version of the AndroidManifest.xml file
2) Alternatively if you have the apk already installed on an Android device you can use something like App Detective (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zmarties.detective) to view the AndroidManifest.xml directly on the device, even for paid apps that you can't extract from the device. (Full disclosure, I wrote App Detective).
I own a BB Playbook tablet for about a year now (bought it during the when it was about 200$ because I needed a 7'', the hardware was specs were nice at the time and the company promised Android app support). Regardless of the sanity of my decision the device saves me about 2 hours per day (I use it mainly to read pdf and build an xls database).
I've converted many apk to bar in order to sideload them to my device (not all of these work). Recently I tried Firefox on my Xperia mobile and was quite pleased with the ABP plugin So I tried to convert the apk but both the apk2bar and the Blackberry Graphical Aid Tool complain that the version number is too long...
Anyone knows how to shorten it? In what file is it located? Or anyone up for the task.
Keep in mind I'm not a dev.
Thanks in advance
android:versionName is what you need to change.
Thanks for the reply.
Tried the apps from your sig. I managed to edit AndroidManifest.xml. Recompiling (after the changes) doesn't seem to work (the result apk is much smaller... many files/folders from the original FF apk were not in the project folder or compiled apk).
Tried unpacking + zip + sign but this last step is failing. Wanam APK suite keeps giving an error message. My box runs Win7 x64 and at first I only had Java RE x86 7.10... it didn't find Java in my machine and stated signing would not work; after I installed the x64 it gives no preemptive messgae and I progress further but the signing process fails
frmariam said:
Thanks for the reply.
Tried the apps from your sig. I managed to edit AndroidManifest.xml. Recompiling (after the changes) doesn't seem to work (the result apk is much smaller... many files/folders from the original FF apk were not in the project folder or compiled apk).
Click to expand...
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Hi.
Look at the files in the apk before decompiling it and you'll see that all those files and folders aren't there to begin with. All those files and folders are from the decompiled resources.arsc so it's normal for them not to be there when recompiled, and when you add the resources.arsc, manifest and meta folder from the original apk to the recompiled apk, it will become larger.
I noticed yesterday I had put an old apktool in the folder but have corrected it now so download and try again.
I was attempting to do the same so I decompiled and edited the android:versionName and the android:versionCode . After doing that, recompiling and resigning I was able to convert using apktobar and load to the playbook with no issues......except the app opens to an all white page and nothing beyond that will work! Just to be clear I was attempting to convert Firefox as well. Hope someone has some helpful hints that could fix it!
So I spent 3 days trying to decompile one APK before I came here. I have the following programs on my hard drive .
C:/android/
apkmultitool
apktool
apkmanager
You can tell me how to do it with any of them.
I open downloaded java, adk, sdk and a bunch other things different guides claimed I needed. I can open script. It will run. I can navigate there in comand propmt to the right folder.... but then what?
So im sitting in C:/android/ApkMultiTool/ im in cmd propmpt what do I type?
Script (correct?)
then the script runs.... I get a option I choose pick my project
(swype keyboard)
It picks it then I go to decompile app...
Then it quits back to CMD prompt (the app stops) is this what should happen? I assume when decompile something it decompiles... the apk looks the same.... so im confused why wont? it run after that? why would just stop I heard about framework. I downloaded a file with like 25 frameworks in it but I got no idea what it means and I can't find a clean explanation on this.
If someone can get me past this simple first step of how to get the program to decomiple it (comands and frameworks I need plus explain what framework means)
whats if framework-res mean? I don't understand which means I can't do it on my own
Thanks a bunch I tried to not ask for help but im tired
Alright I managed decompile swipe then Mod it but after I tried recompile it it says error and to push number 21 and it also said compression level (when I push the option it tells me to)
Why won't it compile? Did I do something wrong or I heard you compile with framework (i know where framework is on my phone) but what frame work files do I need where do I put them also? please or send me to a good help site on this or basic comandds. I just wana mod my keyboard and recompile it Ive downloaded like 10 packages already trying get right tools...
1. Must I run adb comand from the sdk folder every time I want to use multi tools (to decompil and recompile)
2. Can I use the cmd prompt with abd and android comander at the same time? Or is it one abd program at a time.
Thank you
1. Where should my main tools be can someone just list like C:/android/ (place adb here and rest of my tools?) or does sdk-tools go in my apkmultitools spot
Is there any universal framework-res.apk that can be used trough apktool, to retrieve xml files? because I am confused, I don't want to install my app on any mobile device!! (just to play around with code) and everywhere people write about ROMs and getting the framework from my device, in order to get my apk to compile with apktool? WHAT?! believe me, i am doing my research but I just cant seem to find a connection between the needed framework.res, and some randomly downloaded camera.apk?
How am I supposed to find appropriate framework for any downloaded .apk from internet? is it possible? I have tried with obviously non appropriate framework-res, it gives me lots of errors, after -apktool d example.apkk. Again, I don't have intention of installing it on any device, yet. as I said before, I would like to get code, to learn from it and to play with it, xml is the issue now, because of this framework-res stuff!! While java non 100% code I have!
Thank you for your time
hello. so, i am trying to mod this APK for installation on a 4.4 Kitkat machine. however, it just gets me failed to install notice.
the game is Sword of Chaos. and all i want to do is delete a .MP4 file, which is the opening intro to the game.
i am using apktool to decompile and build. used the option simple d and b for the process. i have also the framework-res.apk. i have tried the -r and -s to not decode when de-compiling. and have also tried the -f option when building.
in the end, i don't know enough of how to get this working. again, i only want to remove a small cutscene.
if someone could help me figure out how to do this, that would be great. thank you! ^_^
okay! i figured out how to do it!
still using apktool to decompile, but using APK Easy Tool to compile. this let me keep the signature!
the APK Easy Tool seems to have apktool built-in, but i can't these programs to work right. APK Easy Tool and a couple others state something like, 'part of the path can't be found'. i tried running the program as a different non-admin user, but did not much help. "ADK" seemed to work fine like that, but "ADK Easy Tool" still had the same error. oh wells.