Android Backup with adb (Android Debug Bridge, Ubuntu)

This guide was tested with Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04

Installation of required tools

• Install adb: https://www.ullright.org/ullWiki/show/android-adb-installation-ubuntu
• Got to your personal home directory (e.g. /home/klemens, "~" is a shortcut for that) and create a directory named "bin"
  • mkdir ~/bin
• Download android-backup-toolkit from https://sourceforge.net/p/android-backup-toolkit/ and extract it to ~/bin/android-backup-toolkit
• android-backup-toolkit requires the "star" utilty, it is deliverd with the package. Install:
  • sudo dpkg -i ~/bin/android-backup-tookit/star-bin/star-ubuntu-lucid/star_1.5final-2ubuntu2_amd64.deb

Actual Backup

Note that "adb backup" creates "backup.ab" file in the current working directory. So create a separate directory for each of your backups to avoid overwriting "backup.ab" accidentally.

• Open a terminal.
• Create a separate directory, example:
  • mkdir android_adb_backup_2020-03-03
  • cd android_adb_backup_2020-03-03

I recommend to exclude the internal storage ("-shared" option). Better backup the internal storage by copying the files.

• adb backup -apk -all

Or create a full backup (all apps, settings and internal storage):
Warning: the filesize can get very big. I recommend to backup the internal storage by copying the files in explorer.

• adb backup -apk -all -shared

Or backup a single app:

• adb shell 'pm list packages'

  • ...
    package: com.vendor.appname
    ...

• adb backup -noapk com.vendor.appname

Note: there is some confusion if, and what kind of quotes are needed for the adb backup options (adb backup "-apk -all" ?)

Important note

adb backup is buggy!

* "backup-apk-all.ab.tar" archive is corrupt.
* TIP: probably this is caused by a bug in android, which generates an invalid backup or crashes during the process.
* TIP: Google has been notified several times about buggy backup service, but refuses to fix it.
* TIP: Run 'adb logcat -s BackupManagerService' on another terminal before and while making the backup to detect the error.
       Check for E in fifth column

@see https://lyubomyr-shaydariv.github.io/posts/2016-08-27-when-android-backup-and-restore-tools-may-fail/

try backup with -nocompress

Get APK from device

Example for app "Locus Maps"

• adb shell pm list packages -f -3 | grep locus
  • package:/data/app/menion.android.locus.pro.asamm-svK6V4X5LdghyKHV7nqG1g==/base.apk=menion.android.locus.pro.asamm
• The path is:
  • /data/app/menion.android.locus.pro.asamm-svK6V4X5LdghyKHV7nqG1g==/base.apk
• adb pull /data/app/menion.android.locus.pro.asamm-svK6V4X5LdghyKHV7nqG1g==/base.apk locus.apk
• Get also the data
  • adb backup -noapk menion.android.locus.pro.asamm
  • mv backup.ab nextcloud.ab

Restore

Theoretically you could simply restore a complete backup (adb backup "-apk -all -shared") but I don't think it would make sense in many cases.

I like to select specific apps to restore. That is easy when you backed up only one app with "adb backup -noapk com.vendor.appname":

• adb restore backup.ab

But this is quite tedious. The best way I found is the following:

Best Practice

• Create a full backup without shared ("adb backup "-apk -all")
  • adb backup "-apk -all"
• Split the backup with android-backup-toolkit:
  • cp ~/bin/android-backup-tookit/abe.jar .
  • cp ~/bin/android-backup-tookit/tar-bin-split.jar .
  • ~/bin/android-backup-tookit/adb-split-no-extraction.sh backup.ab
• Now there is a separate .ab backup file for each app in split-ab/ directory.
  • ls -l split-ab/
• Restore the apps of your choice with
  • adb restore split-ab/com.vendor.appname