I’m not prepared to blindly trust APKs from a random website or app store.
But if I want to use apps that I downloaded from Google Play store that I have installed on my existing Android phone, what are the steps for doing so?
I adb-shell’d onto my Android phone and found there are probably 100 APKs on there, mostly vendor-specific or carrier-specific which I don’t need.
There are perhaps 6 APKs from Google that I copied to my computer, but I did not find any APKs for the apps that I installed e.g. Amazon.
Where can I find these? Or does the installation process automatically delete the APK files that are downloaded from the Play store?
And once I get my hands on the APKs, am I correct to assume that I need to use apktool to decrypt then reencrypt each one?
I’ve transferred APKs quite a bit.
I usually use Apk extractor (open-sourced app available in F-droid) to extract APK files from the app installed on my phone.
I then can just file transfer this to my new phone and just install the app via the APK.
But keep in mind that you will need to update those apps (for security reasons, getting new features, etc.). Aurora App store (pre-installed on iodeOS) will be updating your apps when new versions are available.
I’m not going through the hassle I explained earlier, unless I have to do it (let’s say Aurora App store is down). Aurora App store is very reliable when it comes to security and getting the official app when downloading. I’m yet to hear of a case where a malicious app was pushed through Aurora App store. They are running for 7-8 years now.