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Android backup extractor

Utility to extract and repack Android backups created with adb backup (ICS+). Largely based on BackupManagerService.java from AOSP.

Building

Requires Java 11. Handling encrypted backups requires the JCE unlimited strength jurisdiction policy (not needed if using current Java 9 release).

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce-7-download-432124.html

Use one of the tools listed below to build or see Releases for pre-built binaries (runnable jar files).

With Eclipse:

Download the latest version of Bouncy Castle Provider jar (bcprov-jdk15on-*.jar) from here:

Drop the latest Bouncy Castle jar in lib/, import in Eclipse and adjust build path if necessary. Use the abe script to start the utility.

With Maven (requires at least JDK11):

To create a self-executable all-in-one jar: mvn clean package and then:

java -jar target/abe.jar pack|unpack|pack-kk ...

With Ant:

Use the bundled Ant script to create an all-in-one jar and run with: (you still need to put the Bouncy Castle jar in lib/; modify the bcprov.jar property accordingly)

java -jar abe.jar pack|unpack|pack-kk ...

(Thanks to Jan Peter Stotz for contributing the build.xml file)

With Gradle:

Use gradle to create an all-in-one jar: ./gradlew and then:

java -jar build/libs/abe-all.jar pack|unpack|pack-kk ...

Usage

Syntax:

  • unpack: abe unpack <backup.ab> <backup.tar> [password]
  • pack: abe pack <backup.tar> <backup.ab> [password]
  • pack for 4.4: abe pack-kk <backup.tar> <backup.ab> [password] (creates version 2 backups, compatible with Android 4.4.3)

If the filename is -, then data is read from standard input or written to standard output.

If the password is not given on the command line, then the environment variable ABE_PASSWD is tried. If you don't specify a password the backup archive won't be encrypted but only compressed.

Packing tar archives

  • Android is very particular about the order of files in the tar archive. The format is described here.
  • Incompatible tar archives lead to errors or even system crashes.
  • Apps with the allowBackup flag set to false are not backed up nor restored.
    • (you can try restoring manually via adb push and adb shell)
  • Errors are only printed to logcat, look out for BackupManagerService.

The safest way to pack a tar archive is to get the list of files from the original backup.tar file:

tar tf backup.tar | grep -F "com.package.name" > package.list

And then use that list to build the tar file. In the extracted backup directory:

tar cf restore.tar -T package.list

You can now pack restore.tar and try adb restore restore.ab

Releases

Releases are built with Travis CI from the master branch and include a runnable fat jar.

Use the binaries at your own risk. No warranty or support provided.

Please report only bugs in backup extractor itself, I can't answer questions regrading unpacking/repacking backups or tar files. (See Usage for a mini usage guide.)

Build Status

Notes

More details about the backup format and the tool implementation in the associated blog post.