[HowTo] Get all your paid apps to your Sailfish Android Support directly from Google Play, without the use of 3rd party stores and without installing gapps

asked 2019-07-18 16:12:07 +0200

kostas12ldb gravatar image

OK, so there is a way to get all your paid apps directly from Google (official/original APK), without the need to install 3rd party Stores, download "patched" apk versions, or install gapps from unknown sources. This method is useful in case you need to use apps that "handle" your precious personal data (banking, social, browsing etc), and you want to be sure that the apk is indeed pure, and not patched with extra lines of code, or in cases when you do not want to give your Google credentials to any other app in order to do the job for you (like Yalp)... :)

Note that, if you already have an Android device with root access, you go directly to step 5.

To the point.

  1. First, download and install NOX (android emulator) on your PC.
  2. Log-in to Play Store with your credentials (only if you need to get a paid app).
  3. Download and install all the apps you need.
  4. Root the NOX player (very easy procedure, you only have to turn ON a switch and reboot)
  5. Use a file manager (I use Xplore), give root access, and choose to show hidden and system files.
  6. Navigate to folder (root)/data/app/
  7. Here you see lots of folders, each named after the app whose data and apk it holds. For example, the folder for Viber should be /data/app/com.viber.voip/
  8. Now copy the folders of the applications you need to transfer to your Sailfish Android Support, and transfer them to a temporary folder in your Sailfish device.
  9. Onto our Sailfish device now, go on and enable the Developer Mode in order to gain root access and be able to transfer the folders to the android_support root (Settings->Developer Tools->Developer Mode).
  10. Copy the folders retrieved from your android device (in our case, NOX), to the folder /home/.android/data/app/
  11. Now execute the APK, located in each folder, and the app will be installed and ready to be used.

For my case, paid apps worked only when I performed step 10. prior to step 11.

So, now you have all your needed apps in their original version, and untouched by anyone. I couldn't find any similar "walkthrough", so, if this is a repeat, it will be self destructed...

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Comments

1

Hi! Great Work! NOX seems to be a nice solution, but does it work for Linux PC's? Cheers!

ds1979 ( 2019-07-18 18:37:47 +0200 )edit

Nice HowTo. No 3rd party Store but can we trust the NOX Emulator ;-)?

s_mario ( 2019-07-19 00:48:40 +0200 )edit
1

Hi ds1979 & s_mario!

You can actually use any Android phone that you might have in your drawer instead of NOX, given that it is rooted. I mentioned NOX player because it has good feedback and is also mentioned in the xda-developers site, which brings it closer to the "safe side"! :) There is also another way to perform a "fetch" data operation without rooting your android phone, but it doesn't work with all apps. Avoiding root is my next "milestone"! :D

kostas12ldb ( 2019-07-19 15:45:07 +0200 )edit

Great work! Do you know if "split" apk files from the play store can be installed using this method also? Haven't tried one yet..

duhg ( 2019-07-19 22:03:13 +0200 )edit

duhg, good question. I haven't tried that either, none of the apps I use up to now have split apks. The only app I know that has split apks is Skype (if I remember correctly), but I did not even try to install it because voice calls are "broken", at least with the latest Hossa update.

kostas12ldb ( 2019-07-20 00:37:40 +0200 )edit