Extracting .apk files from your Android

There are two ways of extracting .apk files from your device:
Using a file manager like "EStrongs File Manager" or "ASTRO File Manger"
(downloadable from the Market), or
Manually extracting .apk files through the Android SDK.


Method #1 - Using a file manager
Prerequisite: Rooted device

Using ES File Manager
Open ES File Manager
Click on the menu button of your device
Click on "Manager"
Click on "App Manager"
Long press on app you want to extract
Click on "backup"
Extracted .apk files will be placed on the "backups" directory of your sd
card

Using ASTRO
Open ASTRO File Manager
Click on the menu button of your device
Click on "tools"
Click on "Application Manager/Backup"
Choose apps to backup and click on "backup" to finish
Extracted .apk files will be placed on the "backups" directory of your sd
card



Method #2 - Using the Android SDK

Prerequisites:
- Rooted phone
- Android SDK (follow Step 2.1 of this tutorial to install the
Android SDK)
- Android USB driver

To extract a .apk file from your device using the Android SDK:

Plug your "Rooted" Android device into your computer via the included USB
cable.
From your adb command line (usually C:\android-sdk-windows\tools\) type
"adb shell" and press enter
Switch to root user, type "su" and press enter
type "cd data/app" and press enter
List all the installed apk files, type "ls" and press enter (find the one
you want to extract)
In another command window, pull one of the files on to your computer by
typing:
"adb pull /data/app/application.apk name.apk" and press enter
Example:
"adb pull data/app/com.mauri.aplikeishon.apk aplikeishon.apk"

You can find the extracted .apk files in the /tools/ directory of your SDK
(usually C:\android-sdk-windows\tools\)