CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androiddatabasesqliteroot
Luciano Stupenengo
Luciano Stupenengo

Reputation: 183

On Rooted phone read /data/data/****/**.db

I'm making an app that read messages from Whatsapp, Viber, mails, etc. and groups it so you can read all that one person said to you in just one App.

To do this I'm trying to read the *.db files each App has on /data/data directory but have encountered two problems.

Since I'm new to programing for rooted phones I don't know how this works and have not found a good tutorial or any documentation. Do you have any that I could read to understand?

Once I know how to access /data/data with root, how can I read the *.db without making a copy. Many other topics say that I should copy the *.db file to a folder and read it there, but wouldn't it be a lot more simple to just read it from where it is?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2161

Answers (1)

Freyja
Freyja

Reputation: 40904

Apps, regardless of whether the phone is rooted or not, can only ever read files that they themselves own, or that are public (e.g., on a SD card). This is because while the phone may be rooted, the apps themselves do not gain root access.

Instead, on your phone, you have an executable named su lets apps run root commands. However, by default, it refuses to let any app run any root commands. When you root your phone, you replace this executable by a new, modified version that lets approved apps run root commands. It is by using these root commands that you can gain indirect root access to the system.

Now, since you only have indirect root access for your app, you cannot just read any file from the file system. But if you run a root command to copy it to your own, private directory, where you do have permission to read it, your app can directly read it from there.

(Note: you can technically read files without copying them first, by using the su executable, but unless there's a real reason why you can't copy first, and you actually know what you're doing, you probably shouldn't even bother because it's rarely worth the trouble anyways, especially not for sqlite databases.)

For details about how to run root commands with su, see this link (which Gumbo posted in the comments above).

Upvotes: 4

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