Given the package name of an Android app on the device, trigger a backup via ADB and then extract the resulting backup file into the current directory. Useful for debuging sql databases in the app.

dump_appdata.sh

#!/bin/bash
# @author npike@phunware.com
# 
# 1. Download script and store somewhere that makes you happy. Perhaps ~/Downloads on a Mac
# 2. From a terminal:   chmod +x dump_appdata.sh
# 3. From a terminal:   ./dump_appdata.sh com.my.app
# 4. Click "Back up my data" on connected device
# 5. Wait for backup and extraction to complete.  An "app" folder will be written in the same directory
#    of where this script is saved.
#
# If you have more than one device connected, you can specify a 2nd argument that is the device
# serial from "adb devices"

if [ "$#" -lt 1 ]; then
    echo "dump_app.sh app_package [target_device_serial]"
    exit 1
fi

APP_PACKAGE=$1
BACKUP_FILE=$APP_PACKAGE.adb_dump
DEVICE_TARGET=""

if [ $# -eq 2 ]; then
	DEVICE_TARGET="-s $2"
	echo "Will connect to device with serial $2 instead of auto."
fi


echo "Dumping app with package name of $1"

if [ -e ${BACKUP_FILE} ]; then
	echo "Cleaning up existing backup file $BACKUP_FILE"
	rm $BACKUP_FILE
fi

adb $DEVICE_TARGET backup -f ${BACKUP_FILE} -noapk $APP_PACKAGE

# Do not proceed if ADB couldn't initiate the backup on the device
if [[ $? != 0 ]] ; then
    exit $?
fi

echo "Waiting for backup to finish...."

while :
do
	lsof | grep ${BACKUP_FILE}
	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
		sleep 2
		echo "."
	else 
		break
	fi
done

echo "Backup finished... extracting..."

if [ -e ${BACKUP_FILE} ]; then
	dd if=${BACKUP_FILE} bs=1 skip=24 | openssl zlib -d | tar -xvf -
fi

echo "Finished."