Generate Apk file from aab file (android app bundle)
AndroidAndroid StudioApkAndroid App-BundleAndroid Problem Overview
Is there any way to generate an apk file from android app Bundle via terminal or using android studio?
Android Solutions
Solution 1 - Android
So far nobody has provided the solution to get the APK from an AAB.
This solution will generate a universal binary as an apk.
-
Add
--mode=universal
to yourbundletool
command (if you need a signed app, use the --ks parameters as required).bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks --mode=universal
-
MAIN STEP: Change the output file name from
.apks
to.zip
-
Unzip and explore
-
The file
universal.apk
is your app
This universal binary will likely be quite big but is a great solution for sending to the QA department or distributing the App anywhere other than the Google Play store.
Solution 2 - Android
> By default, the IDE does not use app bundles to deploy your app to a > local device for testing
Refer bundletool command
For Debug apk command,
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
For Release apk command,
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
Edit:
I have been using following commands while testing my release build for aab(I hope it helps others too):
-
Download
bundletool
jar file from Github Repository (Latest release > Assets > bundletool-all-version.jar file). Rename that file tobundletool.jar
-
Generate your aab file from Android Studio eg: myapp-release.aab
-
Run following command:
java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" build-apks --bundle=myapp-release.aab --output=myapp.apks --ks="/path/to/myapp-release.keystore" --ks-pass=pass:myapp-keystore-pass --ks-key-alias=myapp-alias --key-pass=pass:myapp-alias-pass
-
myapp.apks
file will be generated -
Make sure your device is connected to your machine
-
Now run following command to install it on your device:
java -jar "path/to/bundletool.jar" install-apks --apks=myapp.apks
Edit 2:
If you need to extract a single .apk
file from the .aab
file, you can add a extra param --mode=universal
to the bundletool
command:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks \
--mode=universal \
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks \
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd \
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias \
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
and execute
unzip -p /MyApp/my_app.apks universal.apk > /MyApp/my_app.apk
this will generate a single a /MyApp/my_app.apk
file that can be shared an installed by any device app installer
Solution 3 - Android
Ok here is the complete way I had to do:
-
Download
bundletool-all-0.10.3.jar
from this link, download the latest version available -
Create an app bundle using android studio and locate its path:
In my case its
E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab
-
Copy the bundletools jar to some location and get its path
In my case its E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar
Use this command:
java -jar "BUNDLE_TOOL_JAR_PATH" build-apks --bundle="BUNDLE_PATH" --output=YOUR_OUTPUT_NAME.apks
In my case it will be
java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" build-apks \
--bundle="E:\Projects\Android\Temp\app\build\outputs\bundle\debug\app.aab" \
--output=out_bundle_archive_set.apks
4. This will create a file out_bundle_archive_set.apks
, rename it to .zip out_bundle_archive_set.zip
, extract this file and done You will have multiple apk files
To install directly on external device use :
java -jar "E:\Temp\bundletool-all-0.6.0.jar" install-apks --apks=out_bundle_archive_set.apks
Check this blog post for more info . also check out official site
Solution 4 - Android
People have already explained on how to do this with the command-line. For completion, I thought I'd also show the way to do it via the UI in Android Studio.
When you open your "Run/Debug Configurations", you can select "APK from app bundle" (instead of "Default APK").
See screenshot:
Solution 5 - Android
>Refer Geek Dashboard for more info.
For those who are looking to generate a single universal APK file from your Android App Bundle, you must use --universal
flag while running the build-apks
command.
java -jar bundletool.jar build-apks --bundle=your_app.aab --output=your_app.apks --mode=universal
Where bundletool.jar is the bundletool jar file you downloaded here
your_app.aab is the Android App Bundle of your App
your_app.apks is the output APKs Archive File that will be generated once you run the command.
While running the above command make sure you place bundletool.jar and your AAB file in the same folder.
Now, you need to change the your_app.apks file format to your_app.zip and extract it to find the universal.apk file
Note: Use –overwrite
flag to overwrite the APKs file if there is already one with the same name. Otherwise, bundletool
command will throw you a fatal error.
Solution 6 - Android
on mac it can be easily done using homebrew
brew install bundletool
you can use the command below to generate apks
bundletool build-apks --bundle=aab_path.aab --output=release.apks
above command generates apks file which can later be extracted to give various apk files. To see all generated files change the extension from .apks to .zip and just extract the files.
then you can install apk using this command on connected device
bundletool install-apks --apks=release.apks
Solution 7 - Android
There's a tool called bundletool
, which can create APK's out of your AAB file:
Find details about this tool here: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/bundletool
But here some highlights taken from that site:
Building APKs
When bundletool generates APKs from your app bundle, it includes them in a container called an APK set archive, which uses the .apks file extension. To generate an APK set for all device configurations your app supports from your app bundle, use the bundletool build-apks command, as shown below:
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Note that the command above creates an APK set of unsigned APKs. If you want to deploy the APKs to a device, you need to also include your app’s signing information, as shown in the command below.
bundletool build-apks --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
--ks=/MyApp/keystore.jks
--ks-pass=file:/MyApp/keystore.pwd
--ks-key-alias=MyKeyAlias
--key-pass=file:/MyApp/key.pwd
Installing APKs
bundletool install-apks --apks=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Generate a device-specific set of APKs
bundletool build-apks --connected-device --bundle=/MyApp/my_app.aab --output=/MyApp/my_app.apks
Solution 8 - Android
I have developed a windows tool for converting .aab files to .apk in Python.
It supports creating both debug and signed apk which can be directly installed to default android device connected through USB.
It uses google’s bundle tool in the backend.
https://aabtoapkconverter.com/
Edit: The Source code is now available now on github.
This is first tool that I have developed and shared with the world. Hope it is useful. I am open to suggestions and bug reports.
Solution 9 - Android
Here is what i did. First thing is, i am on a Mac. So in this official guide https://reactnative.dev/docs/signed-apk-android, followed below steps.
- Run this command
sudo keytool -genkey -v -keystore my-upload-key.keystore -alias my-key-alias -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000
you can change the name of my-upload-key to your choice - Setup the gradle variables as per the guide
- Also do the same as per the guide for point "Adding signing config to your app's Gradle config"
- Now rather than continuing (which will generate an AAB file) what you can do is below.
4.1 I open the same project(android folder) in Android Studio
4.2 From the Menu Options > Build > Clean Project
4.3 Click on the Make Project button and let it complete (if you can run using npm run android
, then this should finish without any issues)
Make Project
4.4 Once done, click on Menu options > Build > Generate Signed Bundle/APK...
Generate Signed Bundle/APK...
4.5 In the next Screen Choose APK radio button and Click Next Choose APK option
4.6 In the next screen, Browse to the keystore file which you generated as the first step, its password, alias name and its password, click Next. Final Step
Wait for it to complete. You may see some errors but more importantly in the end you should get a popup in the right bottom corner saying "Locate". Click on that and you will find your app-release.apk.
Good luck