Is there a way to get the source code from an APK file?

Question

The hard drive on my laptop just crashed and I lost all the source code for an app that I have been working on for the past two months. All I have is the APK file that is st

Answer 1

Apktool for reverse engineering 3rd party, closed, binary Android apps.

It can decode resources to nearly original form and rebuild them after making some modifications.

It makes possible to debug smali code step by step. Also it makes working with an app easier because of project-like file structure and automation of some repetitive tasks like building apk, etc.

http://ibotpeaches.github.io/Apktool/

Answer 2

The simplest way is using Apk OneClick Decompiler. That is a tool package to decompile & disassemble APKs (android packages).

FEATURES

• All features are integrated into the right-click menu of Windows.
• Decompile APK classes to Java source codes.
• Disassemble APK to smali code and decode its resources.
• Install APK to phone by right-click.
• Recompile APK after editing smali code and/or resources. During recompile:
• Optimize png images
• Sign apks
• Zipalign

REQUIREMENTS

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) must be installed.

You can download it from this link Apk OneClick Decompiler

Enjoy that.

Answer 3

Simple way: use online tool http://www.javadecompilers.com/apk, upload apk and get source code.

---

Procedure for decoding .apk files, step-by-step method:

Step 1:

1. Make a new folder and copy over the .apk file that you want to decode.

2. Now rename the extension of this .apk file to .zip (e.g. rename from filename.apk to filename.zip) and save it. Now you can access the classes.dex files, etc. At this stage you are able to see drawables but not xml and java files, so continue.

Step 2:

1. Now extract this .zip file in the same folder (or NEW FOLDER).

2. Download dex2jar and extract it to the same folder (or NEW FOLDER).

3. Move the classes.dex file into the dex2jar folder.

4. Now open command prompt and change directory to that folder (or NEW FOLDER). Then write d2j-dex2jar classes.dex (for mac terminal or ubuntu write ./d2j-dex2jar.sh classes.dex) and press enter. You now have the classes.dex.dex2jar file in the same folder.

5. Download java decompiler, double click on jd-gui, click on open file, and open classes.dex.dex2jar file from that folder: now you get class files.

6. Save all of these class files (In jd-gui, click File -> Save All Sources) by src name. At this stage you get the java source but the .xml files are still unreadable, so continue.

Step 3:

Now open another new folder

1. Put in the .apk file which you want to decode

2. Download the latest version of apktool AND apktool install window (both can be downloaded from the same link) and place them in the same folder

3. Open a command window

4. Now run command like apktool if framework-res.apk (if you don't have it get it here)and next

5. apktool d myApp.apk (where myApp.apk denotes the filename that you want to decode)

now you get a file folder in that folder and can easily read the apk's xml files.

Step 4:

It's not any step, just copy contents of both folders(in this case, both new folders) to the single one

and enjoy the source code...

Answer 4

apktool is THE way to go. Online apktool service exists as well: http://www.javadecompilers.com/apktool

Some limitations, obviously, exist due to the service ‘online nature’: you may extract and research assets and the manifest file, but it is impossible to recompile the application at the moment.

Still, this is a no-hassle way to 'open' the android application.

Answer 5

These two articles describe how to combine the use of apktool and dex2jar to take an APK file and create an Eclipse project that can build and run it.

http://blog.inyourbits.com/2012/11/extending-existing-android-applications.html

http://blog.inyourbits.com/2012/12/extending-existing-android-applications.html

Basically you:

1. Use apktool to get the resource files out of the apk
2. Use dex2jar to get a jar file that contains the classes in a format that Eclipse will like.
3. Create an Eclipse project point it at the resource files and the new jar file
4. Open the jar file with a zip utility and delete the existing resources
5. Open the jar file with JDGui to view the source code
6. Take whatever source code you need from JDGui, stick it in a class inside Eclipse and modify it
7. Delete that class from the jar file (so you don't have the same class defined multiple times)
8. Run it.

Answer 6

I personally recommend Show Java Android App to get the source code. You can download it from play store or from here