How to view AndroidManifest.xml from APK file?

android xml apk android-manifest aapt
bharath picture bharath · Nov 16, 2010 · Viewed 323.8k times · Source

Is it possible to view Androidmanifest.xml file?

I just changed the extension of the apk file to zip. This zip file contains the Androidmanifest.xml file. But I am unable view the contents of Androidmanifest.xml. It is fully encrypted.

How can I view the Androidmanifest.xml file?

Answer

Vikas Patidar picture Vikas Patidar · Nov 16, 2010

Yes you can view XML files of an Android APK file. There is a tool for this: android-apktool

It is a tool for reverse engineering 3rd party, closed, binary Android apps

How to do this on your Windows System:

  1. Download apktool-install-windows-* file
  2. Download apktool-* file
  3. Unpack both to your Windows directory

Now copy the APK file also in that directory and run the following command in your command prompt:

apktool d HelloWorld.apk ./HelloWorld

This will create a directory "HelloWorld" in your current directory. Inside it you can find the AndroidManifest.xml file in decrypted format, and you can also find other XML files inside the "HelloWorld/res/layout" directory.

Here HelloWorld.apk is your Android APK file.

See the below screen shot for more information: alt text

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