[Q] Modifying an existing apk

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I had posted this in another forum but did not get any reply. Its a noob question so please bear with me. I wanted to know how to go about modifying an existing apk file. Below is what I am doing.

1. Copied the .apk file to my computer
2. Used apk_manager to decompile the apk
3. Made a small change in one of the xml files
4. Used apk_manager to recompile the apk and the sign it
5. Sideload it using the Sideload Wonder Machine

I am not able to sideload the app. Do I need to uninstall the existing app before sideloading its modified version? Or just giving it a new name would work? Thanks.

-mm

Originally Posted by mm1983

I had posted this in another forum but did not get any reply. Its a noob question so please bear with me. I wanted to know how to go about modifying an existing apk file. Below is what I am doing.

1. Copied the .apk file to my computer
2. Used apk_manager to decompile the apk
3. Made a small change in one of the xml files
4. Used apk_manager to recompile the apk and the sign it
5. Sideload it using the Sideload Wonder Machine

I am not able to sideload the app. Do I need to uninstall the existing app before sideloading its modified version? Or just giving it a new name would work? Thanks.

-mm

Try using adb instead of Sideload Wonder Machine. just CD your android sdk tools folder and type
"adb install ~path to file"

or on mac

"./adb install ~path to file"

Thanks. I tried it, below is the output:
* daemon not running. starting it now *
* daemon started successfully *
1172 KB/s (464719 bytes in 0.387s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/GMMM.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS]

I guess this means I need to uninstall the existing application. The app I am trying to tweak is Gallery3D.apk. I made the change and remamed it GMMM.apk. The original app also had an .odex file which I did not touch.