This is a popular way to install Android Apps locally without the Google Play Store. With the ADB files (Android Debug Bridge) from the Android SDK, you can install APK (Android Package) files directly to your phone from your computer via a USB connection. This is handy when the Android Market or a wireless network is unavailable. Another option is to simply copy the APK to your SD card after having installed an “App Installer” type application.
Firstly ensure that drivers for your phone are installed correctly and that your device is recognised when you connect it via USB to your computer. The required drivers either came with your phone on a pre-installed SD card, or available on your phone manufacturer’s support website.
Now you’ll need to download the ADB file set, for those that don’t require the full SDK, I’ve provided a minimalist file set in a compressed archive below. Otherwise you can download the full SDK from the Android Developer website by following these steps from the official site.
Extract the archived files from adb.rar to a suitable directory, I recommend: “C:\Android\adb”. Then add that directory as a path under your environment variables. To do that, Windows 7 users follow the steps below:
Click on the Start Menu.
Right-click Computer.
Select Properties.
Select Advanced System Settings
Find the Path variable in the box in the lower half of the window and select Edit.
Add the appropriate variable, in this case “C:\Android\adb”. Make sure you use semi-colons before and after a path to terminate the string.
Now if you start a command prompt and type “ADB” from any directory you should be greeted with a slew of help text titled under “Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.26”.
Now you need to allow your computer to have access to your phone.
For my device it is found here:
For my device it is found here:
Settings => Applications => Development => USB debugging
Check the tick box.
For specific instructions check out your phone manufacturer’s website or type “USB debugging <Phone manufacturer and model number>” in your favourite Internet search engine.
Plug in your phone to the USB port and ensure it is detected.
Check Device Manager for at least the following three devices (Names vary slightly according to your phone type).
My preferred and fast method of running device manager is pulling up a command promt (WINKEY + R) and typing “devmgmt.msc”.
If it’s not there, try unplugging your phone from the USB port and plugging it in again. If that doesn’t work, restart windows without your phone attached and try again. If it still doesn’t work restart your phone unplugged from the USB port and reconnect it.
Start a command prompt by typing (WINKEY + R) and “cmd”.
Since you’ve inserted the ADB folder into your PATH environment variable, “adb” can be run anywhere in the system.
Type adb devices, this will start the adb server and will display your attached device. If you don’t see something similar to what is shown below, go back to step 5, and try rebooting your phone.
Now you’re all set to install APKs directly to your phone!
Navigate to your APK folder by typing “cd <directory>”.
Type “adb install –r <apk filename>”.
For example:
To make things easier, put the APK on your desktop, then type “cd desktop” from your initial Command-line.
Then type “adb install –r <apk filename>”.
Note you don’t have to type the full file name, just type the first few distinguishing characters then press the TAB key. So below I typed “Apps_” then pressed TAB to auto-complete. Just make sure you check to make sure the filename is correct, it can be less convenient to do this when you have hundreds of APK files in the same directory with possibly similar names.
In the case below I installed the Apps Installer APK (which can be downloaded here) to my device. The “-r” switch just tells adb.exe to reinstall it over an existing version.
I haven’t found too many of these, as most just direct you to the Android Market or use the barcode scanner.
But this one site I have found is exceptional and has many (but unfortunately not all) market applications as an APK download.
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