Downloading files from an android phone

Author

Shaun Nielsen

Published

July 2, 2024

I had to transfer many files from an SD card in an Android phone. Windows explorer kept crashing, so I sort another method and one that can be do programmatically - the Android Debug Bridge.

Setup Android Debug Bridge

The ADB is tool used for communicating with an Android device from the computer. Default OS command lines cannot interact with an USB attached phone.

I followed this guide

Invoke Developer options
Enable USB debugging
Download ADB tools to the computer
Add to path

$env:PATH += ';C:\Users\Shaun\Downloads\platform-tools-latest-windows\platform-tools;'
$env:PATH

adb executable

adb devices

Shell on the phone

adb shell

Pull - copy files/dirs from device

adb pull 'file/on/device' 'file/on/destination'

Copy files

Device paths

adb shell

jackpotlte:/ $ ls

acct               charger      dev                     init.baseband.rc  init.samsungexynos7885.rc     keydata   omr                    proc           sepolicy         ueventd.samsungexynos7885.rc
atrace.rc          config       efs                     init.carrier.rc   init.samsungexynos7885.usb.rc keyrefuge plat_file_contexts     product        sepolicy_version vendor
audit_filter_table cpefs        etc                     init.container.rc init.usb.configfs.rc          lib       plat_property_contexts publiccert.pem storage          vendor_file_contexts
bin                d            factory                 init.environ.rc   init.usb.rc                   mnt       plat_seapp_contexts    root           sys              vendor_property_contexts
bugreports         data         fstab.samsungexynos7885 init.rc           init.zygote32.rc              odm       plat_service_contexts  sbin           system           vendor_seapp_contexts
cache              default.prop init                    init.rilmptcp.rc  init.zygote64_32.rc           oem       preload                sdcard         ueventd.rc

jackpotlte:/ $ cd storage/
jackpotlte:/storage $ ls

3333-6364 emulated enc_emulated self 

jackpotlte:/storage $ cd 3333-6364/

jackpotlte:/storage/3333-6364 $ ls

Android DCIM LOST.DIR Media\ 20220315 Media\ 20221101 Media\ 20230401 Media\ 20230919 Media\ 20240605 Media20231222 OLYMPUS

jackpotlte:/storage/3333-6364 $ pwd

/storage/3333-6364

jackpotlte:/storage/3333-6364 $ exit

ls()
pwd()
exit

something

$folders = 'DCIM', 'Media 20220315', "Media 20221101", "Media 20230401", "Media 20230919", "Media 20240605", "Media20231222"

$remote = "/storage/3333-6364/" + $folders[0]
$remote
$local = "D:\pictures\to-sort\" + $folders[0]
$local

## /storage/3333-6364/DCIM
## D:\pictures\to-sort\DCIM

adb pull $remote $local

PS C:\Users\shaun\Documents\adb-copy> adb pull $remote $local
[ xx%] /storage/3333-6364/../../.mp4: x% 
/storage/3333-6364/../: 3942 files pulled, 0 skipped. 17.8 MB/s (3113465513 bytes in 166.649s)

A for loop

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