• PSA: How to archive your EXACT homescreen(s) apps to Windows for perfect cross-platform backup/restore sans the net

    From Maria Sophia@mariasophia@comprehension.com to comp.mobile.android,alt.comp.microsoft.windows,alt.comp.os.windows-10 on Fri Aug 14 09:57:21 2026
    From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-10

    PSA: How to get a homescreen-organized list of APKs to backup/restore
    sans root to/from a PC (by package name & folder)
    over LAN Wi-Fi or USB
    for any number of Android homescreen(s)
    sans the Internet nor any need for a mothership account

    It should be almost trivial to archive/restore our EXACT homescreen(s) apps
    to the desktop PC for perfect cross-platform backup/restore sans the net.

    I don't have this solved yet, but it seems very easily solved, does it not?
    a. You list all the homescreens
    b. Then you list all the folders on those homescreens
    c. Then you list of the shortcuts in those folders
    d. Then you find the package name of each of those shortcuts
    e. Then you create a duplicate hierarchy on your desktop PC
    f. And finally, you copy the APKs from the phone to the PC
    g. For later restoral, which is an even easier process now
    Resulting in a perfect exact (same versions!) copy of the old to the new.

    It seems easy to do even as I haven't done it yet via pure auotmation.
    Have you?

    The two most obvious backup/restore methods I can think of offhand, are:
    1. Some app launchers keep an SQL list of all apps on the homescreen(s)
    2. But ADB should be able to find all apps on the homescreen(s) anyway

    Before I solve this problem everyone needs solved, do you *already*
    have a solution to backing up to the PC all your APKs in the same
    organization that they're on your homescreen(s) (for easy restore)?
    --
    I very often solve problems that only one out of a million people can do.
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