How to Use ADB Grant and Revoke Commands

How to Use ADB Grant and Revoke Commands

30 November 2024 Stephan Petzl Leave a comment Tech-Help

Managing app permissions on Android devices can be a crucial aspect of ensuring your applications run smoothly while maintaining security. One of the powerful tools at your disposal is the Android Debug Bridge (ADB), which allows you to grant or revoke permissions programmatically. This guide aims to simplify the usage of adb grant and adb revoke commands with practical examples.

Understanding ADB Grant and Revoke

The adb grant and adb revoke commands are used to modify the permissions of Android applications. These commands are particularly useful when testing applications under different permission settings without manually navigating through the device’s settings.

Basic Syntax

  • Grant Permission: adb shell pm grant <em>package_name</em> <em>permission_name</em>
  • Revoke Permission: adb shell pm revoke <em>package_name</em> <em>permission_name</em>

Practical Example

Suppose you want to grant the READ_PROFILE permission to your app. The command would look like this:

adb shell pm grant com.example.app android.permission.READ_PROFILE

To revoke the same permission:

adb shell pm revoke com.example.app android.permission.READ_PROFILE

Steps to List and Pull Package Permissions

  1. List all packages: adb shell pm list packages -f
  2. Pull the package to your computer: adb pull /path/to/package/from/previous/step.apk
  3. Get permissions using aapt: aapt d permissions path/to/app/on/computer.apk

Advanced Tip: Resetting Permissions

If you need to reset all permissions on your device, you can use:

adb shell pm reset-permissions

Warning: This command resets runtime permissions for all apps on your device, not just a specific package.

Integrating with Repeato

Automating permission management can significantly streamline your testing process. Repeato, our no-code test automation tool for iOS and Android, can further simplify this by allowing you to execute ADB commands through script steps. This feature is particularly beneficial for efficiently testing different permission scenarios by timing and sequencing ADB commands, enhancing your testing workflow.

For more information on setting up and using ADB commands, you can explore our detailed guides on granting app permissions using ADB and querying device state via ADB shell command.

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