How to access data/data folder in Android device? (2024)

Introduction

Mobile devices have now become a large part of our daily lives. We can use these mobile devices to gain information to communicate with the rest of the world and perform our day to day tasks. While performing so many day to day tasks on our mobile devices we use so many applications and we come across a lot of data within our applications. Either we store our data inside our mobile applications or we provide data to the applications. Most of the applications store the data inside the data/data folder or an android device. The data/data folder within the android device stores all the data which is present inside that application. This folder is difficult to access from our mobile device. This folder is being protected by the android device and cannot be accessed easily. In this article we will take a look on How to access this data/data folder of our Android Device.

Step by Step Implementation

As we have already discussed, the data/data folder is not easily visible in our android device and we cannot view this directory from our mobile device due to android security. To navigate to this directory we have to follow the below step by step guide to navigate to that directory.

Enabling Developer Options on your mobile device

Each android is having a different process with which we can enable developer options for your mobile device. This process of enabling the developer options on your phone depends on your phone manufacturer. In most of the cases to enable developer options on your phone. We have to simply navigate to the About Phone section and inside that you have to tap 3 to 4 times on the phone's build number. It will display a toast message once the developer options have been enabled. It will also display a toast message as Developer options have been enabled on your device. If you are already enabled developer options then it will display a toast message as you have already enabled developer options on your device.

Enabling USB Debugging on your device

Once you have enabled Developer options on your mobile device, now it's time to enable USB debugging on your mobile device so we can access the data/data folder on our machine. For enabling the USB Debugging option we have to simply navigate to Developer options. We can find Developer Options settings in our Settings option. Inside that we have to simply scroll down and we will get to see the USB Debugging option. Simply enable USB Debugging for your Device. This will allow us permission to access the data/data folder from our computer.

Connecting our mobile device with the computer

Now as we have enabled developer options on our mobile we have to now connect our device to our computer via an USB cable to view the data/data folder of our device.

Opening Android Studio

Once you have connected your device to the computer via an USB cable. Now we have to simply launch our android studio and open any existing project inside our Android studio so that we can navigate to the main window of our Android Studio.

Navigating data/data folder

Once you have launched a project in Android Studio. Now to view the data/data folder. We can get to see a Device File Explorer option in the bottom right corner of Android studio. We have to simply tap on that icon to open the Device File Explorer. Inside that we will get to see different files with folder structure present on our android device.

Inside this window on top we will get to see an option to choose our emulator. From that window we have to choose our mobile device which is connected via USB cable. Then inside the Device File Explorer Window we will get to see the data directory. Inside that data directory we will get to see one more data directory. Inside this directory we will get to see multiple folders named on applications package names. This folder contains data for each of the applications which are currently installed on the mobile device.

From this device file explorer we can edit, update or delete the files present in the file explorer. It is important to be careful while modifying the content inside this folder. It might cause problems with your device.

conclusion

If you are trying to access the data/data folder on an Android device, the steps outlined in this article should help you do so. It is important to remember to enable the “USB Debugging” option in the Developer Options menu before attempting to access the data/data folder. Once the folder is open, you can browse its contents and modify the files and folders as needed. Just be sure to be careful when making changes to the folder, as this could cause problems with the device.