Android: adb: Permission Denied

Question

Whatever I type after adb shell it fails with Permission denied:

D:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb shell find /data -name *.db
find: permission denied
D:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb shell test
test: permission denied
D:\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools>adb remount
remount failed: No such file or directory

Any ideas?

Solution 1

According to adb help:

adb root                     - restarts the adbd daemon with root permissions

Which indeed resolved the issue for me.

Solution 2

Without rooting: If you can't root your phone, use the run-as <package> command to be able to access data of your application.

Example:

$ adb exec-out run-as com.yourcompany.app ls -R /data/data/com.yourcompany.app/

exec-out executes the command without starting a shell and mangling the output.

Solution 3

The reason for "permission denied" is because your Android machine has not been correctly rooted. Did you see $ after you started adb shell? If you correctly rooted your machine, you would have seen # instead.

If you see the $, try entering Super User mode by typing su. If Root is enabled, you will see the # - without asking for password.

Solution 4

You might need to activate adb root from the developer settings menu. If you run adb root from the cmd line you can get:

root access is disabled by system setting - enable in settings -> development options

Once you activate the root option (ADB only or Apps and ADB) adb will restart and you will be able to use root from the cmd line.

Solution 5

None of the previous solutions worked for me but I was able to make it work using this command

adb shell "run-as com.yourcompany.app cat /data/data/com.yourcompany.app/shared_prefs/SHARED_PREF_PROTECTED.xml" > SHARED_PREF_PROTECTED.xml

View more solutions

Comments

[Vamsi]

Where are you trying to run the adb shell, in emulator or target device; if on target device you cant access the /data folder until unless you have root permission.

[d.popov]

after adb root >> adbd cannot run as root in production builds what to do?

[Caner]

I guess you need a rooted phone to be able to run that

[d.popov]

yes, I know. But, as you see currently I do not have the reputation to comment the Author's post, but i had this problem, so the only way was to add new post, or to open duplicate thread, so I decided to add a post.

[d.popov]

the phone is was rooted, but something went wrong with the OS. It was freezing after loading the home screen on reboot. Anyway - nandroid flashing the phone with the stock ROM solved the problem.

[Caner]

adb remount gives: remount failed: No such file or directory

[Paul Whittaker]

You'll also need to enable root access for adb if you haven't done so already -- see @Macarse's answer.

[Paul Whittaker]

If you can't see the 'Developer options' item in your Settings menu, see this answer for details of how to make it visible. (In short: Settings > About phone > Build number > Tap 7 times(!).)

[Paul Whittaker]

Once you have correctly rooted your machine, you will need to have enabled adb root access and be running adb in root mode before your su step can work - see @Macarse's and @Roman's answers.

[JohnyTex]

But once in, I don't see anything here! What should it say?

[Chris Stratton]

This option does not exist in stock Android builds - if it exists at all, it would be confined to someone's aftermarket ROM.

[Chris Stratton]

No. This has nothing to do with the problem.

[Chris Stratton]

No. The reason for "permission denied" is that there is no find command.

[Fabian Zeindl]

This is not true. You just have to switch to the correct user. See my answer below: stackoverflow.com/a/38292436/342947

[Jeroen]

Is there a way to do this without a GUI? I would guess there is an option for it in /system/build.prop, but I can't find it.

[Divyanshu Kushwaha]

@ChrisStratton You saved my life, I was also writting shell command from inside the adb shell already

[Chris Stratton]

This only works for apps built to be debuggable - ie, you can use it for apps you are developing but it should not work for production releases of your app, or anyone else's apps.

[Chris Stratton]

No. The question concerns a refusal from Android, not from Windows.

[martinkunev]

Where do I find the menu to look for settings?

[Tom M]

This returns run-as: Could not set capabilities: Operation not permitted for me

[Pete Alvin]

I'm trying to see files in the Android simulator. I type 'su' after the '$' and it says: su: not found

[ultraon]

It works for emulator API 29, and don't forget to put .debug prefix to the end of app's package for debug apps:

[Andrew Koster]

Nothing in the question mentions a rooted device. Why does this answer require the device to be rooted?

[raw]

This is great, however for binary files such as images or localDBs, the encoding seems to change. How would one copy binary files to windows?