Get list of all installed apps

Question

I would like to get a list of all installed apps(NSArray). My app is a jailbreak app and is located in/Applications so Sandbox is no problem there. Is there any way to get a list of app store apps? I've already seen this in other apps (Activator, SBSettings...). I have no idea how to do this, because all of the apps sandboxes have that huge code, so i don't know how it would be possible to access the .app folder inside the sandbox.

Solution 1

You can use this code snippet:

 #import "InstalledAppReader.h"

static NSString* const installedAppListPath = @"/private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist";

@interface InstalledAppReader()

-(NSArray *)installedApp;
-(NSMutableDictionary *)appDescriptionFromDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary;

@end


@implementation InstalledAppReader

#pragma mark - Init
-(NSMutableArray *)desktopAppsFromDictionary:(NSDictionary *)dictionary
{
    NSMutableArray *desktopApps = [NSMutableArray array];

    for (NSString *appKey in dictionary)
    {
        [desktopApps addObject:appKey];
    }
    return desktopApps;
}

-(NSArray *)installedApp
{    
    BOOL isDir = NO;
    if([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath: installedAppListPath isDirectory: &isDir] && !isDir) 
    {
        NSMutableDictionary *cacheDict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile: installedAppListPath];
        NSDictionary *system = [cacheDict objectForKey: @"System"];
        NSMutableArray *installedApp = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[self desktopAppsFromDictionary:system]];

        NSDictionary *user = [cacheDict objectForKey: @"User"]; 
        [installedApp addObjectsFromArray:[self desktopAppsFromDictionary:user]];

        return installedApp;
    }

    DLOG(@"can not find installed app plist");
    return nil;
}

@end

Solution 2

On jailbroken iPhones, you can just read the /Applications folder. All installed applications go there. Just list the directories in /Applications using NSFileManager:

NSArray *appFolderContents = [[NSFileManager defaultManager] directoryContentsAtPath:@"/Applications"];

Solution 3

After some research I have found a framework called iHasApp. Here is a good solution to return a dictionary with app name, identifier and icon: Finding out what Apps are installed

Solution 4

There's also the AppList library, which will do all of the dirty work for you: rpetrich/AppList It's used in a lot of Jailbreak tweaks, so I don't know why it wasn't suggested here before.

One way to get just AppStore apps would be to check the value of isSystemApplication for each app returned in the list. Those with the value set to NO are regular AppStore apps. There's also a function applicationsFilteredUsingPredicate:predicate, so perhaps it would even be possible to filter the list beforehand.

View more solutions

Comments

[JonasG]

That reads only the pre installed apps and the cydia apps, im talking about the app store apps.

[Björn Marschollek]

Try the mobile user's applications folder then: /private/var/mobile/Applications

[rajomato]

Is this unsing a private API?

[Igor]

This is not a private API, but we get access to private folder. Apple will reject your app. Use this code only for jailbroken iPhone.

[maddysan]

@Fedorchuk, how can i get this installed application list from normal iOS devices i mean without jailbroken iPhones, plz help me to do this.

[Igor]

without jailbroken iPhones you can not do this.

[Pushkraj Lanjekar]

@BjörnMarschollek : Thanks you so much. I helped me a lot.

[Funny]

why does it always returns "can not find installed app plist"

[Gdogg]

The original answer doesn't work in iOS 8 (that plist is missing) so this answer is the best so far.

[Gdogg]

@Funny: You were probably trying on iOS 8. This only works on previous versions, as that plist doesn't exist anymore.

[Saurabh Jain]

any other method for greater than iOS 8 version