These apks are usually located in secure folder of sdcard /mnt/sdcard/asec.Īnther way to force the install location to sdcard is using the command adb install -s apk-to-install.apk.Īs a note, the files for pre-installed app are not in a single. If the apk enable its install location in sdcard with android:installLocation='auto' in its manifest, the app can be moved to sdcard from system's app manager menu. You can find them under the directory /data/app for a rooted device. These apks are usually installed from marketplace by users or by adb install without -s option. Most of the apks fall into this category. Those are usually shipped in device by manufacture, including core app for system running and google service, you can find them under directory /system/app and /system/priv-app. There are three places for the system to keep the apks based on the different types of apks:

Of course the system have to store all apks somewhere. We could get these information from debug output like following. After that, the tool will use the pm command to install, it will delete the temporary apk in /data/local/tmp/ after the successful installation.

When we install the apk from debug tool, directly invoke adb install or from eclipse/android studio, the apk will be transferred ( adb push) to a public read and writable directory, usually /data/local/tmp/.

Install from development/debug tool (adb, eclipse, android studio) Other third-party marketplaces might have the different behaviors. Google play doesn't keep the apk after the installation. It's the behavior of marketplace whether to keep the apk after installation.

Apk download from play store