AAB to APK

The Google Play store now expects AAB bundle files for app submissions. Sometimes you still need APK files to do manual Android installations.
Here’s how you can extract APK files from the AAB files:
Start by downloading the latest Bundle Tool release from Github.
Go to the folder where you downloaded the tool, hold down shift and right click in order to open the command window directly to that location.
In order to open jar files we need to start by typing java-jar followed by the path to the bundle tool file. You can copy paste the path if you shift right click on the jar file and choose “copy as path”.
Next type in the build-apks command followed by –bundle= and the path to your aab file.

Then we’ll define the output path. In this case we’ll just place it in the same folder as the original file but modify the file name.
Now we need to link to the keystore file that handles the signing of our app.
Finally we’ll provide the key alias and hit enter. It will ask us for the password which we will type in and hit enter.

It takes a moment and after that we will see our apks file in the output folder. We can now unzip the apks file to get to the indivual apk files.
Thanks for watching and see you next time on OneMinuteVideoTutorials.com.

Here’s an example of the finished cmd-code:

C:\Users\antti>java -jar "F:\Google Drive\Drive root\FIRMA\projIltasatujaLapsill
 eApp\finals\example\bundletool-all-0.10.2 (1).jar" build-apks --bundle="F:\Googl
 e Drive\Drive root\FIRMA\projIltasatujaLapsilleApp\finals\example\b015.aab" --ou
 tput="F:\Google Drive\Drive root\FIRMA\projIltasatujaLapsilleApp\finals\example\
 extractedapks.apks" --ks="F:\Google Drive\Drive root\FIRMA\projIltasatujaLapsill
 eApp\info\user.keystore" --ks-key-alias=iltasatu

NOTE: If you are doing the process above just because you want to test your app before releasing it in the Play store, there is an easier process available to you:

Use the “internal test track” feature of you Google Play Developer Console and click on the “manage testers” button. From there you can add your Google account as an internal tester which will let you install your app from the Play store even if it’s not yet rolled out publicly.

One Reply to “AAB to APK”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *