Any tips to install multiple apps at once?

1

Hi there,

I’ve been using F-Droid for many years now and last year it became my main store when I bought a FP3 and installed LineageOS on it (I also installed AuroraStore to install a couple non-foss apps). I want to reset my phone and re-install all apps and I’m wondering if there is anything I can do to make the process more automated.

I could be interested in making a custom fork of LineageOS and pre-install apps in it however if I understand correctly then those apps won’t be managed by F-Droid and won’t get updates.

Same if I reset my phone and then use ADB to manually install the wanted APKs, they won’t be managed by F-Droid.

The ideal solution would be some sort of in-app import / export however looks like this is not implemented : [Feature Request] Add option to import/export list of installed apps (#1484) · Issues · F-Droid / Client · GitLab. Well at least this helped me find the export options which are bound to be useful.

Any chance I can send orders to F-Droid through ADB to install apps ? That way I could setup my phone, plug it to the computer, run a script and come back later to find all apps installed. Or maybe give F-Droid ownership of APKs installed through ADB ?

For LineageOS I heard I might be able to use something called SeedVault in future versions (I have 17.1 right now) https://www.xda-developers.com/lineageos-seedvault-open-source-backup-solution/. Also looks like there is some sort of ADB backup & restore but I’m having issue finding clear ressources about it : has anyone tried it and does it restore apps installed by F-Droid into F-Droid management ?

2

There’s no such thing as “ownership” on Android for apps, any app with enough permission can install updates. The main thing is that F-Droid builds apps from source and signs it with its own key (unless the developer opts-in for reproducible builds). So, the only thing you have to take care of is to make sure to install the F-Droid version from adb.

Maybe this helps: How to backup F-Droid apps in case I lose my phone - #3 by TheLastProject

3

You could look at fdroidcl, on microshaft’s git hub.

4

All 17.1 builds of LineageOS after September 2020 (?) have Seedvault included.

Compiling apps in like that is not worth it, because you’ll end up with twice the space wasted and probably won’t even be able to fit all the ones you want.

F-Droid used to have a push option before 1.14 enabled which would let you grant a repo permission to install apps automatically.
DivestOS had a “provisioner” repo that installed a handful of recommended apps using it.
But now you have to compile the whitelabel version of F-Droid to use it :frowning:

5

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.