android - changing the system settings of a rooted device from inside the app

Question

I am trying to change the sms limit described here from inside the app. The app is assumed to be running on a rooted device. I'm using the RootTools to check if the device is rooted or not. I'm trying to figure out how to write the actual setting on to the settings.db. Any suggestion which could help me in this is highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

If settingd.db is sqlite db file then you can open this file with any sqlite tools and manually modify it. — user370305, Sep 12 '11 at 18:27
what happen if you access "/data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db" this path to modify data in database helper class? — user370305, Sep 12 '11 at 18:32
t returns an error. You can check the `openDatabase` method [here][1] for more details [1]: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/database/sqlite/SQLiteDatabase.html — 500865, Sep 16 '11 at 05:52
It is something(or may be exactly) like this `SQLiteException : Database Cannot be opened` — 500865, Sep 16 '11 at 06:02

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 16 '11 at 06:02

7

I got this solved by doing this:

copy the /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db to my application folder /data/data/my_app_directory/.
update the table in the database using the SQLiteDatabase class.
copy back the database from /data/data/my_app_directory/settings.db to /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/

The copy operations were done by using RootTools.sendShell

answered Sep 16 '11 at 06:02

500865

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nice. now is there any problem? – user370305 Sep 16 '11 at 06:04
isn´t it possible to operate directly on the original settings.db? – Marian Klühspies Aug 06 '14 at 09:46
AFAIK, it is not possible. – 500865 Aug 08 '14 at 14:12
I made it possible. Please check my answer. – Upendra Shah Nov 02 '17 at 17:30

Upendra Shah · Answer 2 · 2022-02-21T05:17:18.683

Yes, You can do this if you have root access. Its a lengthy process but you can do this :

Step 1: copy settings.db from /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/ using RootBrowser from the device and than change the value using sqliteBrowser which you want to update than update settings.db and put in assets package of your project

Step 2: Copy this file into your application folder (anywhere where you can access) using asset manager for that you need

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" /> <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

this function will copy file from assets

public static void copyAssets(Context context, String assetPath, String outFilename) {
        AssetManager assetManager = context.getAssets();
        InputStream in = null;
        OutputStream out = null;
        try {
            in = assetManager.open(assetPath);
            File outFile = new File(context.getExternalFilesDir(null), outFilename);
              
            out = new FileOutputStream(outFile);
            copyFile(in, out);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Failed to copy asset: " + outFilename, e);
        } finally {
            if (in != null) {
                try {
                    in.close();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                }
            }
            if (out != null) {
                try {
                    out.close();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                }
            }
        }
    }

public static void copyFile(InputStream in, OutputStream out) throws IOException {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
        int read;
        while ((read = in.read(buffer)) != -1) {
            out.write(buffer, 0, read);
        }
    }

Step 3: overwrite the system settings.db file system path (destPath) is /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/

public static void copyToSystem(final String sourceFilePath, final String destPath) {
        Thread background = new Thread(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
                    DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(process.getOutputStream());
//                    
                    os.writeBytes("cp -f " + sourceFilePath + " " + destPath + "\n");
                    os.flush();
                    os.writeBytes("exit\n");
                    os.flush();
                    process.waitFor();
                    process.waitFor();
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    Log.e(TAG, e.toString());
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    Log.e(TAG, e.toString());
                }
            }
        });
        background.start();
    }

Step 4: Reboot device

That's all done.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 04 '19 at 10:31

Late answer, but you don't need to copy settings.db, you can update it with RootTools like

CommandCapture commandLogcat = new CommandCapture(0, "sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db \"UPDATE secure SET value = '192.168.2.140' WHERE name = 'eth_ip';\"");
RootTools.getShell(true).add(commandLogcat).getExitCode();

android - changing the system settings of a rooted device from inside the app

3 Answers3

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