Open AB files in your browser
The file adb backup writes from an Android phone, each app's data in one compressed archive. Look through it right here, without Java tools or a phone. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your backup opens like a folder, each app's files, databases and preferences listed on the left.
- Every app • Its files, databases and preferences
- Encrypted backups • With their password, which stays on your device
- Search • Find any file by its name
- Export • Save as ZIP or Extract all
About AB
Android 4.0 brought adb backup in 2011: a computer asks a connected phone for its apps' data, and the phone writes it out as one .ab file, which adb restore puts back. Since Android 12 an app has to allow it, so backups of newer apps are often nearly empty, but the files of the years before are everywhere.
An .ab file starts with four lines of text, ANDROID BACKUP, its version, whether it's compressed and how it's encrypted, then a TAR of every app's data packed with deflate. Each app has a folder under apps: _manifest, its version and signature, a for its APK, f for its files, db for its databases, sp for its preferences and ef for its files on shared storage. A password encrypts the whole TAR with AES-256.
Filepeek reads the file as it comes, unpacking and decrypting it a slice at a time, and lists each app's folder like any archive's. Databases open in the table viewer, preferences as XML and pictures, sounds and documents in their own viewers, and Extract all or Save as ZIP take the whole backup out.
Android backup
.ab
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Android's adb
- Released
- 2011
Inside the file
- Holds
- Each app's files, databases and preferences
- Packed
- A TAR, with deflate
- Encrypted
- AES-256, with the backup's password
- Made by
- adb backup
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens Android backups in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on any computer or phone. On their own, browsers only download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open AB
- Windowsadb, only to put it back on a phone
- Macadb, only to put it back on a phone
- iPhone and iPadNo app reads it
- AndroidNo app reads it • adb restore puts it back from a computer
Questions
How do I make an .ab file?
With Android's platform tools on a computer and USB debugging on the phone, run adb backup -f backup.ab -all and confirm on the phone. Set a password there to encrypt it.
How do I open an encrypted .ab file?
Drop it on this page and type the password you set on the phone when it was made. It's used on your device and never sent anywhere.
Why is my backup almost empty?
Apps can refuse adb backup, and since Android 12 most do unless they ask for it. Such apps are left out, or only their _manifest is written.
Can I take the files out?
Yes. Extract all writes the whole backup to a folder in Chrome and Edge, Save as ZIP works everywhere, and any file opens or saves on its own.
Does it open Unity's .ab asset bundles?
Yes. Games name Unity's asset bundles .ab too, and Filepeek tells them apart by their first bytes: a bundle opens as a folder of its textures, meshes and sounds, like a .unity3d.