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I want to find the installation date and time of the applications in my mobile. Where is it stored? In Ubuntu it can be found from the /var/log/dpkg.log. What about Android? I am using Android 4.1.2.

Andrew T.
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BusyTraveller
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3 Answers3

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There are several apps to use, but I like using App Detective.

It's easy, concise, and fully detailed. This will tell installation time plus a lot more.

screenshot

Andrew T.
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HasH_BrowN
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  • Thanks @Andrew for pic edit, for some reason earlier wrong screenshot got uploaded when posting – HasH_BrowN Mar 11 '15 at 06:34
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    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7470314/receiving-package-install-and-uninstall-events . http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11246326/how-to-receiving-broadcast-when-application-installed-or-removed . http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10888768/package-added-broadcastreceiver-doesnt-work . These are added to comments, because it would make the answer off-topic according to scope of Android Enthusiast. I included these links because they are relevant and useful, but not for end-user. – HasH_BrowN Mar 12 '15 at 16:54
  • Thanks. App detective is the best. It was able to determine the date of installation of all apps even the apps installed prior to the installation of app detectives –  Jun 16 '16 at 00:02
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When every application is installed you get a Package_Added broadcast. You can save that instance of time and date when you receive the broadcast and store it locally and retrieve it. Hope this helps.

Saurav
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    I think some sort of log files will be there ..right ? – BusyTraveller Mar 10 '15 at 02:25
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    I have never come across any Api to access these information. I have posted the solution as one of a probable solution. – Saurav Mar 10 '15 at 18:16
  • What method are you using for obtaining Package_Added broadcast? What steps are taken?......this way anybody reading this would be able follow along and duplicate the results. Thanks – HasH_BrowN Mar 12 '15 at 16:40
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    You can add a receiver intent: "android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED" in your manifest file and write a broadcast receiver for this receiver. Catch action "Intent.ACTION_PACKAGE_ADDED" ij your receiver and fetch the application installed name by : intent.getData() . Save this as string in database and fetch date as well and save . This way you can get the application installed name and date. I have also a link to show how to create the broadcast for this in my github: https://github.com/kodered/Application-Monitor – Saurav Mar 12 '15 at 17:51
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Changelog Droid is an app that catches the Package_Added broadcast and logs all installations and updates of packages. This only works for apps added/updated after it was installed.

You could also look at the creation times of the directories in .../sdcard0/Android/data - though not all apps appear to create a directory there, and I'm not sure if it's done at install time, or first run, etc.

pgs
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