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Hi just wanna ask if there's a way to properly install or move apps to /system manually in which the app that being said installed will be considered as system app? It seems that my phone is denying my request to install or move app from internal storage to system. I'm using a archos 55 diamond selfie. I've tried to move a certain app installer to /system/app but it doesn't solve the problem. Thanks allot.

Danel Dave Barbuco
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1 Answers1

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Installing apps on the system partition is not possible without root. Rooting can also not be enough if you are running a device that has a newer android version, where selinux is enabled and enforcing.

You need to make sure you do the following before being able to install apps to system:

  1. Bootloader unlock (if needed)
  2. Root
  3. Mount /system as RW
  4. Copy apk file to /system/app (or priv-app) (depending on the OS version)
  5. Remount /system as RO or reboot

You might also be able to do it through recovery, but at that point you need to run a custom one, as TWRP, the only difference being that you don't need root at this point.

Mike N.
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  • Well. I do have twrp and my phone is rooted. But still it doesn't permit me to move apps to system. Where should I move the apps? The os that my phone is running is 6.0.1 – Danel Dave Barbuco Dec 29 '18 at 00:08
  • If you are rooted, then you just need to mount /system as RW: mount -o remount, rw /system ; cp file.name /system/app/file.name ; chmod 644 file.name – Mike N. Dec 29 '18 at 00:10
  • If I did that my phone is just restating. – Danel Dave Barbuco Dec 29 '18 at 00:11
  • That might be something specific. I never encountered such issues (seems to be a kernel panic, or os protection). Try going into TWRP, mount /system as RW and then copy the file in the same way, under /system/app. In case of bootloop, after reboot, just remove the file through TWRP. – Mike N. Dec 29 '18 at 00:15
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    Could you have Systemless Root ? – Empire of E Dec 29 '18 at 01:25
  • I do have systemless root – Danel Dave Barbuco Dec 29 '18 at 09:25
  • My bad. Having systemless root, means your main system partition is not modified, and cannot hold any apks added by the user. In this case, you would need to use a Magisk module to add the app to the system partition at reboot. – Mike N. Dec 29 '18 at 09:27
  • @MikeN. /system can be modified with systemless root if dm-verity is disabled. But OTAs may break – Irfan Latif Dec 30 '18 at 16:33
  • If he went systemless, most probably was due to keeping system intact. I was using the zip flash I. Magisk so I can have Action Launcher as system app, before the Google Now Module appeared – Mike N. Dec 30 '18 at 16:35
  • @MikeN. systemless root is now no more an option, whether to keep /system intact or not, boot.img is to be modified because root daemons start from init, to fix issues with selinux, logs etc. – Irfan Latif Dec 30 '18 at 23:21