Hey Guys --
I'm not a fan of rooting and I'm too lazy to tether my phone, but I've found a very simple way to copy APK's from my DroidX phone to my Fire (both stock and not rooted) and thought I'd share.
First thing was I setup my Gmail account on the built-in EMail app. It sucks, but it's just temporary.
Now download the ES File Manager on both the Kindle Fire and DroidX (or whatever phone you have). It's in both the Amazon and Google app stores.
On the DroidX open ES File Manager and tap AppMgr which will show a list of your Apps on the phone. Tap and hold on the app you want to copy and choose Backup and you should see a message saying it's copied to /sdcard/backups/apps. If you're a Gmail user I'd suggest backing-up Google Services Framework and Gmail first which will become clearer why in a bit.
Now tap Back and go into Backups then Apps folder. Tap and hold on each APK file and tap Share. Since I use Gmail I selected that which put the APK file into an attachment, then I just emailed it to myself.
On the Kindle Fire go into the EMail app and open each message which should have the APK as an attachment. You can't install from here (or at least I couldn't) so save it to the file system and go into ES File Manager and fine the attachments in /sdcard/downloads. First install the Google Service Framework then Gmail.
The hard part is done... now open Gmail under Apps and setup your account just as you would on your Android phone. At this point you can actually remove your email profile in the stock EMail app and uninstall ES File Manager if you'd like. To download other apps from your phone just repeat the Backup process and email them to yourself, and when you read the email in the GMail app it will have the Install option there without having to go into a file manager. I've even done this with a couple of purchased apps on my DroidX, and they ran fine on the Kindle Fire. Not sure how legit this is, but if these apps are made available in the Amazon App store I will get legit copies.
Thus far here are the apps I've copied over which aren't in the Amazon app store:
- Google Service Framework
- Google: Gmail, Google Plus, Finance, Maps, Voice, Reader, and Earth
- Twitter App
- Doggcatcher
- Nook
- SiriusXM
- Spotify
- Dolphin HD
- Audiobooks
- Smartmeter app (provided by my electric company)
- NPR app
Thus far every app I've side loaded has worked flawlessly. The only downside is you won't get updates automatically, but given I manually update my phone anyway I'll just watch for updates and copy them to the Fire as they come out. If Amazon ever allows the Google App Store to load without rooting I may go that route, but this seems to be working perfectly in the meantime.
So FYI for anyone interested --
Sam
I'm not a fan of rooting and I'm too lazy to tether my phone, but I've found a very simple way to copy APK's from my DroidX phone to my Fire (both stock and not rooted) and thought I'd share.
First thing was I setup my Gmail account on the built-in EMail app. It sucks, but it's just temporary.
Now download the ES File Manager on both the Kindle Fire and DroidX (or whatever phone you have). It's in both the Amazon and Google app stores.
On the DroidX open ES File Manager and tap AppMgr which will show a list of your Apps on the phone. Tap and hold on the app you want to copy and choose Backup and you should see a message saying it's copied to /sdcard/backups/apps. If you're a Gmail user I'd suggest backing-up Google Services Framework and Gmail first which will become clearer why in a bit.
Now tap Back and go into Backups then Apps folder. Tap and hold on each APK file and tap Share. Since I use Gmail I selected that which put the APK file into an attachment, then I just emailed it to myself.
On the Kindle Fire go into the EMail app and open each message which should have the APK as an attachment. You can't install from here (or at least I couldn't) so save it to the file system and go into ES File Manager and fine the attachments in /sdcard/downloads. First install the Google Service Framework then Gmail.
The hard part is done... now open Gmail under Apps and setup your account just as you would on your Android phone. At this point you can actually remove your email profile in the stock EMail app and uninstall ES File Manager if you'd like. To download other apps from your phone just repeat the Backup process and email them to yourself, and when you read the email in the GMail app it will have the Install option there without having to go into a file manager. I've even done this with a couple of purchased apps on my DroidX, and they ran fine on the Kindle Fire. Not sure how legit this is, but if these apps are made available in the Amazon App store I will get legit copies.
Thus far here are the apps I've copied over which aren't in the Amazon app store:
- Google Service Framework
- Google: Gmail, Google Plus, Finance, Maps, Voice, Reader, and Earth
- Twitter App
- Doggcatcher
- Nook
- SiriusXM
- Spotify
- Dolphin HD
- Audiobooks
- Smartmeter app (provided by my electric company)
- NPR app
Thus far every app I've side loaded has worked flawlessly. The only downside is you won't get updates automatically, but given I manually update my phone anyway I'll just watch for updates and copy them to the Fire as they come out. If Amazon ever allows the Google App Store to load without rooting I may go that route, but this seems to be working perfectly in the meantime.
So FYI for anyone interested --
Sam
