[Android Apps and Games] GalaxyA325G:
I just found out about Raccoon and I am reading all 41 pages, and summarizing them below so others can make use of this summary (any mistakes or omissions in this summary are my own and not those of the developer!).

I'm only up to page 20 only so far ... so consider this a WIP until I say I've gotten to all 41 pages.

... I'm still adding notes one by one so this is a temporary WIP ...

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Raccoon is a Google Play desktop client that will enable you to download APK files from Google Play and cache them locally on your desktop computer.

<https://raccoon.onyxbits.de>

Windows, Linux, macOS

<https://raccoon.onyxbits.de/downloads/>

<https://raccoon.onyxbits.de/apk-downloader/>

You can maintain as many caches as you like (e.g. one per Google Account or one per device you own). Each cache is able to hold apps in multiple versions.

Once you know your Google Service Framework ID, Raccoon will...

a. Show you the whole list of permissions an app wants

(not the watered down version, Google wants you to see)

b. Allow you to archive your apps on your PC or USB drive

(so if a new version starts requesting unjustified permissions

you can easily roll back from the comfort of your own PC)

c. Download apps that do not officially support your device

(note they are usually not officially supported for a reason)

d. You don't have to tell Google what apps are in your account

e. Raccoon does not communicate with Google servers

until you tell it to (either by submitting a search or

by requesting an APK download).

f. Raccoon can automatically "Update archive" from the File menu

or by the "lci mode" with the "-u" switch (hit F1 for details)

g. Updates can be run on the PC CLI using a cron job if you wish

h. Downloading Paid apps is supported in an existing paid account

i. The entire Raccoon search is done on Google's servers

j. You can download any, not just the latest version of an APK

(assuming you know the version code)

k. There are no country restrictions (assuming that you know

the version code and/or you use a proxy)

l. Raccoon can generate a GSF ID itself that you can use.

To use Raccoon to download APKs off the Google Play Store repository...

0. Raccoon is written in Java, so all you need to run it is a JRE.

1. Install Java (java.com)

2. racoon.jar should now be executable, start it like any other program

3. Enter your Google Account login name and password

(preferably from a throwaway account)

4. As a first test, type "Onyxbits" into the textfield

5. You should now see a list of apps from that specific developer

Maybe download "List My Apps" as your first test trial

6. That will download the APK off of the Google Play Store repository

7. You can download _directly_ to Android over Wi-Fi (using WebDav)

net use Z: \\192.168.0.1@8080\DavWWWRoot /USER:username passwd

<https://i.postimg.cc/hjkVFyqJ/scrcpy07.jpg> Android mnt as drive letter

Or slide the APK over onto a Wi-Fi mirror on Windows with scrcpy

<https://i.postimg.cc/wvsbcNBz/scrcpy05.jpg> Drag APK from Windows

Or slide the APK over USB cable using the old-style MTP protocol

7. Enable "Unknown Sources" on Android (if you haven't done so already)

8. Doubleclick on the APK in Android to install the downloaded APK

9. Done

An example of batch scripting to install the latest updates:

0. The entire Play store should be at your disposal, for example:

� java -jar raccoon-3.3.jar -a Raccoon/archives/default/ -f com.xiam.snapdragon.app,67,1

1. Install "List My Apps" on Android

<http://.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.onyxbits.listmyapps>

2. Select the apps you want to import into raccoon

3. Share the list as market urls over to your desktop PC

(e.g. by sending them to yourself via email or by WebDav)

C:\> net use Z: \\192.168.0.2@8080\DavWWWRoot /USER:foobar snafu

4. Open the list in a texteditor and use Search&replace to remove

the market:// prefix and to replace all '.' with '-'

5. Use a little shellscript magic to create a subdirectory in

Raccoon/apk_storage for each entry in the list

6. Alternatively either run Raccoon in cli mode with the -u parameter

or select 'Update archive' from the File menu

7. Done

For beta app versions, you must follow some steps before Raccoon

will show those apps, e.g.,

1. Join their Communities

2. Join their beta test.

3. They will post beta test link. Ex:

<https://play.google.com/apps/testing/dk.tacit.android.foldersync.lite>

4. Wait a few minutes till Google play recognizes you're a beta tester

5. Use raccoon to download the beta apps once you're recognized

6. Done

An example of moving your PC archive folder is...

1. Move your archives folder to E:\android

2. Start Raccoon

3. File > Open Archive

4. Select Folder 'E:\android\archives\default'

5. Done

Other tidbits:

There is no real benefit in using your real GSF ID. The only reason

you might want to do that is to download paid apps you got in your

account (and even then you can use a mock ID as long as the device

is compatible).

There is no installer. Raccoon doesn't require installation.

The .exe version is just a wrapper around the .jar version

that takes care of downloading the Java runtime if it is not

already installed (it also has the drawback of not exposing

the command line interface).

Google Play mandates the use of a Google Account and that means

every client that wants service needs to present credentials.

Unless you want to type in your password on every program start,

the password needs to be saved somewhere. And no, the password

cannot be encrypted, unless you want to type in the password

to decrypt the password on every program start.

Apps are bound to the account they were bought with.

So it's either rebuying on the throw away account or using the

existing account. If you want to use your existing account,

you do it at your own risk.

java -jar racoon.jar -u -a <archive>

Will conveniently fetch the latest APKs for all the apps stored

in the archive.

java -jar racooon.jar -a <archive> -f de.onyxbits.listmyapps,14,1

Is a way to simply download an app without searching for it

(you have to know packagename, versioncode and offertype).

Just in case someone wants an older version of something.

Raccoon can download older apk versions from the Google Play Store

repository. You have to know the versioncode though and use the

command line interface, e.g.

java -jar raccoon-3.5.jar -a YOUR_ARCHIVE -f de.onyxbits.listmyapps,1,1

There also now is proxy support (but you don't really wanna use that,

the -f option does a better job).

Raccoon mocks a Samsung Galaxy S21 as its default device.

Raccoon can directly fetch APK files without searching (this allows

you to get APPs that are excluded by search as per Google's

recent change to exclude older APKs from their search results).

Keeps a session log of downloads (for scripting purposes).

Developer feature: hold SHIFT when pressing "Google Play" to see

the raw search entry.

Marks apps that offer IAP (in app purchasing options).

You can set up your Raccoon Google Account with app passwords.

� <https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/185833>

If you have DNS issues, you can set this in the hosts file:

212.227.251.101 www.onyxbits.de

It usually takes a couple of minutes to a couple of hours till the

fake device fully registers with Play. That's a server side thing.

You can try to download a couple of unrelated apps to speed up

propagation.

See also this if you get java errors:

� <https://stackoverflow.com/questions...warning-could-not-open-create-prefs-root-node>

See also Google Play Crawler:

<https://github.com/alexcmd/google-play-crawler/tree/master/src>

Newer apps seem to take some time till they become available for Raccoon.

Credentials.cfg is created automatically when you create an archive.

<http://www.onyxbits.de/content/networkcfg-file>

See also APK Leecher:

*[TOOL] Real APK Leecher - Download apk from your PC*

� <https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-real-apk-leecher-download-apk-from-your-pc.1539375/>

To mimic APK Leecher functionality:

1. You need to list all of your apps using 'List My Apps' from play store.

2. Export your app list in 'Market URL' format

3. Download Raccoon

4. About username and password please read the Raccoon FAQ

<https://raccoon.onyxbits.de>

5. Set your archive folder

6. File > Import (give text file from 'List My Apps')

7. File > Update

8. Done

See also FileCast - A personal webserver

<http://www.onyxbits.de/filecast>

See also Dummy Droid which allows you to load arbitrary device

profiles into your Google Play account and is meant to resolve

compatibility issues. <https://raccoon.onyxbits.de/dummydroid/>

� <https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-dummydroid-gsf-id-generator.3280933/>

Raccoon cannot be ported to Android. The protocol buffer library

it builds upon is too fat for a Dalvik VM.

The developer originally wanted to implement an F-Droid server in Raccoon,

but he had to scrape those plans. The protocol does not support OBB,

is poorly documented and trying to bridge concepts was a nightmare.

Raccoon downloads OBB as well as APK (both, free and paid).

<https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17739574/whats-obb-in-android>

Raccoon will automatically generate a mock device for you unless

you provide an existing GSF ID. The existing GSF ID can either be

lifted from a phone that already has a Google Account assigned to

it (shopping around at your local telco shop usually works for this),

or you can use the DummyDroid tool if you know what you are doing.

It will upload the specs of a mock device you specify and then

give you the GSF ID, Play assigns to the mock.

Some people seem to be anxious about giving Raccoon their credentials. It doesn't occur to them that they can (and should) register a throw away account. Other people have trouble registering throw away accounts because Google wants a telephone number to verify that they are not bots.

Now, the interesting thing is, communication with Play doesn't require a username and password at all. You only need to authenticate with the login server which will give you an auth cookie that is used in any further communication (that was actually the part that broke in v3.5).

I keep thinking: why pesker the user with this account stuff to begin with? Why not simply register an account, get the auth cookie and hardwire that in Raccoon (of course, still allowing the user to override it)?

Pros:

It saves the user a step

Thousands of users basically sharing the same account improves privacy for the individual

Allows people to use Raccoon even if Google doesn't let them register an account without getting a phone number.

Cons:

Google is probably not going to like it

Accounts that get used from all over the world may get flagged as hacked.

And hence the push for OAUTH2: not so much a security improvement, but rather a way to shut 3rd party cleints out by revoking their API keys.