[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] DrWu:
Does anyone with experience on the subject know whether it is possible (or im-possible) to install LG's OE Alarm/Clock app on a Samsung phone? The donor phone is an LG Optimus Fuel LGL34C on KitKat 4.4.2. The recipient phone is a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime S820L (Tracphone) on KitKat 4.4.4 and I am loathe to leave behind the stopwatch/timer function (Alarm/Clock) on my old LG. I want to transfer it over but I'm finding that's that's easier said than done.

I have found a number of websites offering a pre-packaged version that's supposed to be that app (LGAlarmClock.apk, or something close to it) sourced from a package of OE LGE apps. Unfortunately, I can't find one that will install. When I tried to install them, most of them failed from the get-go saying there was a problem parsing the file. One of them attempted to run, appeared to run normally but ended with "App not installed," existing package yadda yadda yadda. But I note that they were all of substantially different file sizes and I can't be sure any of them were for KitKat (but I know at least one was sourced from Lollipop).

So when these all failed, next I tried the App Transfer app, which is supposed to compile an installable apk from the files currently on the source phone. But when I tried to install it on the target phone, it did the "App not installed" thing again.

Then I tried a couple of PC-based data and application transference applications. One of them transferred everything except the proprietary LGE stuff, which it ignored, to include Alarm/Clock.

After than I decided to take a shot at installing it manually, so I searched the source phone for all instances of what appeared to be related files. This is what I arrived at:

/system/cust/overlay/app/com.lge.clock.apk

/system/lib/liblgomx_clock.so

/system/priv-app/LGAlarmClock.apk

/system/priv-app/LGAlarmClock.odex

/system/priv-app/LGClockWidget.apk

/system/priv-app/LGClockWidget.odex

/data/data/com.sika524.android.quickshortcut/cache/thumbnails/com.lge.clock:2130837606.0

/data/data/com.sika524.android.quickshortcut/cache/thumbnails/com.lge.appwidget.clock:2130837534.0

/data/dalvik-cache/system@priv-app@LGAlarmClock.apk@classes.dex

/data/dalvik-cache/system@priv-app@LGClockWidget.apk@classes.dex

/data/resource-cache/system@cust@overlay@app@com.lge.clock.apk@idmap

The first file on the list was a problem because the Samsung doesn't have a '/system/cust' directory, much less '/system/cust/overlay/app.' However, it does have a '/system/app,' which is chockablock with apk files, so I stuck the file 'com.lge.clock.apk' in there.

All the others had a matching directory structure, except the shortcut thumbnail caches, which I gather were the result of the shortcuts I made on the LG phone and not required for the Samsung anyway. So I moved them to a corresponding location on the Samsung and gave them all 644 permissions, same as they were on the source phone, and same as all the other files in the same directories on the target phone.

After copying the files over and rebooting, the new app shows up in the App Drawer, and in the installed apps. Some of the functions work. The Stopwatch works. The Timer function runs but when it counts down to zero, the alarm doesn't sound and it displays the error, "Unfortunately, Alarm/Clock has stopped." If I access the Timer settings and try to change the volume, I get "Unfortunately, Alarm/Clock has stopped." If I try to change the time setting in Alarms, I get that same error. Also the same error if I try to add a city under World Clock. It's like it lacks the ability to activate the alarm tone, or to manage whichever file that stores its configuration settings.

Since the only real "wild card" in my set-up was the lack of the proper directory structure for the 'com.lge.clock.apk' file, I created a matching structure (where none existed before) with a symlink in '/system/cust/overlay/app' pointing back to /system/app/com.lge.clock.apk. That didn't work either so I deleted the link and replaced it with a copy of the file.

Still nothing changed so I gave all the new files 777 permissions, just in case there was a permissions thing I was overlooking. Zip, zilch, nada, bupkis.

So I'm outta bullets. Anybody got a spare magazine? ;) Is it even possible?