How to quickly get app's directory from its bundle id on jailbroken iOS device?

Question

In iOS devices, all user applications are located in /var/mobile/Applications directory, and each app has a unique random uuid as its directory name, for instance:

/var/mobile/Applications/15FD62FD-2BEB-4C1E-A9B8-BC93E5C721CC

the uuid is 15FD62FD-2BEB-4C1E-A9B8-BC93E5C721CC.

Now I want to get the directory by application's bundle identifier, my solution is enumerate the /var/mobile/Applications directory, get the bundle identifier from Info.plist and check.

This solution is rather slow, is there any quicker way to do this?

e.g. if there is a plist that records the bundle id to uuid mapping, then I can read that file to avoid directory enumeration.

possible duplicate of [Get path to iOS application based on name or bundle identifier](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9856212/get-path-to-ios-application-based-on-name-or-bundle-identifier) — osvein, Sep 28 '14 at 13:49

Nate · Answer 1 · 2015-08-17T09:35:00.900

I think the file you are looking for is

/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.mobile.installation.plist

For example, it contains information like this for each app:

    "com.zillow.ZillowMap" =         {
        ApplicationDSID = 216284405;
        ApplicationType = User;
        CFBundleDisplayName = Zillow;
        CFBundleExecutable = ZillowMap;
        CFBundleIconFiles =             (
            "app-icon",
            "app-icon-iPad.png",
            "app-icon-iPad@2x.png"
        );
        CFBundleIcons =             {
            CFBundlePrimaryIcon =                 {
                CFBundleIconFiles =                     (
                    "app-icon",
                    "app-icon-iPad.png",
                    "app-icon-iPad@2x.png"
                );
                UIPrerenderedIcon = 1;
            };
        };
        CFBundleIdentifier = "com.zillow.ZillowMap";
        CFBundleName = ZillowMap;
        CFBundleShortVersionString = "6.1.0112";
        CFBundleVersion = "6.1.0112";
        CodeInfoIdentifier = "com.zillow.ZillowMap";
        Container = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
        Entitlements =             {
            "application-identifier" = "JEWMY3RZ4A.com.zillow.ZillowMap";
            "aps-environment" = production;
        };
        EnvironmentVariables =             {
            "CFFIXED_USER_HOME" = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
            HOME = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D";
            TMPDIR = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D/tmp";
        };
        IsUpgradeable = 1;
        LSRequiresIPhoneOS = 1;
        MinimumOSVersion = "5.0";
        Path = "/private/var/mobile/Applications/B9284FBE-E558-4A65-A7E4-AE20CDAD9A1D/ZillowMap.app";
        SequenceNumber = 2618;
        SignerIdentity = "Apple iPhone OS Application Signing";
        UIDeviceFamily =             (
            1,
            2
        );
        UIPrerenderedIcon = 1;
    };

Update

This file was removed in iOS 8: (https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Com.apple.mobile.installation.plist)

There exists a similar file for iOS 8 at /var/mobile/Library/MobileInstallation/LastLaunchServicesMap.plist, but it might only be updated at launch (reboot).

Thanks, but it appears that this file no longer exists, at least in iOS 12.4. Any idea where else we may look for such a mapping? — auspicious99, Mar 07 '21 at 14:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 25 '13 at 15:42

And here this is another solution, if your code runs in SpringBoard:

NSString *applicationBundleIdentifier = @"...";
SBApplication *application = [[SBApplicationController sharedInstance]applicationWithDisplayIdentifier:applicationBundleIdentifier];
NSString *path = application.containerPath;

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 07 '21 at 14:46

A quicker way, if you don't mind uninstalling and re-installing the target app, is to uninstall and re-install the target app. Then it will be the newest app in the app container or data container (/private/var/containers/Bundle/Application and /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application, respectively, these days), that you can easily find with ls, e.g., ls -altr.

How to quickly get app's directory from its bundle id on jailbroken iOS device?

3 Answers3

Update

Linked