How to list and identify package names on a Samsung device before using ADB?

1. Preparing the Samsung device and confirming ADB connectivity

Ensure Developer Options and USB debugging are enabled on the Samsung device and confirm the host sees the device with adb devices before running queries; ADB must be correctly set up on the computer to proceed (this requirement is implicit across ADB guides and examples that run adb shell commands) and adb devices is the standard first step noted in tutorials ^{[5] [2]}.

2. The canonical command to list package names and useful filters

The fundamental command is adb shell pm list packages which lists installed package names with the "package:" prefix; useful flags include -3 for third‑party apps, -s for system apps, -u to include uninstalled/hidden packages, -f to show the APK path, -i to show installer, and -U to show UID — these options let one focus the output before any post-processing ^{[1] [6] [7]}.

3. From package name to app label: why pm alone is not enough

Package identifiers are not the human-friendly app names shown in the launcher; pm and cmd package will not reliably produce the displayed label, so practitioners read the APK’s resources (application-label) with aapt or query dumpsys package and parse versionName and label fields — guides and community answers commonly recommend adb shell "dumpsys package packages" for bulk info or pulling APK paths and running aapt dump badging to extract application-label ^{[4] [8] [9]}.

4. Practical two-step method: list packages, then map to labels

A pragmatic workflow is: 1) list packages (adb shell pm list packages -3 | cut -d':' -f2) to get package names, 2) for each package get its APK path with adb shell pm path , then either pull the APK and run aapt dump badging or run aapt against the remote APK path if aapt is available; sample scripts on community write-ups illustrate this loop and the aapt extraction of application-label ^{[8] [10]}.

5. Alternatives, device nuances and hidden packages

If the device is older and cmd package is unavailable, pm remains the fallback; to surface hidden or previously uninstalled-but-still-present packages use -u and, for rooted forensics, look into /data/system/users/*/packages-restrictions.xml for hidden="true" entries — community threads document these variants and the need to adapt for Android version and device manufacturer differences ^{[1] [11] [3]}.

6. Quick command cheatsheet and caveats before mass actions

Quick commands: adb shell pm list packages (all), adb shell pm list packages -3 (user apps), adb shell pm list packages -s (system), adb shell pm list packages -f (with APK paths) and adb shell "dumpsys package " for full details ^{[1] [2] [9]}. Caveats: extracting labels often requires aapt (not on-device by default) or pulling APKs, Samsung/One UI doesn’t change package naming but device policy or locked devices may restrict ADB access; community posts repeatedly advise caution when uninstalling or modifying packages because system apps can be integral to device operation ^{[8] [12] [9]}.

7. What remains difficult and where sources diverge

Sources converge on pm/cmd package as the listing mechanism but diverge on easiest label-resolution: some advocate dumpsys parsing while others script APK extraction plus aapt; community Q&A underscores that no single pure-ADB command reliably prints the launcher label across all Android builds without auxiliary tools, so the choice depends on whether adding aapt to the host or pulling APKs to inspect is acceptable ^{[3] [4] [8]}.