Install F-Droid

To install F-Droid, choose one of those 4 options:

• Easy options:

  • Option 1. Buy a phone with pre-installed F-Droid.

  • Option 2. Download and install F-Droid APK.

• Advanced options

  • Option 3. Install an Android ROM with built-in F-Droid.

  • Option 4. Flash F-Droid OTA.

  • Option 5. Install F-Droid using adb.

What is the difference between easy and advanced options?

• If you do not have technical background or interest, do not need advanced features, or if you are not sure which option to choose, for you to get a better experience, it is suggested to consider choosing one of those easy options down below. So that you get a faster and easier start with F-Droid. While keeping in mind that you will get less advanced features.

• If you do have technical background or interest, and need advanced features, for you to get a better experience, it is suggested to consider choosing one of those advanced options down below. So that after the initial longer learning curve, you benefit from more advanced features.

Easy options

Option 1. Buy a phone with pre-installed F-Droid.

• CalyxOS - Calyx Institute is an privacy research NGO in the USA. Some of their membership plans come with a phone where F-Droid is pre-installed.
• ShiftOS-Light - Shift Phone is a German phone vendor specializing in sustainable electronics. With some manual steps their SHIFT5mq and SHIFT6mq model can be updated to ShiftOS-Light. F-Droid is pre-installed on ShiftOS-Light.

Option 2. Download and install F-Droid APK.

This option is quick and easy. After installation, F-Droid will automatically notify you when updates are available. But for each and every individual app update, Android will prompt you for confirmation. Some users prefer this option because they have more control over which apps are presently allowed to update or not.

Summarize steps to install F-Droid APK:

1. Download this official F-Droid.apk file
2. Install the F-Droid.apk file you downloaded above

Below is the same steps as above. But with details if you are interested in those.

Details steps for newcomers to install F-Droid APK:

1. Tap on this link to both download and start the installation of the official F-Droid APK.
   • Alternatively, if somehow your internet browser force you to download this F-Droid.apk file without automatically starting its installation, double check that this file is stored into your Android devise internal storage. So that it automatically has the appropriation permissions. Do not store this file into an external storage. Then using your Android file Manager, tap on the F-Droid.apk file.
2. When Android prompts, allow the installation from Unknown Sources
3. When prompts, tap on Install F-Droid
4. When prompts, tap on Open F-Droid
5. The first time F-Droid is open, it will automatically download the F-Droid repository. Wait. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, wait 2 to 10 minutes.
6. F-Droid will automatically display its catalog of apps. To search for apps, tap on the search button.
7. When Android prompts, allow the F-Droid to install apps from Unknown Sources.
8. Optionally, for stronger security, denied the Android internet browser or Android file manager to install apps from Unknown Sources. In the future, F-Droid APK will still be able to install and update any F-Droid apps to your liking.
9. Done. You successfully install F-Droid APK.

Advanced options

Option 3. Install an Android ROM with built-in F-Droid.

If you’re planning on flashing a custom ROM, these ROMs might be interesting for you because they come with F-Droid built-in and ready to use:

• CalyxOS - https://calyxos.org
• DivestOS - https://divestos.org
• LineageOS for MicroG - https://lineage.microg.org

Option 4. Flash F-Droid OTA.

On Android version 12 or more recent, Flash F-Droid OTA is both not needed and not supported. Read more.

On Android version 11 or older. When you intend on flashing a ROM which doesn’t come preloaded with F-Droid we recommend to flash F-Droid privileged extension OTA. This option works great with LineageOS for example.

1. download the latest F-Droid privileged extension OTA.
2. boot your phone into recovery mode
3. side-load / install the OTA zip file to your phone, the same way you would install a custom ROM. (eg. with adb, heimdall, etc.)

Option 5. Install F-Droid using adb.

1. Download this official F-Droid.apk file
2. Enable Developer options on your phone
3. In Developer options enable USB debugging
4. On your computer download “Android Debugging Bridge” (adb)
5. Make sure your phone is connected via USB and visible in the output of: adb devices -l
6. Push fdroid to your phone: adb push "/path/to/F-Droid.apk" /data/local/tmp/F-Droid.apk
7. Install F-Droid: adb shell pm install -i "org.fdroid.fdroid" -r /data/local/tmp/F-Droid.apk
8. Remove the old file: adb shell rm /data/local/tmp/F-Droid.apk

Note: This method also works for installing apps if Google Advanced Protection Program is enabled, which would otherwise result in the following error:

INSTALL_FAILED_VERIFICATION_FAILURE: Install not allowed for file:///data/app/[…].tmp

Disclaimer

The intent of this present documentation page is helping users getting kick-started. Not an official endorsement of any products, vendors, etc.

F-Droid and its contributors might or might not be affiliated with any of the ROMs, Device Vendors, etc. listed above. The listing is neither complete nor are any of the linked projects officially endorsed by F-Droid. We reserve the right to change the listing above as our team sees fit. An official policy on criteria to get listed here is still in the works, see admin#352 for more information. If you think something on this listing is incorrect or missing please let us know: team@f-droid.org