Room now supports using a pre-packaged database out of the box, since version 2.2.0
https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/room#2.2.0
As the built-in Room support is limited here's a library that supports migration as well as keeping specified columns that eg contain userdata.
https://github.com/ueen/RoomAssetHelper
RoomAsset
An Android helper class to manage database creation and version management using an application's raw asset files.
This library provides developers with a simple way to ship their Android app with an existing SQLite database (which may be pre-populated with data) and to manage its initial creation and any upgrades required with subsequent version releases.
It is implemented as an extension to Room
, providing an easy way to use Room
with an existing SQLite database.