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Android Debug Bridge (ADB) guide:installation and setting on Windows and mac OS

28.03.2023
Posted by: Admin

What is ADB?

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a versatile command line tool that allows you to access your Android device.

ADB allows:

install applications on the phone;
to debug the phone after a crash;
flash applications and system elements;
view operating system and phone information;
view logs from the device;
get a screenshot from the device or record a video;
install, delete and copy files.

Installation of Android Debug Bridge and settings for Windows-based environment

In order to install ADB on Windows, you need:

Download the installation file for Windows from the official site Windows.

Unzip the folder «platform-tools» to the root directory of the disk C: \.

Go to «Control Panel> System and Security> System» or press Win + Pause/Break and choose «Advanced system settings».

Go to «Environment Variables…».

Сhoose «Path» in «System variables» and click the «Edit...» button to add a new variable.

Choose the path to the «platform-tools» where adb files are situated.

Reboot the system and run the command line.
Write a command: adb version. If you see information with ADB version, then everything is done correctly and you can use ADB.

Installing the Android Debug Bridge and configuring the environment for PC with the macOS

In order to install ADB on macOS, you need:

Download the macOS installation file from the official site.

Extract the contents of the archive. Move the «platform-tools» folder to a place convenient for you (for example, to a folder «Documents»).

The «Documents» folder with platform-tools

Open «Launchpad» in the «Other» catalog and open the «Terminal» program.

In the «Terminal» go to «platform-tools», using cd command. If you moved the «platform-tools» folder to «Documents», the command will look like this: cd Documents/platform-tools/

After moving to the desired directory, check the operation of the ADB utility. To do this, enter the command: ./adb in «Terminal»

If information about the used utilities appeared in «Terminal» – this means that everything is working correctly.

Preparing Android to work with ADB

In order to work with ADB, we need to make changes in the settings of the mobile device. The settings menu may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, but the basic steps are as follows:

Open «Settings» and go to «About phone».
Quickly tap on the build number until the message that you have become a developer appears.
In the main settings, find the «Developer option» section.
Enable «USB debugging».
Connect the phone to the computer using a USB cable.
Confirm USB debugging on the device.

Before starting work, we need to make sure that the computer sees the Android device and everything is working correctly. To do this, on computers with the Windows operating system, enter the command in the command line:

adb devices

When working on the macOS operating system, commands begin with «./». for example:

./adb devices

If you got such a message, then everything is configured correctly, if the message did not appear, then you need to check the presence of the official ADB driver.

Checking the presence of the official ADB driver

Basic commands

The table below lists the most basic ADB commands and their purpose.

Command	Description
adb devices	A command that displays information about devices connected to the computer and their serial numbers.
adb logcat	Collects and gives the opportunity to view logs from the device. The list is displayed in the command line window.
adb logcat -d > ~/test.log	Collects logs from the device and writes them to a separate file.
adb install C:\test.apk	Allows you to install the application on the phone. To install, you must specify the path to the program.
adb shell screencap /sdcard/test.png	With the help of this command, you can get a screenshot from the device, specifying the location of the file, its name and extension.
adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/test.mp4	Using this command, you can get a screen recording from the device, specifying the location of the file, its name and extension.
adb push C:\Users\user\Documents\temp.txt /sdcard	The command allows you to send a file from a PC to a phone. In the command, you need to specify the address of the file to be sent, as well as the location of its storage on the device.
adb reboot	The command allows you to reboot Android.
adb	The command displays a list of all commands in the console window.

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a tool that is extremely useful for testers working with devices running the Android operating system. Despite its not particularly attractive interface, ADB has the widest functionality that allows effective interaction with gadgets.