Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a command line tool that lets you communicate with a device, enabling you to access certain features of the Android platform that are not otherwise accessible. To set up a device with Esper Foundation for Android (EFA), you must send commands to the device — requiring you to install the ADB tool on your computer, be it Windows or macOS. Windows devices do not have ADB drivers installed. These drivers are required to detect the device when using the Esper Device Provisioner Tool on a Windows machine. Mac devices come with ADB drivers, but we recommend installing the tool.
There are two ways to use adb: over a USB or Wi-Fi. There are some additional steps for preparing a device for Wi-Fi adb. See ADB over Wi-Fi to learn more.
In this article:
Installing ADB on Windows
Direct Install Method
Step 1: Download the platform tools directory.
Step 2: Open the command window and cd into the platform-tools folder. For example, cd /Downloads/platform-tools.
Step 3: Type “adb devices”, and then press enter. If pathed correctly, you will see a list of connected devices. You are now ready to use adb to troubleshoot your devices.
Android Studio + Platform Tools Install Method
Step 1: Download the latest Android Studio release.
Step 2: Once installed, click the More Actions button, and select SDK Manager from the dropdown.
Step 3: In the SDK manager, click SDK Tools and select the following for installation:
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Android SDK Command-Line tools
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Android SDK Platform-Tools
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Google USB Driver
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Step 4: Once installed, set the platform-tools file into the path.
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In your search bar, type environment and click “Edit the system environment variables”.
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Click “Environment Variables”.
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Under “User variables,” click “New”.
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Set the variable name to “Android”.
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For the variable value, you need to find where your platform tools are located on your hard drive. In general, when installed with Android Studio, it will live here: C:\Users{Your username}\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools
Note: You need to turn on the view hidden files function to access app data.
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Once you have verified the location of your platform tools, click “OK”.
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Step 5: Now, verify that the path is working correctly:
run command line > Windows key + R > cmd > enter
Step 6: Type “adb devices”, and then press enter. If pathed correctly, you will see a list of connected devices. You are now ready to use adb to troubleshoot your devices.
Installing ADB on Mac
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Download the latest SDK Platform-tools.zip file.
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Extract the .zip file using Mac's default Archive Utility app. You'll have a new folder called 'platform-tools' on your default download path.
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Now, click the “Go” option on Finder and select Utilities.
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You'll find Terminal among the list of Mac Utilities. Double-click it to launch the Terminal.
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When the Terminal is launched, click the 'platform-tools' folder icon, hold the Command button and drag it to the Terminal window.
Alternatively, you can type the path of the ‘platform-tools‘ folder and press enter.
Example: cd /Users/username/Desktop/platform-tools
This will change directory (cd) and set the Terminal's path to the folder with the ADB and Fastboot files.
You are all set to run ADB commands in the Mac Terminal. To verify that you have done everything correctly, type the following command and press enter.
./adb tcpip 5555
A list of connected devices should appear. You can now use Android Debug Bridge for your devices!