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How to install ADB on Windows, macOS, and Linux

BY SKANDA HAZARIKA UPDATED OCT 28, 2022

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What is Android Debug Bridge (ADB)?
Samsung Galaxy S23
How does ADB work? 31%, 1351 votes

How to set up ADB

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Examples of ADB Commands
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What else can I do with ADB?

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Several features of the Android platform can be accessed only through paths and methods that are
hidden away from the average user. These have generally been done with the help of some
command line Android Debug Bridge (ADB) commands, a tool that Google offers for developers to Apple iPhone 15
20%, 899 votes
debug various parts of their applications or the system, but which we can use for all kinds of neat
and hidden tricks. A prerequisite to these tricks is installing ADB on your computer. So, in this guide,
we will show you how to install ADB on Windows, macOS, and Linux in quick and easy-to-follow Something else
17%, 709 votes
steps.

Total Votes: 4392

What is Android Debug Bridge (ADB)?

The internal structure of the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is based on the classic client-server
architecture. There are three components that make up the entire process.
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How does ADB work? See More

Because there are three pieces that makeup ADB (the client, the daemon, and the server), this
requires certain pieces to be up and running in the first place. So if you have freshly booted the
computer (and you don’t have it setup to start the daemon on boot), then you will need it to be Trending Now
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If the daemon isn’t running, then it will start the process and tell you which local TCP port it has
been started on. Once that ADB service has been started, it will continue to listen to that specific
port for commands that have been sent by the ADB client. It will then set up connections to all
running devices which are attached to the computer (including emulators). This is the moment
where you’ll receive the authorization request on the Android device if the computer hasn’t been
authorized in the past.

How to set up ADB

Note

Note: Setting up ADB on the computer is just half the equation since
you'll also need to do some things on the smartphone or tablet to accept
the ADB commands.

Phone setup
1. Launch the Settings application on your phone.

2. Tap the About phone option generally near the bottom of the list.

Depending on the OEM skin, the “About phone” page may be called something else or
buried somewhere else in Settings on your device.

3. Then tap the Build number option 7 times to enable Developer Mode. You will see a toast
message when it is done.

4. Now go back to the main Settings screen and you should see a new Developer options menu
you can access. On Google Pixel phones and some other devices, you might need to navigate
to Settings > System to find the Developer options menu.

5. Go in there and enable the USB debugging option.

6. You are partially done with the phone setup process. Next up, you will need to scroll below
and follow the rest of the instructions for your particular operating system.

Follow along for the operating system on your computer.

How to set up ADB on Microsoft Windows

1. Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for Windows.

2. Extract the contents of this ZIP file into an easily accessible folder (such as C:\platform-tools)

3. Open Windows explorer and browse to where you extracted the contents of this ZIP file

4. Then open up a Command Prompt from the same directory as this ADB binary. This can be
done by holding Shift and right-clicking within the folder then click the “Open command
window here” option. Windows 11 users should see “Open in Terminal” in the right-click
context menu without even pressing the Shift button on the keyboard.

5. Connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer with a USB cable. Change the USB
mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. Some OEMs may or may not require this, but it's best to
just leave it in this mode for general compatibility.

6. In the Command Prompt window, enter the following command to launch the ADB daemon:
adb devices

7. On your phone's screen, you should see a prompt to allow or deny USB Debugging access.
Naturally, you will want to grant USB Debugging access when prompted (and tap the always
allow check box if you never want to see that prompt again).

8. Finally, re-enter the command from step 6. If everything was successful, you should now see
your device's serial number in the command prompt (or the PowerShell window).

Yay! You can now run any ADB command on your device! Now go forth and start modding your
phone by following our extensive list of tutorials!

How to set up ADB on macOS

1. Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for macOS.

2. Extract the ZIP to an easily-accessible location (like the Desktop for example).

3. Open Terminal.

4. To browse to the folder you extracted ADB into, enter the following command: cd
/path/to/extracted/folder/

For example, on my Mac it was this: cd /Users/Doug/Desktop/platform-

tools/

5. Connect your device to your Mac with a compatible USB cable. Change the USB connection
mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not always required for every device, but it's best
to just leave it in this mode so you don't run into any issues.

6. Once the Terminal is in the same folder your ADB tools are in, you can execute the following
command to launch the ADB daemon: ./adb devices

7. On your device, you'll see an "Allow USB debugging" prompt. Allow the connection.

install adb

8. Finally, re-enter the command from step 7. If everything was successful, you should now see
your device's serial number in macOS's Terminal window.

macOS Terminal adb devices command

Congratulations! You can now run any ADB command on your device! Now go forth and start
modding your phone by following our extensive list of tutorials!

While the guide above will certainly work, some seasoned macOS users should be aware that there
can be an easier way to install ADB on their Macs using an unofficial package manager such as
Homebrew or MacPorts.

How to set up ADB on Linux

1. Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for Linux.

2. Extract the ZIP to an easily-accessible location (like the Desktop for example).

3. Open a Terminal window.

4. Enter the following command: cd /path/to/extracted/folder/

5. This will change the directory to where you extracted the ADB files.

Example: cd /Users/Doug/Desktop/platform-tools/

6. Connect your device to your Linux machine with your USB cable. Change the connection
mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not always necessary for every device, but it's
recommended so you don't run into any issues.

7. Once the Terminal is in the same folder your ADB tools are in, you can execute the following
command to launch the ADB daemon: ./adb devices

8. Back on your smartphone or tablet device, you'll see a prompt asking you to allow USB
debugging. Go ahead and grant it.

install adb

9. Finally, re-enter the command from step 8. If everything was successful, you should now see
your device's serial number in the Terminal window output.

Ubuntu Linux adb devices command

Congrats! You can now run any ADB command on your device! Now go forth and start modding your
phone by following our extensive list of tutorials!

Some Linux users should be aware that there can be an easier way to install ADB on their computer.
The guide above will certainly work for you, but those own a Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora/SUSE-based
distro of Linux can skip steps 1 and 2 of the guide above and use one of the following commands:

Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux users can type the following command to install ADB:

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb

Fedora/SUSE-based Linux users can type the following command to install ADB:

sudo yum install android-tools

However, it is always better to opt for the latest binary from the Android SDK Platform Tools
release, since the distro-specific packages often contain outdated builds.

Just to cover all of our bases here, users may need to put a ./ in front of the ADB commands we list
in future tutorials, especially when they are using the extracted binaries directly from the Platform
Tools ZIP. This is something that is likely known by any *nix user (or Windows user running
PowerShell) already, but again, we want as many people as possible to understand how to do these
tweaks for Android no matter how much of your operating system you know.

Optional: How to use ADB over Wi-Fi

Android 11 and higher editions natively support ADB connection over Wi-Fi. This eliminates the
need to deal with common USB connection issues and additional steps such as Android OEM driver
installation on Windows.

In order to set up wireless debugging, do the following:

1. Make sure that your PC/Mac and the phone are connected to the same wireless network.

2. On your phone, go to Developer options under Settings and enable Wireless debugging. On
the Allow wireless debugging on this network? popup, select Allow.

Android 11 USB debugging and wireless debugging

3. Tap on the Wireless debugging option and select Pair device with pairing code.

Android 11 wireless debugging

4. Take note of the pairing code, IP address, and port number displayed on the phone screen.

Android wireless debugging pair device with pairing code

5. On your PC/Mac, run the following command:

adb pair IP_Address:Port

Use the IP address and port number from step 4.

6. When prompted, enter the pairing code that you received in step 4. A message should
indicate that your device has been successfully paired.

7. Next, run the following command on the PC/Mac's terminal window:

adb connect IP_Address:Port

Look at the IP address & Port section under Wireless debugging in step 3 for the IP address
and port.

8. If everything goes right, then you should see a message like the following:

connected to 192.168.68.100:37173

9. Now you’re ready to type whatever ADB shell command you want.

Examples of ADB Commands

To check if you have successfully installed ADB, connect your device to your PC/Mac with your USB
cable, and run the adb devices command as described above. It should display your device listed
in the Command Prompt/PowerShell/Terminal window. If you get a different output, we
recommend starting over with the steps.

As mentioned above, you can use ADB to do all sorts of things on an Android device. Some of these
commands are built directly into the ADB binary and should work on all devices. You can also open
up what is referred to as an ADB Shell and this will let you run commands directly on the device.
The commands which are run directly on the device can vary from device to device (since OEMs can
remove access to certain ones, and also modify adb behavior) and can vary from one version of
Android to the next as well.

Below, you’ll find a list of example commands which you can do on your device:

Print a list of connected devices: adb devices

Kill the ADB server: adb kill-server

Install an application: adb install <path_to_the_APK_file>

Set up port forwarding: adb forward tcp:6100 tcp:7100

Copy a file/directory from the device: adb pull <path_to_the_remote_object>

<path_to_the_local_destination>

Copy a file/directory to the device: adb push <path_to_the_local_object>

<path_to_the_remote_destination>

Initiate an ADB shell: adb shell

Bonus
For those who want to take this a step further, you can follow this new tutorial we put together
that will walk you through how to set up ADB so that you can use the command from any directory
on a Windows or Linux desktop.

What else can I do with ADB?

Below is a list of XDA tutorials for various devices that detail many applications of ADB commands
in order to modify hidden settings, customize OEM features or user interfaces, and much more!

How to disable any pre-installed system app bloatware on Android without root

How to debloat your phone (and more) without connecting to a PC

How to remove Facebook bloatware from the OnePlus 8 series and OnePlus Nord

Tasker 5.9.2 beta lets you run ADB shell commands without being tethered to a PC

Control your Android Smartphone from your PC for free with scrcpy

How to Pair Android Wear Watches to New Phones without Factory Resetting

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About The Author

Skanda Hazarika (832 Articles Published)
DIY enthusiast (i.e. salvager of old PC parts). An avid user of Android since the Eclair days, Skanda also likes to follow the
recent development trends in the world of single-board computing.

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