CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidmacosadb
pankaj
pankaj

Reputation: 8328

Not able to access adb in OS X through Terminal, "command not found"

I have installed Android SDK and Eclipse on my Mac system. I am able to program using Eclipse and have created few sample applications. But I am still not able to access adb through the terminal window. I have tried following command in terminal: 

$ pwd
/Users/espireinfolabs/Desktop/soft/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools

$ ls
NOTICE.txt  dexdump     llvm-rs-cc-2
aapt        dx          llvm-rs-cc.txt
adb         lib         source.properties
aidl        llvm-rs-cc

$ adb --help
-bash: adb: command not found

I have also added the ls output so that you know in which window I am.

Upvotes: 384

Views: 480647

Answers (22)

slhck
slhck

Reputation: 38652

The problem is: adb is not in your PATH. This is where the shell looks for executables. You can check your current PATH with echo $PATH.

Bash will first try to look for a binary called adb in your Path, and not in the current directory. Therefore, if you are currently in the platform-tools directory, just call

./adb --help

The dot is your current directory, and this tells Bash to use adb from there.

But actually, you should add platform-tools to your PATH, as well as some other tools that the Android SDK comes with. This is how you do it:

  1. Find out where you installed the Android SDK. This might be (where $HOME is your user's home directory) one of the following (or verify via Configure > SDK Manager in the Android Studio startup screen):
  • Linux: $HOME/Android/Sdk
  • macOS: $HOME/Library/Android/sdk
  1. Find out which shell profile to edit, depending on which file is used:
  • Linux: typically $HOME/.bashrc
  • macOS: typically $HOME/.bash_profile (Zsh became the default shell in macOS since Catalina)
  • Linux and macOS with Zsh: $HOME/.zshrc
  1. Open the shell profile from step two, and at the bottom of the file, add the following lines. Make sure to replace the path with the one where you installed platform-tools if it differs:
# macOS
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Library/Android/sdk"

# Linux
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/sdk"

# macOS and Linux
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
  1. Save the profile file, then re-start the terminal or run source ~/.bashrc (or whatever you just modified).

Note that setting ANDROID_HOME is required for some third-party frameworks, so it does not hurt to add it.

Upvotes: 693

user3193413
user3193413

Reputation: 634

The only thing that worked for me was opening the terminal settings and changing the shell path from /bin/bash to /bin/zsh enter image description here

enter image description here

Upvotes: 0

Freddy
Freddy

Reputation: 2382

UPDATE

As @Loren.A mentioned in comment latest version of brew does not support cast. So one can simply use:

brew install android-platform-tools

  1. Simply install adb with brew

    brew cask install android-platform-tools

  2. Check if adb is installed

    adb devices

Upvotes: 38

Tristan Richard
Tristan Richard

Reputation: 4055

For zsh users. Add alias adb='/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb' to .zshrc file.

Then run source ~/.zshrc command

Upvotes: 280

Zeeshan Mehdi
Zeeshan Mehdi

Reputation: 1439

enter image description hereThis is how it worked for me

first I find my platform-tools than I was using zshrc instead of bash_profile so I run this command first

echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:$HOME/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.zshrc

next refresh terminal

source ~/.zshrc

Check if it worked

adb devices

result of this command must be something similar to this if so then it worked.

List of devices attached
emulator-5554   device

Upvotes: 62

Thiago
Thiago

Reputation: 13292

If you have installed Android Studio on MAC here is how:

nano ~/.zshrc

or

open ~/.zshrc in VScode

Then edit the file

# Android ADB
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Library/Android/sdk"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"

control + X OR Save file. Restart Terminal and try

> adb

Upvotes: 47

Andrey Patseiko
Andrey Patseiko

Reputation: 4495

  1. run command in terminal nano $HOME/.zshrc

  2. Must include next lines:

    export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH="$HOME/.bin:$PATH"
export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

  3. Press Ctrl + X to save file in editor,Enter Yes or No and hit Enter key

  4. Run source ~/.zshrc

  5. Check adb in terminal, run adb

Upvotes: 161

Swapnil Patange
Swapnil Patange

Reputation: 1

Follow steps below

  • Open bash_profile using open -e .bash_profile
  • write export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
  • close bash_profile file
  • run source .bash_profile
  • Done run your adb command now !!

In some cases, you may need to run source .bash_profile every time you open cmd to run adb commands

Upvotes: 0

Mahesh Jamdade
Mahesh Jamdade

Reputation: 20221

If you are using the Mac with the M1 chip add the below export command to the zshrc file using the nano command, if that file is not present the nano command will create it for you so run

nano ~/.zshrc

paste this path in that file without any modification

export PATH="/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

hit ctrl-x and then Hit y to save the changes and the hit return Key to close it without renaming the file.

then run

source ~/.zshrc

to refresh the .zshrc file

and then try runnning

adb

it should give you the desired output

Upvotes: 21

eMarine
eMarine

Reputation: 1188

I don't know how did you install the android SDK. But in Mac OS, what really worked for me is to reinstall it using brew. All problems solved in a row.

brew install --cask android-sdk

Later on:

android update sdk --no-ui --filter 'platform-tools'

Like a charm

Upvotes: 52

Rajeev Jayaswal
Rajeev Jayaswal

Reputation: 1501

This worked for me on my MAC - 2020

Go to directory containing adb:

cd ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/

Run adb command to list all services

./adb shell dumpsys activity services

Upvotes: 7

Dazzle
Dazzle

Reputation: 3083

I couldn't get the stupid path working so I created an alias for abd

alias abd ="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb"

works fine.

Upvotes: 3

Navkar Shah
Navkar Shah

Reputation: 1

For Mac Os the default shell has moved on to "zsh" from "bash" as of Mojave and later releases, so for all the Mac users I would suggest go with the creating ".zshrc" file. "adb" runs as it is intended to be. Thanks @slhck for your info.!

Upvotes: 0

Pankaj Kant Patel
Pankaj Kant Patel

Reputation: 2060

For Mac OS Catalina or Mojave

Enter command to open nano editor 

nano $HOME/.zshrc

Set PATH variable, means append more path as shown here

FLUTTER_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/flutter-sdk/flutter/bin"
DART_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/flutter-sdk/flutter/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin"
ANDROID_SDK_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/sdk"
ANDROID_ADB_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools"

PATH="$PATH:$FLUTTER_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$DART_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_ADB_HOME"

Now press Command + X to save file in editor,Enter Yes or No and hit Enter key.

Upvotes: 6

Jordan Daniels
Jordan Daniels

Reputation: 5304

For Mac, Android Studio 3.6.1, I added this to .bash_profile

export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/platform-tools":$PATH

Upvotes: 2

KLTR
KLTR

Reputation: 1334

For some reason when installed Android Studio 3.6.1 the adb file was actually in $ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/platform-tools. not sure if this is a bug with my installation or what but this fixed it for me.

Upvotes: 1

Faris Rayhan
Faris Rayhan

Reputation: 4636

Or the alternative solution could be

  1. Make sure you already install for android SDK. Usually it is located under /Users/your-user-name/Library/Android/sdk

  2. If the SDK is there then run this command. ./platform-tools/adb install your-apk-location

  3. From there you can generate the APK file That's the only sample to check if adb command is there

Upvotes: 1

Hamid Asghari
Hamid Asghari

Reputation: 5889

Quick Answer

Pasting this command in terminal solves the issue in most cases:

** For Current Terminal Session:

  • (in macOS) export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH
  • (in Windows) i will update asap

** Permanently:

  • (in macOS) edit the ~/.bash_profile using vi ~/.bash_profile and add this line to it: export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

However, if not, continue reading.

Detailed Answer

Android Debug Bridge, or adb for short, is usually located in Platform Tools and comes with Android SDK, You simply need to add its location to system path. So system knows about it, and can use it if necessary.

Find ADB's Location

Path to this folder varies by installation scenario, but common ones are:

  • If you have installed Android Studio, path to ADB would be: (Most Common)
    • (in macOS) ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
    • (in Windows) i will update asap

  • If you have installed Android Studio somewhere else, determine its location by going to:

    • (in macOS) Android Studio > Preferences > Appearance And Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK and pay attention to the box that says: Android SDK Location
    • (in Windows) i will update asap
  • However Android SDK could be Installed without Android studio, in this case your path might be different, and depends on your installation.

Add it to System Path

When you have determined ADB's location, add it to system, follow this syntax and type it in terminal:

  • (in macOS)

    export PATH="your/path/to/adb/here":$PATH

    for example: export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

Upvotes: 68

div
div

Reputation: 1533

If you are using zsh on an OS X, you have to edit the zshrc file.

Use vim or your favorite text editor to open zshrc file:

vim ~/.zshrc

Paste the path to adb in this file:

export PATH="/Users/{$USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

Upvotes: 13

ragamufin
ragamufin

Reputation: 4162

For me, I ran into this issue after switching over from bash to zsh so I could get my console to look all awesome fantastic-ish with Hyper and the snazzy theme. I was trying to run my react-native application using react-native run-android and running into the op's issue. Adding the following into my ~.zshrc file solved the issue for me:

export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=${PATH}:${ANDROID_HOME}/tools:${ANDROID_HOME}/platform-tools

Upvotes: 37

kockburn
kockburn

Reputation: 17606

In addition to slhck, this is what worked for me (mac).

To check where your sdk is located.

  1. Open Android studio and go to:

File -> Project Structure -> Sdk location

  1. Copy the path.

  2. Create the hidden .bash_profile in your home.

  3. (open it with vim, or open -e) with the following:
export PATH=/Users/<Your session name>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/Users/<Your session name>/Library/Android/sdk/tools:$PATH
  1. Then simply use this in your terminal: . ~/.bash_profile

SO post on how to find adb devices

Upvotes: 77

Soumik Majumder
Soumik Majumder

Reputation: 1

It's working fine.. 

brew install android-sdk

Later on:

android update sdk --no-ui --filter 'platform-tools'

Upvotes: -13

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