I just installed Android Studio. How do I get into root shell on my phone? Or do I have to download ADB separately?
4 Answers
Android Studio does not contain ADB, you need Android SDK for it (it is installed on first run of Android Studio 0.9.x and newer). ADB is located in sdk\platform-tools
.
It's possible to add to PATH in Windows and use Terminal inside Android Studio only by command: adb shell
and after use su
get root shell.
- Locate the SDK platform tools folder (e.g. C:\android\sdk\platform-tools)
- Open Enviroment Variables in Windows (See http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm)
- Append the platform tools path (e.g. C:\android\sdk\platform-tools) to the PATH variable
- Reopen Android Studio
- Use Terminal with
adb shell
Older Windows will maybe need to reboot after changing the PATH variables.
On newer Android Studio versions, the Android SDK is copied on a folder outside the Android Studio folder; it is downloaded after the first time you run Android Studio. For more information, see Android Studio 0.8.14 in Beta Channel.
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I just installed Android Studio on Windows and there is no .\sdk folder in C:\Programs\Android Studio...– daaxixJan 1, 2015 at 6:39
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1Actually, it was installed in userspace (user directory) instead, I haven't used ADB in awhile...– daaxixJan 5, 2015 at 19:15
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17On Windows, running Android Studio 1.5.x, it installed to this path for me:
C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe
– Joel BJan 18, 2016 at 1:26 -
1This answer is out of date. Please edit it or downvote it. The answer by B.Rossow is correct. Mar 18, 2019 at 19:18
WINDOWS: In the current version of Android Studio, ADB.exe is located in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools\
. Earlier versions of Android Studio have it in %LOCALDATA%\Android\sdk\platform-tools
instead.
MAC: Find the ADB executable in ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
.
To open the ADB shell: Ensure Android Studio is installed. In the command line interface (CLI) for your platform -- Command Prompt for Windows or Terminal for Mac -- navigate to the location of the ADB executable as described above (you can copy/paste the strings as shown and don't need to type in your actual username) and do the following:
- Type
adb devices
and press Enter. - Locate the name of your device in the list.
- Type
adb -s XXXX shell
and press Enter, replacing XXXX with the name of your device from the previous step.
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1The accepted answer didn't help with finding where ADB is installed. Newer versions install it on a per-user directory.– apadernoNov 18, 2017 at 19:30
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I expanded my original answer to include current and historic paths and multiple platforms. :)– B.RossowJan 8, 2018 at 16:22
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1You got the where, but missed the how. Put them together and its the superior answer. Mar 22 at 20:18
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1@Sn3akyP3t3 Good point. I added the "how" as suggested and am open to further recommendations for improvement.– B.RossowMar 23 at 22:37
On a Mac Android Studio installs adb there:
/Users/<your username>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
To use it in your shell, you can add it to your .profile file:
export PATH=/Users/<your username>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH
Please open a fresh terminal window after you did that, or load the changes by typing this in your terminal:
source ~/.profile
Once you have Android Studio set up make sure you can connect to an emulator or a device where it will be listed in the AVD (Android Virtual Devices). If a physical device is connected confirm that debugging mode is enabled and access is allowed to Android Studio. A separate ADB is not needed as all the build tools are part of the IDE.
Now you are ready to access your device's shell!
Access the terminal at the bottom of the IDE by selecting the Terminal button.
In the terminal issue
adb devices
. This will list the all devices currently connected to Android Studio. Find and use your device's name for step 3.Now issue
adb -s <device-name> shell
. Now you are in your device's shell.
On a side note, if you want to access the shell of an emulator with root access installed from Android Studio, issue a adb -s <device-name> root
before accessing the shell.
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After "adb -s <device-name> root" how to exit then get in again with non-root user? Getting in again with shell the user is still root.– jw_Oct 22, 2019 at 4:44
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