Android Debug Bridge: How? What? Where?

How to Install ADB

For windows users, download this zip file and extract it to an easy-to-access folder. Then install the necessary drivers for your device from this website. Unfortunately, macOS and Linux users have to get the entire Android Platform SDK (200MB) in order to use ADB. Get it here. Once you have it installed, proceed to the next steps.

Note: Mac users should read this before proceeding .

Preparing Your Device for Use with ADB

Enable developer options in your device (Settings > About Device > Tap Build Number a couple of times until “Developer Options Enabled” appears).

Then enable “USB Debugging” and “Verify Apps via ADB/APT” in Developer Options.

Connect your Android device to your PC.

Use ADB

Navigate to where you extracted the above said zip file (Windows). Open a command prompt window in that folder. Type “ADB” followed by whatever commands you want to send to the device. For macOS and Linux users, just open a Terminal windows and type “adb” followed by whatever. Under some circumstances it might be necessary to navigate to ADB’s root directory and then executing commands (Unix-based).
Note: when connecting a device to your PC for the first time, a dialog box will appear on your device asking for permission to let your PC access your device, to which you must tick the “Remember This Computer” box and click “OK”.

Manage Your Device with ADB

ADB has a wide variety of functions for managing your device, moving content to and from your phone, installing apps, backing up and restoring your software, and more. Think of this as a general reference and not an encyclopedia. Remember to research your particular device before doing any of this! You can use ADB while your phone is plugged in to a computer.

adb devices

Function: Check connection and get basic information about devices connected to the computer. When using ADB, this is probably the first one command you’ll run. It will return a list of all devices that you have connected to your computer.

adb reboot recovery

Function: Reboot your phone into recovery mode. A lot of functions like flashing ROMs to your phone require you to boot into recovery mode. Normally, this requires you to hold down a particular set of buttons on your phone for a certain length of time, which is obnoxious. This command allows you to boot directly into recovery mode without performing the complex finger dance of your people.

adb reboot-bootloader

Function: Reboot your phone into bootloader mode. Along the same lines as the previous command, this one allows you to boot directly to your phone’s bootloader. Once you’re in the bootloader, ADB won’t work anymore. That’s where fastboot comes in (which we’ll get to in a bit). However, much like the recovery command, it’s much easier to boot into your bootloader with a command on your computer than a complex series of buttons on your phone.

adb push [destination]

Function: Copy files from your computer to your phone. The push command allows you to copy files from your computer to your phone without touching your device. This is particularly handy for copying large files from your computer to your phone like movies or ROMs. In order to use this command, you’ll need to know the full file path for both your source and destination (for all you newbies, here’s the path of your internal storage “/data/media/0” or /storage/emulated/0”. Host-side path should be easy. Ex. For a file named hellworld.txt in your downloads folder; “Users[username]Downloadshelloworld.txt” on macOS or “C/Users/[username]/Downloads/hellworld.txt”).

adb pull

Function: Copy files from your phone to your computer. The yin to push’s yang, the pull command in ADB allows you to copy files from your phone to your computer. When pulling files, you can choose to leave out the destination parameter. In that case, the file will be copied to the folder on your computer where ADB itself lives. You can then move it to wherever you’d prefer like normal.

adb install

Function: Remotely install APKs on your phone. You can use this command to install an app on your phone without touching it. While this isn’t a terribly impressive trick for an app that’s on the Play Store (where you can already remotely install, uninstall, and update apps), it’s quite handy if you need to sideload an app.

adb shell

Function: Open or run commands in a terminal on the host Android device. There are so many great things you can do with it. Most of us don’t tend to bother with the terminal in Android because we don’t want to type long text-based commands on a tiny touchscreen. However, the adb shell command allows you to open up a full terminal on the host device. Alternatively, you can type “adb shell” followed by a valid terminal command to execute just that one command by itself.

adb backup

Function: Create a full backup of your phone and save to the computer. Backing up your Android phone is already something you can and should be doing automatically. However, if you need to create a complete backup before hacking away at something particularly risky, you can create a full backup with a single command. You don’t even need root access (though this may mean that some protected data can’t be backed up). You can read more about the parameters for this command—and there are a lot of them—here.

adb restore

Function: Restore a backup to your phone. The corollary to the previous command, adb restore allows you to point to an existing backup file and restore it to your device. So, for example, type “adb restore “/Users/[username]/Desktop/[restorefile].zip” and your phone will shortly be back to normal.

adb sideload

Function: Push and flash custom ROMs and zips from your computer. This command is a relative newcomer to the ADB field and is only supported by some custom recoveries. However, you can use this single command to flash a .zip that’s on your computer to your phone. Once again, this allows you to flash whole OSs (or anything else you can flash with a .zip file) without touching your phone. These commands are just some of the more useful ones you can use with ADB installed on your computer. You may not want to use it all the time for everyday tasks, but when you need them, you’ll be glad you have them.

Unlock and Modify Your Phone’s Firmware with Fastboot

As stated above, fastboot allows you to send commands to your phone while in the bootloader (the one place ADB doesn’t work). While you can’t do quite as many things here, the things you can do are awesome, including unlocking certain phones—like Nexuses and certain others—as well as flashing custom recoveries and even some ROMs. It should be noted, though, that not all phones support fastboot and if you have a locked bootloader, you’re probably out of luck here. The devices that do support this are most Huawei, Oppo, LG, and anything (Including some high-end Samsung devices) with the “Unlock Bootloader” option in Developer Options . That being said, here are some of the most useful tools in fastboot’s arsenal.

fastboot oem unlock

Function: Unlock your bootloader, making root access possible. When people go on about how “open” Nexus devices are, this is what they’re talking about. Most phones require a root exploit to gain superuser access and the ability to heavily modify your phone’s firmware. With a Nexus device, you can unlock your bootloader with a single command. From there, you’ll be allowed to install custom recoveries or give yourself root access. It should be noted, this command will also completely wipe your phone. This means it’s a great command to run when you get a brand new phone, but if you’ve been using yours for a while, do a backup first.

fastboot devices

Function: Check connection and get basic information about devices connected to the computer. This is essentially the same command as ADB devices from earlier. However, it works in the bootloader, which ADB does not. Handy for ensuring that you have properly established a connection.

fastboot flash recovery

Function: Flash a custom recovery image to your phone. As with everything else in this list, you can install a custom recovery on your device without touching it by using this command.