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ADB Commands Note

Homan Huang
Geek Culture
Published in
8 min readJun 4, 2021

Android Debug Bridge is a pathway between your PC to your Android phone. Many commands behind the Android Studio are executed by ADB. I will go over some ADB commands so you know what it does. I write about this article because some old 👵commands of ADB are not working anymore😱. I have to try them one by one to refresh our memory.

— === Menu === —

💡 1. Requirements
📱 2. Enter the Emulator or Device
📋 3. Grab Logcat
📀 4. File IO | Backup
🏄 5. ScreenShot | URL | Image Gallery
📲 6. System Command
🕎 7. Wireless Debug Before Android 11

💡 1. Requirements …… → Menu

Please install these software:

  • Android Studio 4 — It can save you a lot of work to gather the components part by part.
  • AVD — Android Emulator

Android Studio

Let’s click the cube.

If both arrow-pointed spots are checked, please go to the next step.

Add path:

You need to run ADB in the Windows command-line interface. So you need to insert its command into the environment path.

C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\

For example,

Let’s check. Open a CMD:

adb --version

📱 2. Enter the Emulator or Device …… → Menu

Android Studio

AVD

If you have a blank list, please click “Create Virtual Device”.
Find one of your AVD, click the run button.

Terminal

Windows CLI/CMD

CLI/CMD has a better view than the terminal.

ADB: List devices

adb devices

Now, you can connect your phone to this computer, too.

Run again,

Add another AVD:

C:\Users\Homan>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY326LVCZQ      device
emulator-5554   device
emulator-5556   device

ADB → “-s”: link to device

I preset system for multiple devices connection. So you’ll have this error with a shell command.

C:\Users\Homan>adb shell
adb.exe: more than one device/emulator

You need to specify the device before other instructions.

C:\Users\Homan>adb -s ZY326LVCZQ shell
ocean:/ $

Once again,

adb -s DEVICE_NAME command

When you enter the phone shell, you just use it as a Linux machine.

Linux commands:

Directory only:

ls -d *

Specific Listing:

ls -l

List File size:

ls -s

List subdirectories recursively:

ls -R

Find file:

find . -name FILE_NAME

📋 3. Grab Logcat …… → Menu

With multiple devices:

I will open and run a project with some Logcat commands in the code.

Logcat: grab all → *:V

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat *:V

I have a very long list and it is automatically updated by itself.

With color → -v color

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat *:V -v color

Logcat: search by filter: TAG:{V/D/I/W/E} *:S

  • V — Verbose (lowest priority)
  • D — Debug
  • I — Info
  • W — Warning
  • E — Error
  • F — Fatal
  • S — Silent (highest priority, on which nothing is ever printed)

Example

Here is my Logcat tag: MLOG. I have it in permission call.

const val TAG = "MLOG"
fun lgd(s:String) = Log.d(TAG, s)// app permission
private val reqMultiplePermissions = registerForActivityResult(
    ActivityResultContracts.RequestMultiplePermissions()
) { permissions ->
    permissions.entries.forEach {
        lgd("mainAct: Permission: ${it.key} = ${it.value}")
        if (!it.value) {
            // toast
            msg(this, "Permission: ${it.key} denied!", 1)
            finish()
        }
    }
}

After I ran the app, I can grab my tab in CMD.

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat MLOG:D *:S -d

The “-d” will dump the log on screen until now.

Export(Windows/MAC/Linux): -d > your_file

I can export the log to a text file. You must use “-d” option for the export.

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat MLOG:D *:S -d > mlog.txt

Clear everything: -c

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat -c

Radio only: -b radio

adb -s emulator-5556 logcat -b radio -d

Bugreport

>adb -s emulator-5554 bugreport

📀 4. File IO | Backup …… → Menu

Copy File or Directory

I have two file in the directory:

D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug>dir
 Volume in drive D is 512 Gigabyte
 Volume Serial Number is BE4E-1582Directory of D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug05/19/2021  11:52 PM    <DIR>          .
05/19/2021  11:52 PM    <DIR>          ..
05/30/2021  10:26 AM         7,589,765 app-debug.apk
05/30/2021  10:26 AM               324 output-metadata.json
               2 File(s)      7,590,089 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  141,708,402,688 bytes free

Local → Remote: push

>adb -s emulator-5556 push output-metadata.json /mnt/sdcard/tmp
output-metadata.json: 1 file pushed, 0 skipped. 0.2 MB/s (324 bytes in 0.001s)

Let’s check:

>adb -s emulator-5556 shell ls -l /mnt/sdcard/tmp
total 392
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw 386980 2021-06-03 15:20 mlog.txt
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw    324 2021-05-30 10:26 output-metadata.json

👍Good!

Remote → Local: pull

>adb -s emulator-5556 pull /mnt/sdcard/tmp .
/mnt/sdcard/tmp/: 2 files pulled, 0 skipped. 8.5 MB/s (387304 bytes in 0.043s)

Let’s check:

D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug>dir
 Volume in drive D is 512 Gigabyte
 Volume Serial Number is BE4E-1582Directory of D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug06/03/2021  04:48 PM    <DIR>          .
06/03/2021  04:48 PM    <DIR>          ..
05/30/2021  10:26 AM         7,589,765 app-debug.apk
05/30/2021  10:26 AM               324 output-metadata.json
06/03/2021  04:48 PM    <DIR>          tmp
               2 File(s)      7,590,089 bytes
               3 Dir(s)  141,707,948,032 bytes free

👍Good!

Backup settings and apps

>adb -s emulator-5554 backup -apk -all -f backup.ab
WARNING: adb backup is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
Now unlock your device and confirm the backup operation...

It has a timeout for about a minute.

>dir *.ab
 Volume in drive D is 512 Gigabyte
 Volume Serial Number is BE4E-1582Directory of D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug06/03/2021  11:32 PM         6,115,506 backup.ab
               1 File(s)      6,115,506 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  142,200,012,800 bytes free

Backup settings, apps and shared storage

>adb -s emulator-5554 backup -apk -shared -all -f backup.ab

Size:

>dir *.ab
 Volume in drive D is 512 Gigabyte
 Volume Serial Number is BE4E-1582Directory of D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug06/03/2021  11:35 PM         6,854,985 backup.ab
               1 File(s)      6,854,985 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  142,199,263,232 bytes free

Bigger!

Backup only non-system apps

>adb -s emulator-5554 backup -apk -nosystem -all -f backup.ab

Restore a previous backup

>adb -s emulator-5554 restore backup.ab
WARNING: adb restore is deprecated and may be removed in a future release
Now unlock your device and confirm the restore operation.

🏄 5. ScreenShot | URL | Image Gallery …… → Menu

Screenshot

I am running the Map Demo.

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell screencap -p /sdcard/screencap.png

Next, you need to download the file.

>adb -s emulator-5554 pull /sdcard/screencap.png
/sdcard/screencap.png: 1 file pulled, 0 skipped. 114.6 MB/s (739708 bytes in 0.006s)

Let’s see.

Open an URL

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d https://www.youtube.com
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=https://www.youtube.com/... }

Open Image Gallery

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell am start -t image/* -a android.intent.action.VIEW
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW typ=image/* }

📲 6. System Command …… → Menu

Install APK → install -t filename

>adb -s emulator-5556 install -t app-debug.apk
Performing Streamed Install
Success

Reboot → reboot

>adb -s emulator-5556 reboot

Kill Server → kill-server

>adb kill-server>adb devices
* daemon not running; starting now at tcp:5037
* daemon started successfully
List of devices attached

Start Server → start-server

>adb start-server>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY326LVCZQ      device
emulator-5554   offline
emulator-5556   device

Direct call USB device: -d

>adb -d shell ls

It’s same as

>adb -s PHONE_NAME shell ls

But it is much faster.

Solve Offline Issue

D:\Android\test\MapDemo\app\build\outputs\apk\debug>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY326LVCZQ      device
emulator-5554   offline

Shut emulator-5554 down.

In AVD manager: Wipe Data

Run the same AVD again. Let’s test.

>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY326LVCZQ      device
emulator-5554   device

Get the serial number

>adb -s emulator-5554 get-serialno
emulator-5554

List TCP connectivity

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell netstat
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp      710      0 10.0.2.16:49426         142.250.138.95:https    CLOSE_WAIT
tcp        1      0 10.0.2.16:45254         123.35.104.34.bc.g:http CLOSE_WAIT
tcp        1      0 10.0.2.16:42070         74.125.103.39:http      CLOSE_WAIT
tcp        1      0 10.0.2.16:60892         yb-in-f101.1e100.n:http CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       0      0 ::ffff:10.0.2.16:56838  yw-in-f188.1e100.n:5228 ESTABLISHED
tcp6       1      0 ::ffff:10.0.2.16:49522  dfw25s41-in-f14.1:https CLOSE_WAIT
tcp6       1      0 ::ffff:10.0.2.16:49524  dfw25s41-in-f14.1:https CLOSE_WAIT
...

Battery Status

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell dumpsys battery
Current Battery Service state:
  AC powered: false
  USB powered: false
  Wireless powered: false
  Max charging current: 0
  Max charging voltage: 0
  Charge counter: 10000
  status: 4
  health: 2
  present: true
  level: 100
  scale: 100
  voltage: 5000
  temperature: 250
  technology: Li-ion

Phone features

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell pm list features
feature:reqGlEsVersion=0x30000
feature:android.hardware.audio.output
feature:android.hardware.camera
feature:android.hardware.camera.any
feature:android.hardware.camera.ar
feature:android.hardware.camera.autofocus
feature:android.hardware.camera.capability.manual_post_processing
feature:android.hardware.camera.capability.manual_sensor
feature:android.hardware.camera.front
feature:android.hardware.camera.level.full
feature:android.hardware.faketouch
feature:android.hardware.fingerprint
feature:android.hardware.location

Service List

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell service list
Found 165 services:
0 ions: [com.android.internal.telephony.IOns]
1 gsiservice: []
2 rcs: [com.android.ims.internal.IRcsService]
3 secure_element: [android.se.omapi.ISecureElementService]
4 carrier_config: [com.android.internal.telephony.ICarrierConfigLoader]
5 phone: [com.android.internal.telephony.ITelephony]

CPU process

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell ps
USER           PID  PPID     VSZ    RSS WCHAN            ADDR S NAME
root             1     0   31740   2512 0                   0 S init
root             2     0       0      0 0                   0 S [kthreadd]
root             4     2       0      0 0                   0 I [kworker/0:0H]
root             6     2       0      0 0                   0 I [mm_percpu_wq]
root             7     2       0      0 0                   0 S [ksoftirqd/0]
root             8     2       0      0 0                   0 I [rcu_preempt]
root             9     2       0      0 0                   0 I [rcu_sched]

Screen size

>adb -s emulator-5554 shell wm size
Physical size: 1080x1920

🕎 7. Wireless Debug Before Android 11 …… → Menu

Connect phone through a USB cable + Turn on WiFi of the phone

Get WiFi IP address

>adb -d shell ip -o a | grep 192.16828: wlan0    inet 192.168.1.75/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0\       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Or you can search the phrase “wlan0” if you are working at a free WiFi area.

Set TCP port of remote device

>adb -d tcpip 5559
restarting in TCP mode port: 5559

Connect the device with IP+port

>adb connect 192.168.1.75:5559
connected to 192.168.1.75:5559

Check result:

>adb devices
List of devices attached
ZY326LVCZQ      device
192.168.1.75:5559       device
emulator-5554   device

Do you like my ADB collection?

🐒:Clap…clap…

Adb
Android App Development
Cli
Linux

--

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Homan Huang
Geek Culture

Written by Homan Huang

133 Followers
Writer for

Computer Science BS from SFSU. I studied and worked on Android system since 2017. If you are interesting in my past works, please go to my LinkedIn.

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