ADB-The Most useful tool in Android

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ADB (Android Debug Bridge)

ADB is a command-line tool that lets you communicate with connected devices. It provides various device actions like clear app data, debugging apps, see device stats, capture screenshot etc..

In this article we’ll cover usage of some of the most useful commands of ADB.

ADB Shell

In adb you can start shell script and run shell commands like ls, rm, mkdir, netstat, dumpsys etc...

I find ls quite useful whenever i have to pull and push file between system and device it helps me finding files location on device

adb shell ls

you can see sdcard in image right? Our device files are stored there we can use cd, ls to find files then use pull and push command to move files

ADB Pull and Push

Passing files between Device and System(Laptop or PC).

Push: Moving file from system to device.

adb push system-file-path device-file-path
e.g:
adb push /Users/.../screen.png /sdcard/screenshots/screen.png

Pull: Fetching files from device to system

adb pull source destination
e.g.
adb pull /sdcard/screenshots/screen.png 

If destination isn’t provided then file will be pulled to current directory opened in your Terminal.

ADB Screenshot

Capturing screenshot using screencap command.

adb shell screencap /sdcard/screen.png

ADB Install/Uninstall

To install an APK either release or debug use

adb install /path-to-apk/app-debug.apk

Sometimes we want to install an updated APK over existing there we need to specify a release flag like -r

adb install -r .../app-release.apk

To uninstall an apk

adb uninstall com.balsikandar.adbtest.debug

ADB Screen Record

This one is mostly useful for Testers. I said testers because they can start recording before doing manual testing and share recordings if any issue occurs.

adb shell screenrecord /path-on-device/recording.mp4

By default we can record a video of at max 3 minutes but it can be changed by specifying time-limitproperty

adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/recording.mp4 --time-limit 20

There are many other properties which we can specify. Use help to know details

adb shell screenrecord --help

ADB am (Activity Manager)

am can be used to stuffs like broadcasting intent starting an activity or opening settings screen. Try below command to check what am provides.

adb shell am ## --help

Let’s look at some of the Examples:

Note: -a represents action, -c represents category and -n represents component and -d is data

Making a Call

To make a call use -a android.intent.action.CALL

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.CALL -d tel:88******97

Force stop an app

To force stop an app provide it’s packageName

adb shell am force-stop com.balsikandar.adbtest.debug

Open google map

Either you can provide latitude and longitude as below

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'geo:28.65381,77.22897'

Or you can query the address using q=search address

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d 'geo:0,0?q=ban'

Opening a Url

To open a url use am(Activity Manager) with

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d http://okcredit.in

Opening IME Settings

adb shell am start -a android.settings.INPUT_METHOD_SETTINGS

Broadcasting Intent

adb shell am broadcast android.net.conn.CONNECTIVITY_CHANGE

pm(Package manager)

pm also provides several useful commands

To see everything which pm provides run

adb shell pm ## --help

To view packages of all installed apps we can use

adb shell pm list packages

Enable disable Wifi

i know not very useful but it’s there

adb shell svc wifi disable 
adb shell svc wifi enable

There is many more which you can find and let me know too but these are i often use to save my time and debug my apps.

Some useful References:

ADB Idea - Plugins | JetBrains

I like ADB idea a lot. You should give it a try

Android Debug Bridge (adb) | Android Developers

How to Debug Your Android App over WiFi (without Root!)

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