Debugging with Android Studio stuck at "Waiting For Debugger" forever

Question

UPDATE The supposed duplicate is a question on being stucking in "Waiting For Debugger" when executing Run, while this question is on being stucking in "Waiting For Debugger" when executing Debug, the steps to produce the problem is different, and the solution(s) are different as well.

Whenever I try to use Android Studio's Debug function, the Run status would always stuck at:

Launching application: com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity.
DEVICE SHELL COMMAND: am start -n "com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity" -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity }

While the device (Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3) I'm debugging would display

enter image description here

This has being the case from Android Studio 0.8.8 all the way to 1.0. And on the same computer I can perform debugging using Eclipse on the same device without any issues.

So the question is what can I do to make Android Studio debugging work?

Update: The same thing happens when debugging on Nexus 7 (2013) running Android 5.0; and testing on another machine rendered the same result. I can't be the only one encountering this issue :-/

Update: Opened a bounty since this issue is so annoying. Even re-installing the app doesn't solve. Nexus 5 running Cyano, Win7 64. The ADB log is telling:

8568-8568/it.myapp:myprocess W/ActivityThread﹕ Application it.myapp is waiting for the debugger on port 8100...
8568-8568/it.myapp:myprocess I/System.out﹕ Sending WAIT chunk

Also, I can't find an easy way to disconnect nor reset ADB connection in Android Studio.

If you haven't already, you could try unchecking "Use Host GPU" in the AVD Config for your emulator. — Joseph Webber, Dec 12 '14 at 03:42
@JosephWebber Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm debugging on an actual hardware though — Kai, Dec 12 '14 at 04:02
I tested on Nexus 7 2013 with stock Android 4.4.2, and Samsung S3 with Android 4.3, neither worked. — Kai, Feb 10 '15 at 01:05
Hi, I got similar issue, I have try solution here but not work. Please help answer my question: http://stackoverflow.com/q/40838494/5241603 — K.Sopheak, Nov 29 '16 at 03:14
Possible duplicate of [Why Android Studio says "Waiting For Debugger" if am NOT debugging?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20537845/why-android-studio-says-waiting-for-debugger-if-am-not-debugging) — AlikElzin-kilaka, Dec 13 '16 at 06:31
@Kai I took a look again at both questions, they still look the same to me, yours has more logs/images. The solution I mention in what I believe is a duplicate, has helped multiple people with the issue you have described on AOSP Issue tracker. Can you explain how yours is a different issue? This is my first time marking something as a duplicate, I probably should have marked the other question as a duplicate instead. — vman, Jan 19 '17 at 08:43
@Kai Removing the duplicate flag and will link my answer here since the same question you asked might be solved using a quicker method for some people. — vman, Jan 19 '17 at 19:04
in my case i have to uncheck Wait for debugger in device Settings. — Beeing Jk, Oct 12 '17 at 02:12

score 173 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 11 '19 at 10:31

173

Just use this command to disable it. adb shell am clear-debug-app

answered Jun 11 '19 at 10:31

twlkyao

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where this command should be used? in the terminal? – Andrea Buzzelli Nov 21 '20 at 14:42
@AndreaBuzzelli Yes, in your terminal – twlkyao Nov 22 '20 at 09:32
Thanks man. Just ran this in Terminal in AS and it cleared it up for me. – TJ Olsen Nov 30 '20 at 21:00
did not work with me – Mahmoud Mabrok May 25 '21 at 14:11

Ohad Cohen · Answer 2 · 2016-12-27T21:36:17.040

96

On some machines/projects the debugger do not attach automatically so you need to attach it manually (studio menu -> Run -> Attach debugger to Android process)

edited Dec 27 '16 at 21:36

answered Sep 14 '16 at 08:57

Ohad Cohen

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Mine seemed to connect to the app before it was completely launched and "waiting for debugger", telling it to connect a second time after it was already connected resolved that. (android studio 162) – davenpcj Aug 17 '17 at 14:58
I was just in the Release mode :D – 10101010 Jan 25 '18 at 19:16

Nisar Ahmad · Answer 3 · 2016-09-19T08:45:01.843

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Restarting Testing device fix the issue for me.

edited Sep 19 '16 at 08:45

answered Feb 29 '16 at 13:00

Nisar Ahmad

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Same here, I tried everything above and this one did it for me.. Sigh – Dayan Nov 21 '16 at 20:21
Same here. My device was showing the message even when not connected to dev machine (not connected over adb in any way). So all the advice regarding Android Studio and ADB were irrelevant. TurningUSB debugging off/on didn't help either Rebooting the device was the only way to fix it. – Mark Oct 10 '17 at 15:06
Me device (emulated) was showing that message any time I opened the app (through Android Studio, or just from the launcher). Tried a whole bunch of stuff. Full on rebooting the phone didn't occur to me because it's been closed several times (but with a saved state, duh). This did the trick! – Nieminen Apr 10 '20 at 01:14

score 48 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 25 '15 at 04:57

48

Restarting Android Studio fix the issue for me.

answered Sep 25 '15 at 04:57

hris.to

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Funny thing is that is the usual fix for Xcode problems. Apparently both platforms are not that different at the end :) – hris.to Feb 12 '16 at 12:23
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No. Not for me. – DSlomer64 Sep 20 '17 at 12:34
Sorry to hear that. Apparently 2 years later, there is another problem & (hopefully) solution :) – hris.to Sep 20 '17 at 18:44

score 22 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 08 '18 at 03:07

22

After click on run icon. If it stuck at waiting for debugger means it is not attached to the app. You have to manually attach by clicking on Attach Debugger to Android process. It is on the right side of run icon. I had focus this icon in linked image.

edited Oct 08 '18 at 03:07

Samuel Liew

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answered Oct 07 '18 at 18:19

Rohit Kumar

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what if i am not launching debug, bug just running the app – lxknvlk Jun 27 '20 at 07:46

score 20 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 29 '16 at 17:27

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Debugger stopped connecting for me today and nothing worked until I tried the following:

Go to Run, Edit-Configurations, Miscellaneous Tab, uncheck 'skip installation if APK has not changed' Apply, OK.

Debugger started to connect again.

answered Jun 29 '16 at 17:27

user2658370

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score 20 · Answer 7 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

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A similar question has been asked recently and the solution may work for some and is very quick.

Clearing the Intellij IDEA (Android Studio) .idea directory which contains configuration information worked for me:

Exit Android Studio

Navigate to the project you are trying to debug

Backup any files inside .idea that you modified (if your project checks any of these into VCS)

Delete .idea directory

Open the project in Android Studio

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Jan 19 '17 at 19:09

vman

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This solved the problem. Suddenly I couldn't debug on real hardware or the emulator. Rebooting everything didn't work. I could get by using **Run -> Attach debugger to Android process**, but it gets annoying after a while. It started happening after upgrading gradle, as the IDE suggested. – ASalazar Mar 07 '17 at 00:13
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FYI ticket in google issue tracker: https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37117600 – vman Apr 20 '17 at 17:54
standard answer to all android studio issues, reboot :). windws os in the making.. – Siddharth May 14 '18 at 12:30
Didn't help. The message persists. – Mitch Sep 10 '19 at 23:28

score 13 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 13 '17 at 18:00

13

This problem occurs when you open more than one instance of Android studio, so you need to attach the debugger manually like mentioned above.

You may need to close other instances of Android studio.

answered Jul 13 '17 at 18:00

Narshim

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One thing to add: Maybe your have to restart android studio after closing the open instanc(es)... This helped me! – JonasPTFL Oct 18 '19 at 18:14
Another improvement - it does happen if you have just another IntelliJ IDEA open. Not need to be android studio – Konstantin Pribluda Dec 29 '20 at 14:51

Kai · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-16T08:47:07.387

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Both of my dev machines have JDK 8 installed, the debugging function is restored once JDK 7.0.71 was installed and JAVA_HOME environmental variable was set to point to the new JDK.

Guess there's some compatibility issue between Android Studio + ADB + JDK8 (Eclipse + ADB + JDK8 works fine).

edited Dec 16 '14 at 08:47

answered Dec 14 '14 at 07:02

Kai

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I have the same problem, very annoying since requires phone reboot. Using JDK 1.7.0b147 – Shine Feb 09 '15 at 21:25
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JDK 8 is not officially supported by Android Studio - I have had problems compiling projects and they were resolved by going back to JDK 7. – ekchang Feb 13 '15 at 00:15
where to change the version of JDK8 to JDK7 in latest version of Android Studio – anand krish Jan 28 '16 at 09:37
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@AnandKrish you have to change the default JDK/JRE of the computing environment, basically when you execute _javac -version_, the result should be _javac 1.7.xxx_. On the other hand, I'm using JDK 8 (1.8.0_60) on OSX and the aforementioned issue doesn't seem to exist anymore. – Kai Jan 28 '16 at 10:13
Correct! My machine have JDK 7 and JDK 8 installed. I have resolved this issue by change JDK location (Android Studio 2.1.1: File - Project Structure - SDK Location - JDK location) from JDK 8 to JDK 7. – valerybodak May 25 '16 at 12:13
Just a note - the current version of Android Studio, 2.2.3, indicates that JDK 8 is required, so this is no longer the correct answer for those on the latest version. – nasch Feb 21 '17 at 03:42
I switched back to the embedded version (recommended) thru Project structure as suggested above - and that fixed the issue hanging on "collecting data". Thanks – Robert de W Feb 27 '17 at 21:48

score 10 · Answer 10 · answered May 26 '18 at 11:17

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I tried the top three rated answers but failed. After rebooting my mobile, the problem is solved. No more long "Waiting for Debugger".

answered May 26 '18 at 11:17

Jeff T.

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score 10 · Answer 11 · answered May 30 '18 at 06:28

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I faced this problem in android studio 3.0. Just restarted device solved.

answered May 30 '18 at 06:28

John Ruban Singh

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score 8 · Answer 12 · answered May 09 '18 at 20:41

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I just managed this problem, after several days of trying the above solutions. So I closed the emulator, run AVD manager and in device menu choose - "wipe data" So in next run I was free from stucked debugger.

answered May 09 '18 at 20:41

MyFoenix

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Eduardo Boada · Answer 13 · 2017-02-15T12:30:44.243

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When the Device displays the message go to Run->Attach debbuger, then select a debbuger. it'll start the activity.

edited Feb 15 '17 at 12:30

answered Oct 31 '16 at 20:31

Eduardo Boada

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Too annoying. This just started happening today after YEARS of successful debugging with no problems. – DSlomer64 Sep 20 '17 at 12:36
I solved it by factory restoring my device. I need to get rid of it the as soon as possible. – Eduardo Boada Sep 21 '17 at 13:20

score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Jul 02 '16 at 06:53

5

This solution works for me:

turning off the USB debugging from my device settings , and then turning it on again.

its Much quicker and easier than restart the device.

answered Jul 02 '16 at 06:53

Fasiha

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score 5 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 21 '17 at 00:15

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This fixed it for me. Android Studio -> File -> Invalidate Caches & Restart...

answered Sep 21 '17 at 00:15

Billy

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score 4 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 04 '17 at 18:25

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How it worked for me.

1 Start Android Device Monitor from Tools -> Android -> Android Device Monitor

2 Click on Stop for the process you are facing the issue from list of devices.

answered Mar 04 '17 at 18:25

RAHUL JOSHI

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score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 20 '16 at 15:00

Most of the times this is caused because of the overload of resources and threads over the emulator. Or even for the lock of objects that GC couldn't set free: http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/tools/debugging/index.html

Usually, a single restart of it will solve the issue, but sometimes it asks for the IDE restart, so be sure to make both tests.

Another good test is trying to start the app in "Start mode" and then try the debug mode again...

P.S: Don't forget to kill each debug process in the IDE after each test. This will prevent your env to be more overloaded.

score 2 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 11 '18 at 13:51

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Android studio 3.0 and Above

Disable the instant Run

answered Jul 11 '18 at 13:51

Vicky

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With Android Studio 3.5.x, this option becomes `HotSwap`. – kakyo Dec 25 '19 at 02:03

score 1 · Answer 19 · answered Jan 29 '16 at 02:50

1

I had the same problem. Restart my android device and closed the adb.exe process. With that I could solve the problem

answered Jan 29 '16 at 02:50

Xinoon

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score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Aug 17 '17 at 11:03

Well, I guess there is a plethora of circumstances that can trigger this issue. I'm using IntelliJ Idea instead, but it's mostly the same than Android Studio. My solution for this problem:

Fastest way:

Right click on the class file that contains the main activity of your project, and then on "Debug 'WhateverActivity'". This will create a new run configuration that should debug fine.

Other solution, without creating a new run configuration:

Open Run/Debug configurations and within "Android app" pick the configuration you're using to debug your app.

Locate "Launch Options/Launch" there and set it to "Specified Activity" instead of "Default Activity".

In the "Launch" field just below the aforementioned option, click on the three ellipsis (three dots) button and select your main activity.

At least it worked for me. I hope it works for others too.

As a side note, beware with USB hubs and low quality USB cables. I've experienced this sort of problem due these too. — Fran Marzoa, Sep 14 '17 at 17:25

score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Oct 08 '17 at 20:05

1

Got it fixed according this solution: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-166153
I opened <project dir>/.idea/workspace.xml replaced all the
<option name="DEBUGGER_TYPE" value="Auto" /> occurrences to
<option name="DEBUGGER_TYPE" value="Java" />
and restarted Android Studio

answered Oct 08 '17 at 20:05

Alexey

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Thank you, this is the only thing that fixed my issue, which started happening after including exoplayer locally in my project. – almiki Mar 31 '21 at 17:09

score 1 · Answer 22 · answered Nov 19 '17 at 20:13

1

Open Command prompt and go to android sdk>platform-tools> adb kill-server

press enter

and again adb start-server

press enter

answered Nov 19 '17 at 20:13

kudzai zishumba

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score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Jan 15 '21 at 07:26

1

I had the same problem. Restart my android phone device worked for me.

answered Jan 15 '21 at 07:26

Ram Chhabra

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score 0 · Answer 24 · answered Sep 02 '16 at 06:09

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Restarting everything didn't work for me. What DID work was waiting for a few minutes while Android Studio unclogged itself. This was the first time I ran the debugger; after that, Android Studio fired up the debugger quickly.

answered Sep 02 '16 at 06:09

Yusuf X

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score 0 · Answer 25 · answered Jan 13 '17 at 05:41

For me Run->Attach debugger to Android process was working, but I had to do it every time app was launched.

Fix: There may be a problem with your 'App launch configuration'(To verify this create new project to see if it's working fine). Just delete app configuration, open MainActivity file and Run->Debug (new conffiguration will be created)

score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Feb 22 '18 at 19:17

0

Sometime it's due to the fact that in the build.gradle configuration you have to set the node:

  debug {
            debuggable true
        }

Change it back to false when you have to prepare the signed apk.

Regards

answered Feb 22 '18 at 19:17

Gianluigi Liguori

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score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Mar 08 '18 at 15:34

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Non of this solutions worked for me.

In my case was that I was debugging an App from Intellij IDEA and at the same time with Android Studio. By just closing the Intellij IDEA and removing the app I was debugging just fixed my problem.

answered Mar 08 '18 at 15:34

Juan Saravia

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score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Jun 24 '18 at 14:03

It has happened to me that it stayed stuck in "Waiting for Debugger" when accidentally I tried to Debug a Release build, sometimes it warns that it is not a debug build and others it silently stucks in "Waiting for Debugger".

The solution is obviously to switch to Debug build

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Nov 04 '20 at 19:22

0

As for my case, running Android Studio Canary (preview release) along with the stable version was the problem. Running multiple instances of the same Android Studio flavor was OK, but mixing them often resulted in "Waiting For Debugger".

answered Nov 04 '20 at 19:22

solamour

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score 0 · Answer 30 · answered Mar 09 '21 at 17:47

Make sure that your Active Build Variant is debug.

If you also want to make your release variant APK debuggable then make a simple change in app level build.gradle -

buildTypes {
        release {
            debuggable true
            /*Your rest code*/
        }
    }

score -1 · Answer 31 · answered Feb 24 '19 at 12:09

-1

If all else fails, try "Clean Storage" via the app's System Settings.

answered Feb 24 '19 at 12:09

Pnemonic

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System Settings is not part of an app. – Mitch Sep 10 '19 at 22:36
launcher > Settings > Apps > my_app > Storage > Clean storage – Pnemonic Sep 11 '19 at 12:53

Debugging with Android Studio stuck at "Waiting For Debugger" forever

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