Installing ADB on macOS

Question

I had issues finding a good solid tutorial on how to setup ADB for Mac.

How can I add ADB to macOS in such a way that it can be used in the terminal?

UPDATE

For those reading this post. Yes, as the edited response says. I was at the time looking for a tutorial with all steps as a beginner level guide.

Unlike Set up adb on Mac OS X, the intention of this question is to have a tutorial with all of the required installation steps to get ADB on macOS.

and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5526470/trying-to-add-adb-to-path-variable-osx — Jared Burrows, Jul 13 '15 at 01:13
Mine seems to be more of a step process I wouldn't say it's a duplicate. More so a different way of going about it. Specially giving a place to download the adb files. — wesley franks, Jul 13 '15 at 01:29
@wesleyfranks congratulations on having such a popular question! It's one of the top search results on Google for installing ADB on Mac. Also, if you feel like my answer is satisfactory, you can show that by marking it as Accepted. — brismuth, Dec 17 '15 at 18:24
I was hoping my answer would be helpful too! LOL, guess not everyone likes your answer, but sense it is the popular answer I will mark it accepted in hopes people will see me as a team player. I'm for helping everyone get the right information so thank you @brismuth. — wesley franks, Dec 22 '15 at 18:50
There is a link to the official `platform-tools` SDK package (which contains the `adb` binary) at http://stackoverflow.com/tags/adb/info — Alex P., Oct 17 '16 at 02:06
ADB might already be installed at `~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/` http://stackoverflow.com/a/17901693 — Joe, Mar 31 '17 at 20:17
@AlexP. this question has 2x as many views and 4x as many answer upvotes as the question you marked it a duplicate of. It's also the top google search result for installing ADB on OS X. I'll update my answer to reference the zip on the ADB tag page, but marking this as a duplicate seems unwarranted. — brismuth, Apr 18 '17 at 21:44
@AlexP. also, as the OP pointed out, the other question is essentially asking for helping adding a line to your bash profile, whereas the point of this one is to provide a full guide. — brismuth, Apr 18 '17 at 22:09
@AlexP. why is this question closed? The other question is nothing like this one, and not nearly as helpful. — Danny Harding, Apr 20 '17 at 15:21

brismuth · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-07T20:41:37.423

1355

Note for zsh users: replace all references to ~/.bash_profile with ~/.zshrc.

Option 1 - Using Homebrew

This is the easiest way and will provide automatic updates.

Install the homebrew package manager

 /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Install adb
```
 brew install android-platform-tools
```
Start using adb
```
 adb devices
```

Option 2 - Manually (just the platform tools)

This is the easiest way to get a manual installation of ADB and Fastboot.

Delete your old installation (optional)
```
 rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
```
Navigate to https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html and click on the SDK Platform-Tools for Mac link.
Go to your Downloads folder
```
 cd ~/Downloads/
```
Unzip the tools you downloaded
```
 unzip platform-tools-latest*.zip 
```

Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them

 mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
 mv platform-tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools

Add platform-tools to your path

 echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile

Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
```
 source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb
```
 adb devices
```

Option 3 - Manually (with SDK Manager)

Delete your old installation (optional)
```
 rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
```
Download the Mac SDK Tools from the Android developer site under "Get just the command line tools". Make sure you save them to your Downloads folder.
Go to your Downloads folder
```
 cd ~/Downloads/
```
Unzip the tools you downloaded
```
 unzip tools_r*-macosx.zip 
```

Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them

 mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
 mv tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools

Run the SDK Manager

 sh ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools/android

Uncheck everything but Android SDK Platform-tools (optional)

Click Install Packages, accept licenses, click Install. Close the SDK Manager window.

Add platform-tools to your path

 echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile

Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb
```
adb devices
```

edited Feb 07 '21 at 20:41

answered Aug 31 '15 at 15:25

brismuth

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Thanks. I tried the homebrew version (I'm on Mavericks with XCode 5.0.1 with clang-500.2.79). Installation successful. adb finds my device. But when trying a `adb backup -all` I get a `Buffer Error: 10` Installing the Android Studio and using that adb version solved my issue. – georg Sep 19 '15 at 18:54
@georg that's interesting. Were they two different adb versions? – brismuth Sep 21 '15 at 15:49
@georg I've also added steps now for a manual sdk-tools-only installation for cases like yours. – brismuth Oct 14 '15 at 17:37
@brismuth THX. forgot to post the versions. The one that was working was `1.0.32 Revision eac51f2bb6a8-android`. The homebrew version was `1.0.32 Revision 57224c5cff69-android`. – georg Oct 14 '15 at 18:49
Could you help me see what is wrong with my answer? I am sure yours is more robust, however I have a negative number for my answer when it accomplishes the same thing. – wesley franks Dec 29 '15 at 18:57
Certainly! You'll find some good tips to writing answers over on meta, here's an example: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7656/how-do-i-write-a-good-answer-to-a-question. As far as the difference between our answers, yours could be formatted to be more easily consumed. Putting code and terminal text inside code blocks and using header tags on headers helps people to find the info they need. Also, some of your steps are a bit vague, and could use some additional explanation. My answer is explicit and everything a user needs to type and run is separated so it is easy to copy and paste. – brismuth Dec 30 '15 at 05:22
3

I love you // mac commands that work perfectly!! – Ryan Ellis Jan 04 '16 at 20:38
mandatory upvote just for the `export` part ;) good one. – Shark Mar 29 '16 at 14:48
Maybe it was just me, but the SDK from Google's website (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html?hl=sk) does not include ADB nor Fastboot :-\ This fixed it for me, thanks! – João Rocha da Silva Apr 10 '16 at 11:45
@JoãoRochadaSilva thanks for letting me know. I'll update the manual installation portion of my guide to match the changes to the site. – brismuth Apr 10 '16 at 22:44
Homebrew guide compared to Windows guide 8) – Warpzit May 11 '16 at 08:48
Thank you for make mac like windows jeje – Sebastián Rojas Jul 06 '16 at 16:06
brew is awesome :) Thanks mate – STEEL Jul 26 '16 at 06:48
In case anyone opted for the brew install and it did not work, try running `source ~./bash_profile` after brew has finished. – Renato Back Sep 14 '16 at 01:42
on Sierra point 4 was redundant. Outstanding answer anyway – kiedysktos Oct 14 '16 at 11:22
1

On Mac OS X (El Capitan) The platform-tools are in a different directory, so instead replace step 9 above with `echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile` – Edwin Feb 13 '17 at 15:40
@Edwin looks like steps 4 and 5 were out of date with some changes Google made to the zip format, so I've updated them. If you follow the guide as it is now, step 9 is correct, and the files will be in `~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/` as expected. Thanks! – brismuth Feb 13 '17 at 19:51
Now that they are about to move android-platform-tools to cask (message: `It was migrated from homebrew/core to caskroom/cask.`), this command worked for me: `brew cask install android-platform-tools` (see also https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/pull/31126) – Giehl Man Apr 04 '17 at 11:53
1

Good homebrew cask. Wish it was called simply `adb`, as running `brew search adb` returns 0 result. [Opened an issue on homebrew-cask repo about it](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask/issues/60253), by the way. – Nighto Mar 13 '19 at 15:04
The update "Android SDK Platform-tools" helped me. – Stanley Wintergreen Jul 18 '20 at 10:20
goat. Using brew was a disaster. Keep getting hit with ... executable already exists. Deleted like 20 things before I found this. – user15163 Oct 06 '20 at 23:07
Congrats! very well explained – Trinity Dec 09 '20 at 22:36
I think that this needs to be updated to: brew install --cask android-platform-tools – Darren Gates Mar 08 '21 at 15:40

score 137 · Answer 2 · answered May 20 '16 at 21:00

137

If you've already installed Android Studio --

Add the following lines to the end of ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc (if using Oh My ZSH):

export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

Restart Terminal and you're good to go.

answered May 20 '16 at 21:00

Kyle Dumovic

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Never thought the need to reboot terminal. Thanks! – wesley franks May 20 '16 at 21:01
2

yeah you can use exec zsh or exec bash for restarting it :) – abe312 Dec 30 '16 at 04:02
Had not added the last command in the terminal. This worked, after numerous searches and attempts. Thank you! – Emjey Apr 04 '17 at 14:09
2

I had to add those lines to `~/.bash_profile` and it worked! – Martín De la Fuente Feb 05 '19 at 13:42
my zshrc location was at ==> /etc/zshrc and by adding the mentioned path at the end of the file everything become OK. thanks – Amir Mehrabi Apr 08 '20 at 08:39

score 24 · Answer 3 · edited May 31 '16 at 21:06

24

Note that if you use Android Studio and download through its SDK Manager, the SDK is downloaded to ~/Library/Android/sdk by default, not ~/.android-sdk-macosx.

I would rather add this as a comment to @brismuth's excellent answer, but it seems I don't have enough reputation points yet.

edited May 31 '16 at 21:06

brismuth

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answered Dec 22 '15 at 16:09

tcao

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score 23 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 29 '16 at 17:48

Option 3 - Using MacPorts

Analoguously to the two options (homebrew / manual) posted by @brismuth, here's the MacPorts way:

Install the Android SDK:
```
sudo port install android
```

Run the SDK manager:

sh /opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/tools/android

As @brismuth suggested, uncheck everything but Android SDK Platform-tools (optional)
Install the packages, accepting licenses. Close the SDK Manager.
Add platform-tools to your path; in MacPorts, they're in /opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools. E.g., for bash:
```
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools' >> ~/.bash_profile
```
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal/shell):
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb:
```
adb devices
```

Android for Mac OS port is broken: – Coliban Dec 02 '19 at 13:44 — Coliban, Dec 02 '19 at 13:44

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Oct 22 '17 at 16:36

7

You must download Android SDK from this link.
You can really put it anywhere, but the best place at least for me was right in the YOUR USERNAME folder root.
Then you need to set the path by copying the below text, but edit your username into the path, copy the text into Terminal by hitting command+spacebar type terminal. export PATH = ${PATH}:/Users/**YOURUSERNAME**/android-sdk/platform-tools/
Verify ADB works by hitting command+spacebar and type terminal, and type ADB.

There you go. You have ADB setup on MAC OS X. It works on latest MAC OS X 10.10.3.

edited Oct 22 '17 at 16:36

James Skemp

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answered Jul 13 '15 at 00:59

wesley franks

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I still don't understand why my answer isn't acceptable it's definitely a working solution. I don't understand why I have a negative vote? – wesley franks Jan 30 '16 at 21:26
2

hi, it's a matter of style. Your formatting is hard to read. 1. Generally writing in caps is equivalent of SCREAMING at people on the net. 2. Bolding it and bolding too much make things worse 3. This 'username' thing is not needed here, see the accepted answer to see better solution - your answer would be shorter and simpler. You can see the accepted answer and learn from the style - how to present things, and highlight them and make it clear. I followed that and it's just simple copy/paste a few times. Currently the accepted answer is also more complete. – kiedysktos Oct 14 '16 at 11:41
2

I edited your answer a bit to help you start making it look good - it can still get a lot of likes :) – kiedysktos Oct 14 '16 at 11:44
Ah, gotcha wasn't aware of that format issue. I believed it looked fine, but I understand that I could be wrong. Thanks for updating my answer this is apparently my most popular question (despite it being a duplicate). People can sometimes be harsh on others just trying to be apart of the community. That said, thank you for your assistance. – wesley franks Jul 17 '19 at 13:20

Installing ADB on macOS

5 Answers5

Option 1 - Using Homebrew

Option 2 - Manually (just the platform tools)

Option 3 - Manually (with SDK Manager)

Option 3 - Using MacPorts

Linked