If you are an Android enthusiast, you must love to tinker with your phone’s settings and try something new. Using the ADB and Fastboot commands, you can do more than you think. ADB is a command-line tool that works like a bridge between your computer and Android devices and emulators. I have compiled a list of ADB commands for Android with detailed explanations. Using these commands, you can explore the true potential of your Android device and perform basic and advanced tasks.
Most users make use of just a small set of commands such as adb devices, fastboot oem unlock, fastboot flash recovery.img, and so on. Check out the following ADB and Fastboot commands list directory with a simplified explanation for each of them. ADB or Android Debug Bridge consists of 3 components:
- Client: the computer your Android device or emulator is connected to.
- Daemon: also known as ‘adbd‘ is the service that runs on your computer and Android device to facilitate command execution and acceptance between the devices.
- Server: this is the very software that handles the communication between the Client and the Daemon.
Please note that you must download and install the latest SDK Platform tools on your computer and allow USB debugging on your Android device.
Not only on your Windows, Linux, or macOS computer, you can also use the following ADB commands on an Android phone or tablet without root.
List of ADB Commands with Explanation
Below is a list of useful ADB commands you can try to debug your Android phone, reboot it, sideload APKs and flashable ZIPs, push and pull files, uninstall apps, and perform other tasks. I’ll be mentioning all ADB commands and explaining their function briefly.
adb
This is a nude command that can be used to get the ADB version and all possible commands associated with ADB.
adb -s
When many devices are connected to a computer, you can redirect ADB commands to a specific device using this command.
adb -s <deviceName> <command>
adb -d
This command directs the command to a device connected via USB.
adb –d <command>
adb -e
You can use this command to direct ADB commands to a connected emulator.
adb –e <command>
adb devices
This is one of the most used ADB commands as it is used to see the list of the Android devices connected to your computer. We generally use this command to check if our device is properly connected to the computer or not.
adb devices -l
You can use the above command to list devices by model or product number.
adb devices //show devices attached
This is similar to the ‘adb devices’ command that shows you the list of connected Android devices and emulators to your computer.
adb connect ip-address-of-device
If you want to find out and connect the IP address of your Android device to your PC. You can use this ADB command to set up ADB over Wi-Fi.
adb help
You can use the adb help command to display the help documentation on all ADB commands.
adb root
This command restarts adbd with root permissions.
adb version
Use this command to find out the version of the ADB driver installed on your computer.
adb reboot
As this very ADB command suggests, ‘adb reboot’ command can help reboot your Android phone or tablet into the bootloader, fastboot, or recovery mode in case the hardware keys of your device do not function properly.
adb reboot bootloader
You can use this command to reboot your Android device into the Fastboot or Bootloader Mode. The command is often used when you want to flash the factory images or a custom recovery.
adb reboot download
You can use this ADB command to boot Samsung devices into the Download Mode or Odin Mode.
adb reboot recovery
This is one of the most used ADB commands. You can execute it to reboot your device into Android Recovery mode.
adb install
Usually, we transfer an APK file to our Android device and install it via File Manager. Thanks to the ‘adb install’ command that it makes it easy to install APK files on Android devices directly from your computer. To be able to do so, copy the APK file to the SDK platform-tools folder first. There are some variations of this command for different conditions.
adb install com.facebook.katana.apk
While you can install an APK on your Android devices using the above command, you can use the command given below to update or reinstall an app without deleting its data.
adb install -r com.facebook.katana.apk
Some apps support installation on the SD card. By using the following ADB commands, move an app to the SD storage.
adb install -s com.facebook.katana.apk
adb install –k <add the path of the .APK file on your computer>
adb uninstall
Using this command in the ADB terminal windows, you can uninstall an app from your phone or tablet.
adb uninstall com.facebook.katana
If you want to uninstall an app but keep its data and cache files, you can use the ‘adb uninstall’ command with ‘-k‘ parameter as shown below.
adb uninstall -k com.facebook.katana
adb usb
If you want to find out the Android device or emulators currently connected to your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer, you can use the ‘adb usb’ command.
adb logcat
By executing the ‘adb logcat’ command, you can see the log data of your Android device on your computer. There are a few variations of this command with ‘-c‘ and ‘-d‘ parameters.
adb logcat -c // clear //
While using the above command you can clear all existing logs on your Android phone or tablet, you can save the logcat data on your PC with the following command.
adb logcat -d > [path_to_file] //
adb start-server
This is a useful command that lets you start the adb server in case it stops responding. It’s often used after killing the adb server as described below.
adb kill-server
If the ADB terminal is not functioning properly, you can try killing the ADB server. It’s similar to turning off our Android devices to fix small issues.
adb sideload
It’s one of the most popular ADB commands as it can be used to sideload software update.zip files using your computer. If you have downloaded a flashable update.zip, just copy it to the ‘platform-tools‘ folder and execute the following command. If the zip file you download has a different name, rename it to”update.zip” for the sake of convenience.
adb sideload update.zip
Alternatively, you can sideload or flash update zip packages using Android stock recovery or TWRP recovery as well. For that, you will have to transfer the update.zip file to your device, reboot your Android into recovery mode, and select the “Apply update from sdcard” option.
adb pull
You can download or pull files stored on your Android device to your computer using the following ADB command.
This command can be used to pull any files from your device and save them to the ‘platform-tools’ folder on your computer.
adb pull /sdcard/video-01.mp4
In case you want to pull the file to a specific location or drive (D drive, for instance) on your PC, you issue the following command mentioning the path of the storage location as shown below.
adb pull /sdcard/video-01.mp4 d:\
adb push
Similarly, this command can be used to push a file from your computer to your device. Please note that you’ll have to transfer the file you want to push tp the ‘platform-tools’ directory first. To push a file to your Android device’s SD card, for example, use the following code.
adb push com.whatsapp_2.19.368-453132.apk /sdcard
In case you want to send a file to your device stored in a specific location, you can use the below command instead.
adb push d:\com.whatsapp_2.19.368-453132.apk /sdcard
adb backup //
To create or take a full backup of your Android to your computer, try this command.
adb restore //
You can also restore the backup you have already created using this command.
adb bugreport
This command is best suited if you want to diagnose any issue on Android devices. Its execution can show you log data, dumpstate, and dumpsys from your Android device on your computer.
Don’t Miss: How to Unlock Android PIN and Pattern Using ADB
adb jdwp
JDWP means Java Debug Wire Protocol. By using this ADB command, you can see the list of JDWP processes on your PC.
adb get-statе
Execute this command to print the device state in the command window.
adb get-serialno
If you want to find out the ADB instance serial number, you can use this command.
adb get-state
Shows the ADB status of a connected device or emulator.
adb wait-for-device
This program tells ADB that it has to wait and keep the connection on hold until the next command is issued.
That’s all for now. ADB Shell commands are more useful than the commands mentioned above. Don’t forget to check them out.
Download ADB Commands Cheat Sheet PDF
I’ll keep updating this list of ADB commands regularly. You can also download this list of ADB commands as a PDF file for future reference.
If you want more explanation about any of the commands listed above, let me know via comments.
