How to install ADB on Windows, macOS, and Linux - The first knowledge sharing application in Vietnam

Several features of the Android platform can be accessed only through paths and methods that are hidden away from the average user. These have generally been done with the help of some command line Android Debug Bridge (ADB) commands, a tool that Google offers for developers to debug various parts of their applications or the system, but which we can use for all kinds of neat and hidden tricks. A prerequisite to these tricks is installing ADB on your computer. So, in this guide, we will show you how to install ADB on Windows, macOS, and Linux in quick and easy-to-follow steps.

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What is Android Debug Bridge (ADB)?

The internal structure of the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is based on the classic client-server architecture. There are three components that make up the entire process.

The client, i.e. the PC/Mac/Chromebook you have connected to your Android device. We are sending commands to our device from the computer through the USB cable or wirelessly.
A daemon (known as “adbd”) that runs commands on a device. The daemon runs as a background process on each device.
A server that manages communication between the client and the daemon. The server runs as a background process on the computer.

How does ADB work?

Because there are three pieces that make up ADB (the client, the daemon, and the server), this requires certain pieces to be up and running in the first place. If you have freshly booted the computer (and you don’t have it set up to start the daemon on boot), then you will need it to be running before any communication can be sent to the target Android device. You’ll see the following message in the command prompt or terminal, which will check to make sure the daemon is running.

If the daemon isn’t running, then it will start the process and tell you which local TCP port it has been started on. Once that ADB service has been started, it will continue to listen to that specific port for commands that have been sent by the ADB client. It will then set up connections to all running devices which are attached to the computer (including emulators). This is the moment when you’ll receive the authorization request on the Android device if the computer hasn’t been authorized in the past.

How to set up ADB

Note: Setting up ADB on the computer is just half the equation since you’ll also need to do some things on the smartphone or tablet to accept the ADB commands.

Phone setup

Launch the Settings application on your phone.
Tap the About phone option generally near the bottom of the list.
- Depending on the OEM skin, the About phone page may be called something else or buried somewhere else in the Settings app on your device.
Then tap the Build number option seven times to enable Developer Mode. You will see a toast message when it is done.
Now go back to the main Settings screen and you should see a new Developer options menu you can access. On Google Pixel phones and some other devices, you might need to navigate to Settings > System to find the Developer options menu.
Go in there and enable the USB debugging option.
You are partially done with the phone setup process. Next up, you will need to scroll below and follow the rest of the instructions for your particular operating system.

How to set up ADB on Microsoft Windows

Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for Windows.
Extract the contents of this ZIP file into an easily accessible folder (such as C:\platform-tools).
Open File Explorer and browse to where you extracted the contents of this ZIP file.
Open up a Command Prompt/Terminal instance from the same directory as this ADB binary. This can be done by holding Shift and right-clicking within the folder and then clicking Open command window here or Open PowerShell window here. Windows 11 users should see Open in Terminal in the right-click context menu without even pressing the Shift button on the keyboard.
Connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer with a USB cable. Change the USB mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. Some OEMs may or may not require this, but it’s best to just leave it in this mode for general compatibility.
In the Command Prompt/Terminal window, enter the following command to launch the ADB daemon: adb devices
On your phone’s screen, you should see a prompt to allow or deny USB Debugging access. Naturally, you will want to grant USB Debugging access when prompted (and tap the always allow check box if you never want to see that prompt again).
Finally, re-enter the command from step 6. If everything was successful, you should now see your device’s serial number in the command prompt (or the PowerShell window).

You can now run any ADB command on your device! Now go forth and start modding your phone by following our extensive list of tutorials!

How to set up ADB on macOS

Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for macOS.
Extract the ZIP to an easily-accessible location (like the Desktop for example).
Open Terminal.
To browse to the folder you extracted ADB into, enter the following command: cd /path/to/extracted/folder/
- For example, you can place the contents on your desktop: cd /Users/XDA/Desktop/platform-tools/
Connect your device to your Mac with a compatible USB cable. Change the USB connection mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not always required for every device, but it’s best to just leave it in this mode so you don’t run into any issues.
Once the Terminal is in the same folder your ADB tools are in, you can execute the following command to launch the ADB daemon: ./adb devices
On your device, you’ll see an Allow USB debugging prompt. Allow the connection.
Finally, re-enter the command from step 7. If everything was successful, you should now see your device’s serial number in macOS’s Terminal window.

Congratulations! You can now run any ADB command on your device! Now go forth and start modding your phone.

While the guide above will certainly work, veteran macOS users can also opt to install ADB on their Macs using an unofficial package manager such as Homebrew or MacPorts. That way, you don’t have to manually update the binaries.

How to set up ADB on Linux

Download the Android SDK Platform Tools ZIP file for Linux.
Extract the ZIP to an easily-accessible location (like the Desktop for example).
Open a Terminal window.
Enter the following command: cd /path/to/extracted/folder/
This will change the directory to where you extracted the ADB files.
- Example: cd /home/XDA/Desktop/platform-tools/
Connect your device to your Linux machine with your USB cable. Change the connection mode to “file transfer (MTP)” mode. This is not always necessary for every device, but it’s recommended so you don’t run into any issues.
Once the Terminal is in the same folder your ADB tools are in, you can execute the following command to launch the ADB daemon: ./adb devices
Back on your smartphone or tablet device, you’ll see a prompt asking you to allow USB debugging. Go ahead and grant it.
Finally, re-enter the command from step 8. If everything was successful, you should now see your device’s serial number in the Terminal window output.

Congrats! You can now run any ADB command on your device!

Linux users should know that there is an easier way to install ADB on their computers. The guide above will certainly work for you, but those who own a mainstream Debian/Ubuntu or Fedora/SUSE-based distro of Linux can skip steps 1 and 2 of the guide above and use one of the following commands:

Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux users can type the following command to install ADB:
```
 sudo apt-get
 install android-sdk-platform-tools 
```
Fedora/SUSE-based Linux users can type the following command to install ADB:
```
 sudo dnf install
 android-tools 
```

However, it is always better to opt for the latest binary from the Android SDK Platform Tools release, since the distro-specific packages often contain outdated builds.

Special case: How to set up ADB on Windows Subsystem for Linux and ChromeOS

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) offers Windows users a seamless way to run Linux apps. However, the environment has yet to offer full-fledged USB hardware access. As a consequence, ADB under WSL can’t access your Android device, even if you install it using the aforementioned way. Nonetheless, there exists an official workaround, which utilizes the open-source usbipd-win project. To know more, take a look at our tutorial on how to set up USB passthrough in WSL.

For ChromeOS, you need to turn on the built-in Linux development environment first. By default, it offers you a Debian instance. You can then easily set up ADB using the steps mentioned above.

Just to cover all of our bases here, users may need to put a ./ in front of the ADB commands we list in future tutorials, especially when they are using the extracted binaries directly from the Google-provided Platform Tools ZIP. This is something any *nix user (or Windows user running PowerShell/Terminal) will likely know, but again, we want as many people as possible to understand how to do these tweaks for Android no matter how much of your operating system you know.

Optional: How to set up ADB on your browser

The ADB protocol can be implemented using the WebUSB API in order to control Android phones directly from web browsers. Yet Another WebADB, aka ya-webadb, is one such project that allows users to perform most of the functionality provided by ADB right from the web browser without installing any binary or driver. All you need is a web browser that supports the WebUSB API (such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox) and you are good to go.

Optional: How to use ADB over Wi-Fi

Android 11 and higher editions natively support ADB connection over Wi-Fi. This eliminates the need to deal with common USB connection issues and additional steps such as Android OEM driver installation on Windows.

In order to set up wireless debugging, do the following:

Make sure that your PC/Mac and the phone are connected to the same wireless network.
On your phone, go to Developer options under Settings and enable Wireless debugging. On the Allow wireless debugging on this network? popup, select Allow.
Tap on the Wireless debugging option and select Pair device with pairing code.
Take note of the pairing code, IP address, and port number displayed on the phone screen.
On your PC/Mac, run the following command:
```
 adb
 pair
 IP_Address
:Port 
```
Use the IP address and port number from step 4.
When prompted, enter the pairing code that you received in step 4. A message should indicate that your device has been successfully paired.
Next, run the following command on the PC/Mac’s terminal window:
```
 adb
 connect
 IP_Address
:Port 
```
Look at the IP address & Port section under Wireless debugging in step 3 for the IP address and port.
If everything goes right, then you should see a message like the following:
```
 connected
 to
 192.168
.68
.100
:37173 
```
Now you’re ready to type whatever ADB shell command you want.

Examples of ADB commands

To check if you have successfully installed ADB, connect your device to your PC/Mac with your USB cable, and run the adb devices command as described above. It should display your device listed in the Command Prompt/PowerShell/Terminal window. If you get a different output, we recommend starting over with the steps.

As mentioned above, you can use ADB to do all sorts of things on an Android device. Some of these commands are built directly into the ADB binary and should work on all devices. You can also open up what is referred to as an ADB Shell that will let you run commands directly on the device. The commands which are run directly on the device can vary from device to device (since OEMs can remove access to certain ones, and also modify ADB behavior) and can vary from one version of Android to the next as well.

Below, you’ll find a list of example commands which you can do on your device:

Print a list of connected devices: adb devices
Kill the ADB server: adb kill-server
Install an application: adb install <path_to_the_APK_file>
Set up port forwarding: adb forward tcp:6100 tcp:7100
Copy a file/directory from the device: adb pull <path_to_the_remote_object> <path_to_the_local_destination>
Copy a file/directory to the device: adb push <path_to_the_local_object> <path_to_the_remote_destination>
Initiate an ADB shell: adb shell

Bonus

For those who want to take this a step further, you can follow this new tutorial we put together that will walk you through how to set up ADB so that you can use the command from any directory on a Windows or Linux desktop.

What else can I do with ADB?

Below is a list of XDA tutorials for various devices that detail many applications of ADB commands in order to modify hidden settings, customize OEM features or user interfaces, and much more!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t forget to check out our ADB commands for every power user tutorial to know more useful tips and tricks for using ADB!