Using ADB and fastboot

What is

adb

?

The Android Debug Bridge (

adb

) is a development tool that facilitates communication between an Android device and a personal computer. This communication is most often done over a USB cable, but Wi-Fi connections are also supported.

adb

is like a “Swiss-army knife” of Android development. It provides numerous functions that are described in detail by the command

adb --help

. Some of the more commonly used commands are listed in the “popular adb commands” section below.

Installing

adb

and

fastboot

Google hosts zips including only

adb

and

fastboot

. You can set these up for use with the instructions below.

On Windows

Download the Windows zip from Google.

Extract it somewhere - for example,

%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot

On Windows 7/8:

From the desktop, right-click My Computer and select Properties

In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab

In the Advanced section, click the Environment Variables button

In the Environment Variables window, highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click the Edit button

Append

;%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot\platform-tools

to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry)

On Windows 10:

Open the Start menu, and type “advanced system settings”

Select “View advanced system settings”

Click on the Advanced tab

Open the “Environment Variables” window

Select the Path variable under “System Variables” and click the “Edit” button

Click the “Edit Text” button

Append

;%USERPROFILE%\adb-fastboot\platform-tools

to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry)

Install the universal adb driver, and reboot.