Clear Edit Text - adb

Question

How to clear focused Edit text using shell command.

I tried

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_CLEAR // Not worked 
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_DEL // Delete only one char
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_FORWARD_DEL // Not worked

With this I am only able to delete upto One character only, Is there any way I can delete/clear the focused Edit text.

Graig

try using adb shell input text '' – Ariannaarianne

Invalid arguments for command: text, Even If I make it run anyhow it will add new space in already input text. – Graig

I am unable to find any such command which can clear the whole edittext's data. – Ariannaarianne

Answer 1

This works for me:

function clear_input() {
    adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_MOVE_END
    adb shell input keyevent --longpress $(printf 'KEYCODE_DEL %.0s' {1..250})
}

Then:

clear_input

Garland

What are KEYCODE_MOVE_END and KEYCODE_DEL? – Mephitis

KEYCODE_MOVE_END = move the cursor to the end of line – Garland

KEYCODE_DEL = delete the character in the current cursor position – Garland

I think that is not obvious and that is correct syntax because it is a constant and not an environment variable: developer.android.com/reference/android/view/KeyEvent – Garland

I already upvoted and used your answer, but I'm just commenting to improve it. That is incorrect Bash syntax, period. Constants/variables in Bash are declared without $ but to get their value you need to prefix them with $. But hey, be my guest and avoid learning something ;) – Mephitis

Man, those values are constants of Android SDK, not BASH. Please, take a look at the link this time. developer.android.com/reference/android/view/… – Garland

Answer 2

This will select all and then backspace.

input keycombination 113 29 && input keyevent 67

Enchanter

Amazing - this should be the top-rated solution! – Ironhanded

it works for emulator, but when I check it with Samsung mobile, I get this error Error: Unknown command: keycombination Usage: input [<source>] <command> [<arg>...] The sources are: dpad keyboard mouse touchpad gamepad touchnavigation joystick touchscreen stylus trackball – Matsu

Rasoul Miri ; just tried a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 here and the command works ok. Try using "" to avoid problems ?; C:\WINDOWS\system32>adb shell "input keycombination 113 29 && input text "[phone]" – Marc

This is the best solution. I use it with slight improvement to overwrite the previous content with new value in one line like this : >adb shell "input keycombination 113 29 && input text "new text" – Marc

Not working for me, API 27 emulator returns Error: Unknown command: keycombination – Stickle

Answer 3

You can use this way:

adb shell input keyevent --longpress 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67 67

67 is the keycode of KEYCODE_DEL

Matsu

Need to go to the end of the edit text, then – Circuity

First, go to end of string with "adb shell input keyevent --longpress KEYCODE_MOVE_END" Takes a long time; low end devices could be a few 100 msec per caracter. Some implementation will require to add a wait after this. – Marc

Answer 4

If you use uiautomator(https://github.com/xiaocong/uiautomator), you could do this by:

1. tap the EditText widget to get focus, then

2. use device(focused=True).clear_text() to clear the view, or by device(focused=True).set_text("new text") to set a new text.

Spritsail

Question is about ADB – Mephitis

Answer 5

The only way that I have found so far is to get the proper coordinates to use input swipe x y x y duration to simulate a long press. This will then highlight all the text in the EditText field. You can then send the keys you want to replace what was there.

I just wish that adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_CLEAR would clear all the text in the field. That would make things so much easier, if someone can find a better way that would be great.

Robbins