Android Studio quick documentation always "fetching documentation"

Asked 30/4, 2014 at 2:22 Answered 14/4, 2021 at 8:16

android-studio kotlin intellij-idea ide javadoc

107

I just moved to Android Studio from Eclipse, and I found that it always shows "fetching documentation" when I use quick documentation (Ctrl+Q).

How can I solve this problem? I downloaded the documentation for API 19, and the problem persists.

Task answered 30/4, 2014 at 2:22 Comment(6)

I have the same issue ! Version 0.5.2 – Hiramhirasuna 10/6, 2014 at 11:6

Me too. I have v0.8. Anyone have a solution? – Destruct 16/7, 2014 at 17:53

When the Internet connection is switched off (Wifi off), it runs much more quickly. – Respectively 21/1, 2017 at 19:44

In my case I just didn't download it: https://mcmap.net/q/205188/-no-reference-documentation-in-android-studio – Sinner 14/3, 2019 at 13:9

Can you set this as the accepted answer? It's the official way to do it and super easy: https://mcmap.net/q/203033/-android-studio-quick-documentation-always-quot-fetching-documentation-quot – Anapest 24/1, 2020 at 22:28

This answer here works in 2021 https://mcmap.net/q/203033/-android-studio-quick-documentation-always-quot-fetching-documentation-quot – Janniejanos 21/5, 2022 at 11:16

128

The problem is Android Studio does not automatically update the source link of reference even when the documentation is already downloaded.

The default link in jdk.table.xml is http://developer.android.com/reference/ (android studio tries to connect to this online server even if the network is blocked).

To solve the problem, we can just redirect the reference to local source.

MacOS

On MacOS, the config file jdk.table.xml is under ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio<version>/options/, and the docs are here: ~/Library/Android/sdk/docs/, or the custom path of your Android SDK.

In jdk.table.xml, find all the lines:

<root type="simple" url="http://developer.android.com/reference/">

and modify them to

<root type="simple" url="file://$USER_HOME$/Library/Android/sdk/docs/reference/">

Windows

On Windows, the file jdk.table.xml is under C:\Users\Name\.AndroidStudio<version>\config\options

In AndroidStudio 3.3, modify to

<root type="simple" url="file://$USER_HOME$/AppData/Local/Android/sdk/docs/reference"  />

Android Studio (any os)

Then, in File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart… select Invalidate, and retry using Quick Documentation. It should display instantly. If it doesn't, select Invalidate and Restart, and you should be good to go.

Irrelevancy answered 18/11, 2015 at 3:23 Comment(12)

Thank you - this really helped me. – Destruct 27/9, 2016 at 17:39

Worked with AS 2.3 canary 3. – Dooryard 14/12, 2016 at 20:29

Should be the accepted answer, it worked very well on Android Studio 2.3 on MacOS – Whitebook 13/3, 2017 at 21:42

Does anyone have the issue that the http links are added back constantly? Have to do it repeatedly. – Jakejakes 25/7, 2017 at 23:22

Worked with android studio 3.0 :) – Snoddy 27/9, 2017 at 6:19

@Jakejakes I have the same problem... How do we make it permanent? – Victory 22/11, 2017 at 16:1

@Victory unfortunately I have not yet found the solution. What I am doing is to manually delete them again and again and restart Android Studio. :( – Jakejakes 28/11, 2017 at 3:33

htea 1 - Google 0 – Sake 30/11, 2017 at 19:48

@Jakejakes The some problem. I am obligated to correct (copy-paste) the problem constantly. – Samba 3/1, 2018 at 14:7

Is it actually best to rename all those XML elements? I have followed the above steps and I now have 24 sibling rows of <root type="simple" url="file://$USER_HOME$/AppData/Local/Android/sdk/docs/reference" /> in my in C:\Users\MY_USERNAME\.AndroidStudio3.0\config\options\jdk.table.xml file. Wouldn't just one of these rows be enough instead?? – Horst 25/1, 2018 at 13:13

Note: It's essential to replace all the <javadocPath> with something like url="file://$USER_HOME$/Library/Android/sdk/docs/reference/" even if "docs/reference/" does not exist in your Android SDK folder. It will somehow still work. – Respectively 3/2, 2018 at 13:58

In Linux, you can find it here: $HOME/.AndroidStudioPreview3.2/config/options (replacing .AndroidStudioPreview3.2 with the IDE variant that you are using) – Concomitant 8/5, 2018 at 7:23

Update:

On the newest Android Studio versions you can do as following:

Navigate to Tools > SDK Manager
Select the SDK Platforms tab
Make sure the Show Package Details checkbox, at the bottom right, is checked.
Select your target API level from the list, check the Sources for Android [API_Level] and click apply.

For older Android Studio versions:

Go to: Tools > Android > SDK Manager. Select SDK Tools tab and:

if Documentation for Android SDK is unchecked, check it and click apply
If Documentation for Android SDK is checked, uncheck it and click apply. After uninstall completes check it again and click apply.

Krefeld answered 12/4, 2017 at 6:39 Comment(5)

Trying it out... funny thing, I uninstalled the docs, disabled network adapters, and hit Ctrl+Q inside the AS ... got "fetching documentation" of about 0.5s, then the documentation for some Android class popped up. No idea, where it got it from. Now I'm installing the Doc package back, hoping it will fix the fetch times, thank you for idea. – Interlunar 12/4, 2017 at 12:19

@Jakejakes you are using probably antivirus SW? Took about 30min on corporate win7 with AV, but under 1min at home with linux. In the end it partially works for me, the fetch times went down a lot, but it still feels like not completely off-line, like there's some tiny ping going on, and the AS is hesitating for 200-600ms before showing the offline version (but part of that time is probably actual fetch, it's from that win7 machine, which is overall sluggish when compared to my main linux machine, looks like the price of running primitive OS). Anyway, this answer should have WARNING. :) – Interlunar 27/7, 2017 at 15:3

Finally I see an android documentation that makes sense. – Pudendas 15/3, 2019 at 5:38

After A.S. re-install, Documentation for Android SDK got unchecked for some reason. Thanks! – Afterbody 4/6, 2019 at 14:57

For Android Studio BumbleBee 2021.1.1 there's no "Documentation for Android SDK" anymore on the "SDK Tools" tab, but I checked "Sources for Android <SDK level>" on the "SDK Platforms" tab and it worked. That option is only visible when you check the "Show Package Details" checkbox. Hope it helps someone. – Doughy 9/2, 2022 at 11:58

UPDATE: out-of-date, please check @Htea's answer.

I was having the same issue as you. Here's what fixed it for me:

Make sure you have the Documentation package downloaded in SDK Manager.
Exit Studio if it's running.
Delete the file named "jdk.table.xml" located in ~/.AndroidStudioX.Y/config/options/ (remember to take a backup first!).
Relaunch Android Studio. should work correctly now and it should regenerate the file automatically.

Note:

This worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04 & Android Studio 0.8.11 (EDIT: Several users are reporting this solution also works for newer versions of Android Studio).
If it still doesn't work, try deleting and re-downloading the Documentation package from inside Android SDK Manager then try the above steps.
If you're running Windows, the file is located at "%UserProfile%.AndroidStudio\config\options", and if you're running OS X, it's located at "~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio/options" (credits to @Gero and @Alex Lipov).

Hope it helps.

Oraleeoralia answered 1/10, 2014 at 19:28 Comment(9)

Also works on Windows 7, the file is located at "%UserProfile%\.AndroidStudioBeta\config\options". BTW, the Documentation package is under the LATEST Api level group of SDK Manager. – Putput 30/10, 2014 at 8:23

Works fine, thanks! On Mac, the mentioned file located under ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudioBeta/options – Middleoftheroad 4/11, 2014 at 7:50

Works for me. Thanks! Just a note: as of Android Studio 1.0, the folder is .AndroidStudio (no Beta in the name). – Joost 17/12, 2014 at 9:41

Works with Ubuntu 16.04 and AS 2.1.2 – Reis 30/7, 2016 at 20:45

Fixed my issue on AS 2.2 Beta 3 and Ubuntu 16.04 – Allegro 31/8, 2016 at 11:3

When using this solution with Android Studio 2.3 it asked me for my SDK's location at next launch. I recommend using Htea's solution instead which really fixes the problem without side effects. – Pyuria 29/3, 2017 at 8:58

I recommend Htea's solution below. Doesn't work on studio 2.3.3. Interestingly I had to make changes in both folders:.AndroidStudio2.3 and .AndroidStudioPreview2.0 – Gambia 4/7, 2017 at 4:45

Works on Windows 10 running Android Studio 3.0 – Aggressor 12/11, 2017 at 18:24

Fixed my issues on Android Studio 3.1.3 @windows7 – Domineer 19/6, 2018 at 7:52

The reason for me was that I had not downloaded sources for my SDK version defined by compileSdkVersion property in the build file (now called compileSdk in AGP 7.0.0).

So, in Android Studio 4.0 and higher do this:

Go to Settings 🡲 Android SDK 🡲 SDK Platforms tab 🡲 select Show Package Details checkbox at the bottom 🡲 under your target API Android section check the Sources for Android xx 🡲 click Ok and wait for the download to finish.

_{Thanks to Cyn45 for their answer.}

Parchment answered 14/4, 2021 at 8:16 Comment(3)

Thank you! All the other answers here are out of date at this point. Didn't even need to invalidate/restart. – Adele 12/6, 2021 at 14:7

Thanks! Other answers are outdated indeed. – Robbegrillet 11/2, 2022 at 7:27

Updated for 2022. If anyone is still unable to find in Tools, remember to check "show package details" at the bottom right of the screen. – Surd 22/4, 2022 at 1:30

As other answers said, it's because the Android Studio is trying to fetch the javadoc online (from http://developer.android.com/reference/), which will be very slow if the network not good, especially in China because google is blocked. So we should change this setting and let Android Studio fetch javadoc locally:

Download Android SDK Documentation using the Android SDK Manager.
Open the file ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio2.2/options/jdk.table.xml, see notes below to make sure the correct file is edited.
In the file jdk.table.xml, replace all http://developer.android.com/reference/ to the path to your sdk reference folder. For example file://$USER_HOME$/tools/adt-bundle-mac/sdk/docs/reference on my Mac.

On OS X, if you have used several versions of Android Studio, there may be several configuration folders for each version (under ~/Library/Preferences/), you should change the jdk.table.xml in the right folder, in my case I should edit jdk.table.xml under the folder AndroidStudio2.2.

Meekins answered 27/9, 2016 at 6:52 Comment(1)

It's important to use the "sdk/docs/reference/" path even if the sources are stored in "sdk/sources/android-26/" on your computer. It will somehow work. – Respectively 2/2, 2018 at 9:51

On Windows

File location of jdk.table.xml

C:\Users\[your windows user name]\.AndroidStudio2.3\config\options\jdk.table.xml

Notes

"." before AndroidStudio directory
version number after ".AndroidStudio". Be sure to edit the version number of Android Studio you're currently using. Previous versions will still have directories here as well.

Line to edit

Before

<root type="simple" url="http://developer.android.com/reference/" />

After

<root type="simple" url="file://C:/Android/sdk/docs/reference" />

Notes

C:/Android/sdk/docs/reference replace with Android SDK location on your machine
if you're copy/pasting location from File Explorer, replace backslashes (\) with forward slashes (/)
Each installed Android SDK version will have its own docs XML entry
Edit the line above in each SDK version found in jdk.table.xml (if you want quick docs when targeting those versions in build.gradle). e.g. If you have Android SDK API 25 installed, you'd find a section to edit under <name value="Android API 25 Platform" />

Invalidate Caches / Restart after change!

File -> Invalidate Caches / Restart...

Ginetteginevra answered 23/5, 2017 at 18:27 Comment(0)

I also found this issue with Android studio 0.8.9 & 0.8.14, here's a simple solution:

File -> Invalid Caches/Restart -> Invalidate and Restart

Sometimes the documentation package may be missing or not up-to-date.

Try open the Android SDK manager(Tool->Android->SDK Manager) and install the 'Documentation for Android SDK' in the latest release, for now it's Android 5.0(API 21), then restart Android studio.

If this happens again, just invalidate the caches.

Emlynne answered 1/12, 2014 at 9:10 Comment(0)

For android studio 3.4, all you need to do is go to sdk manager -> SDK Tools, check "Documentation for Android SDK" and click apply.

It will automatically update the jdk.table.xml to point to the source you have downloaded.

Ardithardme answered 23/8, 2019 at 2:41 Comment(5)

That was it. Thanks a lot ! – Amalita 28/8, 2019 at 9:49

Simple and works. This answer should has more vote. – Toratorah 26/10, 2019 at 8:33

I don't see this option in Android Studio 4.0. Of course (I think google thinks that change is better than consistency--or even better than functionality). – Leonelleonelle 10/6, 2020 at 15:26

This checkbox is not avaliable for me. – Cimabue 25/7, 2020 at 9:58

There is "Sources for Android x" checkbox, available for each API, displayed under "SDK Tools" tab when you also check "Show Package Details" checkbox at the bottom right corner. It looks like it downloads the documentation. – Remark 22/9, 2020 at 7:12

I found a solution.

Close the android studio and delete the c:\Users\xxx.AndroidStudioBeta\ (in my case)
Change the android sdk path name
Open the android studio, it will ask for the sdk path

Now you can change back the sdk path or using the new sdk path.

You will find Ctrl+Q will work fine. (Don't import old setting)

I think we need download the sdk document before set the sdk path to Android studio. But the Android studio should handle this case or give us a option to set it.

Tarsus answered 31/7, 2014 at 7:24 Comment(0)

For a quick workaround edit /etc/hosts (or C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts) file and add the line:

0.0.0.0 developer.android.com

This will prevent it but you can comment it out when you need to fetch the latest or ones not cached or read the docs online.

Picofarad answered 16/2, 2019 at 16:1 Comment(0)

UPDATE: From unknown exactly version, just simply download Android Documentation in SDK Manager could fix the problem. My 3.4.1 do so.

But I don't know whether older version could works as well or not.

Separation answered 12/6, 2019 at 13:28 Comment(0)

-1

I meet the same issue too,but I solved it just now. I used the Android Studio with SDK before I solved it,and then I download a Android Studio Zip without SDK,and run it,and the issue disappeared. You can try it.

Vanpelt answered 29/9, 2014 at 12:50 Comment(0)

-1

you can disable it, in Android Studio Preference

Android Studio -> Preference -> Editor -> General -> Code Completion -> Show the documentation pupup in XX ms

see my another answer Link

Carranza answered 4/4, 2019 at 6:47 Comment(0)

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