I get 'Command Not Found' when I try to run Android Emulator on Mac OS X

Question

When I use the Mac OS X Terminal to navigate to the folder with my Android Emulator and type emulator, I get:

command not found

Here's what happens:

$ emulator
-bash: emulator: command not found

How do I get it to work?

Adiathermancy

Unless you've added the command to your PATH variable you need to specify the path to the binary, i.e. ./emulator from the directory it's in. – Cymoid

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools – Jabber

Answer 1

The current directory is not normally included in your $PATH on a *nix operating system like OS X; to execute a program in the current directory, precede it with the path to the current directory (.):

$ ./emulator

Reparative

OMG this seems to be working! :D So elusive, yet so simple. Thank you! – Adiathermancy

which directory am I supposed to be in before I can run ./emulator command? – Brood

@blackfyre if you are on mac, try this directory: /Users/<user>/Library/Android/sdk/tools – Tolmach

The correct answer would be: edit the /etc/paths file to add your /Users/myusername/Library/Android/sdk/emulator directory to the PATH environment variable. Then the emulator command will work from everywhere, including with build tools, as expected. – Shantelleshantha

ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator /usr/local/bin/emulator – Queenhood

Tha answer given by Anthony Awuley fixed it for me! – Toothache

Answer 2

solutions

1. Symbolic link

steps

1. create one symbolic link emulator

# soft link
$ ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator /usr/local/bin/emulator

2. call the command

# check all avd
$ emulator -list-avds

$ emulator @avd_name
# OR
$ emulator -avd avd_name

2. system environment

1. edit env with vim/vscode

# zsh
$ vim  ~/.zshrc
# OR
$ code  ~/.zshrc

2. add below lines to the .zshrc file

# export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/Users/xgqfrms/Library/Android/sdk

export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=~/Library/Android/sdk
export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
export ANDROID_AVD_HOME=~/.android/avd

3. update config

# flush update
$ source ~/.zshrc

refs

https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandline

Demogorgon

Depending on your android studio version, your path could be a little bit different $ ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/emulator /usr/local/bin/emulator – Reno

Regarding solution 2 - arent you missing adding those paths to PATH variable? – Agminate

Answer 3

Emulator can be added with Android Studio https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds.html

To start emulator: ~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator -avd Nexus_5X_API_23

Related question: How do I launch the Android emulator from the command line?

Ranjiv

Answer 4

These 3 command works for me on VS Code Terminal (Mac Book Pro M1)

1. echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator/' >> ~/.bash_profile
2. source ~/.bash_profile
3. emulator -list-avds

Orissa

As I had Homebrew installed on my Mac M1, so it worked just by one command in terminal: export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/emulator – Hoick

I am on Mac M2, the solution works for me :) – Archean

Answer 5

typcally i use from terminal :

./Library/Android/sdk/emulator/emulator *some action*

Indistinguishable

Answer 6

Open Android Studio. Click on AVD Manager (the icon with the android and phone) [example image: AVD Manager]. See the list of emulators. You should see something like "Install Emulator" if you don't have any.

Once this is successful, you'll get the tools folder downloaded to your ~/Library/Android/sdk

That is the folder you want, because it has the android and emulator command line tools.

Lanie

Answer 7

For those who installed android command line tools using homebrew :

brew install --cask android-commandlinetools

first make sure that everything is properly installed (so you have no incorrect sdk_root install error when you launch the emulator)

# because I installed android-32 and android-34 systems
# —————————————————————————————————————————————————————

sdkmanager "build-tools;32.0.0"
sdkmanager "build-tools;34.0.0"

sdkmanager "platforms;android-32"
sdkmanager "platforms;android-34"

# —————————————————————————————————————————————————————
sdkmanager "platform-tools"

and then following xgqfrms's solution, you can edit your ~/.zshrc :

export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="/opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools"
# instead of : export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT="/Users/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/Library/Android/sdk"
export ANDROID_HOME="/opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools"
# instead of : export ANDROID_HOME="/Users/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/Library/Android/sdk"
export ANDROID_AVD_HOME="/Users/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/.android/avd"

you can then add the binaries to your path :

ADB_PATH="/opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools/platform-tools/adb"
ANDROID_EMULATOR_PATH="/opt/homebrew/share/android-commandlinetools/emulator/"

export PATH="$ADB_PATH:$PATH"
export PATH="$ANDROID_EMULATOR_PATH:$PATH"

This should solve the problem

Portingale