'Visual Studio Emulator for Android' devices are not listed in the Android Device Monitor

Question

I can start the VS Emulator devices just fine, but they simply don't show up in ADB/Android studio.

I searched and found a similar SO question (same issue, only I installed the standalone emulator) but OP provided a workaround and I would like to know how to actually fix it so it shows up every time as intended instead of having to connect it manually (and as per SO etiquette didn't want to ask there in the comments).

I also found a "solution" in a Microsoft FAQ post which instructs you to edit a registry key under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Android SDK Tools

but the 'Android SDK Tools' is nowhere to be found under 'Wow6432Node' in my registry, which could very well be the cause of the problem to begin with. I'm not sure if it's missing because of the Android Studio/SDK installation or something else, but for example Genymotion devices connect to ADB without any problems. (I always feel uneasy about adding anything to registry manually, but maybe I should add the 'PATH' myself?)

I installed everything just today on a fresh Windows 10 installation and didn't mess with anything in the registry myself.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Appositive

Sorry, I had the same issue and I am bit concerned about adding things in regedit, I explored lot of sites.. nothing helps.. Finally as per vs_emulator_help_link (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt228282.aspx#ADB).. I added Android SDK Tools in regedit.. it worked.. Ping me it you find solution for this. – Peper

I also ended up adding the 'Android SDK Tools' key myself as it didn't exist, made a new String value 'Path' and pointed it to my sdk folder and it actually does work. I'll leave the answer open as someone might find an actual solution other than manually editing regedit. – Appositive

manual regedit worked for me. new key : "Android SDK Tools", new string "PATH" inside – Griffith

@Appositive Adding a regedit entry seems to be the correct solution. Can you please post an answer and mark that as correct. I think it would help a lot of people since not everybody will read these comments. – Protamine

This didn't solve my problem. Any other workarounds? – Cerebrovascular

The manual registry key did not work for me either. – Megasporophyll

Answer 1

In my case I didn't have that entry in registry. But all you need to do is just create the key Android SDK Tools that entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node

Then add the two keys as shown (right click -> New -> String Value). Add the correct path to your Android SDK. Here is what it should look like:

Once you add those entries

adb kill-server adb start-server

Restart the Visual Studio Emulator for Android then run adb devices and hopefully it should just appear.

Toplofty

Worked perfectly. Thanks! (By the way, I didn't need to create the StartMenuGroup value.) – Coherent

didn't work for me..I did everything exactly like you did – Galvanic

Nice answer bro – Maisey

Answer 2

I experienced this issue when i moved my android SDK (due to disc space reasons).

If you open regedit and go to the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Android SDK Tools

and edit the value Path to look at your new android sdk location it should work.

you may have to call:

adb kill-server
adb start-server

and relaunch your emulator again to get adb devices to see it but it should show up in the end

You may also need to restart your machine just to be safe

Vani

@bremen_matt, the entry was missing for me too, so I just created it and it worked. – Coherent

Answer 3

• Copy Your ANDROID SDK PATH for me it look like this :

• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Android SDK Tools.

Note: if Android SDK Tools folder doesn't exist, Create it under WOW6432Node, And open it, And Create a String Value name it Path :)

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• Modify the Path registry variable to match the path to your Android SDK.

  • Restart the emulator and you should now be able to see the emulator connected to ADB and associated Android tools.

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You can read this answers :

Nativescript project running with Visual Studio Emulator

Worldling

The most valuable information for me was the screenshot that shows the folder where the path has to direct to. I have a fresh Windows 10 installation with fresh Visual Studio 2017 Community. Everything installed with defaults. I was also missing the registry value BUT my default path was C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk – Incalescent

This worked for me! I had to add manually the 'Android SDK Tools' key in the registry. After that, all started to work well. I guess somewhere along my VS and Xamarin instaltion, something got lost. Running Windows on Bootcamp, so don't know if there's any incompatibility there... – Starbuck

for me it was %localappdata%\Android\Sdk and it caused issues, using the direct path worked. – Notornis