Asked 27/7, 2013 at 19:32 Answered 17/3, 2023 at 9:54

866

I spent quite sometime figuring how to set up adb on Mac, so I figure writing how to set it up might be useful to some people. adb is the command line tool to install and run android apps on your phone/emulator

Minstrelsy answered 27/7, 2013 at 19:32 Comment(2)

And here I thought "adb"is an old Unix debugger! ;) books.google.com/… – Levenson 28/7, 2013 at 0:56

There is a link to the official platform-tools SDK package (which contains the adb binary) at stackoverflow.com/tags/adb/info – Quintonquintuple 17/10, 2016 at 2:5

1848

Note: this was originally written on Installing ADB on macOS but that question was closed as a duplicate of this one.

Note for zsh users: replace all references to ~/.bash_profile with ~/.zshrc.

Option 1 - Using Homebrew

This is the easiest way and will provide automatic updates.

Install homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Install adb

brew install android-platform-tools

or try a cask install depending on your settings:

brew install --cask android-platform-tools

Start using adb
```
adb devices
```

Option 2 - Manually (just the platform tools)

This is the easiest way to get a manual installation of ADB and Fastboot.

Delete your old installation (optional)
```
rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
```
Navigate to https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html and click on the SDK Platform-Tools for Mac link.
Go to your Downloads folder
```
cd ~/Downloads/
```
Unzip the tools you downloaded
```
unzip platform-tools-latest*.zip 
```

Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them

mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
mv platform-tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools

Add platform-tools to your path

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile

Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb
```
adb devices
```

Option 3 - If you already have Android Studio installed

Add platform-tools to your path

echo 'export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb
```
adb devices
```

Option 4 - MacPorts

Install the Android SDK:
```
sudo port install android
```

Run the SDK manager:

sh /opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/tools/android

Uncheck everything but Android SDK Platform-tools (optional)
Install the packages, accepting licenses. Close the SDK Manager.
Add platform-tools to your path; in MacPorts, they're in /opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools. E.g., for bash:
```
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash_profile
```
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal/shell):

source ~/.bash_profile
Start using adb:

adb devices

Option 5 - Manually (with SDK Manager)

Delete your old installation (optional)
```
rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
```
Download the Mac SDK Tools from the Android developer site under "Get just the command line tools". Make sure you save them to your Downloads folder.
Go to your Downloads folder
```
cd ~/Downloads/
```
Unzip the tools you downloaded
```
unzip tools_r*-macosx.zip 
```

Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them

mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
mv tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools

Run the SDK Manager
```
sh ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools/android
```
Uncheck everything but Android SDK Platform-tools (optional)
Click Install Packages, accept licenses, click Install. Close the SDK Manager window.

Add platform-tools to your path

echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
```
source ~/.bash_profile
```
Start using adb
```
adb devices
```

Accused answered 29/1, 2015 at 6:17 Comment(14)

this is far more straightforward than chasing down the sdk path which keeps changing. – Dunaville 11/5, 2016 at 18:45

Has now moved to cask: brew cask install android-platform-tools – Occipital 7/4, 2017 at 14:53

For create file if not available perform with terminal $Touch .bash_profile For open and edit file $open -e .bash_profile in file type it export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home) export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/user_name/Library/Android/sdk export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$PATH then file>save After restart Terminal app and enjoy. – Spree 8/11, 2017 at 13:16

Option 1 worked fastest and smoother. Can I give you an award for saving my time :) Thanks! – Sundry 22/2, 2018 at 21:20

please consider editing your post to rearrange the options order. as it currently stands it seem to suggest that using homebrew is the recommended option. it may be the easiest option to install but for a novice developer it should be skipped in favor of the official Google binaries (options #2 and #3) – Quintonquintuple 16/6, 2018 at 18:47

If you already have android studio installed, option 1 is not a solution as android studio updates faster than android-platform-tools on android. There will be a mismatch and it won't run correctly. – Pacorro 20/6, 2018 at 8:32

Option 3. Note that you need to have downloaded AND installed AND ran Android Studio (for the first time), for it to install the SDK Tools. If you had just downloaded (the dmg) or just downloaded and installed but not run, then the SDK Tools will not be present (yet), until you run it for the first time. – Prophesy 16/1, 2019 at 11:14

I already have Android studio so I tried 3. It works after I run source ./bash_profile but only persists as long as the terminal is open. – Abshier 27/3, 2020 at 16:15

@Bikram you need to make sure ./bash_profile is always run when your terminal starts up. See apple.stackexchange.com/questions/12993/… – Accused 28/3, 2020 at 18:28

Yes! This! Thank you! Why is this not done by default when using Android Studio? Jeez, there are so many additional unnecessary steps just to get a functioning environment! – Desultory 12/7, 2020 at 15:47

On MacOS Catalina and higher settings should be exported to .zprofile . – Empedocles 18/12, 2020 at 10:15

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/Users/abc/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile worked for me, thanks – Precautious 25/3, 2021 at 7:52

Hi! I have android studio on Mac, I have ANDROID_JOME setup on zhrc but none of this work. adb command is still not found. can someone please help me. – Stilu 27/7, 2022 at 13:48

@Stilu is that a typo or are you actually putting in ANDROID_JOME instead of ANDROID_HOME? – Accused 27/7, 2022 at 18:24

612

echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/Users/${USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/" >> ~/.bash_profile && source ~/.bash_profile

If you put the android-sdks folder in other directory, replace the path with the directory android-sdks/platform-tools is in

Minstrelsy answered 27/7, 2013 at 19:32 Comment(10)

And for those who use zsh instead bash, you'll need to add this to ~/.zshrc – Ens 5/9, 2013 at 1:17

You've also gotta Quit and reopen your Terminal for the changes to take effect – Leukemia 8/2, 2014 at 1:7

As of Android Studio 1.0 Location of platform tools is echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/Users/[yourusername]/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools' >> ~/.bash_profile – Supersensual 16/12, 2014 at 6:50

No need to quit and reopen the Terminal, you can just source ~/.bash_profile. – Cia 13/4, 2015 at 1:46

Do you have to install Android Studio first? – Stoner 10/2, 2016 at 21:42

You can use $HOME instead of "/Users/[yourusername]" – Headstream 29/4, 2016 at 18:17

This is a horrific answer as it nukes everything else in your bash_profile – Ferrel 16/6, 2017 at 14:34

For other fools ;) who might copy and paste that escaped text directly into their .bash_profile and then wonder where the heck the which and other basic commands went after reloading the shell (source ~/.bash_profile) : that should read as export PATH=$PATH:/Users/${USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools – Doctrinal 21/11, 2017 at 1:6

Best answer I found. – Amniocentesis 11/4, 2019 at 6:50

2024 update (for new macs):echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/Users/${USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/" >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc – Byplay 25/3 at 20:14

162

Only for zsh users in Terminal or iterm2 in macOS

type the following two commands to add the android sdk and platform-tools to your zsh in Terminal or iterm2 in macOS

echo 'export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools' >> ~/.zshrc

After adding the two command to ~/.zshrc you need to source the zsh.

source ~/.zshrc

Tad answered 5/1, 2018 at 15:58 Comment(8)

This is what I was looking for! :) Thanks! Also, don't forget to run source .zshrc or reopen terminal. :D – Darky 23/8, 2019 at 16:51

You are welcome. edited the answer and add a source to zsh command. – Tad 31/10, 2019 at 12:11

What do i need to put instead of the $PATH and $ANDROID_HOME? – Biofeedback 22/1, 2020 at 14:42

works like a charm on the M1 mac! thank you! I wasn't aware of the zsh and bash thing are now updated. used mac after like 4 years! – Paradisiacal 17/7, 2021 at 12:6

PS not just iTerm2 it works fine in terminal too. So thanks again! – Paradisiacal 17/7, 2021 at 18:46

@Paradisiacal Hello, I am having trouble to run ./adb from terminal with M1 chip, i have followed all the steps and solutions but stil no change, can you please explain how you got it? – Felicity 30/1, 2022 at 10:36

@Ulugbek, I just followed the steps and it just worked fine for me. Did you make sure that you set the right path for $user/Library and also have you set your ANDROID_HOME as well prior to trying this? – Paradisiacal 31/1, 2022 at 8:19

this is how it works, because when we use homebrew then bash is not the solution – Hippocampus 3/6, 2022 at 11:39

115

This Works Flawless....

In terminal Run both commands next to each other

export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk

export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

Warrenwarrener answered 4/2, 2017 at 2:53 Comment(7)

I can confirm that this works great as of June 2017 on macOS Sierra. – Consign 2/6, 2017 at 20:31

sdk folder has been removed. If those two commands were run, adb devices won't work. Should be the following for latest android studio ` export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools ` – Gonzalez 5/6, 2017 at 2:17

Thanks its help me but make sure change after $USER path with your directory of sdk – Irmgardirmina 30/10, 2018 at 8:22

As of android studio 3.2, the path is defaulted to '$HOME/Library/Android/sdk' – Visakhapatnam 3/11, 2018 at 11:2

Thank you. You helped me a lot – Staley 9/11, 2019 at 15:17

Only solution that helped me and was easy to do. Works on MacOS Big Sur. end of 2020! – Bipinnate 19/11, 2020 at 13:30

On Big Sur....uh...was running these commands supposed to make adb devices be globally recognized in terminal? Because it didn't. I have Android Studio installed. Closed and opened a new Terminal window. – Tull 28/9, 2021 at 21:30

2022 Solution

If you have Android Studio installed already and Terminal isn't picking up ADB, here's a one-liner that should fix it:

sudo ln -s ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb /usr/local/bin

It creates a symbolic link (essentially a shortcut) for the adb executable. It's added to /usr/local/bin which is one of the default locations where Terminal looks for command line tools.

Balkin answered 11/5, 2022 at 19:23 Comment(2)

Could you explain what happens in this? what is ln and -s? – Zoba 10/11, 2022 at 10:20

It creates a symbolic link (essentially a shortcut) for the adb executable. It's added to /usr/local/bin which is one of the default locations where Terminal looks for command line tools. – Balkin 11/11, 2022 at 5:12

NOTE: Path for adb has changed since Android Studio 1.0.xx

For bash shell, use:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:'$HOME'/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools' >> ~/.bash_profile

For tcsh shell, use:

echo 'setenv PATH $PATH\:'$HOME'/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools' >> ~/.tcshrc

Shulman answered 23/12, 2014 at 9:9 Comment(4)

This is indeed where the tools are located in the latest version – Marilla 24/12, 2014 at 13:22

I have 1.0.1 and I don't have anything there :/ – Wiser 13/1, 2015 at 5:17

Command for bash shell and Eclipse is echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile – Surra 18/2, 2015 at 0:51

Android Studio 2.0 and that's still the location - ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools – Willenewillet 18/4, 2016 at 8:2

If you are using zsh shell and after trying all this solutions, you still need to set $PATH and $ANDROID_HOME every time you open new terminal instance, then here is your answer:

step 1: in terminal run nano ~/.zshrc

step 2: paste following command at the end of the file

export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$PATH
export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$PATH

step 3: After copying the lines above, to save hit control + X. and to confirm hit Y. It will ask you if you wish to change the file name but don't change the name so directly hit enter

step 4: Restart your terminal and execute the adb command.

Bingo!

Elspet answered 3/3, 2021 at 9:57 Comment(3)

You might want to use this to be user name independent: export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk – Interrogatory 15/12, 2021 at 10:7

@MichaelTroger well said, I've updated the answer with your help! thanks – Elspet 16/12, 2021 at 19:50

To avoid conflicts with vscode use this solution in macos 11 or higher. https://mcmap.net/q/53567/-set-up-adb-on-mac-os-x – Margitmargo 1/11, 2022 at 10:59

Personally I just source my .bashrc in my .bash_profile:

echo 'source ~/.bashrc' >> ~/.bash_profile

So I put it in my .bashrc. And I'm using Android Studio, so it was a different path.

echo 'PATH=$PATH:$HOME/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bashrc

You may also want the following:

echo 'ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.bashrc

Crab answered 2/10, 2013 at 17:12 Comment(0)

Here is a step wise information :

Step-1

Start up Terminal and go to your home folder.

cd ~/

Step-2

Open and edit .bash_profile file

$ open -e .bash_profile

If you don’t have .bash_profile file in your computer path, then create one. Enter below command to create a new file. Once created follow Step-2.

touch .bash_profile

Step-3

Save the below line)

export PATH=${PATH}:/Applications/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140321/sdk/tools
export PATH=${PATH}:/Applications/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140321/sdk/platform-tools

Step-4

Refresh the file using below command

$ source .bash_profile

$ echo $PATH

You should see your android path set in the output now.

Lanner answered 21/8, 2015 at 12:12 Comment(0)

The simplest way to use adb command on your Mac systems would be to add the path to the platform-tools (where adb lives) into your bash_profile.

Steps to add the adb path: 1. open the bash_profile: This can be done by using the following commands

open ~/.bash_profile

This opens up the bash_profile in an editor.

Locate the platform_tools, usually they are present at the following location: Users/"user_folder"/Library/Android/sdk/platform_tools
Paste the following command in the bash_profile file which opens up:

export PATH=$PATH:/Users/A374375/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
Save the file using the command:

source ~/.bash_profile

Check if the path is saved by typing: echo $PATH : You should be able to find the entire path displayed in the output.
Type adb to see if the configuration worked. If you have any devices connected to the machine or any emulators running on your system they would be displayed when you type adb devices

output for adb devices

Wallah answered 12/7, 2019 at 17:58 Comment(0)

For Mac users : Step 1: Install the Android Studio

Step2 : Open the terminal and type

cd

Step 3: Type below mentioned command changing the userName:

export PATH=“/Users/{user_name}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools”:$PATH

Arose answered 17/4, 2018 at 6:35 Comment(0)

On MacOS Big Sur do the following:

Open config file:

nano ~/.zshrc

Add paths to PATH variable:

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH

close file and save changes. Then in terminal write:

source ~/.zshrc

And then you'll be able to run:

adb devices
adb kill-server

Upperclassman answered 12/10, 2021 at 8:28 Comment(0)

cd sdk/platform-tools/ and then use ./adb devices instead

Tuinal answered 6/3, 2014 at 13:10 Comment(1)

I have to be inside /Users/ashokr/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools and then it works. – Speck 9/2, 2018 at 19:57

This solution is for Mac:

Considering you have already downloaded SDK platform tools & trying to set adb path:

If you want to check the SDK is available or not, just check it by following this path:
User > Library (Hidden folder) > Android > sdk > platform-tools > adb

SDK PATH IMAGE

To set the PATH for the adb command on a macOS system, firstly need to edit your shell configuration file. The default shell on macOS is Bash or Zash.
If you're using Bash, so you will need to edit the ~/.bash_profile file otherwise edit ~/.zprofile in your home directory.

Here's how to do it:

By Terminal:

Open a terminal window and enter the following command:

nano ~/.bash_profile

nano ~/.zprofile

This will open the ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile file in the Nano text editor.

Add the following line to the file:

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH

Press Ctrl+X to exit the Nano editor, then press Y to save the changes and Enter to confirm the filename.

Run the following command to reload your shell configuration:

source ~/.bash_profile

source ~/.zprofile

After you have set the PATH for adb, you should be able to run the adb command from any terminal window.

By Manual:

Go to the Home directory & tap command + shift + . (To show the hidden files)
Search file ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zprofile & open it.
Add required path & save it.

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/tools:$PATH
export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH

Run the following command to reload your shell configuration:

source ~/.bash_profile

source ~/.zprofile

After you have set the PATH for adb, you should be able to run the adb command from any terminal window.

Leotaleotard answered 17/3, 2023 at 9:54 Comment(1)

This worked for bash_profile thank you – Herbivore 18/4 at 7:26

If you using zsh then you need do the add the following to your .zshrc

Steps: Step 1: Open your .zshrc profile

open -e .zshrc

Step 2: Add the following to the file

export PATH=$PATH:/Users/${YourUser}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/${YourUser}/Library/Android/sdk

Step 3: Save the file and close. Step 4: Reload the .zshrc

source .zshrc

Step 5: Check the devices connected

adb devices

Heerlen answered 11/8, 2020 at 12:23 Comment(0)

if you are using Android Studio in MAC OS X , you could exec the following command in your terminal app:

echo 'alias adb="/Applications/Android\ Studio.app/sdk/platform-tools/adb"' >> .bashrc
exec $SHELL

and next:

adb devices

and you should be showing a list with your android devices connected via USB cable in your MAC, for example something like this:

* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
deb7bed5        device

Root answered 13/10, 2014 at 17:49 Comment(2)

Can you just clarify what the exec $SHELL line does exactly? Newb here, never used that in a terminal before! :) – Menagerie 13/10, 2014 at 20:46

I run this command, because after edit the '.basrc' is necessary that restart the command line, and with this command you can restart without to close the terminal window – Root 15/10, 2014 at 21:0

MAC Solution.

cd /Users/<user>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
./adb devices

Nonesuch answered 9/5, 2021 at 15:34 Comment(0)

For macOS Users Updated to MacOs Catalina,

~/.bash_profile changed to ~/.zshrc

So ,to run adb command and all other commands already exported to ~/.bash_profile easy walkaround is to export bash_profile to zshrc

To do that,

1) Navigate to the home directory in finder

2) I used Cmd + Shift + . to show the hidden files in Finder

3) Create .zshrc file if already not exist

4) Add line "source ~/.bash_profile" without quotes

5) Save

6) Quit and open terminal

start using adb devices

Parakeet answered 9/12, 2019 at 6:37 Comment(1)

This, in combination with this solution: [ https://mcmap.net/q/53567/-set-up-adb-on-mac-os-x ] finally seemed to work. Geeeeze. Thanks. – Tull 28/9, 2021 at 21:38

Here's a detailed manual:
http://codexpi.com/add-android-adb-path-mac-os-x-mavericks/

To sum this up:

Create and open the bash_profile file

touch .bash_profile
open -e .bash_profile
Add the path of the platform-tools folder (within the Android SDK)

export PATH="$PATH:/Users/USERNAME/PATH TO ANDROID SDK/platform-tools/
Run the command . .bash_profile to update (no need to restart the terminal)

Woodley answered 16/4, 2015 at 12:20 Comment(1)

remove " after PATH= – Empathy 12/9, 2019 at 10:52

If you are using ZSH and have Android Studio 1.3: 1. Open .zshrc file (Located in your home directory, file is hidden so make sure you can see hidden files) 2. Add this line at the end: alias adb="/Users/kamil/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb" 3. Quit terminal 4. Open terminal and type in adb devices 5. If it worked it will give you list of all connected devices

Biradial answered 26/9, 2015 at 17:28 Comment(0)

Mac OS Open Terminal

touch ~/.bash_profile; open ~/.bash_profile

Copy and paste:

export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

command + S for save.

Stolzer answered 15/10, 2019 at 4:34 Comment(1)

Still getting zsh: command not found: adb after opening a new terminal window. EDIT: I just had to follow these steps afterwards: [ https://mcmap.net/q/53567/-set-up-adb-on-mac-os-x ] – Tull 28/9, 2021 at 21:36

If you are setting the path in Catalina use below command one after another in the terminal. It's working fine for me.

export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools

source ~/.bash_profile

Porshaport answered 6/5, 2020 at 15:41 Comment(0)

Download Android Platform Tools for macOS from:

https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools

Extract to your somewhere e.g ~/installs/platform-tools

Add that folder to path by running:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/installs/platform-tools' >> ~/.zshrc

Either restart terminal or run:

source ~/.zshrc

Assuming that you are using zsh.

Soto answered 27/1, 2021 at 19:39 Comment(0)

Commenting with some updated information from 2018.

Executable Binaries for Platform tools are made available for mac by Android here: https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html

Download these to your mac. Place them in a directory e.g. I placed in ~/Software/platform-tools

If you have root access, the easiest way I have found on a mac is to add your directories to the list in /etc/paths. I like this way because after a few additions the $PATH starts to look too messy and hard to read, the /etc/pathshas everything in separate line, clean and organized. The downside is that you require root access.

$ cat /etc/paths  # check contents of the file
$ sudo nano /etc/paths

Paste the full path of your platform-tools directory (something like /Users/GodZilla/Software/platform-tools/adb) at the end of this list and save. Quit and Open terminal again and check if it sees your platform-tools directory.

$ which adb
/Users/GodZilla/Software/platform-tools/adb
$ which fastboot
/Users/GodZilla/Software/platform-tools/fastboot

If you don't have root access, just add the platform-tools directory to $PATH in your .bash_profile (or .zshenv if you use zsh) as other users have suggested.

Hayes answered 24/2, 2018 at 5:34 Comment(0)

This totally worked for me, after dickering around for a while after installing Android Studio:

Make sure you have the .bash_profile file. This should be in your [username] directory.

From whatever directory you are on, type this:

echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/Users/${USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/" >> ~/.bash_profile

Now, usually you will have this exact path, but if not, then use whatever path you have the platform-tools folder

From the directory where your .bash_profile resides, type this:
```
. .bash_profile
```
Now type adb devices. You should see a "List of devices attached" response. Now you do not have to go to the platform-tools directory each and every time to type in the more cryptic command like, ./adb devices!!!

Scop answered 8/11, 2016 at 19:58 Comment(1)

it's a little easier to read for a newbie I think. maybe it could be added to the other? – Whenas 8/12, 2016 at 22:53

In my case, I installed Android studio, and have some apps (rust lang) that changes the ~/.profile, and adding adb to ~/.bash_profile made the rust un-executable, so I made the changes to the ~/.profile only, as:

$ echo 'PATH=$PATH:$HOME/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.profile
$ source ~/.profile
$ adb --version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 29.0.4-5871666
Installed as /Users/hasan/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb

Keratoplasty answered 21/9, 2019 at 19:26 Comment(0)

In my case : I did the following (on a mac) :

backed up the ".bash_profile" and ".profile"
cleared all the android related paths.
created the new paths but this time around, I dragged the respective folders : { /.../sdk, /.../tools, /.../platform-tools } into the terminal. I did this for both ".bash_profile" and ".profile".
Then after successfully saving the files each. I restarted the terminal just to be sure about the modifications I made.
I then went on to test if adb was responding now ... by typing : (in terminal) adb devices
I still had no luck (my devices) where not showing, then I restarted the adb, still.
I went on to do "android update adb" . This just killed and restarted the adb
I tried again still the devices wasnt showing.
I totally backed up my android device and resetted the whole phone back to factory default, went over to activate the device for development and allow for usb debugging in its settings > applications.

******** WORKED LIKE A CHARM ********

I tried again with the command "adb devices" and everything was back to normal the device was visible.

All the best. Just dont give up. It took me a lot of troubleshooting. All the best of luck.

Evangelin answered 2/2, 2016 at 21:19 Comment(0)

Considering you have already downloaded SDK platform tools.

This command will set ADB locally. So if you close the terminal and open it again, ADB commands won't work until you run this command again.

export PATH=~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:$PATH

These commands will set ADB globally. So once you run these commands no need to set them again next time.

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile

source ~/.bash_profile

Lek answered 25/12, 2020 at 12:29 Comment(0)

If you are using zsh terminal do the following:

1) Open .zprofile file with the editor of your choice like "open -a xcode ~/.zprofile"

2) Add new PATH or Env Variable in .zprofile Save the file and quit the editor.

3) Execute your .zprofile to update your PATH: source ~/.zprofile

Yashmak answered 20/10, 2019 at 8:36 Comment(0)

Add environment variable for Android Home Targetting Platform Tools

echo 'export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.bash_profile

echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools' >> ~/.bash_profile

Restart Bash

source ~/.bash_profile

Now Check adb

Simply type

adb

on terminal

Plush answered 10/3, 2020 at 5:28 Comment(0)

After trying all the solutions, none of them where working for me.

In my case I had the Android Studio and the adb was correctly working but the Android Studio was not capable to detect the adb. These was because I installed it with homebrew in another directory, not the /Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk but Usr/Library blabla

Apparently AS needed to have it in his route /Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk (same place as in preferences SDK installation route)

So I deleted all the adb from my computer (I installed several) and executed these terminal commands:

echo 'export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile
adb devices

Well, after that, still wasn't working, because for some reason the route for the adb was /Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/platform-tools (yes, repeated) so I just copied the last platform-tools into the first directory with all the license files and started working.

Weird but true

Gazelle answered 26/3, 2020 at 19:39 Comment(0)

-1

MacPorts

It seems like android-platform-tools was first added to MacPorts only very recently — in 2018-10-20, under java/android-platform-tools/Portfile:

It would appear that it relies on a compiled binary that's provided by Google; it would appear that the source code for the binary might not be available.

The `adb` binary

Reverse-engineering the android-platform-tools/Portfile from above reveals that the following archive is fetched from Google in order to build the port:

https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r28.0.1-darwin.zip

The abd binary is pre-compiled, available in platform-tools/adb within the above archive, which is a Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64, as per file(1). It's ready to be used and doesn't seem to have any external dependencies (e.g., doesn't look like it depends on java or anything).

Using `adb`

In order to use adb to restart the device, for example, in case the power button is stuck, the following steps could be used:

cd /tmp
curl https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r28.0.1-darwin.zip -o apt.zip
unzip apt.zip
./platform-tools/adb devices
./platform-tools/adb reboot

Upon first use since a reboot, you also have to first confirm the pairing with the phone through the Allow USB debugging? popup on the phone (phone has to have USB debugging enabled through the Developer Options, no root access required).

Volley answered 6/12, 2018 at 7:1 Comment(0)

-1

Step 1 : Open Terminal

Step 2 : Run command :

 touch ~/.bash_profile; open ~/.bash_profile

Step 3 : This will open textEdit file when you can add following command:

 export PATH=$PATH:/Users/sharan/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools

Blockquote

Note : sharan is my user name check that on y our system and replace that with sharan rest will be same. You can also find that by opening android studio

   File->Project Structure..->SDK Location

Under Android SDK location there is path of sdk copy that and paste that on file and save it by pressing Command+S

Leeannaleeanne answered 23/4, 2020 at 12:33 Comment(1)

File saved then what? – Cadaverous 14/7, 2020 at 14:46

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Option 1 - Using Homebrew

Option 2 - Manually (just the platform tools)

Option 3 - If you already have Android Studio installed

Option 4 - MacPorts

Option 5 - Manually (with SDK Manager)

Only for zsh users in Terminal or iterm2 in macOS

2022 Solution

This solution is for Mac:

Here's how to do it:

By Terminal:

By Manual:

MAC Solution.

MacPorts

The adb binary

Using adb

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The `adb` binary

Using `adb`