How can I adb install an apk to multiple connected devices?

Asked 22/12, 2011 at 23:10 Answered 6/1, 2021 at 0:1

I have 7 devices plugged into my development machine.

Normally I do adb install <path to apk> and can install to just a single device.

Now I would like to install my apk on all of my 7 connected devices. How can I do this in a single command? I'd like to run a script perhaps.

Lavellelaven answered 22/12, 2011 at 23:10 Comment(1)

uninstallapp.rb gist.github.com/XinyueZ/2d61133b6acbde19f3c5 installapk.rb gist.github.com/XinyueZ/2128a11e174141908728 – Stonefly 7/12, 2015 at 9:27

You can use adb devices to get a list of connected devices and then run adb -s DEVICE_SERIAL_NUM install... for every device listed.

Something like (bash):

adb devices | tail -n +3 | cut -sf 1 -d " " | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

Comments suggest this might work better for newer versions:

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

For Mac OSX(not tested on Linux):

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -I {} adb -s {} install ...

Klong answered 22/12, 2011 at 23:25 Comment(11)

Thanks! Unfortunately I was unable to get the script to run. I am not an expert at shell scripting. I get the error:

xargs: illegal option -- i usage: xargs [-0opt] [-E eofstr] [-I replstr [-R replacements]] [-J replstr]              [-L number] [-n number [-x]] [-P maxprocs] [-s size]              [utility [argument ...]]

– Lavellelaven 22/12, 2011 at 23:37

Try replacing -iX with -I X – Klong 22/12, 2011 at 23:40

Did you replace ... with your APK name? Try replacing the whole last adb call with echo X to make sure it prints out values you'd expect. – Klong 24/12, 2011 at 0:37

adb devices | tail -n +3 | cut -sf 1 -d " " | xargs -I X echo X -s X install SONR doesn't print anything out – Lavellelaven 24/12, 2011 at 13:21

What about adb devices? Does adb even see your devices? – Klong 24/12, 2011 at 18:57

is it possible to echo device serial num right before adb install in the same one liner? – Eellike 9/8, 2012 at 23:36

There is something wrong with cut -sf 1 -d " ", If I run ./adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 -d " " I get nothing. If I run ./adb devices | tail -n +2 I get 4 devices connected, without the header. – Renferd 24/8, 2012 at 9:49

Remove -d " ", as (at least in my adb output) delimiter is a tab, not a space. – Shah 2/10, 2013 at 8:24

Is it possible to Connect to the multiple devices using a script, listening to TCP/IP port. – Gui 17/11, 2014 at 7:59

This works, but you'll have to wait for each adb install command to complete before issuing another one. See my answer for a better solution, though a bit more verbose – Misogynist 4/2, 2015 at 13:5

Works on linux too. – Rubato 28/6, 2016 at 14:7

The other answers were very useful however didn't quite do what I needed. I thought I'd post my solution (a shell script) in case it provides more clarity for other readers. It installs multiple apks and any mp4s

echo "Installatron"

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do 
  for APKLIST in $(ls *.apk);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL install $APKLIST
  done

  for MP4LIST in $(ls *.mp4);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $MP4LIST to $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL push $MP4LIST sdcard/
  done
done

echo "Installatron has left the building"

Thank you for all the other answers that got me to this point.

Israelisraeli answered 11/2, 2013 at 23:23 Comment(0)

Here's a functional one line command tailored from kichik's response (thanks!):

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -iX adb -s X install -r *.apk

But if you happen to be using Maven it's even simpler:

mvn android:deploy

Ponderous answered 21/9, 2012 at 20:18 Comment(2)

How would I set this up for Android? – Kataway 6/10, 2016 at 19:51

Doesn't work for me. Output: xargs: adb: terminated by signal 13 – Unstoppable 8/6, 2017 at 14:19

Another short option... I stumbled on this page to learn that the -s $SERIAL has to come before the actual adb command! Thanks stackoverflow!

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do `adb -s $SERIAL install -r /path/to/product.apk`;
done

Theogony answered 14/11, 2012 at 17:38 Comment(0)

Generalized solution from Dave Owens to run any command on all devices:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do echo adb -s $SERIAL $@;
done

Put it in some script like "adb_all" and use same way as adb for single device.

Another good thing i've found is to fork background processes for each command, and wait for their completion:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do adb -s $SERIAL $@ &
done

for job in `jobs -p`
do wait $job
done

Then you can easily create a script to install app and start the activity

./adb_all_fork install myApp.apk
./adb_all_fork shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n my.package.app/.MainActivity

Speculative answered 19/6, 2013 at 13:11 Comment(1)

I like this idea a lot. Works great in my ~/bin folder. – Hallucinosis 6/10, 2013 at 20:50

I liked workingMatt's script but thought it could be improved a bit, here's my modified version:

#!/bin/bash

install_to_device(){
local prettyName=$(adb -s $1 shell getprop ro.product.model)
echo "Starting Installatroning on $prettyName"
for APKLIST in $(find . -name "*.apk" -not -name "*unaligned*");
  do
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $prettyName"
  adb -s $1 install -r $APKLIST
  adb -s $1 shell am start -n com.foo.barr/.FirstActivity;
  adb -s $1 shell input keyevent KEYCODE_WAKEUP
  done
  echo "Finished Installatroning on $prettyName"
}

echo "Installatron"
gradlew assembleProdDebug

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do 
  install_to_device $SERIAL&
done

My version does the same thing except:

it finds the apks from the root of the project
it installs to every device simultaneously
it excludes the "unaligned" versions of the apks (these were just being installed over by the aligned versions anyway
it shows the readable names for the phones instead if their device ids

There's a few ways it could still be improved but I'm quite happy with it.

External answered 24/4, 2015 at 15:6 Comment(1)

Based to this script I made a version for Unity app build benoitfreslon.com/fr/2017/08/… – Roath 28/8, 2017 at 10:34

The following command should work:

$ adb devices | tail -n +2 | head -n -1 | cut -f 1 | xargs -I X adb -s X install -r path/to/your/package.apk

adb devices returns the list of devices. Use tail -n +2 to start from the 2nd line and head -n -1 to remove the last blank line at the end. Piping through cut with the default tab delimiter gets us the first column which are the serials.

xargs is used to run the adb command for each serial. Remove the -r option if you are not re-installing.

Tripodic answered 31/1, 2012 at 4:16 Comment(2)

This only worked after i removed the -1 from the head command and replaced with 1. Also this only installed on first device, not all. If I dont replace -1 with 1 on the head command I get a ./adb devices | tail -n +2 | head -n -1 head: illegal line count -- -1 – Renferd 24/8, 2012 at 9:41

head: illegal line count -- -1 – Kataway 6/10, 2016 at 19:51

With this script you can just do:

adb+ install <path to apk>

Clean, simple.

Brass answered 31/5, 2013 at 5:7 Comment(4)

Perfect, if only we can use it with Genymotion devices, that connect via tcpip... no way to refer to them with -s – Suzysuzzy 26/11, 2013 at 21:52

@Suzysuzzy why not? See my answer, I successfully use it – Misogynist 4/2, 2015 at 13:1

@Misogynist sorry, you're right. I learnt later that -s ip_address is possible. – Suzysuzzy 16/3, 2015 at 21:24

Any way to do it in parallel? Right now this script installs to one device at a time sequentially. – Kataway 6/10, 2016 at 19:52

PowerShell solution

function global:adba() {
    $deviceIds = iex "adb devices" | select -skip 1 |  %{$_.Split([char]0x9)[0].Trim() } | where {$_ -ne "" }
    foreach ($deviceId in $deviceIds) {
        Echo ("--Executing on device " + $deviceId + ":---")
        iex ("adb -s $deviceId " + $args)
    }
}

Put this in your profile file (notepad $PROFILE), restart your shell and you can invoke installations with :

adba install yourApp.apk

Dandiprat answered 23/10, 2014 at 11:57 Comment(0)

If you don't want use the devices that have not enabled adb; use this

Mac/Linux

adb devices | grep device | grep -v devices | awk '{print$1}' | xargs -I {} adb -s {} install path/to/yourApp.apk 

adb devices | grep device | grep -v devices | cut -sf 1 | xargs -I {} adb -s {} install path/to/yourApp.apk

Dalliance answered 10/5, 2016 at 23:39 Comment(0)

Use this command-line utility: adb-foreach

Hinz answered 30/9, 2014 at 16:38 Comment(0)

This command works perfect adb devices | awk 'NR>1{print $1}' | xargs -n1 -I% adb -s % install foo.apk

Admissive answered 13/4, 2017 at 21:31 Comment(0)

well its simple you can create a installapk.bat file that can do the job for multiple apk to multiple connected devices open installapk.bat with notepad++ and copy paste this code

FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r Facebook.apk
FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r Instagram.apk
FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r Messenger.apk
FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r Outlook.apk
FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r Viber.apk
FOR /F "skip=1"  %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r WhatsApp.apk

Arboreous answered 11/2, 2019 at 12:6 Comment(0)

Here is bash for install and run apk on all connected devices

Using

nick@nickolay:/home/workspace/MyProject$ > bash path/to/installAndRunApk.sh

installAndRunApk.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#--------find apk---------
apkFile=$(find -name '*.apk' -print | grep -oP '(?<=.).*(.apk)')

#--------find apkFilePath---------
if test -z "apkFile"
then
echo "apkFile: is NULL"
exit 0;
fi

echo "apkFile: ${apkFile}"
apkFilePath=$(pwd)${apkFile}
echo "apk file path: ${apkFilePath}"

#--------install---------
if test -z "$apkFilePath"
then
echo "apkFilePath: is NULL"
exit 0;
fi

echo "adb install -t -r ${apkFilePath}"
for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do `adb -s ${SERIAL} install -t -r ${apkFilePath}`;
done

#--------get applicationId---------
echo "aapt dump badging ${apkFilePath} | grep -oP '(?<=package: name=).*(?=versionCode)'"
applicationId=$(aapt dump badging ${apkFilePath} | grep -oP '(?<=package: name=).*(?=versionCode)')
echo "applicationId: is ${applicationId}"

#--------launch---------
if test -z "$applicationId"
then
echo "applicationId: is NULL"
exit 0;
fi

echo "____________________START_APPLICATION_ID________________________"
echo "applicationId: ${applicationId}"
echo "____________________END_APPLICATION_ID__________________________"
echo "____________________START_LAUNCHER______________________________"
for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do `adb -s ${SERIAL} shell monkey -p ${applicationId} -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1`;
done
echo "____________________END_LAUNCHER________________________________"

Transmundane answered 22/11, 2019 at 15:21 Comment(0)

I added to the answer from @WorkingMatt

I updated his answer to additionally do the following things

Attempt to connect to all devices on the local network with open port 5555. Warning: this may be a security risk. Beware connecting to arbitrary ports unless you know that it is safe. I am not trained in cybersecurity, so take my advice here with a grain of salt.
Uninstall the previous version of the package if there is one installed (In my case I am uninstalling to remove previous app data)

#!/bin/bash
echo "Installatron2"

# Connect to all devices on the local network (in our case 192.168.0.0)
# This section requires nmap (You may need sudo apt install nmap)
echo "Scanning the network for connected debuggable devices"
ADDRESSES=$(nmap --open -p 5555 192.168.0/24 -oG - | grep "/open" | awk '{ print $2 }')
for ADDRESS in $ADDRESSES;
do
  adb connect $ADDRESS
done

# Print devices connected to
echo "Connected to the following devices"
echo "$(adb devices)"

# Iterate through all apks in current directory
for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do
  for APKLIST in $(ls *.apk);
  do
  #Get the package name from the apk file (Needs sudo apt install aapt)
  package=$(aapt dump badging "$APKLIST" | awk '/package/{gsub("name=|'"'"'","");  print $2}')

  # Optionally uninstalls the pre-existing version of this package (In case you do not want to retain data)
  echo "Uninstalling $package on $SERIAL"
  adb uninstall $package

  # Now install with replacement to the same device
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL install -r $APKLIST
  done
done

echo "Installatron2 has left the building"

Tender answered 6/1, 2021 at 0:1 Comment(0)

With Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.29, try this bash script:

APK=$1

if [ ! -f `which adb` ]; then
    echo 'You need to install the Android SDK before running this script.';
    exit;
fi

if [ ! $APK ]; then
    echo 'Please provide an .apk file to install.'
else
    for d in `adb devices | ack -o '^\S+\t'`; do
        adb -s $d install $APK;
    done
fi

Not sure if it works with earlier versions.

Madra answered 20/1, 2012 at 14:56 Comment(0)

The key is to launch adb in a separate process (&).

I came up with the following script to simultaneously fire-off installation on all of the connected devices of mine and finally launch installed application on each of them:

#!/bin/sh

function install_job { 

    adb -s ${x[0]} install -r PATH_TO_YOUR_APK
    adb -s ${x[0]} shell am start -n "com.example.MainActivity" -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER

}


#iterate over devices IP-addresses or serial numbers and start a job 

while read LINE
do
    eval x=($LINE)
    install_job ${x[0]} > /dev/null 2>&1 &
done <<< "`adb devices |  cut -sf 1`"

echo "WATING FOR INSTALLATION PROCESSES TO COMPLETE"
wait

echo "DONE INSTALLING"

Note 1: the STDOUT and STDERR are suppressed. You won't see any "adb install" operation result. This may be improved, I guess, if you really have to

Note 2: you could also improve script by providing args instead of hardcoded path and activity names.

That way you:

Don't have to manually perform install on each device
Don't have to wait for one install to finish in order to execute another one (adb tasks are launched in parallel)

Misogynist answered 4/2, 2015 at 13:0 Comment(0)

_{Originated from here: Make The Previous Post A Mass APK Installer That Does Not Uses ADB Install-Multi Syntax}

@echo off

:loop
      ::-------------------------- has argument ?
      if ["%~1"]==[""] (
        echo done.
        goto end
      )
      ::-------------------------- argument exist ?
      if not exist %~s1 (
        echo error "%~1" does not exist in file-system.
      ) else (
        echo "%~1" exist
        if exist %~s1\NUL (
          echo "%~1" is a directory
        ) else (
          echo "%~1" is a file! - time to install:
          call adb install %~s1
        )
      )
      ::--------------------------
      shift
      goto loop


:end

pause

::: ##########################################################################
::: ##                                                                      ##
::: ##  0. run:   adb devices   - to start the deamon and list your device  ##
::: ##                                                                      ##
::: ##  1. drag&drop ANY amount of files (APK) over this batch files,       ##
::: ##                                                                      ##
::: ##       - it will install them one by one.                             ##
::: ##       - it just checks if file exists.                               ##
::: ##       - it does not checks if it is a valid APK package              ##
::: ##       - it does not checks if package-already-installed              ##
::: ##       - if there is an error you can always press [CTRL]+[C]         ##
::: ##           to stop the script, and continue from the next one,        ##
::: ##           some other time.                                           ##
::: ##       - the file is copied as DOS's 8.3 naming to you                ##
::: ##           don't need to worry about wrapping file names or renaming  ##
::: ##           them, just drag&drop them over this batch.                 ##
::: ##                                                                      ##
::: ##                                   Elad Karako 1/1/2016               ##
::: ##                                   http://icompile.eladkarako.com     ##
::: ##########################################################################

Ultramicrometer answered 1/1, 2016 at 2:6 Comment(0)

Since I can't comment on the answer by @Tom, this worked for me on OSX 10.13

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -IX adb -s X install -r path/to/apk.apk

(Change the little i to a big I)

Menderes answered 27/8, 2018 at 22:4 Comment(0)

I was wanting to log what was happening whilst installing, also needed it to be slightly comprehendable. Ended up with:

echo "Installing app on all connected devices."

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -I % sh -c '{ \
    echo "Installing on %"; \
    adb -s % \
        install myApp.apk; \    
; }'

Tested on Linux & Mac

Dupuis answered 31/1, 2020 at 15:15 Comment(0)

-2

-Get all the apk stored in .apk folder

-Install and replace app on devices

getBuild() {
    for entry in .apk/*
    do
        echo "$entry"
    done
    return "$entry"
}

newBuild="$(getBuild)"

adb devices | while read line
do
  if [! "$line" = ""] && ['echo $line | awk "{print $2}"' = "device"]
  then
      device='echo $line | awk "{print $1}"'
      echo "adb -s $device install -r $newbuild"
      adb -s $device install -r $newbuild
  fi
done

Brainless answered 29/6, 2017 at 14:32 Comment(0)

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