Develop Reference

How to run flutter app on a real device without having to install the sdk on your phone evrytime

I use my mobile device to run my flutter applications. I know all about the hot reload but I'm so tired of having to wait every time I connect back to my phone again maybe the next day and then the app has to be re installed and the gradle task assembler has to be built again. Please I want to ask if there is a way to reconnect easily and a way for the apps to run easily again any time I want to work on a project again after a while.

There are a couple of alternatives to building the APK and installing it on a physical device:
Use an emulated android device
You can use an android emulator. The easiest way to set that up is probably the graphical interface in Android Studio (see https://developer.android.com/studio/run/managing-avds), but you can also use flutter emulators --create [--name <Name>] to create a new virtual device. Then use the button in the bottom right of VS Code to select that device, before launching the debugger.
Build for desktop
Depending on the dependencies of your app, you could try building the app for the platform you're developing on (Windows, Linux, or macOS). This has the same visual result as an Android app, but does not need an emulator or physical device. The rendering engine is the same (Skia) on all platforms. The obvious downside is that some plugins may not be available for desktop.
See https://docs.flutter.dev/development/platform-integration/desktop on how to set that up.

Android Virtual Device - Can't access basic OS features / Internet

I'm new to the Android OS and I am having trouble interacting with a virtual device. I've installed the Android SDK + Java + Eclipse and I'm trying to get a virtual device running and debug an apk I have.
I create a AVD and start it up and get this basic screen below but none of the other Android OS options you'd see on a standard phone. I can't even really control this device as the buttons seem to have no effect. I can't get into settings or see default installed applications, etc..
What am I doing wrong? I'd expect to have a basic clean Android OS startup when I launch these virtual devices but I get this funky screen and can't do anything with it, controls don't seem to work.
Worth noting I am doing this from a VMWare Workstation running Windows 2012 R2, not sure if there are issues if I'm running this all in a VM.
UPDATE:
OK so it appears I was using the Android 4.4W which I think is for wearable devices and why the OS was basically empty. I changed it to Android 4.4.2 x86 by cloning a Nexus 5 and now I just get a blank screen when I try to start the emulator. Here is a screenshot, any ideas?

Update:
You are using Android Wear API target, please try with regular android API (L preview or API 19 or below). I was able to reproduce your issue if i used Android Wear Target, it works if i used non-wear target. Android wear target is for 'wear' device types.
When configuring the AVD, you can pick different "skins" , please see below highlighted in redbox
If you are using a custom (or vendor) defined device type, go into AVD Manager -> Device Definitions and double-click your device entry, it will open the below window, make sure Buttons tab says Software
You can also navigate the emulator UI with keyboard shortcuts, often quicker this way.**

A. Ashoke is right about using skins, you may choose a skin when you create or edit the emulator. Here is a screen-shot. Check the 'skin' dropdown. (It may not be available for some 'devices' you select here.
You are using VMWare, so you might be behind a proxy. You may need to provide proxy, using following steps -
Click on Menu
Click on Settings
Click on Wireless & Networks
Go to Mobile Networks
Go to Access Point Names
Here you will Telkila Internet, click on it.
In the Edit access point section, input the "proxy" and "port"
Also provide the Username and Password, rest of the fields leave them blank.
When you will load it for the first time, it may again ask for your credentials. So provide there as well.

IntelliJ Idea - Android Virtual Device doesn't start

I'm using IntelliJ Idea 13 to develop Android applications on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit. But my virtual device never starts despite there is no error.. its screen always stays like this:
My Android target level is 4.4 (API 19). How can I solve this issue?
Edit: Here is my AVD details:

I Recommend you look at this post to a similar question.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/5535532/2978914
they are using eclipse but you should be able to view the logcat, other posts say first load can be ridiculously long.
the spec of your PC may come into play as this post https://superuser.com/a/347298 explains the way the emulator converts to arm opcode: direct quote:
To use emulator more effectively, this is my experience:
Don't close emulator everytime you run your application.
Scale the emulator screen smaller.
Disable snapshot (Yes, it's useful but it takes time to close the emulator).
Specify a file path for SD card image file. I use only one SD card for many AVDs.
If you got any problems in adb, just reset adb, don't close emulator.
Open few programs in your operating sytem.
If you are using Windows, don't ever close emulator. Do it combined with Hibernate of Windows.

My AVD has started after I check "Use Host GPU" option from "Emulation Options".

Android: Fast way to "test" app

i m starting (or at least trying to) developing android application(s) and I m using eclipse for it along the android sdk.
Now I m wondering if there's a faster way to "test" and tryout something newly writen in the code than starting it in the emulator?
I'm wondering because I m running on 8gb ram and q9550 (quadcore) and it takes some time (let's say 20secs) to upload and start the apk and now
I'm wondering if this really is the only way to test since it requires huge amount of time, especially when I'm trying something new which doesn't work and thus I'm always gotta run it like this let's say like 20 times until I figure out what's wrong with my code...

You can connect your android phone using USB debugging mode and debug your code. If you can't do that, you can export an apk file (which is quick) and use dropbox/gmail to send it to your phone. I am not a big fan of emulator :)
Here's how to enable usb debugging
http://www.groovypost.com/howto/mobile/how-to-enable-usb-debugging-android-phone/

I would recommend running on your device rather than the emulator.
http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html
In short:
Turn on "USB Debugging" on your device.
On the device, go to Settings > Applications > Development and enable USB debugging (on an Android 4.0 device, the setting is located in Settings > Developer options).
Set up your system to detect your device.
If you're developing on Windows, you need to install a USB driver for adb. For an installation guide and links to OEM drivers, see the OEM USB Drivers document.
If you're developing on Mac OS X, it just works. Skip this step.
If you're developing on Ubuntu Linux, there is a detailed guide in the link above.
Now in eclipse, your device should be available to run on.

In the eclipse toolkit, you have the option to run it directly on a device. It's rather quick to do so.
Enable USB debugging as well as installation of apk from sources other than the market. Then assuming you have already setup the required drivers/settings to connect to your phone via ADB, you should be able to run it on the device and debug. In the run dialog, it will list all available devices and you can simply select the one you want to use.
If you already have a run entry (i.e. you've already run your application),
select your project
click Run -> Run Configuration
You should be in your application run configuration (on the left under Android Application -> Your_App).
In the Target tab, you should be able to select your device. It will likely already be in "Automatically pick compatible device...". On my setup, it will run directly on my phone if it's the only available device. You can select Always prompt to pick device which will let you choose every time.
Eclipse plugin (ADT) information: http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adt.html
Information about setting up your device: http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html

I know android emulator is too slow.
You can either use device or
try bluestacks it saves lots of time.
User device only when you want to test your app for particular device.

Here is what you are looking for :
http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html
To summarize:
Plug your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
Make sure the drivers are installed and your phone properly connected.
Make a Ctrl + F11 from eclipse.
It will build the apk, transfer it to your phone and then launch it automatically.

If you have unit tests, Robolectric lets you run them without using the emulator or the device.

you can download bluestacks as emulator, as it is really fast.
after then make settings in eclipse as window->preferences->android->build -> then uncheck the 3rd checkbox written as "skip packaging and...", then apply and restart the eclipse to take effect.
now open the bluestacks in background and just double click the apk file in bin folder of eclipse and bluestack will install it in 2 to 3 secs and you can directly see the result.
NOTE here that you have to only save the file ,you working on in eclipse and only double click on apk, and result will directly appears to bluestacks. Without uninstalling and reinstalling apk in bluestacks.
and you can delete your apk also, it automatically immediately create
a fresh version of apk (thus not required) as soon as you save all your files apk will be updated.

Google BlueStacks.
It runs on Windows and it's really fast.

while the apk runs without problems on emulator when installed on Motorola milestone picture and icon doesn't shown as they were on emulator

my problem : the app I have uploaded into my cellular device is shown without the pictures I have insert to it .
steps I have done in order to install:
I have inserted the xxx.apk file into the device via usb
I downloaded an apps installer via the Market
I opened the app using the installer and instead of picture an white background appeared
when I opened the xxx.apk file using file system I found the pictures.
note: even an application icon weren't appearing.
Apparently the res libary having problem to be bined to application.
I might ness to add something to my appliction manifest?
I might need to change something on my device ? (I already made a change and enabled user's not Market application )
I would be very grateful for some life saving answer I need to show my work in a few days in this is the first time i tested her on a real devise.
I also tried an example as shown in hello android book the same example worked perfectly on the emulator where on my android device (Motorola milestone ) the picture and icon weren't shown
Please tell me what I might be doing wrong guys I need to apply my project back at uni(I was the only one in uni who did it on android and in my country most of pep don't even know what android is so getting help outside of forum's like this is not an option ) so please please help me .

I don't know what app installer you downloaded from the Market, but you shouldn't need it. You should be installing the app to your phone using the same SDK tools you used to install it to the emulator. Ie, using Eclipse or the commandline "adb install" commmand.
I'm assuming you used the SDK tools to install the app to the emulators? In which case, start there. Start with looking at what you're doing different between when you installed unsuccessfully to your phone and when you installed to successfully to the SDK.
In my experiences so far, there should be very few differences between working with the emulator and working with the phone.

Well, something is wrong, but what is hard to tell from your question. What pictures are you talking about? Your drawable resources? My guess would be that your application works in the emulator (you have tested it?), but that it doesn't on the phone you're testing with. Have you checked the logcat output?
If you're developing from Eclipse, why not try a debugging session using the phone rather than the emulator?

Hard to narrow down without more details, but a few notes:
Pontus has a point - what's your logcat output? You can use logcat on a real device. Maybe not yours unless it's rooted, but with many phones you can.
Do you link the drawable to your app in the manifest file?
How do you test on emulator vs. device? Do you right-click the app and choose "Run As -> Android Application"? Do you do that for both emulator and device?
When you run on the device, do you first sign it? If so, can you verify the jar/apk and see the contents? Is the drawable under res/drawable?