Develop Reference

Nexus 4 not showing in adb Devices

I have recently updated my drivers and I am unable to connect to my Nexus 4.
The nexus is on 5.1. I'm using Windows 7. My HTC desire can be seen listed in adb devices.
I have tried re-installing the drivers. The automatic driver installation installs v7.0.0.1. I don't know if this is the latest version as when I point the installer at \extras\google it says that the current driver is up-to-date.
The phone is in debugging mode, and I have also tried different USB ports on the computer.

Try to manually change/assign the driver in the Device Manager.
Go to Device Manager - Android Device.
Select whatever entry you can find here, then choose:
Update Driver - Browse my computer for driver Software - Let me pick from a List...
Here you should be able to select the proper driver (unticking "Show compatible hardware" should bring some more choices.
If it doesn't work you might want to try using the Universal adb driver (it will be at the "ClockworkMod" manufacturer in the device maanger).
Last but not least, sometimes the issue can be resolved by an adb restart. Just do a adb kill-server, then check again for your device using adb devices

Setting the phone to connect as camera made it show up on adb devices.

adb doesn't show nexus 5 device

Android Studio 0.3.6
Fedora 18 3.11.7-100.fc18.x86_64
Nexus 5 Kitkat
Hello,
I have been using my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 running Android 4.1.2 everything works fine with adb.
However, I have just bought a new Nexus 5 device, and when I do the following command adb devices it doesn't show my Nexus 5.
Under Android SDK Manager | Extras | Google USB Driver | status "Not compatiable with Linux"
Because I am running Fedora 18 if I need drivers what drivers for the USB do I need?
Because the Samsung works fine and I can deploy and run my apps, I think my setup is correct. So I am wondering if there is something wrong with my Nexus 5.
I have tried the following:
adb kill-server
adb start-server
Setting the Nexus 5 Camera PTP and media device MTP didn't work.
Many thanks for any suggestions,

I had a similar problem with my Nexus 4(Android version 4.4.2), it wasn't listed in adb devices.
Make sure USB debugging is enabled from device, and do the following on your PC:
Update Android SDK (Google USB Driver)
From PC Control Panel, System -> Device manager -> Right click Nexus 4 -> Update driver.
Set android-sdk-folder\extras\google\usb_driver as path to search, include subfolders checked.
If windows tells you that the driver is up to date, just uninstall the driver (right click on nexu4 -> uninstall driver) and start from step 2 again.
After that, open a cmd and type adb kill-server and then a adb devices, now it will include your device.
https://developer.android.com/studio/run/oem-usb.html

Follow these steps,
Enable Developer options in your device. To enable the developer mode, Settings->About phone, tap Build number option 7 times continuously
Go to Settings-> Developer options and Turn on USB debugging
Make sure you reconnected the device via USB and grant permission on the dialog that appears.
From the above steps it didn't work try this step, Go to Settings->Security and turn on Unknown Sources

What you need to do is this:
Settings | About Phone
Scroll to the bottom to build number.
Tap on build number about 7 times. Each time you will get a popup message saying you are x steps away from being a developer
When you get to the final step you will get a message saying now you are a developer
Go back into settings and you will see a new setting Developer options there you will see a lot of options for developers. Enable USB debugging
Re-connect you phone to the usb, and you should see you device under adb devices.
I hope this answer helps someone else.

This simple steps worked for me, I debug on my Nexus 5 and 5X devices on Windows 8.1.
The steps to follow are these:
1) Enable from Developers Options the Debug USB Mode
2) Unplug the device from the computer
3.1) Go to Settings → Storage, in the ActionBar, click the option menu and choose USB computer connection.
3.2) If you didn't find the 3.1) option then go to Settings → Developers Options → Select USB Configuration.
4) Select Camera (PTP) connection.
5) Plug the device and you should have a popup on the device allowing you to accept the computer's incoming connection, or something like that.
6) If it doesn't work try to toggle the Debug USB Mode in the Developers Options
Finally, you should see it now in the DDMS and voilà.

My windows solution:
Go here and download and unzip to an easy location:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top
Right click 'My Computer' or 'Computer'
Select properties
Select Device manager
Look for your device. It should have a yellow mark above it.
Click 'update driver software'.
select browse my computer for driver software.
select the usb_driver folder you saved earlier.
install it
and wala. magic.

For those who are still frustrated, if you are using the experimental ART runtime, try switching back to dalvik (in developer options on device)

Here is simple solution for Windows 7 and Nexus 5 on Android 5.
Download the Nexus 5 Drivers from http://androidhost.org/jelry
Extract the zip contents and place all files in a single folder on your desktop.
Connect your device to your computer.
Launch the Device Manager on your PC.
Now you should see the Nexus 5 listed in the hardware list.
Right-click the ‘Nexus 5′ line and then click on Update Driver Software.
Next, click the ‘browse my computer’ option.
In the new window click on ‘Browse…’ button.
Go to folder unzipped at step 2. Select the folder where you extract the USB Drivers. Click Next. – make sure to tick the subfolder box too.
Now, the Windows installer will search for Nexus 5 drivers, click Install when asked for permission.
Wait for the process to complete and then check the Device Manager list to confirm that the installation was successful.
Original: http://www.android.gs/download-and-install-google-nexus-5-usb-drivers-adb-fastboot/
Note: do not forget to enable USB debugging on your device :)

Something nobody has mentioned yet:
Some cables do NOT support data. I was sitting here wondering why my Nexus 5 was refusing to show up on OSX. It turned out I was using a cable that didn't support data.
I swapped to a different cable which did support it, and suddenly I was able to use USB debugging.

If anyone is trying to connect Nexus 5 to a formatted Windows XP then follow these steps:
Download and install media transfer protocol porting kit:
MTP porting kit
Download and install WMFDistributable-11 for XP:
WMFDist-11 XP
Download and install LG United Mobile Driver v3.10.1:
stackoverflow is not allowing to share more than 2 links, please google this.
Connect your device.
Go to Device Management
Right click on Nexus 5 and click Update Driver
Select Yes this time only
Select Install Software Automatically
Wait for sometime.. and enjoy transferring files

ADB and driver versions matter. The newer the device, the lower the chances of an older version ADB to work correctly.
Apps using their own ADB copy need to be updated or at least have their ADB updated manually.
When installing Helium / Carbon for instance, it uses an old / incomplete ADB. Newer devices might not link to the ADB server for this very reason.
What I'm writing here should work for any future devices on Windows and possibly *nix OSes.
First the systems must be prepared.
on Android:
activate developer mode, either from an app (like Helium, when prompted) or by accessing the about phone section, taping build number until the developer mode unlocks
in developer settings enable USB debugging
in security settings allow unknown sources
(when connected with USB cable) set USB connectivity to PTP mode (camera device, if so labeled)
in Windows:
uninstall older USB driver (with file removal) if there is one, but only when the device is connected and in developer mode, otherwise
that particular device won't be listed
install latest USB driver after the device has been plugged in and developer mode is active, the device will be listed as unknown or other in Device Manager; the drivers can be downloaded separately from Google Android support site, these are the same as vendor drivers, with only fewer ID's in inf file making the driver not being recognized for all Android devices
if the driver does not recognise the device, no problem, install it generically: Manual Install > Show All Devices > Have Disk > pick inf location of the Android USB driver and from the list select Android ADB Interface; there's not need to edit the inf by adding hardware ids, the end result is the same
each of the modes, PTP and MTP will have their own driver entry, so if the device asks for MTP, the same driver installation procedure must be followed, again
Once these steps are/were previously done correctly, adb must be tested.
If Android SDK was installed previously, open a command prompt where adb.exe is
and test the listing of the device.
adb start-server
IMPORTANT NOTE: This command will prompt the device to allow the communication between the computer it's been linked to on the first run. The prompt will also list an RSA key specific to the PC in question. Without this prompt on start-server, ADB will NOT work! Nor will any application relying on ADB.
adb devices
Must list the device(s). If the list is empty, and most likely the RSA prompt did not occur, then no communication will work. If the list is empty the current ADB (and SDK) must be updated or installed fresh (in the case of apps bringing in their own ADB runtime, like Helium / Carbon).
In the case of applications that do bring their own ADB, if the version is old, and these apps insist in using it instead of the SDK one, these files need to be replaced with the latest ones from Android SDK. Plain and simple copy & paste.
As for Android SDK, the only required packages to be installed are SDK Tools and Platform-tools. There, ADB.exe will need some support libraries, on Windows these files are AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll. After all is done, the SDK can be uninstalled from SDK Manager while being able to retain the ADB tool if this is the only runtime used, depending on the case in question.

After doing all steps like enable debug, ... I had to put a sim card and reboot the phone

Solution for Windows 7 and Nexus 5 (should be applicable for any Nexus device):
I figured out that my system was installing the Nexus 5 default driver for windows automatically the moment I was connecting my Nexus 5 to my system through USB. So uninstalling the default driver was in vain and it gets installed automatically anyways.Moreover if you uninstall the default driver, you won't be able to locate Nexus 5 under Devices in Computer Management. So here is what i did and worked for me!
Computer-->right Click-->Manage-->Device Manager-->Portable Device-->Nexus 5-->Update Driver Software
Choose 'Browse my computer for driver software'
1.Make sure to give this location: %APPDATA%\Local\Android\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver
Click Next and you are done.

I have suffered the same issue and was able to solve it by simply changing on my Android device (Nexus 5X) in Developer options > Select USB Configuration to RNDIS (USB Ethernet)

For those trying to connect their android phone in adb with no luck and have tried every USB configuration (MTP, PTP, RNDIS). It is worthing noting that in my case with my Nexus 5X on Windows 7 I successfully connected the phone to adb only by choosing the Charging USB Configuration. With any other configuration (MTP, PTP, ...) it doesn't work.
USB Driver: Google USB Driver v11
ADB Version: Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.39

Madx's answer is a strong hint. Now I can make MTP work for my Ubuntu 20 and Nexus 5X (Android 8) device. MTP is an easy solution in Windows for smartphone users. However, to me and many Ubuntu/Linux users, current Ubuntu/Linux MTP tools "LOOK" messy and unstable for Android devices, e.g. No folder is shown for android phone in Nautilus.
Delving deeper I find it might be a security enhancement done by GOOGLE in the Android device/phone side. Direct internal data access remains a privilege for the developers. And one needs to set/reset MTP as a developer for Android device in order to make Ubuntu MTP tools work. There is nothing wrong with Ubuntu/Linux MTP tools.
The steps for MTP data access are an extension to Madx's answer:
(For Android device) Enable from Developers Options the Debug USB Mode.
Unplug the device from the computer.
3.1) Go to Settings → Storage, in the ActionBar, click the option menu and choose USB computer connection.
3.2) If you didn't find the 3.1) option then go to Settings → Developers Options → Select USB Configuration.
4.1) Select MTP connection.
4.2) Select Camera (PTP) connection.
4.3) Select MTP connection again. (This refreshs GOOGLE MTP protocol stack, I guess)
Plug the device and you should have a popup on the device allowing you to accept the computer's incoming connection, or something like that.
If it doesn't work try to toggle the Debug USB Mode in the Developers Options
And now file folders are shown up for N5X device in Nautilus.
Are these too much? There might be a bug in Android MTP implementation, and 4.2) & 4.3) are steps to WAKE Up Android MTP stack:-)
As a kind reminder, Windows and FTP are the last resorts for MTP.

Try executing :
sudo ./adb kill-server
sudo ./adb start-server
sudo ./adb devices

In my case:
The phone was connected as a media device.
Clicked on that message and got a menu. "USB computer connection"
In that menu chose to connect it as a camera (for devices that do not support MTP)
And then it worked.

Oh boy, I spent 3 hours for this simple thing and tried combination of above instructions.If it doesnt work for you, just try several combinations of above instructions and it will. I am on windows 7 and nexus 5. Issue I had was when I try to install driver from the google usb folder, windows 7 fails to install. Here are my steps:
-first uninstall all nexus drivers on windows 7. connect with USB cable, go to device manager and uninstall the driver; unplug the cable and repeat until no drivers are found and nexus shows up under "other devices" in device manager. I also configured nexus device as camera (PTP)
-follow #Dharani Kumar instructions. They make appropriate configuration changes for nexus device
-follow #Harshit Rathi instructions. They will ensure eclipse can show the device when windows detects the device
-unplug and replug the USB cable after a minute. Now you should see a pop up on nexus device. click it so that windows 7 will allow installing the driver from your local system. if you dont see this, restart your device or pc
-follow #Rick's instructions.you can download USB driver as listed by #jimbob
If you still have a problem, re read this entire thread and go from there (I spent hours on other web sites; those bits and pieces didnt help)

Go here and download and unzip to an easy location:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top
Download and install

I had the same problem, USB debugging enabled, device showing up in windows but I never got the question about RSA fingerprint when I connected my Nexus (6) device, nor did it show up in the Android Device Manager.
BUT
In the windows device manager I did have an entry saying it was an android device and Composite ADB interface etc. Still didn't work.
When I tried the previous tips about manually updating the drivers, Windows 8.1 just responded that "Windows has determined that the driver software for your device is up to date" this was not true. Looking at the driver details I saw that the driver was published by "ClockworkMod". I realized this must be because I had installed the Helium app sometime last year. So I uninstalled that, still had the same problem. Checked again, this time it was indeed google drivers, but version 7 published in 2012 (and not version 11 published 2014). I uninstalled these AS WELL and then tried the trick of reinstalling the driver from the SDK located in:
%localappdata%\Android\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver
Now when I replugged my device it finally works and can be debugged with Android Studio.
Indeed a driver problem.

Answer by Rick and MadX is the right way to do the steps (Thumbs Up for the answer)
In my case I am using
Akcess USB Type C Data Sync Cable For Nexus 5x, 5P - White
As Nexus 5x do not supply type C to usb cable I purchased it from some vendor.
Having the same issue. What I am doing stupidly is:-
I am connecting the cable in wrong way. After I reconnect it from upside down its working for me.
I might think that some of the Cables do not support debuggable. But its in my case.
This(Image) is my case the Type C should be as USB side symbol. A stupid solution, but work for me

Any idea why adb does not recognize my nexus 4 on mac

I can't figure out why my nexus 4 is absent from the list of adb devices. I've tried the following
$ adb kill-server; adb devices
$ echo 0x18d1 >> ~/.android/adb_usb.ini
$ adb kill-server; adb devices
Changed usb computer connection type to PTP instead of MTP
Restarted the phone etc
Adb is on my path. Nexus 4 shows up when I view System Information.
I've tried asking on xda devs but no luck. Any suggestions on what I can try?
Thanks in advance

Very weird, I switched to a cheap chinese made cable and now adb sees my device.

I was only getting a blank result when I run: ./adb devices
nothing would show up.
Here's the fix:
SDK (Latest Version)
Put developer mode on nexus 4 ( About Phone > Build Number > tap 7 times to enter Dev Mode)
A new menu will pop up {} Developer Options -
Make sure you check under Developer options:
USB Debugging : Debug mode when USB is connected
Verify apps over USB : Check apps installed via ADB/ADT for Harmful behavior
This worked for me, no try: ./adb devices
Then my serial number of my Nexus 4 was displayed.
Good luck.

You have to first enable "Developer" mode on the device before trying "adb devices" option. Here is the topic that explains how.
How to find and turn on USB debugging mode on Nexus 4.
This worked for me.

When you connect your device with the developer option enabled, and the USB debugging enabled, it should prompt you about remote debugging. If that prompt doesn't happen, it means the device is not seen by the Mac or ADB.
In my experience on MacOS X, you have to try different USB ports and sometimes disconnect all other USB devices (including the keyboard...).
Once the device finally pops up in your terminal, you can reconnect the devices if required.

Its because that you didnt update your SDK
you need to update you SDK to the latest one
i.e API level 17
your Nexes 4 OS version is 4.2 so you need to update your android sdk to API leve 17 4.2 to detect it.

Nexus 10 - not visible to adb on Windows 7 or Linux

adb doesn't recognize my Nexus 10 on Windows 7. Here's what I've done:
Installed the SDK and USB driver from Google. Windows 7 sees the tablet as an 'Android ADB Interface.'
Put the tablet in developer mode by clicking on 'About tablet' and clicking the build number seven times
Put the tablet in Camera (PTP) mode by going to Storage > USB Computer Connection.
Started and restarted the tablet, my computer, and the adb server repeatedly.
None of this helps. When I run 'adb devices,' it gives me an empty list. What else can I do?
Thanks.

I had the same problem on Windows 7.
First make sure the Nexus 10 developer mode and USB debugging is on ( if you dont see developer options, tap on About Settings -> Tablet -> Build Number a several time and it should activate developer mode)
Check if your ADB driver is in good shape by going into the Device Manager. If not un-install the ADB device manager and re-install it by pointing Windows to Android SDK location (It should pick up the driver automatically).
Once it is installed and still it does not work. Go into Settings-> Storage -> USB Computer Connection and select PTP option. Reconnect tablet to the USB.
Hope it helps!.

I had some problems with this as well. I was on win 8.
Install the SDK and USB driver from Google. USB driver is available in 'Android SDK Manager' in eclipse.
Put the tablet in developer mode by clicking on 'About tablet' and clicking the build number seven times (crazy)
Open Windows Device Manager and right click 'Android ADB Interface'
Click Properties
Driver Tab
Update Driver
Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' Select the 'sdk' folder under the location you installed your sdk in step 1 (e.g. D:\Dev\Software\adt-bundle-windows-x86_64-20130219\sdk)
Not sure why windows didn't auto-detect it but it didn't. Could have been because google doesn't actually 'install' the driver into windows or perhaps it was because I had the HTC USB drivers installed because of my old phone.

I started with the same problem as you, but managed to get my adb connection working on a Fedora 16 system as follows:
Inserted 0x18d1 into adb_usb.ini (I do not bother with the device ID)
Inserted the following extra line into 99-android.rules. It's not the quite the same as yours but I leave you to experiment.
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev", OWNER="johnp"
Pressed the settings->about->version number 7 times.
Rebooted tablet and noticed that a new section is created in settings called "developer options".
Enabled USB debugging in settings->about->developer options.
On Fedora performed adb kill-server.
On Fedora performed adb start-server.
On Fedora performed adb devices.
I now see a new USB device in the list. When I go to my development environment (Eclipse) I see the device there as well.

For those who are still stuck after following the other good answers, try a different USB port ...plus adb restarts just to make sure. That had me stalled for ages.

I had the same issue, but I downloaded the drivers from this application and it started working. I used this same technique on Windows 7 and Windows 8

Followed these instruction installed the correct ADB-drivers for me on Windows 7 http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html

I have been struggling with the same problem for a month. I tried other Nexus 10's, other ports, other computers ... everything. I thought I tried other USB cables too, but maybe not enough, as when a friend gave me yet another cable debugging worked.
It turns out the problem for me was that the EMI protection of the PC fires off when Nexus 10 is connected via a bad cable to a bad (front-case) port. It is a big tablet, so my guess is it draws a lot of current, and this combined with a badly shielded cable makes the PC freak out.
So my suggestion to people who couldn't solve the problem in any other way is: get a good USB cable (one where the connectors are bulky - means better shielding), rather than a cheap one.
On the picture: the red cable is bad, the black one is good.
Have fun,
-Stan

All I had to do was restart the tablet.

You should have done at least two things to get your device recognized on Linux:
specify USB manufacturer and device ID in your hot-plug manager
add an entry to ~/.android/adb_usb.ini using USB manuacturer ID
You may find manufacturer and device IDs with 'lsusb' command (that's LSUSB in lower case).

As strange as it sounds, try switching the tablet between media device and camera mode. On the 10 ADB only works for me in camera mode, while on the 7 it only works in media device mode.

Try a different usb port. Worked for me on windows 8.1 with Nexus5/10.

Android ADB doesn't see device

I'm trying to run my applications on OMEGA T107 tablet. But adb doesn't see my device. I tried almost everything.

Some of these answers are pretty old, so maybe it's changed in recent times, but I had similar issues and I solved it by:
Loading the USB drivers for the device - Samsung S6
Enable Developer tools on the phone.
On the device, go to Settings - Applications - Development - Check USB Debugging
Reboot O/S (Windows 7 - 64bit)
Open Visual Studio
I think it was step 3 that had me stumped for a while. I'd enabled developer tools, but I didn't specifically enable the "USB Debugging" but.

I tried all the ways listed on the web for a whole day, but I didn't get any solutions. Then, I followed a link and in just two minutes my problem was solved!
By the way, it's for Windows users!
Find out the vendor id of the device from device manager.
To do this, connect the OTG port to the USB port of your computer.
Go to Start Menu and right-click on “My Computer” and chose “Properties”.
Select the “Devices” option which will open “Device Manager”.
Select your device (mostly in USB devices or Other devices) and right-click and choose “Properties”.
Choose the “Details” tab and select “Hardware Ids” from the property dropdown, you can see the hardware id, in my case it was x2207 .
Open android_winusb.inf and add these lines:
;<Device name> in our case I gave MK808
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_INSTALL, USB\VID_2207&PID_0010&MI_01
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_INSTALL, USB\VID_2207&PID_0010&REV_0222&MI_01
Open C:\Users\.android\adb_usb.ini and add the following entry
0x<device id> .. in our case it is 0x2207
Restart ADB by
adb kill-server
adb start-server
Now ADB should recognize the device.

I had same issue, none of the solutions worked for me.
Open Settings Menu -> Developer Options -> USB Debugging should be on
Android 11
Settings -> System -> Developer options -> USB debugging

The normal way to fix this is indeed to restart the adb server :
adb kill-server
adb start-server
then
adb devices -l
should list connected devices
But it possible that it doesnt fix the problem. It appends to me.
I had to disable/enable the debug mode on the device, and then restart adb server.

On Windows it is most probably that the device drivers are not installed properly.
First, install Google USB Driver from Android SDK Manager.
Then, go to Start, right-click on My Computer, select Properties and go to Device Manager on the left. Locate you device under Other Devices (Unknown devices, USB Devices). Right-click on it and select Properties. Navigate to Driver tab. Select Update Driver and then Browse my computer for driver software. Choose %ANDROID_SDK_HOME%\extras\google\usb_driver directory. Windows should find and install drivers there. Then run adb kill-server. Next time you do adb devices the device should be in the list.

Not all USB cables can transfer data. Try using a different USB cable if your device is charging, but doesn't establish a connection to your machine.
Read more: How to tell a USB charge-only cable from a USB data cable - Dignited

What operating system are you on? If you running Windows you will want to make sure you have the drivers. You should also make sure that your Android SDK Manager is not only installed, but it also contains some additional things for different devices. Not sure if yours is in there or not.
Make sure that your phone has debugging enabled. I found myself having to run
adb kill-server
adb devices
often.

On windows, you will need to install drivers for the device for adb to recognize it. To see if the drivers are installed, check the device manager. If there is any "unrecognized device" in the device manager, the drivers are not installed. You can usually get the adb drivers from the manufacturers.

For Windows 8 64 bit with a Nexus 10 device, this worked for me:
https://github.com/koush/UniversalAdbDriver
It has a link at the bottom to this:
http://download.clockworkmod.com/test/UniversalAdbDriverSetup.msi

It worked for me in my Astro Tab A737
Download and install PdaNet+ from http://pdanet.co/a/ in your computer.
follow all steps in the wizard while installing .Once the drivers are installed Android studio should recognize the tablet.
Also, make sure the device is in PTP mode.

Uninstalling all old "Android ADB Interface" drivers that were installed previously and then installing the new one worked for me.

Debugging needs to be enabled on the target device in order for adb to see it.

Intel has a peach of an article on this. It's all the same driver. It's just a Device ID mismatch in the Inf file which can be edited, or Windows forced to Install the driver we point it to. Intel's article is very thorough and takes care of every hurdle you come across. The link - https://software.intel.com/en-us/xdk/docs/installing-android-debug-bridge-adb-usb-driver-on-windows

Keep in mind while you connecting device Android propose to select one of possible connection options.
In my case:
File transfer
Power charging
Media
Not all types of connection will work with ADB. In my case need to select Power charging to be able to connect to ADB

Go to Device Manager
Right-click Android Composite ADB Interface
Uninstall devices
Right-click your LocalPC then select Scan for hardware changes
Your device should be enabled
Open Command Prompt
adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices