Develop Reference

Visual studio android emulator will not start fully

I create a blank cordova application in visual studio 2015 and start debugging with the visual studio android emulators (first with the lollipop and then kitkat). XDE starts and the screen displays OS is starting.... It stays like that for quite a while until it displays
The emulator is unable to connect to the device operating system;
The device did not response to the connect request.
Some functionalities might be disabled'
After closing the dialog, it stays there forever until I kill the emulator. Killing the emulator triggers an error from visual studio.
Could not start emulated device 'VS Emulator Lollipop Phone'.
When I open hyper-v, I see the vm in the list and shown as running. When I connect, I see the console screen as below

I know this issue has been around for a while now, but I have just found a new solution for people who may still encounter this issue...
I had the same issue (stuck on "OS Is Starting") for API v 21 & 22. API v23 images would start, but could not debug - the app would crash as soon as it launched.
The following fixed the issue:
Shut down the emulator
Open Hyper-V manager
Go to the settings for the Android Image
Expand the "Processor" configuration node
Go to the "Compatibility" node
Check the "Migrate to a physical computer with a different processor version" option
Apparently it has something to do with newer Processor architectures being incompatible with the Android images or something like that - don't really care, as long as it works :)

I was running into the same issue. I did try to disable OpenGL by deleting: GuestDisplayProvider = "VsEmulator.OpenGLGuestDisplay" in xdesku.xml, as suggested in other answers.
At first, the virtual machine would boot up (you could connect to it from Hyper-V manager), but the emulator window itself would not connect to the machine (stuck on "OS is starting", then failing after a looooong while with the following message: "The emulator is unable to connect to the device operating system: Couldn't auto-detect the guest system IP address. Some functionality might be disabled.")
This answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/31698124/1010492 and that one https://stackoverflow.com/a/14402740/1010492 helped me solve the connectivity issue, and I was able to have the Virtual Machine displayed inside the emulator window.
However, the emulator wasn't working properly (scaling issues, no Home, Back, etc. buttons) until I put back the line "VsEmulator.OpenGLGuestDisplay" and after removing my profiles and rebooting a number of times.
To sum up, if you are encountering the same issue on an Hyper-V enabled computer, you may want to try the --over conscious-- following steps:
Ideally, uninstall any other Virtualisation software such as VMWare, Virtual Box and VPN clients such as Cisco VPN (if you cannot
do that, please be vigilant at step 13)
Reboot
In the "Visual Studio Emulator for Android" dialog, delete all installed device profiles
Remove All Hyper-V virtual switches - go to Hyper-V > Virtual switch manager > Remove all virtual switches
Run XdeCleanup.exe (usually in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft XDE\10.0.10240.0")
Also remove any extra virtual network adapters left in "Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections" (after following
the previous steps, you should normally be left with only physical
adapters)
Make sure Network Sharing is disabled on all network adapters (right click, Properties, Sharing, untick "Allow other network users
to connect through this computer's Internet connection")
If ever you deleted the line GuestDisplayProvider="VsEmulator.OpenGLGuestDisplay" in xdesku.xml
(usually in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft
XDE\10.0.10240.0\SKUs\Android"), NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO PUT IN BACK.
Reboot
You may want to try to repair the emulators: go to Programs and Features > Microsoft Visual Studio Emulator for Android > Change and
hit "Repair" (although I have to say this always fails for me)
Reboot
Open the Visual Studio Emulator for Android, and install then run one of the profiles (eg: 7'' KitKat (4.4) XHDPI Tablet -- Similar to
Asus Google Nexus 7)
It may already work, but if not you should make sure that your network adapters are setup properly. Stop your emulator, then Go to
Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections, and right
click the vEthernet adapters, then Properties and make sure you only
have the following boxes ticked in the Networking list (as explained
in Interference from other virtualization or networking software and
drivers: Client for Microsoft Networks, QoS Packet Scheduler, File
and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks, Microsoft LLDP Protocol
Driver, Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver, Link-Layer
Topology Discovery Responder, Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6),
Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
Reboot
Try to start the emulator again in "Visual Studio Emulator for Android"
If it still doesn't work, try to delete and recreate the profiles, and loads of reboots...
There are probably some redundants steps here, but I think it covers everything you should try (the key seems to be making sure that the network adapters are setup properly). If I've missing some things or if you think some steps are useless, please comment.

After alot of searching I got this working. Hope this helps. I found it in the comments on MSDN Article for Android Emulator with Visual Studio 2015
The new images might work if you disable OpenGL by going to Program Files (or Program Files x86 if you're on a 64-bit machine) \ Microsoft XDE \ 10.0.0.0 \ SKUs \ Android \ xdesku.xml and deleting this line: GuestDisplayProvider = "VsEmulator.OpenGLGuestDisplay". However, without OpenGL turned on you will not be able to take advantage of many of the new features

On my system I got it working again after enabling the disabled vEthernet (Internal Ethernet Port Windows Phone Emulator Internal Switch) again.
I didn't have to reboot.

I went through the steps in #Gyum Fox answer and still no joy for me.
While the Visual Studio Emulator for Android creates the first emulator instance, several virtual network switches are also created. For a laptop, typically three vEthernet instances are created; one for the wired LAN, one for the Wi-Fi, and another internal virtual switch for guest to host connections.
In my case, the vEthernet for the wired LAN was created successfully and then the Visual Studio Emulator for Android process would hang. This is observable from the Hyper-V Manager and the Virtual Switch Manager action.
Using the Virtual Switch Manager I successfully created the missing Wi-Fi virtual switch with these steps. Well, ultimately it worked. Read on.
Under the Virtual Switches list, select New virtual network switch…
Under What type of virtual switch do you want to create?, select External.
Under the External network: drop-down, select the Wi-Fi adapter.
Click the Create Virtual Switch button.
Change the Name: to match the name of your Wi-Fi adapter.
Click the Apply button.
In my case though, after clicking Apply, a failure message indicated the Wi-Fi adapter was bridged. Hmmm.
I started the View Network Connections control panel applet and the Wi-Fi adapter did not show it was bridged. (When a network bridge exists, the Status column has the word Bridged appended.) I suspect there was some dusty digital bits lurking somewhere in the registry.
Here is what cleared the issue for me.
Right-click on the Wi-Fi device.
Select Add to Bridge.
Right-click on the Wi-Fi device, again.
Select Remove from Bridge.
Now, go back up to the steps to create the virtual switch for the Wi-Fi network. The steps should complete successfully now.
And now, you can go back to creating the Android emulators you want.
One final thought… If you aren’t seeing any virtual switches being created, I suspect that could mean the wired LAN might have the dusty digital bits hanging you up. In that case, I’d try add-and-remove-from-bridge trick on the wired LAN adapter to see if that clear things up for you.
And, now I suppose that just doing the add-and-remove-from-bridge trick on the network adapter without creating the virtual switch might suffice. For me, the creation of the virtual switch was proof that the issue was corrected. YMMV ;-)

I found my issue was related to the windows firewall with some enterprise policies my company applied to all PCs. Once I stopped the Windows Firewall service it worked just fine.

I also had this issue and it was not just for android emulators but for all windows phone emulators.
This is what i did to fix the issue
Uninstall the Genymotion and Virtual Box (I had these in my system and this did not solve the issue)
Removed all Virtual adapters. this is the tricky part. None of adapters could not delete from Hyper-V virtual Manager. I had to use powershell and run
remove-vmswitch -Name "The name of V Adapter" -force
Also, from this I was not able to delete all the adapters and I found this link "https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/e49df568-4f4c-47b7-b30c-952d1e26ca58/cant-remove-failed-virtual-switch-from-hypervs-virtual-switch-manager?forum=winserverhyperv" and deleted all virtual adapters
reboot the computer
After this there was not any v adapters in Hyper-V virtual Manager
Run the XdeCleanup.exe (just in case)
Also, I disabled the firewall from my virus guard
After this I was able to run the emulator from "Visual Studio Emulators for Android"

I'm adding a separate answer though the insight provided by Gyum Fox provided the clues I needed to try other stuff ...
[NOTE: The last time I was able to use the emulators (~3 weeks ago) I had wireless disabled and was using a wired connection on my Dev laptop. I ran out of space on my switch so re-enabled the wireless as the sole connectivity option. This may be totally coincidental, but read on and I'll let y'all decide.]
After following Gyum's steps without success, I decided to turn off the wireless and then try launching the emulator.
Wouldn't you know it ... it worked without an issue! 8-}
Once I had the emulator running, I re-enabled the wireless and the emulator picked up the connectivity.
I'm not a network guy so I'm not even gonna attempt to understand. It's a minor PITA but hey ... if it works!!! ;-}

On my machine I could start the emulator but I got an OpenGL error when trying to deploy and debug. I realized my issues started after I installed Docker. On a whim I decided to shut down Docker and disable the vEthernet (DockerNAT) Network Connection. This fixed my issue. Now, whenever I need to use the Andoird emulator I have to shut down Docker. Then when I'm done debugging I enable/restart Docker.

One of the reason I was having this issue is that I did not install the Android SDK on the default location. So I had to follow these instructions in order to be able to debug my application: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt228282.aspx#ADB
I had to create the folder "Android SDK Tools" and add the Key "Path" with the value to my SDK, which in my case it was "E:\Android\Android_SDK"

Test android app on Virtual Box from Android studio

I have a very specific problem. I am trying to create an Android app for educational purposes, together with a friend of mine. The problem is, my processor does not support VT-x, which is essential for using an AVD, and my Android phone is considerably old so it can't really take much.
Therefore, the one solution I have in mind is using VirtualBox to create a 32-bit Android Virtual Machine and test my app there.
The problem is that, unlike an actual Android device and an AVD, a VirtualBox Android VM does not have, for what my knowledge is, an obvious way of being connected with Android Studio for testing each new app build.
So, what I am asking for is exactly that: a way to immediately test the app I have written in Android Studio in my Android Virtual Machine I have created on VirtualBox, including any workarounds that effectively allow me to immediately test the app on the VM, other than finding a way to make adb work with it.

I see I'm a bit late on this one but I figured it out. I am using Windows 8, running Android x86 (4.4 r1) on VirtualBox.
1. Set up a Host-Only adapter so that the VM has access to your network; You can set this up only when the Android image is off. Basically just go into your settings, click on Network, and select Host-Only Adapter in the drop-down labeled Attached to. For Adapter Type select PCnet-FAST III. Check the box next to Cable Connected if it isn't already.
2. Set up an NAT Adapter by selecting a different Adapter tab and for Attached to select NAT. For Adapter Type select PCnet-FAST III again. Check the box next to Cable Connected if it isn't already.
3. Enable Developer Mode by starting up the Android image, then going to Settings > About phone/tablet > Build Number. Click on Build Number 7 times. You should see a pop up that tells you how many more times you need to click to get into Developer mode. Credit to RMP PianoTuning's answer below
4. Get the virtual Android's IP address by going into Settings > About phone/tablet > Status > and then scrolling down until you find your local IP Address. Remember this number, you'll need it for the next step.
5. Start up Android Studio and go into the console; it should be one of the options in the bottom-left corner. Type in adb connect (IP address from step 4). Take a deep breath and hit enter. If it says
connected to (IP address)
you are ready to rock! When you run the app within Android Studio, your virtual Android should appear as Innotek GmbH VirtualBox, or something like the same. Select that puppy and enjoy your new, easy-to-test-on emulator. Its even Bluetooth Compatible! (but thats a whole 'nother story... google it)

Now a virtualbox isn't an answer to your need.
here are some alternatives,
Genymotion http://www.genymotion.com/ which is an easy to use android emulator , i suggest you look into it. based on virtualbox , can be integrated into android studio with ease . needs an AMD-V proc if not a VT-x . If the processor does not support these, the emulator still works, but your emulated device will only be able to use one CPU.
The other option is adb over wifi, which will let you use your phone without doing the dropbox step http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1685736. For this to work you will need root though.

I was able to follow OMiKeY steps and get my app to run in VirtualBox,
the part he leaves out:
In your Android simulated device, you have to enable Developer mode.
Goto 'Settings' -> About Phone/Tablet->Build Number.
click on Build Number 7 times.
For me I got pop up that told me how many more times I needed to click to get into Developer mode.
After that i re ran the adb connect XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX command

Here's how it works for me.
I just connect my android phone with USB to my host (Windows 10).
Then make sure the USB phone is found from within the guest OS (ubuntu desktop 18.04 in VirtualBox 6.0). (VirtualbBox app: Devices > USB > check the USB corresponding to my phone). Once it's recognized by ubuntu, there will be a phone icon showing up on the desktop screen.
Next, I start android studio (v3.3.2); once that is complete, from the Terminal window (Android studio: View > Tool Windows > Terminal), I type in: adb devices, which would list the devices attached and my phone is on the list.
Now I run the app for a test (monitor my phone and confirm if there's prompt)...and the app shows up on my phone. Hope this may of help for others.

If you are running Windows, open the specific port in Firewall. In VirtualBox in your Android instalation Settings->Network Adapter 2 Tab - Port Fowarding and create a rule with Protocol (TCP) - Host IP (Your IP) - Host Port (in my case 5555) - Guest IP (Same Step 4 - Check your IP ) - Guest Port (I put the 5555 too). Ok! Now I can run my Apps in VM.
AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools>adb connect 192.168.0.101
connected to 192.168.0.101:5555
Running devices:
innotek GmbH VirtualBox
:-)

USB Debugging in VitualBox-hosted Android system

I have set up a virtual machine running an Android 4.4 system on VirtualBox, in a Windows 7 system, for convenience in testing an Android app I am trying to develop. What last remains, is to be able to make the guest Android OS look like it's connected to the host via USB, to be able to use USB Debugging. Is there a way to achieve that?
EDIT: By "convenience" I mean I do not have a good enough physical device at my hands at the moment, and my processor happens not to support VT-x, in which case I could just use an AVD with Android Studio. Therefore, the VirtualBox choice is the next best thing I got, until I get a new device on my hands. What has priority at the moment is to create the app's utility, looks will be taken care of later on.

If your Android system is rooted you can install Wifi ADB (or some similar application) through Android Play store and debug over TCP.
The steps can be simply:
Install Wifi ADB (from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.wifiadb&hl=es)
Execute and start service (Bettle will go to green)
Open Command line in Windows 7 machine
Run the connection command, for example:
adb connect 192.168.125.232
Test device connection with
adb devices
Enjoy testing your application!

Connect to VPN in Genymotion Android

I'm trying to Configure and Connect to VPN in Genymotion Virutal Device, I can configure VPN connection in the Virtual Device but unable to Connect, No error showing.
I used same settings in my PC and Real Android Devices, Its working fine in the device and PC.
I think Its problem with VirtualBox, But I don't know how to resolve it
System Details:
OS: Linux Mint 32Bit
Genymotion Version : 2.1.1
Virtual Device: Galaxy S4 - 4.3 - API18 - 1080x1920

Genymotion use Virtual Box, you need open this and set the connection Bridged instead NAT, power on the Android Genymotion VM in Genymotion APP and set VPN.

Solution 1 :
Install a VPN application on the virtual device like VPNSecure or SecureVPN or the one from your provider, otherwise you could use OpenVPN application
Solution 2 :
Connect to your VPN in you host machine (you can disable binding your vpn connection to avoid passing through all the application)
Then you can force player.exe and genymotion.exe to use a specific network card (your vpn virtual network card/ip) a solution could be forcebindip
http://old.r1ch.net/stuff/forcebindip/
ForceBindIP.exe -i 192.168.1.25 "C:\Program Files\Genymobile\Genymotion\genymotion.exe"
where 192.168.1.25 is the ip of the interface you want to use
This application redirect any connection to a specific interface and keep it there.
Note : As this program is source closed you could be skeptical in a perspective of using it all the time, i personally disassembled it and checked every action and it seem that it's a clean application.
Solution 3 (Best):
On top of genymotion, install virtual box (i think you need to have virtual box before using genymotion) then when you run virtualbox application it will display your virtual android device, you can then set the different advanced setting directly on virtualbox application like so :

This worked for me:
Open virtual box, find the Genymotion device -> settings -> network.
I had two adapters set much like in initika's answer (3rd option screenshots). What I did was close the device, then disable the first adapter (host only) and leave the second adapter set to NAT. Then I restarted the device. and saw that it could now access the private network.

I had a similar issue and what I did to solve it was:
Open virtual box, find the Genymotion device -> settings -> network.
Choose the "Adapter 2".
Change the Attached to option to "Bridge Adapter".
Select the network card from your PC.

How to bridge/tuntap a network device from the Android emulator to the host

Is there a way to bridge the network device of the Android emulator onto the host machine?
I have seen these instructions, but they are really old, the file names have changed, and my attempts to translate them to the current emulator haven't worked. There are a few other similar examples around, but they're all from 2007-2008. I must admit, my Linux- and especially networking-fu are not strong. I could not get a second networking device (eth1) to show up in the emulator.
The reason I want to have the network device appear as a device on the host machine is that I need to be able to connect to the android device from a remote computer (not the host), through rsh (which I've been able to do, as shown in my instructions here), and then use ssh from within to connect to another remote computer. I can get in to rsh, but I can not ssh out (or ping the remote computer). (I've been provided with an image with rshd on it, and this works fine on an actual phone, but the emulator's network devices being hidden is causing problems)
If an eth1 could be created and bridged, that would be great. I'm also open to bridging eth0 (but I'd want to change the IP to 172.x.x.x to be on the same subnet as the remote computers)
Thanks. I'll try to clarify anything if you ask.

1) Download the LiveAndroid iso from the LiveAndroid Project on google code. Or alternatively, download Android-x86 iso from here. 2) Boot it as a virtual machine with VMWare or VirtualBox. 3) Configure your virtual machine to use Bridge networking, as you would per any regular virtual machine. 4) Install Android SDK the other tools like adb onto your Host computer. Connect using adb to the virtual machine as if it were a real android hardware device.
Note: LiveAndroid is an EE-PC based virtual machine. It thinks its running on EE-PC hardware. So there will be no QEMU-based android emulator running. The network bridging will be performed by the Host-OS drivers provided by your chosen virtualization software.