ADB and Fastboot setup

13 July 2015

First you need to have either sdk or android-platform-tools installed in your pc.

Basic Troubleshooting connectivity issues:

try a reboot of the PC
try different usb cables and ports
dont use a usb hub
dont use usb 3.0 only usb 2.0 works
make sure nothing capable of comunicating with the phone is enabled and running. htc sync,pdanet,easy tether,and even itunes have all been known to cause issues.
windows 8 has been known to have issues. try a windows 7 or older machine

What is adb?

The Android Debug Bridge (adb) is a development tool that facilitates communication between an Android device and a personal computer. This communication is most often done over a USB cable, but Wi-Fi connections are also supported. adb can also be used by developers to communicate with a virtual android machine running on the computer.

adb is like a “Swiss-army knife” of Android development. It provides numerous functions that are described in detail by the command: adb --help (see output here). Some of the more commonly used commands are listed in the Popular adb commands section below.

Installing adb & fastboot

Windows, Mac, and Linux

The best way to get adb and fastboot is to install the Android SDK directly from Google. After you install the SDK Tools, launch the SDK Manager and install the Android SDK Platform-tools package. Note that the manager automatically selects the latest Android X.x (API YY) package on launch which you can safely deselect if you are only interested in adb and fastboot. Then, by running the SDK manager periodically to check for updates, you can ensure these tools are always at the latest version.

The adb and fastboot executables will be located in the platform-tools subdirectory of the SDK Tools. You can add this directory to your system’s PATH so that these tools are available from any Command Prompt or Terminal:

Windows 7/8:
1. From the desktop, right-click My Computer and select Properties
2. In the System Properties window, click on the Advanced tab
3. In the Advanced section, click the Environment Variables button
4. In the Environment Variables window, highlight the Path variable in the Systems Variable section and click the Edit button
5. Append ;<path-to-sdk>/platform-tools to the end of the existing Path definition (the semi-colon separates each path entry)
Linux
1. Add the following to ~/.profile and then logout/login: if [ -d "<path-to-sdk>/platform-tools" ] ; then PATH="<path-to-sdk>/platform-tools:$PATH" fi
Mac
1. Add the following to ~/.bash_profile and then logout/login: if [ -d "<path-to-sdk>/platform-tools" ] ; then export PATH="<path-to-sdk>/platform-tools:$PATH" fi

Ubuntu

An easy alternative to installing the SDK package as described above exists on Ubuntu and other debian-based Linux distributions. adb and fastboot can be installed via the following commands from the Terminal:

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot

There is no need to manually edit your system’s Path if this method is used.

If even now your device is not being detected in adb devices or fastboot devices

Verify your username is included in the plugdev group. Type groups from a terminal and look for plugdev in the listed groups. If you do not see plugdev listed, you can add your username to the group with: sudo gpasswd -a username plugdev where username should be replaced with your linux username.
Copy the set of rules listed below these steps to a text file and save it as /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules. You will need sudo/su to write to that directory. So, for instance: sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules These rules cover all vendors listed by Google. Optionally, you can add just the vendor corresponding to the device(s) you plan to connect to your computer.
Restart your computer and then test plugging in your device to the computer with USB debugging enabled.

Device Manufacture Based
```bash #Acer SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0502", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #ASUS SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0b05", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Dell SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="413c", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Foxconn SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0489", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Fujitsu & Fujitsu Toshiba SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04c5", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Garmin-Asus SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="091e", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Google SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Haier SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="201e", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Hisense SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="109b", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #HTC SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Huawei SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="12d1", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #K-Touch SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="24e3", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #KT Tech SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2116", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Kyocera SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0482", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Lenovo SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="17ef", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #LG SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1004", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Motorola SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="22b8", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #MTK SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0e8d", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #NEC SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0409", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Nook SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2080", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Nvidia SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0955", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #OTGV SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2257", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Pantech SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="10a9", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Pegatron SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1d4d", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Philips SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0471", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #PMC-Sierra SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04da", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Qualcomm SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="05c6", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #SK Telesys SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1f53", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Samsung SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Sharp SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04dd", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Sony SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="054c", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Sony Ericsson SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0fce", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Teleepoch SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2340", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #Toshiba SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0930", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" #ZTE SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="19d2", MODE="0664", GROUP="plugdev" ```

Troubleshooting

Make sure your device is connected and accessible via usb. lsusb should show a list of connected devices. The section after ‘ID’ in the output should match one of the idVendor numbers from the udev rules. For example, a Nexus One with idVendor 18d1 should return something like:

Sample output
```bash Bus 001 Device 005: ID 17ef:480d Lenovo Integrated Webcam [R5U877] Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0119 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Bus 002 Device 009: ID 18d1:4e12 Google Inc. Nexus One (debug) Bus 004 Device 003: ID 0a5c:2145 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate II Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub ```
If the device is detected in lsusb, try running adb devices. If you get ???????????? device, try reloading the udev rules: sudo sh -c "(udevadm control --reload-rules && udevadm trigger --action=change)" You can also try disconnecting and reconnecting the usb cable to your device.
If you cannot access your device via adb, even after adding your linux user to the plugdev group and restarting the computer, you can try starting the adb service as root. This is dangerous and not recommended: adb kill-server && sudo $(which adb) start-server && adb devices. Similarly, if fastboot devices returns no permissions, try running fastboot as root: sudo $(which fastboot) devices

— Ashok Varma