Debugging with Android Studio stuck at "Waiting For Debugger" forever

UPDATE The supposed duplicate is a question on being stucking in "Waiting For Debugger" when executing Run, while this question is on being stucking in "Waiting For Debugger" when executing Debug, the steps to produce the problem is different, and the solution(s) are different as well.

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Whenever I try to use Android Studio's Debug function, the Run status would always stuck at:

Launching application: com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity.
DEVICE SHELL COMMAND: am start -n "com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity" -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=com.astrotek.parashoot.debug/com.astrotek.ptpviewer.StarterActivity }

While the device (Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3) I'm debugging would display

This has being the case from Android Studio 0.8.8 all the way to 1.0. And on the same computer I can perform debugging using Eclipse on the same device without any issues.

So the question is what can I do to make Android Studio debugging work?

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Update: The same thing happens when debugging on Nexus 7 (2013) running Android 5.0; and testing on another machine rendered the same result. I can't be the only one encountering this issue :-/

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Update: Opened a bounty since this issue is so annoying. Even re-installing the app doesn't solve. Nexus 5 running Cyano, Win7 64. The ADB log is telling:

8568-8568/it.myapp:myprocess W/ActivityThread﹕ Application it.myapp is waiting for the debugger on port 8100...
8568-8568/it.myapp:myprocess I/System.out﹕ Sending WAIT chunk

Also, I can't find an easy way to disconnect nor reset ADB connection in Android Studio.

Just use this command to disable it. adb shell am clear-debug-app

On some machines/projects the debugger do not attach automatically so you need to attach it manually (studio menu -> Run -> Attach debugger to Android process)

Restarting Testing device fix the issue for me.

Restarting Android Studio fix the issue for me.

After clicking on the run icon. If it is stuck waiting for a debugger means it is not attached to the app. You have to manually attach by clicking on Attach Debugger to Android process. It is on the right side of the run icon. I had focus this icon in linked image.

Updated Image for Attach Debugger to Android process Icon

Debugger stopped connecting for me today and nothing worked until I tried the following:

Go to Run, Edit-Configurations, Miscellaneous Tab, uncheck 'skip installation if APK has not changed' Apply, OK.

Debugger started to connect again.

This problem occurs when you open more than one instance of Android studio, so you need to attach the debugger manually like mentioned above.

You may need to close other instances of Android studio.

A similar question has been asked recently and the solution may work for some and is very quick.

> Clearing the Intellij IDEA (Android Studio) .idea directory which > contains configuration information worked for me: > > 1. Exit Android Studio > 2. Navigate to the project you are trying to debug > 3. Backup any files inside .idea that you modified (if your project checks any of these into VCS) > 4. Delete .idea directory > 5. Open the project in Android Studio

I faced this problem in android studio 3.0. Just restarted device solved.

Both of my dev machines have JDK 8 installed, the debugging function is restored once JDK 7.0.71 was installed and JAVA_HOME environmental variable was set to point to the new JDK.

Guess there's some compatibility issue between Android Studio + ADB + JDK8 (Eclipse + ADB + JDK8 works fine).

I tried the top three rated answers but failed. After rebooting my mobile, the problem is solved. No more long "Waiting for Debugger".

I just managed this problem, after several days of trying the above solutions. So I closed the emulator, run AVD manager and in device menu choose - "wipe data" So in next run I was free from stucked debugger.

When the Device displays the message go to Run->Attach debbuger, then select a debbuger. it'll start the activity.

This fixed it for me. Android Studio -> File -> Invalidate Caches & Restart...

I had the same problem. Restart my android phone device worked for me.

This solution works for me:

turning off the USB debugging from my device settings , and then turning it on again.

its Much quicker and easier than restart the device.

How it worked for me.

1 Start Android Device Monitor from Tools -> Android -> Android Device Monitor

2 Click on Stop for the process you are facing the issue from list of devices.

Most of the times this is caused because of the overload of resources and threads over the emulator. Or even for the lock of objects that GC couldn't set free: http://developer.android.com/intl/pt-br/tools/debugging/index.html

Usually, a single restart of it will solve the issue, but sometimes it asks for the IDE restart, so be sure to make both tests.

Another good test is trying to start the app in "Start mode" and then try the debug mode again...

P.S: Don't forget to kill each debug process in the IDE after each test. This will prevent your env to be more overloaded.

Android studio 3.0 and Above

Disable the instant Run

As for my case, running Android Studio Canary (preview release) along with the stable version was the problem. Running multiple instances of the same Android Studio flavor was OK, but mixing them often resulted in "Waiting For Debugger".

For me, the issue was: The Regional Format of Windows was ARABIC. I simply changed the regional format to English (United States) and the error has fixed.

Steps to fix:

1. Go to Start -> type Region -> click on Region to open Region window -> from the Format dropdown, select English (United Stated) -> Click OK.
2. Restart Android Studio.

I had the same problem. Restart my android device and closed the adb.exe process. With that I could solve the problem

Well, I guess there is a plethora of circumstances that can trigger this issue. I'm using IntelliJ Idea instead, but it's mostly the same than Android Studio. My solution for this problem:

Fastest way:

> Right click on the class file that contains the main activity of your > project, and then on "Debug 'WhateverActivity'". This will create a > new run configuration that should debug fine.

Other solution, without creating a new run configuration:

> 1. Open Run/Debug configurations and within "Android app" pick the configuration you're using to debug your app. > 2. Locate "Launch Options/Launch" there and set it to "Specified Activity" instead of "Default Activity". > 3. In the "Launch" field just below the aforementioned option, click on the three ellipsis (three dots) button and select your main > activity.

At least it worked for me. I hope it works for others too.

Got it fixed according this solution: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-166153
I opened <project dir>/.idea/workspace.xml replaced all the
<option name="DEBUGGER_TYPE" value="Auto" /> occurrences to
<option name="DEBUGGER_TYPE" value="Java" />
and restarted Android Studio

Open Command prompt and go to android sdk>platform-tools> adb kill-server

press enter

and again adb start-server

press enter

Make sure that your Active Build Variant is debug.

If you also want to make your release variant APK debuggable then make a simple change in app level build.gradle -

buildTypes {
        release {
            debuggable true
            /*Your rest code*/
        }
    }

Restarting everything didn't work for me. What DID work was waiting for a few minutes while Android Studio unclogged itself. This was the first time I ran the debugger; after that, Android Studio fired up the debugger quickly.

For me Run->Attach debugger to Android process was working, but I had to do it every time app was launched.

Fix: There may be a problem with your 'App launch configuration'(To verify this create new project to see if it's working fine). Just delete app configuration, open MainActivity file and Run->Debug (new conffiguration will be created)

Sometime it's due to the fact that in the build.gradle configuration you have to set the node:

  debug {
            debuggable true
        }

Change it back to false when you have to prepare the signed apk.

Regards

Non of this solutions worked for me.

In my case was that I was debugging an App from Intellij IDEA and at the same time with Android Studio. By just closing the Intellij IDEA and removing the app I was debugging just fixed my problem.

It has happened to me that it stayed stuck in "Waiting for Debugger" when accidentally I tried to Debug a Release build, sometimes it warns that it is not a debug build and others it silently stucks in "Waiting for Debugger".

The solution is obviously to switch to Debug build

For my case, I have to reinstall the AVD.

Seems this is another Android Studio bug. To prevent this problem return back to Android Studio v4.1.3 (4.1.1) or earlier and use Android Gradle Plugin Version 4.1+ and Gradle Version 6.6 . After this, android studio works fine. Say if this answer is useful, Thanks.

This also happens to me from time to time. Problem is that your app / device is configured to wait for debugger. In this case it is waiting for debugger before continuing execution of.

Option 1:

Attach debugger or run in debug mode. You can do this in Android Studio. Buttons to attach debugger and run in debug mode are located next to normal run mode (Bug and Bug with arrow).

Option 2:

Disable Wait for debugger. You can do this is developer settings. This option needs to be disabled in:

1. Root of Developer Options
2. Developer options -> Select debug app -> -> Wait for debugger

This was tested on Android emulator in android studio. Other phones might have this setting different. If you can not find app's settings in debug, reinstalling app might work too.

In my Linux Ubuntu Android Studio development environment, entirely deleting my configuration folder, ~/.config/Google/AndroidStudio2021.1, and restarting Android Studio was the only way to restore native debugging ability.

Tried all the solutions given here but restarting my laptop worked for me.

If all else fails, try "Clean Storage" via the app's System Settings.