How to start and stop android service from a adb shell?

I need to write a shell script to start and stop an android service .

I'm a beginner in Android, but got it working like this:

in AndroidManifest.xml, make sure you, inside <application>, have something like this:

<service android:name="com.some.package.name.YourServiceSubClassName" android:permission="com.some.package.name.YourServiceSubClassName">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.some.package.name.YourServiceSubClassName"/>
    </intent-filter>
</service>

where YourServiceSubClassName extend android.app.Service is your java class that is the service. Where com.some.package is the package name, for me both in AndroidManifest.xml and in Java. Used a javabeat.net article as help, look for <service>

Note also, supposedly between the package name and the class name there should be .service. in the text, I guess this is some convention, but for me this caused ClassNotFoundException that I'm yet to solve.

Then, install your apk. I did from eclipse but also adb install -r yourApkHere.apk should work. Uninstall is adb uninstall com.some.package.name, btw.

You can start it from host system like this, thanks Just a Tim and MrRoy:

adb shell am startservice com.some.package.name/.YourServiceSubClassName

interestingly, I didn't need -n.

To stop, I use

adb shell am force-stop com.some.package.name

Hope it helps.

As I'm a beginner, please feel freet to edit/comment to fix any misconceptions (eg. probably regarding .service. in the component (?) name).

Starting a service:

adb shell am startservice ...

> start a Service. Options are: > --user | current: Specify which user to run as; if not > specified then run as the current user.

Stopping a service:

adb shell am stopservice ... 

> stop a Service. Options are: > --user | current: Specify which user to run as; if not > specified then run as the current user.

You may get an error "*Error: app is in background *" while using

adb shell am startservice 

in Oreo (26+). This requires services in the foreground. Use the following.

adb shell am start-foreground-service com.some.package.name/.YourServiceSubClassName

If you want to run the script in adb shell, then I am trying to do the same, but with an application. I think you can use "am start" command

usage: am [subcommand] [options]

start an Activity: am start [-D] [-W] <INTENT>
    -D: enable debugging
    -W: wait for launch to complete

**start a Service: am startservice <INTENT>**

send a broadcast Intent: am broadcast <INTENT>

start an Instrumentation: am instrument [flags] <COMPONENT>
    -r: print raw results (otherwise decode REPORT_KEY_STREAMRESULT)
    -e <NAME> <VALUE>: set argument <NAME> to <VALUE>
    -p <FILE>: write profiling data to <FILE>
    -w: wait for instrumentation to finish before returning

start profiling: am profile <PROCESS> start <FILE>
stop profiling: am profile <PROCESS> stop

start monitoring: am monitor [--gdb <port>]
    --gdb: start gdbserv on the given port at crash/ANR

<INTENT> specifications include these flags:
    [-a <ACTION>] [-d <DATA_URI>] [-t <MIME_TYPE>]
    [-c <CATEGORY> [-c <CATEGORY>] ...]
    [-e|--es <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_STRING_VALUE> ...]
    [--esn <EXTRA_KEY> ...]
    [--ez <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_BOOLEAN_VALUE> ...]
    [-e|--ei <EXTRA_KEY> <EXTRA_INT_VALUE> ...]
    [-n <COMPONENT>] [-f <FLAGS>]
    [--grant-read-uri-permission] [--grant-write-uri-permission]
    [--debug-log-resolution]
    [--activity-brought-to-front] [--activity-clear-top]
    [--activity-clear-when-task-reset] [--activity-exclude-from-recents]
    [--activity-launched-from-history] [--activity-multiple-task]
    [--activity-no-animation] [--activity-no-history]
    [--activity-no-user-action] [--activity-previous-is-top]
    [--activity-reorder-to-front] [--activity-reset-task-if-needed]
    [--activity-single-top]
    [--receiver-registered-only] [--receiver-replace-pending]
    [<URI>]

I can start service through

am startservice com.xxx/.service.XXXService

but i don't know how to stop it yet.

You need to add android:exported="true" to start service from ADB command line. Then your manifest looks something like this:

<!-- Service declared in manifest -->
<service
    android:name=".YourServiceName"
    android:exported="true"
    android:launchMode="singleTop">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.your.package.name.YourServiceName"/>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</service> <!-- Note: Service is exported to start it using ADB command -->

And then from ADB

To start service:

adb shell am startservice com.your.package.name/.YourServiceName

To stop service (on Marshmallow):

adb shell am stopservice com.your.package.name/.YourServiceName

To stop service (on Jelly Bean):

adb shell am force-stop com.your.package.name

You should set the android:exported attribute of the service to "true", in order to allow other components to invoke it. In the AndroidManifest.xml file, add the following attribute:

<service android:exported="true" ></service>

Then, you should be able to start the service via adb:

adb shell am startservice com.package.name/.YourServiceName

For more info about the android:exported attribute see this page.

Responding to pzulw's feedback to sandroid about specifying the intent.

The format of the component name is described in the api docs for ComponentName.unflattenFromString

> It splits the string at the first '/', taking the part before as the package name and the part after as the class name. As a special convenience (to use, for example, when parsing component names on the command line), if the '/' is immediately followed by a '.' then the final class name will be the concatenation of the package name with the string following the '/'. Thus "com.foo/.Blah" becomes package="com.foo" class="com.foo.Blah".

To stop a service, you have to find service name using:

adb shell dumpsys activity services <your package>

for example: adb shell dumpsys activity services com.xyz.something

This will list services running for your package.
Output should be similar to:

ServiceRecord{xxxxx u0 com.xyz.something.beta/xyz.something.abc.XYZService}

Now select your service and run:

adb shell am stopservice <service_name> 

For example:

adb shell am stopservice com.xyz.something.beta/xyz.something.abc.XYZService

similarly, to start service:

adb shell am startservice <service_name>

To access service, your service(in AndroidManifest.xml) should set exported="true"

<!-- Service declared in manifest -->
<service
    android:name=".YourServiceName"
    android:exported="true"
    android:launchMode="singleTop">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="com.your.package.name.YourServiceName"/>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
</service>

am startservice <INTENT>   

or actually from the OS shell

adb shell am startservice <INTENT>

For anyone still confused about how to define the service name parameter, the forward slash goes immediately after the application package name in the fully qualified class name.

So given an application package name of: app.package.name

And a full path to the service of: app.package.name.example.package.path.MyServiceClass

Then the command would look like this:

adb shell am startservice app.package.name/.example.package.path.MyServiceClass