Not able to access adb in OS X through Terminal, "command not found"

I have installed Android SDK and Eclipse on my Mac system. I am able to program using Eclipse and have created few sample applications. But I am still not able to access adb through the terminal window. I have tried following command in terminal:

$ pwd
/Users/espireinfolabs/Desktop/soft/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools

$ ls
NOTICE.txt	dexdump		llvm-rs-cc-2
aapt		dx			llvm-rs-cc.txt
adb			lib			source.properties
aidl		llvm-rs-cc

$ adb --help
-bash: adb: command not found

I have also added the ls output so that you know in which window I am.

The problem is: adb is not in your PATH. This is where the shell looks for executables. You can check your current PATH with echo $PATH.

Bash will first try to look for a binary called adb in your Path, and not in the current directory. Therefore, if you are currently in the platform-tools directory, just call

./adb --help

The dot is your current directory, and this tells Bash to use adb from there.

But actually, you should add platform-tools to your PATH, as well as some other tools that the Android SDK comes with. This is how you do it:

1. Find out where you installed the Android SDK. This might be (where $HOME is your user's home directory) one of the following (or verify via Configure > SDK Manager in the Android Studio startup screen):

• Linux: $HOME/Android/Sdk
• macOS: $HOME/Library/Android/sdk

1. Find out which shell profile to edit, depending on which file is used:

• Linux: typically $HOME/.bashrc
• macOS: typically $HOME/.bash_profile
• With Zsh: $HOME/.zshrc

1. Open the shell profile from step two, and at the bottom of the file, add the following lines. Make sure to replace the path with the one where you installed platform-tools if it differs:

    export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/Sdk"
    export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
   

2. Save the profile file, then, re-start the terminal or run source ~/.bashrc (or whatever you just modified).

Note that setting ANDROID_HOME is required for some third party frameworks, so it does not hurt to add it.

For zsh users. Add alias adb='/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb' to .zshrc file.

Then run source ~/.zshrc command

1. run command in terminal nano $HOME/.zshrc

2. Must include next lines:

   export PATH=$PATH:~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
   export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
   export PATH="$HOME/.bin:$PATH"
   export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH
   

3. Press Ctrl + X to save file in editor,Enter Yes or No and hit Enter key

4. Run source ~/.zshrc

5. Check adb in terminal, run adb

In addition to slhck, this is what worked for me (mac).

To check where your sdk is located.

1. Open Android studio and go to:

> File -> Project Structure -> Sdk location

2. Copy the path.

3. Create the hidden .bash_profile in your home.

4. (open it with vim, or open -e) with the following:

---

export PATH=/Users/<Your session name>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools:/Users/<Your session name>/Library/Android/sdk/tools:$PATH

---

5. Then simply use this in your terminal: . ~/.bash_profile

SO post on how to find adb devices

Quick Answer

Pasting this command in terminal solves the issue in most cases:

** For Current Terminal Session:

• (in macOS) export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH
• (in Windows) i will update asap

** Permanently:

• (in macOS) edit the ~/.bash_profile using vi ~/.bash_profile and add this line to it: export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

However, if not, continue reading.

---

Detailed Answer

Android Debug Bridge, or adb for short, is usually located in Platform Tools and comes with Android SDK, You simply need to add its location to system path. So system knows about it, and can use it if necessary.

Find ADB's Location

Path to this folder varies by installation scenario, but common ones are:

---

• If you have installed Android Studio, path to ADB would be: (Most Common)
  • (in macOS) ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools
  • (in Windows) i will update asap

---

• If you have installed Android Studio somewhere else, determine its location by going to:

  • (in macOS) Android Studio > Preferences > Appearance And Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK and pay attention to the box that says: Android SDK Location
  • (in Windows) i will update asap

---

• However Android SDK could be Installed without Android studio, in this case your path might be different, and depends on your installation.

---

Add it to System Path

When you have determined ADB's location, add it to system, follow this syntax and type it in terminal:

• (in macOS)

  export PATH="your/path/to/adb/here":$PATH

  for example: export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

I don't know how did you install the android SDK. But in Mac OS, what really worked for me is to reinstall it using brew. All problems solved in a row.

brew install --cask android-sdk

Later on:

android update sdk --no-ui --filter 'platform-tools'

Like a charm

For me, I ran into this issue after switching over from bash to zsh so I could get my console to look all awesome fantastic-ish with Hyper and the snazzy theme. I was trying to run my react-native application using react-native run-android and running into the op's issue. Adding the following into my ~.zshrc file solved the issue for me:

export ANDROID_HOME=~/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=${PATH}:${ANDROID_HOME}/tools:${ANDROID_HOME}/platform-tools

This is how it worked for me

first I find my platform-tools than I was using zshrc instead of bash_profile so I run this command first

echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:$HOME/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.zshrc

next refresh terminal

source ~/.zshrc

Check if it worked

adb devices

result of this command must be something similar to this if so then it worked.

List of devices attached
emulator-5554	device

1. Simply install adb with brew

   brew cask install android-platform-tools

2. Check if adb is installed

   adb devices

If you have installed Android Studio on MAC here is how:

nano ~/.zshrc

or

open ~/.zshrc in VScode

Then edit the file

# Android ADB
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Library/Android/sdk"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"

control + X OR Save file. Restart Terminal and try

> adb

If you are using the Mac with the M1 chip add the below export command to the zshrc file using the nano command, if that file is not present the nano command will create it for you so run

nano ~/.zshrc

paste this path in that file without any modification

export PATH="/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

hit ctrl-x and then Hit y to save the changes and the hit return Key to close it without renaming the file.

then run

source ~/.zshrc

to refresh the .zshrc file

and then try runnning

adb

it should give you the desired output

If you are using zsh on an OS X, you have to edit the zshrc file.

Use vim or your favorite text editor to open zshrc file:

vim ~/.zshrc

Paste the path to adb in this file:

export PATH="/Users/{$USER}/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH

For Mac OS Catalina or Mojave

Enter command to open nano editor

nano $HOME/.zshrc

Set PATH variable, means append more path as shown here

FLUTTER_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/flutter-sdk/flutter/bin"
DART_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/flutter-sdk/flutter/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin"
ANDROID_SDK_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/sdk"
ANDROID_ADB_HOME="/Users/pankaj/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools"

PATH="$PATH:$FLUTTER_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$DART_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_HOME"
PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_ADB_HOME"

Now press Command + X to save file in editor,Enter Yes or No and hit Enter key.

This worked for me on my MAC - 2020

Go to directory containing adb:

cd ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/

Run adb command to list all services

./adb shell dumpsys activity services

I couldn't get the stupid path working so I created an alias for abd

alias abd ="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb"

works fine.

For Mac, Android Studio 3.6.1, I added this to .bash_profile

export PATH="~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/platform-tools":$PATH

Or the alternative solution could be

1. Make sure you already install for android SDK. Usually it is located under /Users/your-user-name/Library/Android/sdk

2. If the SDK is there then run this command. ./platform-tools/adb install your-apk-location

3. From there you can generate the APK file That's the only sample to check if adb command is there

For some reason when installed Android Studio 3.6.1 the adb file was actually in $ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/platform-tools . not sure if this is a bug with my installation or what but this fixed it for me.

For Mac Os the default shell has moved on to "zsh" from "bash" as of Mojave and later releases, so for all the Mac users I would suggest go with the creating ".zshrc" file. "adb" runs as it is intended to be. Thanks @slhck for your info.!

Follow steps below

• Open bash_profile using open -e .bash_profile
• write export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
• close bash_profile file
• run source .bash_profile
• Done run your adb command now !!

In some cases, you may need to run source .bash_profile every time you open cmd to run adb commands

It's working fine..

brew install android-sdk

Later on:

android update sdk --no-ui --filter 'platform-tools'