Stopping an Android app from console
AndroidTestingAdbAndroid Problem Overview
Is it possible to stop an Android app from the console? Something like:
adb stop com.my.app.package
It would speed up our testing process so much. Right now we uninstall/install the app each time to make sure the manual test cases start with a clean state.
Android Solutions
Solution 1 - Android
The clean way of stopping the app is:
adb shell am force-stop com.my.app.id
This way you don't have to figure out the process ID.
Solution 2 - Android
Edit: Long after I wrote this post and it was accepted as the answer, the am force-stop
command was implemented by the Android team, as mentioned in this answer.
Alternatively: Rather than just stopping the app, since you mention wanting a "clean slate" for each test run, you can use adb shell pm clear com.my.app.package
, which will stop the app process and clear out all the stored data for that app.
If you're on Linux:
adb shell ps | grep com.myapp | awk '{print $2}' | xargs adb shell kill
That will only work for devices/emulators where you have root immediately upon running a shell. That can probably be refined slightly to call su
beforehand.
Otherwise, you can do (manually, or I suppose scripted):
pc $ adb -d shell
android $ su
android # ps
android # kill <process id from ps output>
Solution 3 - Android
First, put the app into the background (press the device's home button)
Then....in a terminal....
adb shell am kill com.your.package
Solution 4 - Android
you can use the following from the device console: pm disable com.my.app.package
which will kill it. Then use pm enable com.my.app.package
so that you can launch it again.
Solution 5 - Android
If you have access to the application package, then you can install with the -r option and it will kill the process if it is currently running as a side effect. Like this:
adb -d install -r MyApp.apk ; adb -d shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.MyCompany.MyApp/.MyActivity
The -r option preserves the data currently associated with the app. However, if you want a clean slate like you mention you might not want to use that option.
Solution 6 - Android
If you target a non-rooted device and/or have services in you APK that you don't want to stop as well, the other solutions won't work.
To solve this problem, I've resorted to a broadcast message receiver I've added to my activity in order to stop it.
public class TestActivity extends Activity {
private static final String STOP_COMMAND = "com.example.TestActivity.STOP";
private BroadcastReceiver broadcastReceiver = new BroadcastReceiver() {
@Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
TestActivity.this.finish();
}
};
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//other stuff...
registerReceiver(broadcastReceiver, new IntentFilter(STOP_COMMAND));
}
}
That way, you can issue this adb command to stop your activity:
adb shell am broadcast -a com.example.TestActivity.STOP
Solution 7 - Android
The "stop" command is implemented as force-stop
; stops background app from running. If it's in foreground, it'll stop also: eg.
adb shell am force-stop com.android.providers.telephony
Clearing of packages also deletes their data eg.
adb shell pm clear com.android.providers.telephony
will delete all your sms
Be careful which one you choose.
Solution 8 - Android
adb shell killall -9 com.your.package.name
according to MAC "mandatory access control" you probably have the permission to kill process which is not started by root
have fun!
Solution 9 - Android
If all you are looking for is killing a package
pkill package_name
should work
Solution 10 - Android
I tried all answers here on Linux nothing worked for debugging on unrooted device API Level 23, so i found an Alternative for debugging From Developer Options -> Apps section -> check Do Not keep activities that way when ever you put the app in background it gets killed
P.S remember to uncheck it after you finished debugging
Solution 11 - Android
In eclipse go to the DDMS perspective and in the devices tab click the process you want to kill under the device you want to kill it on. You then just need to press the stop button and it should kill the process.
I'm not sure how you'd do this from the command line tool but there must be a way. Maybe you do it through the adb shell...
Solution 12 - Android
pkill NAMEofAPP
Non rooted marshmallow, termux & terminal emulator.