EASIEST sdk adb guide tutorial instructions

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I have learned alot from this site so i figured i'd give something back. these are the the two easiest methods i have found for setting up the android debug bridge. one for windows and one for linux... these instructions should work for any version of windows.

first make sure you download the latest sdk by going to android.com and clicking on developers.

windows:
after you have download the sdk, unzip it to your desktop. rename it to sdk. cut the UNzipped folder on the desktop that you just renamed by right clicking and hitting "cut" then go to start>my computer>c: and paste the folder here. now go into the new "sdk" folder and right click on the "tools" folder and click "send to" then choose "desktop (as shortcut)" you should now have a shortcut on the desktop called "tools-shortcut"

now for the easy part: hold shift and right click on tools-shorcut, holding shift adds the option "open command window here" to the context menu that comes up so click on that. now just make sure your phone is connected to the computer and on ur phone debugging is enabled (menu>applications>development>debugging). on ur command window that came up you should see a black box with white text and the cmd should be c:\sdk\tools> just type "adb devices" and you should see your phone under "list of devices attached" if you do see it you should be able to start running adb commands

adb pull "/location to file or folder on phone" -(the pulled folder or file will be in the tools folder we created earlier which you can still access by clicking on the tools-shortcut on your desktop)

adb push "name of file or folder to be placed on the phone sdcard" -(make sure the file or folder you wish to place on the phone has been placed in the "tools" folder on the computer, again its the same folder the "tools-shortcut" opens up)

hint and examples: i have found a good way to back up and reinstall all ur apps using just adb push and pull. just experimenting and playing around with it i have found you can accomplish installing with just knowing these commands above... if you plan to data wipe and flash a new rom but you don't want to go through the tedious task of reinstalling and you have a rooted android phone then you may use this method to backup/reinstall ALL of your apps. plus this will give you good practice using adb.

backup example:
adb pull /data/app .... let it finish
adb pull /data/app-private ...let it finish

now you should have ALL of ur apps in ur tools folder on ur computer! in the tools folder, create a new folder and name it what u want, i named mine APPS4EVO because i have an evo and and epic and some apps don't work for both so i keep them seperate. cut and paste all of ur apps and put them into your newly made folder. now back to the adb window

restore example:
adb push /APPS4EVO /data/app/

this will push all of your apps in your backed up folder you made earlier to the folder where apps go when they are installed and if you wait 1-10 minutes depending on how many apps you have you should be able to see them on ur phone as if you had installed them one by one. also notice the space between /APPS4EVO and /data/app/ the space seperates the folder from inside ur tools folder you wish to install and the location you wish to put them on ur phone. please be aware that you do not need to type c:\sdk\tools\APPS4EVO because the command window is already being ran in the tools folder, so the location would just be /APPS4EVO in my case.

adb shell -opens up the terminal shell to run commands specifically for the phone, while in the shell you cannot run other "adb xxxxx" commands, you will have to exit the shell by typing "exit"

OPTIONAL: i marked this as optional bc with the above it is not necessary... i have never done this and my adb works great but i have seen it often in other tutorials around the web.... i believe its only necessary on windows 7 and maybe vista. go to start then right click on "my computer" and click on "properties" then in the left pane click on "advanced system settings" then in the window that pops up click on "environment varables" button, in the next window that pops up, under "system variables" scroll down to the "path" variable and double click it. in the "variable value" box do NOT erase anything but add ";c:\sdk\tools" (without quotations). then click ok on all the windows cuz ur done.

thats all for windows.

linux (ubuntu)

extract the sdk to your home/name/ folder and rename it to sdk. now right click on the folder and go to permissions and make sure (run as executable) is checked, now go into the folder and do the same permission change to the tools directory.

now you should be able to run adb commands in the terminal when your phone is connected. same as in windows except your commands will be preceded by your tools folder location....

FOR EXAMPLE:
/home/jay/sdk/tools/adb devices

/home/jay/sdk/tools/adb push xxxx xxx

/home/jay/sdk/tools/adb pull xxxx



EXTRA:
if your having troubles connecting ur phone to ur computer over usb, even after installing drivers, like i sometimes have with my epic, you can download "wireless adb" from the market which i found to be surprisingly easy to use, just like if u were connected by usb, except under adb devices you will show up as your gateway address not ur device name but trust it still works the same.

good luck everyone, i hope this post isn't redundant and i really hope i help someone out there just starting! adb is confusing at first.