Android Studio doesn't see device

Question

The AVD Manager in Android Studio doesn\'t show my device but adb devices does show it. Am I missing something obvious here?

Answer 1

Try the following solutions (for Windows):

• Go to your sdk tool installation path, and under \sdk\platform-tools folder and run this command:

  adb devices

If your device it listed it should show something like this:

C:\android\sdk\platform-tools>adb devices
List of devices attached
081e96500591f039        device

If not, follow this:

• Try these commands:

  adb kill-server

  adb start-server

• Make sure your phone has Developer Options in Settings (if not, go to Settings, About phone (or device), click on Android Version multiple times until you see a message).

• Make sure USB debugging on your phone is enabled (go to Developer Options in Settings and turn it on)

• Make sure you have Select USB Configuration set to MTP (this is also in Developer Options).

• Make sure you can see your files in your device in Windows Explorer when you connect via USB.

• Make sure you have the driver for your device properly installed (most of the time, this happens when you first plug in your USB cable).

• In Windows, right click on Computer, and go to Device Manager, check if you have Android Device right on the root folder and under it should be Android Composite ADB Interface. If you don't have this, you have to download the Google USB Driver. Get it here:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html

• In Device Manager, find your device (should have yellow Exclamation point), right click, and update driver (open the folder with the driver you just downloaded)

• If this doesn't work, try restarting Android Studio or plugging your device back in again.

Some cheap devices (some $30 tablets) don't provide the USB drivers to connect in Device Manager, so in this case you are out of luck.