Stopping an Android app from console

Question

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 s

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

If all you are looking for is killing a package

pkill package_name 

should work