Why emulator is very slow in Android Studio?

Question

I just setup Android Studio on my PC, which is new launch to develop Android application.

My problem is that, when I try to run my small app in emulator, it take to

Answer 1

Just edit the AVD settings as below,

Enable snapshot options and please use INTEL HAXM software for speedup.just visit https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager-intel-haxm and download...

Answer 2

I tried all the suggested remedies and none had any impact. The Android Studio emulator experience was simply unusable with my setup (Windows 10, AndroidStudio 3.5, Quadcore 3.2 Ghz, 32GB with SSD drive).

I tried Updating Studio, Installing Intel HAXM, Changing the memory settings via SDK, using an actual device, excluding the various folders from in the Windows Anti-virus among other things.

The solution that made it work like a breeze was to exclude the Android Debug Bridge (adb.exe) "as a process" from the Windows Security / Virus Protection. You can either do it yourself or read the details below to know how to do it.

I suggest verifying the severity of the speed issue yourself. The same will be used to verify the difference immediately after you apply the remedy. Running the options from within Android Studio just makes it more complex.

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Steps to check the issue:

1. Get the path for your Android SDK Tools. You can find it from SDK Manager -> Appearance and Behavior -> System Settings -> Android SDK.

2. Open a command prompt or terminal window. You can do right click on Windows (Start) Icon -> Run and execute "cmd". This should give you a windows command prompt or terminal window.

3. In the terminal window, change your drive and path to your Android SDK folder using the CD command. Now change to the sub-folder Platform-tools.

4. You will find the Android Debug Bridge (adb.exe) in this folder. This plays a very crucial role in operating the emulator as well as the actual device.

5. In the terminal window, execute the adb.exe tool with the command adb. It should instantly return back with the help parameters for adb.

6. Now execute adb.exe with a command like - adb devices. This should simply stall and take several seconds to come back with the information even if you have no devices or emulator running. In my setup it took almost 30 seconds. This is the issue.

Anything you do with the emulator goes via adb and gets stuck here. Once the remedy is applied, it should execute the adb devices command as instantly as the simple adb command without any parameter.

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Steps to remedy:

1. Go to Windows "Virus and Threat Protection" setting. There are several ways to reach it. You can use Right Click on Windows (Start) Icon and choose Settings. Choose Update & Security, then Windows Security, then Virus and Threat Protection.

2. You will find the option Virus and Threat Protection Settings. Select it. You will find several options, look for Exclusions. Select the option Add or remove exclusions. This will take you to the list of Files, Folders, Processes which are presently excluded by the windows anti-virus. It may be empty or may have some data.

3. Select "+ Add an Exclusion". You will find 4 options - File, Folder, File Type and Process. This is critical. Please choose Process.

4. In the "Enter Process Name" input box type in the name adb.exe. Please dont forget to type in the extension, just putting adb will not work. Accept the input with "Add" button.

You are done. Now goto the command prompt again and follow the same steps you did earlier to check the issue. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised and your entire Android Studio emulator experience should become seamless.

Note that the steps may slightly vary depending upon your version of Windows, Android Studio and SDK tools however it should still apply.