Set up adb on Mac OS X
adb, android, macos
Solution
Note: this was originally written on Installing ADB on macOS but that question was closed as a duplicate of this one.
Note for zsh users: replace all references to `~/.bash_profile` with `~/.zshrc`.
Option 1 - Using Homebrew
This is the easiest way and will provide automatic updates.
Install homebrew
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
Install adb
brew install android-platform-tools
or try a cask install depending on your settings:
brew install --cask android-platform-tools
Start using adb
adb devices
Option 2 - Manually (just the platform tools)
This is the easiest way to get a manual installation of ADB and Fastboot.
Delete your old installation (optional)
rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
Navigate to https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools.html and click on the `SDK Platform-Tools for Mac` link.
Go to your Downloads folder
cd ~/Downloads/
Unzip the tools you downloaded
unzip platform-tools-latest*.zip
Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them
mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
mv platform-tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools
Add `platform-tools` to your path
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
source ~/.bash_profile
Start using adb
adb devices
Option 3 - If you already have Android Studio installed
Add `platform-tools` to your path
echo 'export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/$USER/Library/Android/sdk' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash_profile
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
source ~/.bash_profile
Start using adb
adb devices
Option 4 - MacPorts
Install the Android SDK:
sudo port install android
Run the SDK manager:
sh /opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/tools/android
Uncheck everything but `Android SDK Platform-tools` (optional)
Install the packages, accepting licenses. Close the SDK Manager.
Add `platform-tools` to your path; in MacPorts, they're in `/opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools`. E.g., for bash:
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/local/share/java/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools"' >> ~/.bash_profile
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal/shell):
source ~/.bash_profile
Start using adb:
adb devices
Option 5 - Manually (with SDK Manager)
Delete your old installation (optional)
rm -rf ~/.android-sdk-macosx/
Download the Mac SDK Tools from the Android developer site under "Get just the command line tools". Make sure you save them to your Downloads folder.
Go to your Downloads folder
cd ~/Downloads/
Unzip the tools you downloaded
unzip tools_r*-macosx.zip
Move them somewhere you won't accidentally delete them
mkdir ~/.android-sdk-macosx
mv tools/ ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools
Run the SDK Manager
sh ~/.android-sdk-macosx/tools/android
Uncheck everything but `Android SDK Platform-tools` (optional)
Click `Install Packages`, accept licenses, click `Install`. Close the SDK Manager window.
Add `platform-tools` to your path
echo 'export PATH="$PATH:~/.android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/"' >> ~/.bash_profile
Refresh your bash profile (or restart your terminal app)
source ~/.bash_profile
Start using adb
adb devices
Problem
I spent quite sometime figuring how to set up adb on Mac, so I figure writing how to set it up might be useful to some people. adb is the command line tool to install and run android apps on your phone/emulator