Capturing Device Logs using adb logcat

ADB is a command-line utility that that can be used to control your device over USB from a computer. It will allow you to install / uninstall and or view logs on your device. This could be very handy when there are issues with a specific app and you like to view the logs for information that may lead to identify the cause of error.

In this post, we’ll discuss how to install and use ADB.

Installation:
ADB comes with Android SDK. However, you can download ONLY the ADB files from HERE . Download it from the link and copy into a file like c:\tools\adb
Using this approach, there are no specific installation that are needed. Just copy files onto a folder like:
c:\tools\adb

Usage:
There are times that it would be necessary to view / monitor logs on your device. To accomplish this, you need to use a USB cable and enable debugging on your device. Follow instruction HERE for enabling USB debug.

Next, shell to DOS and CD to folder that you installed ADB:
cd c:\tools\adb

To start ADB, enter:
adb logcat

Above command will start displaying logs. Now you can start any app and then view / capture the log out.
To narrow down the amount of logs, you can change the Log Level. For example, if you log to only view ERRORS, enter:
adb logcat *:E

For a list of ADB commands, visit site HERE

Recommendation:
An alternative to DOS Command Window is ConEmu which can be downloaded from sourceforge HERE . It includes multi-tab features and ability to easily copy the logs.


Note: this guide was created by @Hossein in the Appybuilder community here. Thank you @Hossein.

17 Likes

this is a mistake caused by the Markdown, it should be
adb logcat *:E

and if you only want to show info with some tag, try this:
adb logcat -s "YOUR TAG HERE"

thank you, I used preformatted text to correct it
Taifun

1 Like

This appears to me, how can I fix it or is it ok?
Not starting debugger since process cannot load the jdwp agent.