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 .
EDIT: as the link unfortunately does not work anymore, alternatively follow these steps
Navigate to SDK Platform Tools release notes | Android Studio | Android Developers
- Scroll down the page to locate the Downloads.
- Select Download SDK Platform-Tools for Windows and download it.
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.