adb (Android Debug Bridge) cheatsheet

Command	Description
adb devices	Lists connected devices
adb devices -l	Lists connected devices and kind
adb root	Restarts adbd with root permissions
adb start-server	Starts the adb server
adb kill-server	Kills the adb server
adb remount	Remounts file system with read/write access
adb reboot	Reboots the device
adb reboot bootloader	Reboots the device into fastboot
adb disable-verity	Reboots the device into fastboot

wait-for-device can be specified after adb to ensure that the command will run once the device is connected.

-s can be used to send the commands to a specific device when multiple are connected.

Examples

$ adb wait-for-device devices
 List of devices attached
 somedevice-1234 device
 someotherdevice-1234 device

$ adb -s somedevice-1234 root

Command	Description
adb logcat	Starts printing log messages to stdout
adb logcat -g	Displays current log buffer sizes
adb logcat -G <size>	Sets the buffer size (K or M)
adb logcat -c	Clears the log buffers
adb logcat *:V	Enables ALL log messages (verbose)
adb logcat -f <filename>	Dumps to specified file

Examples

$ adb logcat -G 16M
$ adb logcat *:V > output.log

Command	Description
adb push <local> <remote>	Copies the local to the device at remote
adb pull <remote> <local>	Copies the remote from the device to local

Examples

$ echo "This is a test" > test.txt
$ adb push  test.txt /sdcard/test.txt
$ adb pull /sdcard/test.txt pulledTest.txt

Command	Description
adb shell <command>	Runs the specified command on device (most unix commands work here)
adb shell wm size	Displays the current screen resolution
adb shell wm size WxH	Sets the resolution to WxH
adb shell pm list packages	Lists all installed packages
adb shell pm list packages -3	Lists all installed 3rd-party packages
adb shell monkey -p app.package.name	Starts the specified package