Android Debug Bridge

Important

Android Debug Bridge (adb) is required ONLY for those users pairing an Android mobile device with Cozmo.

Android Debug Bridge (adb) is necessary in order for the Cozmo SDK to work with Android mobile devices. Please ensure adb is installed before attempting to run the Cozmo SDK with a paired Android device.

macOS Installation

  1. Type the following into a Terminal window (requires Homebrew to be installed):

    brew tap caskroom/cask
brew cask install android-platform-tools

  2. Continue to Final Installation (All Platforms) below to complete installation.

Windows Installation

  1. In your internet browser, navigate to this link and download file platform-tools-latest-windows.zip to your Downloads folder.
  2. Open a File Explorer window to your Downloads folder and see that your downloaded file platform-tools-latest-windows.zip is there.
  3. Open a new File Explorer window and create a new folder in C:\Users\your_name named Android. Then, navigate into your new Android folder. You should now be inside folder C:\Users\your_name\Android.
  4. Move the zip file you downloaded in step 1, platform-tools-latest-windows.zip, to your new Android folder at C:\Users\your_name\Android.
  5. Right-click the platform-tools-latest-windows.zip file in C:\Users\your_name\Android and select Extract All.
  6. With File Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\your_name\Android\platform-tools-latest-windows\platform-tools and confirm that the adb is there. You will now add this path to your PATH environment variable in the next step.
  7. Add adb to your PATH environment variable.
  1. Right-click the Start menu and select System.
  2. Select Advanced System Settings -> Advanced -> Environment Variables.
  3. Under User Variables, select PATH and click Edit.
  4. Under Edit Environment Variables, click New and add the path to the folder containing adb (e.g. C:\Users\your_name\Android\platform-tools-latest-windows\platform-tools). Click OK on all dialog boxes to confirm your change.
  1. Confirm that the PATH is correctly pointing to adb.
  1. Open new a Command Prompt window. (To find the Command Prompt, you may use the search box in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.)
  2. Type adb and adb instructions should print out.
  1. Continue to Final Installation (All Platforms) below to complete installation.

Linux Installation

  1. In your internet browser, navigate to this link and download file platform-tools-latest-linux.zip. You may need to accept the license before downloading.

  2. Navigate to the zip file download location (e.g., ~/Downloads) and extract the files. The files will be extracted to folder platform-tools.

  3. In your home directory, create folder android-sdk-linux:

    cd ~
mkdir android-sdk-linux

  4. Move the extracted platform-tools folder to your new android-sdk-linux folder:

    mv Downloads/platform-tools android-sdk-linux

  5. Confirm you see adb inside platform-tools:

    cd android-sdk-linux/platform-tools
ls adb

  6. Add adb to your PATH.

  1. Edit your ~/.bashrc file and add this line:

    export PATH=${PATH}:~/android-sdk-linux/platform-tools

  2. Save .bashrc and then call:

    source .bashrc

  3. Confirm that adb is in your PATH by calling the following command:

    which adb

  4. The result of this command should be the path where adb is installed.

  1. Continue to Final Installation (All Platforms) below to complete installation.

Final Installation (All Platforms)

  1. Enable USB Debugging on your phone.
  1. On Android devices:
  1. Tap seven (7) times on the Build Number listed under Settings -> About Phone.
  2. Then, under Settings -> Developer Options, enable USB debugging.
  1. On Amazon Kindle Fire:
  1. Tap seven (7) times on the Serial Number listed under Settings -> Device Options.
  2. Then, under Settings -> Device Options -> Developer Options, turn on Enable ADB.

  1. Connect your Android device to your computer via USB. When the Allow USB Debugging? popup displays, tap OK.

  2. At the command line, type this command to confirm that your device shows:

    adb devices

At least one device should show in the result, for example:

List of devices attached
88148a08    device

If you are required to accept the connection request on the mobile device itself, a message will appear saying the device is unauthorized. For example:

List of devices attached
88148a08 unauthorized

Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

Click here to return to the Anki Developer website.