Error “The connection to adb is down, and a severe

Question

I've spent days trying to launch any Android program. Even "Hello World" gives me the same error:

"The connection to adb is down, and a severe error has occurred".

I'm running Eclipse v3.5 (Galileo), Google APIs 2.2.8, on a Windows XP machine.

I've used all the tricks I can find on the web: the command line "adb kill-server", the DDMS "reset ADB", I started the emulator both before and after Eclipse, and searched for ports being used by other programs.

What is going on here? Is there a magic combination of versions of Eclipse, Java, ADB, emulator, and whatever else that works?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem. I found out that there was another adb.exe running which was started from BirdieSync (Sync Tool for Thunderbird). I found out with Process Explorer from Sysinternals, that Windows was running another incompatible adb.exe. Just put the mouse cursor above the process (in Process Explorer), and you'll see which adb.exe is started.

I had to kill the BirdieSync process as well, because it started the wrong adb.exe again.

Then I could start the right adb.exe, and it worked fine.

Answer 2

maydenec is correct (in my case...). The file was moved.

I even found this file:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\adb_has_moved.txt

Which explained this issue.

Suggestions in this file:

1. Install "Android SDK Platform-tools".
2. Please also update your PATH environment variable to include the "platform-tools/" directory.

Answer 3

[2012-07-04 11:24:25 - The connection to adb is down, and a severe error has occurred.
[2012-07-04 11:24:25 - You must restart adb and Eclipse.
[2012-07-04 11:24:25 - Please ensure that adb is correctly located at '/home/ASDK/platform-tools/adb' and can be executed

I realized the folder of the project in Eclipse was closed. I expanded the directory and the project launched. I know this may sound like a "no-brainer". I had the .java files open on the workspace, and that was enough to make me think the project was open.

Answer 4

I had the same problem

1. I entered Task manager -> find adb.exe -> end process
2. Go to the Android SDK tools directory in Command Prompt double click adb.exe

That's all

Answer 5

Last time I faced this problem, was solved with adb restart. If you have tried adb kill-server and adb start-server with no luck you might want to try this. When again I faced the same issue I tried all the above answers, with no luck, and this was the last option to try. It did work like a charm.

Goto Android SDK Manager >> Install the essential packages.

Answer 6

Here is a script I run to restart adb (Android Debug Bridge) server:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

## Summary: restart adb (Android Debug Brdige) server.

## adb binary full path
ADB_BIN=./adb


if pgrep adb >/dev/null 2>&1
then
    echo "adb is running"
    echo "terminating adb ..."
    $ADB_BIN kill-server
    if pgrep adb >/dev/null 2>&1
    then
        echo "did not work"
        echo "kill adb processes by killall"
        killall -9 adb
    else
        echo "terminated"
    fi
else
    echo "adb is not running"
fi

echo "starting adb ..."

$ADB_BIN start-server

echo "adb process:"

echo `pgrep adb`

echo "done"

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