Can't find android device using “adb devices”

Question

I am developing Android application on macOS and my application runs well on the emulator. I want to run it on the device, but when I run adb devices I get nothing.

localhost:platform-tools BF$ adb devices 
List of devices attached 

localhost:platform-tools BF$

I have checked the documentation in the reference about "Setting up a Device for Development". I have done everything step by step.

In the documentation, there are some words: Setup your system to detect your device. If you're developing on Mac OS X, it just works. Skip this step.

Now, I can't find any solution. Does it need special drivers for Android Devices?

Answer 1

If you're struggling with such an issue using Lollipop (Android 5.*) probably you guys should do one simple step that I'd done before my ADB (I use Ubuntu) got my phone:

Change USB PC connection type to "Send images(PTP)" (before I've been using "Media device(MTP)")

Just like this:

And don't forget to activate checkbox "USB debugging".

Answer 2

I had this problem today where the phone was charging when connected, but wasn't seen by the Mac. It turned out the micro USB cable that I was using was for charging only and didn't do data. Once I changed the USB cable it started working fine.

Answer 3

Same problem here. osx 10.6.6 and adb devices giving $ ./adb devices List of devices attached ...empty....

Rebooting the phone didn;'t help although it was listed with adb devices just for a second during the booting process.

Debugging was turned on in adroidsettings->applications

What finally made it tick: turning debugging mode off and on again.

Answer 4

make sure you have same / higher API level installed on SDK packages with your devices.

example :

I have Android 2.3.4 on my Xperia Play. ADB wouldn't detect my device if theres only API 10 (Android 2.3.3) installed on my Mac. When i installed SDK 11 (Android 3.0) -- since I didn't found any SDK package for 2.3.4, the ADB working fine.

hope this help you.