Android ADB device offline, can't issue commands

Question

I can't connect to my device anymore using ADB through the command line or in Eclipse.

Running the command

adb devices

returns the device name, but it says it's offline.

Things I've tried.

Toggled Android debugging mode
Reinstalled the Google USB driver
Restored the OS to a previously working backup (CyanogenMod)
Swapped the USB cord
Rebooted the phone/computer multiple times
Updated the Android SDK

I really don't have any clue what's going on. Anything else you think I can try, I'm all ears.

To be clear, if you're having this same issue the problem is probably an out-of-date SDK. As of 4.2.2 there is a security feature that requires you to confirm the RSA fingerprint of the connecting device. Open the SDK manager and update the tools! Then reboot.

I also encountered this kind of problem. What i did was, *issue command adb kill-server, adb start-server. *try another USB port, mostly it will work in the back of the PC., *restart the device, *restart eclipse, *restart computer, *change USB cord some USB cord will fail(low quality). Lastly if problem not solved, re-install Device USB Driver. — jayellos, Feb 21 '13 at 03:39
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8162581/why-does-adb-return-offline-after-the-device-string — giannis christofakis, Feb 16 '14 at 01:13
It happened same to me. For my case, I just disable the Developer option and then re-enable. That is it. — Kyaw Nyi Win, May 11 '14 at 13:58
Tried everything listed here, no luck - in fact worse, as it lists the device multiple times in 'offline' status. Occasionally it'll show up ok when running 'adb devices' but it quickly breaks again. — Dylan Nicholson, Jun 12 '14 at 22:35
Actually the one thing I hadn't done is reboot my PC - worked fine after that. — Dylan Nicholson, Jun 12 '14 at 22:54
i turned off debug on the tablet, then back on, then rebbot pc and looks ok now — steveh, Jun 22 '14 at 10:23
Ones can also try disabling then re-enabling the debugging option in the device's preferences — cghislai, Mar 31 '15 at 15:54
Sometimes you have to authorize PC access your smartphone. Easily, unlock your android and true the check button — Franklin Hirata, Oct 03 '17 at 16:22
In my case the phone wasn't authorized as debugging, and the screen was broken and black, so I borrow a screen from my friend and after authorizing give back the screen because the phone wasn't offline after the authorization, so with a simple `adb shell input text XXXX && adb shell input keyevent 66` I open the phone an access all the contents. — AmerllicA, May 31 '18 at 21:45
The thing that fixed it for me was to upgrade the SDK platform-tools to r16.0.1. For me, this version was not displayed in my SDK Manager, so I pulled it down from http://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r16.0.1-windows.zip directly. You then need to rename the platform-tools directory and unzip it to android-sdk-windows/platform-tools. Using the SDK Manager, I had also updated to the latest sdk-tools before this. If your whole Eclipse and ADT are ancient, you may need to update them as well, but I didn't need to. — Ali NajafZadeh, Aug 06 '21 at 06:07

score 167 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 16 '15 at 14:49

167

Try running adb devices after running adb kill-server. Security question pops up after that. Worked for me.

edited Apr 16 '15 at 14:49

lfender6445

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answered Mar 12 '13 at 17:51

Thomas Economous

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Works if your drivers are already upto date and still getting a problem. In other cases too, it may work I think. – kAmol May 12 '15 at 09:18
Be sure to disconnect any other machines from the device. In my case, my virtual machine host was still connected via tcpip and my guest could still connect successfully, but it would be offline. To get the RSA prompt, I had to run the `adb kill-server` command __on my host__ before connecting on my guest via `adb connect 192.x.x.x`. – Dec 08 '15 at 14:14
adb start-server after that – madz Jul 06 '16 at 16:08
In general that's the trick. Accept answer is for special case. – Ratul May 21 '17 at 19:17
I must have missed the 'allow USB debugging from xx:xx:xx' on the phone. Restarting the server and reconnecting USB popped it up again. – Dan Bolser Dec 17 '17 at 22:03
adb kill-server did remove all my additional offline devices and problem solved – Gayan Pathirage Mar 21 '18 at 07:19
To ensure I'm running the correct version of `adb` I navigate to the folder with AndroidStudio installed, and then to platform-platform tools. Thus, for me, `C:\Users\myuseraccount\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools`. Then I run adb commands with the prefix `./adb` to ensure the command is not picked up from elsewhere in Windows, eg. `./adb kill-server`. After that, your solution worked, and I got the security question on my device. – Stephen Hosking Jul 01 '20 at 07:30

score 144 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 29 '15 at 20:27

144

I just got the same problem today after my Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus were updated to Android 4.2.2.

The thing that fixed it for me was to upgrade the SDK platform-tools to r16.0.1. For me, this version was not displayed in my SDK Manager, so I pulled it down from http://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r16.0.1-windows.zip directly.

You then need to rename the platform-tools directory and unzip it to android-sdk-windows/platform-tools. Using the SDK Manager, I had also updated to the latest sdk-tools before this.

If your whole Eclipse and ADT are ancient, you may need to update them as well, but I didn't need to.

Note: you may need to run SDK Manager twice (once to update itself) before you will see the latest packages.

edited Aug 29 '15 at 20:27

Sufian

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answered Feb 21 '13 at 11:01

hack_on

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I have r17 but I get the same problem. Will reverting to r16.0.1 help? – Alexander Suraphel Jun 29 '13 at 07:46
@spartacus I don't think so I would think that the problem for you may lie now elsewhere. – hack_on Jun 29 '13 at 08:07
Solved, problem caused by missing platform of Android SDK – Tai Dao Jul 25 '13 at 04:41
Worked exactly in the order described. Final step is to allow it on the phone. – vlad Nov 30 '13 at 05:17
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Just reboot the phone or device and enjoy, no need to re-start adb nothing else. – UMAR-MOBITSOLUTIONS Dec 29 '13 at 10:36
once SDK Manager updates itself it brings another bug. – alex Jan 15 '14 at 13:13
My android path system environment variable was pointing to an old version of adb. After updating the path, device = not offline – ericn Jan 28 '14 at 23:09
platform tools r16 show my device online, thanks alot – Behnam Feb 01 '14 at 13:05
Had the same problem. Updated adb from 1.0.29 to 1.0.31, re-authorized the PC and it worked. – noti Apr 22 '14 at 08:38
just turned off and on USB debugging- no need to restart – lfender6445 Apr 16 '15 at 14:45
Same problem here. I had to allow debugging for the host device (pop-up on Nexus 5 phone) – Yann Oct 13 '15 at 07:39
For me, it was the problem with the usb extension cable that was used to connect to the computer. I connected directly to the same usb port and adb is working good again. – Neerkoli Aug 07 '16 at 06:30
[Windows] in my case, the cause was the version of adb. I was using 1.0.1X showing device offline, and I updated adb version to 1.0.36 then started to work fine. – KoreanXcodeWorker Sep 12 '17 at 08:56
I literally just waited and then it changed to `authorizing` then finally to `device`. – Leo Oct 10 '19 at 09:43
Emulator: close emulator, adb kill-server, wipe data in AVD manager, cold boot emulator in AVD manager, adb reconnect – Droid Teahouse Mar 13 '21 at 22:50

score 87 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 29 '16 at 19:02

87

It also seems to occur frequently when you connect to the device using the Wi-Fi mode (in Android Studio or in the console by running adb tcpip 5555 for example).

To fix:

Disconnect the USB connection—or turn off the device's Wi-Fi if you're connected over Wi-Fi.
Close Android Studio/Eclipse/other IDE.
Run adb kill-server to ensure adb is not running.
Restart your Android device.
After your device restarts, connect it via USB and run adb devices. This should start the ADB daemon. Your device should now be online again.

edited Jul 29 '16 at 19:02

Jon Adams

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answered May 30 '13 at 07:52

Aaron

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Step 3 is most probably the key solution here! close your command line interface and kill the process if it is still running and Try again! – reubenjohn Feb 14 '14 at 09:53
This works for me (Galaxy Tab GT P7500 with windows 7) – Sarvan Mar 02 '15 at 13:08
Worked for me with Android 8.0 and Windows 10 – andoni90 Nov 30 '17 at 12:05
I tried the `adb kill-server` without the Android device restart and it didn't work. When I repeat these steps and restart the device as mentioned in section 4, it worked. – E235 Feb 10 '19 at 07:25

score 62 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:30

62

I hit the same issue on a Nexus 7 running 4.2.2 OTA update. I'm almost certain I had an ADB connection over USB and Wi-Fi after the update until it just stopped working. To fix, I updated my SDK using:

android update sdk --no-ui

Now my development tools are:

SDK rev 16.0.2
SDK tools rev 21.1
SDK API 17, rev 2

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:30

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 27 '13 at 22:41

dturvene

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"'android' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." -- also did a "dir android.exe /s" from the root of my C: drive -- found nothing -- are you using Linux, or do you have some special bits that us Windows users don't have? – BrainSlugs83 Nov 04 '13 at 00:03
Yes, I use linux. android is a shell script under ./sdk/tools/ that kicks off the android SDK Manager java app. There must be a comparable script in the Windows SDK tarball. – dturvene Nov 08 '13 at 22:29
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the command given can be used on windows as long as it is done from your path\to\android-sdk\tools\ directory – gadget Nov 11 '13 at 21:14
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In Windows 7, to issue the command from the ...\android-sdk\tools\ directory and have it work, run the command window "As Administrator". – John Jorsett Dec 26 '13 at 02:04
It worked for me with Nexus 10 and Galaxy Nexus. I am using Windows XP SP3. I tried changing usb port, restarts, etx.. nothing helped but this answer. I was almost going to reinstall xp, thanks! – Fer Mar 25 '15 at 08:42
this worked for some reason. I didn't even allow it to complete - I killed the process as the download was starting. The security prompt on the device to allow debugging was displayed almost immediately after issuing the command. – trooper Mar 23 '17 at 20:04

score 55 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 04 '13 at 00:55

55

I can't stress that switching USB ports is key. Often front panel USB ports can be defective.

answered Aug 04 '13 at 00:55

Mike Weir

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Worked for me too. Nexus 10 sometimes seem to draw too much current for the USB port – skubo Dec 16 '13 at 12:59
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Wow, after 1/2 hour of dead ends, this it turns out that this is USB powering issue! Thanks! – bigjosh Mar 14 '16 at 00:27
Sometimes it's not a defective port. In my case I had the USB plugged during Windows boot and it didn't load the ADB drivers correctly. Just unplugged and plugged again in the same port. Windows wonders... – Ricardo BRGWeb Jun 14 '16 at 13:48
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Sometimes switching ports works. Sometimes it's a matter of USB2 vs USB3 support from the various ports + cable + device combinations. Switching from front to back ports, or ones with or without the "SS" indicator (USB3) sometimes helps. Trying a different cable sometimes helps. – Jon Adams Jul 29 '16 at 19:03
8 hours wasted for me. It works on USB 3.0 but not on USB 2.0 for some reason (for me at least). Never had that issue till now and all the sudden I have to use 3.0. Which is wasting one of my 3.0 ports now. – Ryan Mar 16 '17 at 21:49
While I can't give more upvotes, this answer is the most straight forward and has perhaps the most merit given the simplicity of the solution. Worked for me. Would be great to know from Google what factors might affect one port working vs another (all of mine are 2.0). – truedat101 Oct 31 '18 at 03:12
4 hours wasted for me. After weeks of dodgy connections (device kept disconnecting when trying to deploy an app from visual studio) this solved it all! – bolt19 Sep 07 '19 at 10:52

score 40 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 12 '13 at 03:13

40

For anyone wondering about 4.2.2, there is a security question that appears on the phone requesting RSA verification with the PC. Be sure your tools are updated AND you allow the PC access by verifying the security question on the devices in question. This fixed it for me.

And as always, verify you have debugging enabled in the developer options ;)

answered Mar 12 '13 at 03:13

Eric Fossum

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It worked for me once I revoked the usb debugging authorizations. Then disabled and reenabled usb debugging. The "allow this computer" message popped up, and BAM, it showed as device instead of offline. – CrazyPenguin Dec 13 '13 at 02:07

score 23 · Answer 7 · answered May 04 '16 at 14:14

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Try by turning off usb debugging once and then enabling it agin and then connect your device with system: link

answered May 04 '16 at 14:14

ajay

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This certainly is the simplest, surest, and quickest method. I used many variations of all the methods in this thread. This is the only one that works every time. It's just three taps on the android device and the issue is gone. – L. D. James Mar 08 '17 at 05:45
This was the only method that worked for me, combined with revoking USB debugging authorizations. – Lajos Nagy Jul 05 '21 at 18:12

score 21 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 03 '14 at 17:44

21

Multiple adb.exe files ?

My problem was solved when deleted a copy of OLD adb.exe from C:/Windows/. I don't know how a copy of adb.exe got to the C:\Windows\ ?

When I launch adb.exe from android-sdk/platform-tools/ I had no problem with detection.

answered Mar 03 '14 at 17:44

StepanM

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This is what happened with me. I think something I downloaded to install a ROM two years ago was the culprit. – gengkev Apr 05 '14 at 23:19
My Windows 8 had the same issue and renaming the `c:\windows\adb.exe` to something else (`adb.old.exe`) fixed the problem. I didn't even need to reboot or open/close the command line. It just works. I typed `adb devices` right after renaming the old `adb.exe` and then my Nexus 7 asked if I want to authorize this computer. I said yes and now when I issue `adb devices` instead of "offline" it says "device". – AlexStack May 21 '14 at 20:31
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Thanks, this one works! Same thing happened to me also, I think adb.exe get copied to C:\Windows when we installed the driver software that came with the device. – thinzar00 Jul 08 '14 at 02:55
How did it get there though :/ I want to know – Daniel Cheung Sep 07 '15 at 14:57
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@DanielCheung For me it was when installing the KingORoot and/or the KingRoot pc programs. I guess they install a version themselves because they don't rely on the user having the Android SDK installed. And yeah, deleting the old (1.0.26) version it creates from the Windows directory fixed the "offline" issue for me. : ) – Venryx Dec 28 '16 at 06:51
Oh also, note that you can easily find where adb is by running "where adb" in the command prompt. The first folder listed is where it's running it from. (you could also use task manager and "go to process", I think) – Venryx Dec 28 '16 at 06:52
@Venryx Hey, I have KingRoot too! I guess that's the problem. – Daniel Cheung Dec 28 '16 at 09:13
I also had this but deleting this didn't solve it for me, still have the device showing as offline – AnaCS Apr 12 '19 at 08:19

score 18 · Answer 9 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:37

18

I was having this problem and none of the other answers helped. What was necessary, after updating the SDK and installing the API for 4.2.2, was running:

android update adb

Another problem I was having was that I was trying to connect ADB over Wi-Fi, which is my only option because the USB ports on my Mac are really finnicky. Unfortunately, ADB over Wi-Fi doesn't show the security question in 4.2.2, so you need to find a USB cable that'll work and connect over USB at least once to accept the security question, but after you do that once, you can connect over Wi-Fi.

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:37

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 28 '13 at 16:11

glittershark

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This did it for me. Thanks. Was bashing my head against a wall since updating my Nexus 7. – Jason Southwell Jul 08 '13 at 17:46
I tried everything on this page and a few other sites that Google turned up and my HTC phone running Android 4.0.3 still was being listed as offline. I finally restarted the phone and then adb devices said it was online. Man, I wish I had thought of that earlier. – John Jorsett Jan 02 '14 at 22:49
I got this error: device offline until I found your comment about wifi - as soon as I took my phone off wifi it worked. Thanks! – amurrell Dec 06 '14 at 01:55

score 18 · Answer 10 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:47

18

If your device normally connects over USB, but suddenly stops working, especially after the USB cable has been disconnected and reconnected, try the following non-invasive steps before doing some of the more drastic things mentioned in the other answers:

adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices

If your device is listed with 'device' next to it, you're back in business.

If your device is listed with 'offline' next to it, try restarting the device. The ADB daemon on the device will occasionally get hung. I've noticed this more when I've disconnected the cable while LogCat is running and after switching back from connecting via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

If your device isn't listed then you should try the solutions in the other answers, starting with trying a different USB cable and port. Those cheapo cables can go bad.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:47

Peter Mortensen

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answered Sep 29 '13 at 07:23

scottt

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That helped solving my problem (android emulator was showing up as 'off-line' but after restarting server as described it was back in 'device' mode). – Greg0ry Mar 02 '14 at 15:30
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After many hours of trying to find the reason why adb does not work anymore, it was in fact the cable! – Martin L. Jun 25 '14 at 13:19
I've been bitten by a bad cable more than once. The bad cables would usually still charge the device fine, so I too have wasted a lot of time before trying different ones. – scottt Jun 26 '14 at 02:43
Oh my god, I’ve tried all the solutions, but the simplest one—to reboot THE PHONE—didn’t come to my mind. That solved my problem. – alice kibin Sep 04 '15 at 15:52
I had to use a shorter cable - the one I use to charge my phone was too long! – Rick Mortensen Jul 05 '17 at 15:38

score 12 · Answer 11 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:33

12

Be sure to use adb from your platform-tools folder, after updating the SDK tools.

I finally got this working after I realized I was using an outdated version of ADB copied in /usr/bin.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:33

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jul 09 '13 at 13:13

Elyess Abouda

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where is this usr/bin? – AnaCS Apr 12 '19 at 08:22

score 9 · Answer 12 · answered May 06 '19 at 07:33

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I ran to through same problem this fixed for me. connect your phone via usb first then make sure you check your mobile ip which is under settings >> about phone >> status run the following commands.


adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb tcpip 5555 //it resets port so put port you want to connect
adb connect 192.168.1.30:5555 //ip:port of your mobile to connect
adb devices //you will be connected over wifi

answered May 06 '19 at 07:33

Saqy G

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adb tcpip 5555 not reset port it just set a default port for current device and should take place after connecting to a device and next time when you connect to a device via ip address even on wifi network it doesn't need port – TheEhsanSarshar Aug 18 '19 at 05:19

score 8 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 25 '14 at 02:23

8

Sometime this may happen because of adb server error (i think). It always saying

"device-name is offline" from adb devices command.

Just kill server and start again. It worked for me.

"adb kill-server"
"adb start-server"

answered Aug 25 '14 at 02:23

james

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score 7 · Answer 14 · answered Jun 15 '15 at 10:08

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I used adb connect <device_ip> and non of the other solutions worked because my problem was on the other side. On the device I needed to stop adbd and restart it start adbd. Device is now "online" again.

answered Jun 15 '15 at 10:08

PiTheNumber

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Had an Amazon Fire TV Stick that had this issue connecting over Wifi. Toggling adb off and on again, `adb kill-server`, `adb start-server`, then `adb connect ` as suggested above worked for me. – chenware Jul 05 '16 at 17:41

score 6 · Answer 15 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:23

I tried dturvene and all the other solutions, but they didn't work. I needed one more step.

Run these commands

adb kill-server
android update sdk --no-ui
adb start-server

To verify that it worked, run 'adb version' before and after the commands and make sure it is the latest. The reason for the adb kill-server command is that it it most likely running, and it can't be updated while it is running, so you have to kill it first.

score 5 · Answer 16 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:34

For me nothing worked. I spent about 12 hours constantly searching on the Internet and trying the solutions that worked for other people having similar issues.

Finally I ended up with just doing the ADB stuff over the LAN. The setting was right next to the USB Debug setting and in ADB it can be activated with "adb connect [IPADDRESS]:[PORT]". The port was 5555 on my phone.

I hope this helps someone to get back to work instead of having to deal with constant drawbacks.

score 5 · Answer 17 · answered Jul 30 '14 at 11:41

5

This approach worked for me:

adb kill-server
Disable the offline device in Device Manager (see image below)
Enable the device in Device Manager
adb start-server

Device Manager, "View" menu, "Devices by Connection":

enter image description here

answered Jul 30 '14 at 11:41

kol

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score 5 · Answer 18 · answered Jul 02 '16 at 14:33

5

Installed the latest android sdk.
Changed the USB port of the device.
Changed from MTP -> Charge only -> MTP.
It worked.

answered Jul 02 '16 at 14:33

hack3r

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For me, changing from 'Transferring media files' to 'Transferring images' (which is PTP/MTP) fixed the issue (after trying all other fixes, including upgrading Android SDKs, using different cables, restarting ADB, cycling developer mode, unplugging/replugging USB into different ports, etc). Annoyingly this answer had 0 score and was on second page when I was looking for an answer, so voting up to try and help others in future. – Steven Craft Oct 01 '16 at 16:06

score 4 · Answer 19 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:32

I initially encountered the same problem (with ADB/fastboot downloaded from GitHub), but I eventually got it to work. What worked for me:

Android SDK. ADB version: 1.0.31
Using the front USB port (MacBook Pro 15")
Restarting the phone after enabling Dev options and USB debugging (do so by 7x tap on settings > about phone > build).
Kill adb server in case no device is listed (adb kill-server)
The debug icon should be visible on the phone.
Be sure to unlock lock-screen to check for the RSA fingerprint confirmation dialog.

score 4 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 07 '21 at 17:05

I stumbled upon this question while trying to connect using the built in "Wireless ADB" feature present in Android 11.

I couldn't get it to connect properly. Always appeared as "offline".

What I did was following:

Firstly disconnect all ADB devices, just as a good measure:

adb disconnect

Then in the developer options, get into the "Wireless ADB" feature, if you're not already there yet. Go to "Pair using PIN" or similar. There, a IP and port will pop up in a dialog, together with a pin. Connect to the phone using:

adb pair 192.168.2.xxx:42838 # Put the IP and port of that dialog in this way

(Note that the port on the main window and on the PIN popup is NOT the same)

Your (PC) ADB will prompt you for a pin. Type it in and press ENTER.

Done that, the PIN popup on the phone should vanish and the computer name should show up in the trusted device list in the main window.

If you come this far, the next step will certainly work. Try to now connect to your phone using:

adb connect 192.168.2.xxx:53548 # This time use the port shown in the main window!

It should connect and you're good to go.

@e-info128 you just have to download and use the latest version of adb available at https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools, this is the correct way to do it if using Windows 10+ Latest Chrome + Android 11 Device. — dmm79, Oct 12 '21 at 01:23

score 3 · Answer 21 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:31

The best way I figured is by disabling and then enabling the device from Device Manager and running the adb devices command.

Go to the start tab and right click on Computer
From the drop down menu, click Manage
From the computer management screen, click Device Manager
On the right pane, expand portable devices to find your device
Right click on your device name and click disable on the drop down menu
When it gets disabled, repeat step 5 except for enabling it.

The device will be back online. It's faster.

score 3 · Answer 22 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 09:48

If you've previously authorized the RSA fingerprint of your PC and tried adb kill-server etc. with no luck, your problem might just be that you're trying to connect to it while it's locked. Try pressing the screen-on button and entering your pattern - this fixed it for me.

score 3 · Answer 23 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:43

3

One more possibility for people with flaky ADB connections, and if they're on a Mac and have Android File Transfer installed: I found that file transfer was interfering with my ADB connection, causing it to stop working intermittently.

Killing the Android File Transfer Agent.app process that looks for compatible devices (for example, the Nexus 7) being connected to the Mac cures the flakiness for me.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:43

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 16 '13 at 08:13

Matt Gibson

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This was what was causing the problem for me on OS X, thanks! – adaam Oct 01 '15 at 19:38

score 3 · Answer 24 · answered Aug 02 '14 at 07:08

As nobody gave an answer for my situation: you may not have access to the ~/.android/adbkey file. If you initially start adb with sudo, it will generate a public key pair, writing this to ~/.android/adbkey.pub and ~/android/adbkey. Of course, the private key is chmod 600 - only readable for root in your home directory. Subsequently starting adb as normal user will give no access to the private key file, which in turn will fail silently with "device offline".

score 3 · Answer 25 · answered Jul 13 '15 at 12:08

3

What solved for me on Mac was updating adb to the latest version (1.0.32). Now i can see my device online again

answered Jul 13 '15 at 12:08

Andrea Gherardi

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score 3 · Answer 26 · answered Jul 03 '18 at 10:02

The reason for a device to be reported as offline is that adb can not connect to it. Adb executable from the development environment creates a connection (socket) with the device under control. The device has a service (daemon) that listens for this communication. The daemon is called adbd (as in adbdaemon). When one enables adb on a device in fact one starts this daemon, so comms can be established with the device.

When the device is reported by adb as offline is because the daemon is not running anymore or is in a state that will not accept connections. Most often than not this happens if the network goes down on an active (network) connection.

The only way that I could fix this was by rebooting the device. One can arrive to fixing the offline status by many other means but restarting the device always works.

score 3 · Answer 27 · answered Sep 16 '19 at 07:10

3

When I am facing the same issues than doing like below:

Restart adb by issuing adb kill-server followed by adb start-server in a command prompt
Disable and re-enable USB debugging on the phone
Rebooting the phone if it still doesn't work. 99% of my issues have been resolved with these steps.

answered Sep 16 '19 at 07:10

Chandrama Prasad

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4. Try to plug a cable to another USB slot.That's was helped in my case. – dredkin May 19 '20 at 13:19

score 3 · Answer 28 · answered Sep 30 '20 at 05:52

I have a dodgy USB connection so I tried to get wifi connectivity going. Tried basically everything here, but one thing I did not try until last, and suddenly it worked! So, if you end up stuck, try these steps:

 1. Connect with USB cord
 2. adb devices
List of devices attached
HT85X1A00342    device
10.0.0.43:5555  offline

 3. adb usb
restarting in USB mode

 4. adb reconnect
reconnecting HT85X1A00342 [device]

 5. adb tcpip 5555
restarting in TCP mode port: 5555

 6. adb devices
List of devices attached

 7. adb connect 10.0.0.43:5555
connected to 10.0.0.43:5555

Sweet! I don't know exactly if forcing it to restart USB mode then TCP/IP in sequence helped, or just the last three commands, but clearly it started working. I also found there's a Developer Option to Enable Debugging on Wifi, and you select your hotspot. That may also prevent it working, so check that as well.

Good luck!

score 3 · Answer 29 · answered Mar 22 '21 at 13:10

3

I tried all of the solutions above. Mostly, adb kill-server would solve the problem. This time, the problem was in USB cable. Poor quality cables in fancy packing don't work.

answered Mar 22 '21 at 13:10

Arsam

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This was actually the answer for me as well. I had no idea a cable with insufficient power could inform ADB a device was there and offline but _not_ allow you to issue ADB commands to it. The device I am using might be an outlier though (a large POS device) – Daniel Wilson Apr 26 '21 at 21:56
`adb kill-server` solved my problems, thanks! – mochadwi Jan 17 '22 at 11:12

score 2 · Answer 30 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:22

2

I updated many times, until I couldn't update any more, but I never got a prompt on my screen; I just kept getting the device offline.

My problem was that I was running the ADB command from a different directory to what was actually being updated.

The correct updated directory for the ADB exe is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:22

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 07 '13 at 10:30

Adrian

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score 2 · Answer 31 · edited Aug 03 '13 at 06:26

2

It's just because your computer doesn't have the right driver. To fix that:

Download and extract Android SDK
Go to Device Manager (Right Click on Computer --> Properties --> Device Manager
On the right pane expand portable devices to find your device
Right click on your device name and click Update Driver Software
Browse my computer for driver software
Browse to your Android SDK folder on step 1.
Next and you're done

edited Aug 03 '13 at 06:26

Akhil Jain

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answered Aug 03 '13 at 05:57

user2647983

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Same for me on Windows 7 and with Nexus 7. It stopped working, I removed the driver, installed it again and it worked – Michał Klimczak Dec 03 '14 at 12:57
In my case, it is my USB 3.0 controller driver which doesn't work! Not driver for the phone! – VCD Apr 15 '18 at 08:07

Berlin · Answer 32 · 2013-11-15T08:29:39.537

2

Try to restart the adb server as follows:

adb kill-server

adb start-server

I have also came across the same problems as yours. And restarting the adb server will resolve this problem.

edited Nov 15 '13 at 08:29

answered Nov 13 '13 at 05:19

Berlin

21
4

score 2 · Answer 33 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:54

2

Restart the device. I tried everything listed here to get my HTC phone (running Android 4.0.3) working, but adb devices kept saying it was offline. After I restarted the phone, it was finally online. Some of the other suggestions here may have contributed to the phone being recognized, but doing a few restarts along the way as you're trying them out certainly won't hurt.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:54

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 02 '14 at 22:54

John Jorsett

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score 2 · Answer 34 · answered Jun 13 '14 at 05:46

2

late but I found the easiest way just go to DDMS and follow as shown in image...

enter image description here

answered Jun 13 '14 at 05:46

Naveed Ali

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score 2 · Answer 35 · answered Apr 07 '16 at 00:21

2

Try

adb usb

i changed my connection method to tcpip and then i thought if i kill the server and start it, it will reset the connection method but it will not

this is why none of the previous answers worked in my case

answered Apr 07 '16 at 00:21

Mina Gabriel

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score 2 · Answer 36 · answered Nov 01 '16 at 03:24

2

I'm surprised to find my solution wasn't listed here.

For me, I have an LG G3. The phone must be connected using LG's driver. I went to

Device Manager > uninstall MTP Driver

and immediately adb worked without 1 sec literally.

answered Nov 01 '16 at 03:24

Daniel Cheung

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score 2 · Answer 37 · answered May 31 '18 at 20:51

Worked for me: in the begining it worked and after a while went to offline. I did the follwong: adb kill-server adb start-server. Plug the phone again with usb to PC adb devices, output of empty list provided. adb tcpip 5555, adb connect <mobile wifi ip address> Then it became online again.

score 2 · Answer 38 · answered Feb 28 '21 at 00:03

2

What mostly works for me is this:

Removing USB and plugging it again.
Using adb devices after adb kill-server
Sometimes, switching to a different USB port on your computer will solve the problem.

answered Feb 28 '21 at 00:03

Arsam

318
3
4

score 1 · Answer 39 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:29

1

After trying everything two times, I rolled back the phone software to a stable build, and it finally worked. I was running Cyanogen nightlies. Regardless, the things posted in this thread should help anyone who encounters this problem.

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:29

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 22 '13 at 01:48

Brian

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score 1 · Answer 40 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:32

1

I encountered this problem as well. I updated everything I could in the Android SDK Manager, uninstalled my device using Device Manager, and now it works correctly. I issues a few "kill-server" and "start-server" along the way...

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:32

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 07 '13 at 12:13

riahc3

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score 1 · Answer 41 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:33

1

For me, it turned out that I had two different SDK installations. When I launched the Android SDK Manager and updated the tools from Eclipse, the SDK path pointed to one location, but the PATH environment variable used on the command line pointed to another location, that had an older version of the SDK, which always shows the 4.2.2 device as offline.

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:33

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 13 '13 at 21:07

Brian Christensen

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Thats actually what happened to me too, My java editor (Eclipse) Was pointing to a different sdk installation. – Brian Mar 13 '13 at 23:57

score 1 · Answer 42 · edited Aug 21 '14 at 11:31

1

In Linux: remove the directory ~/.android and restart ADB.

edited Aug 21 '14 at 11:31

pevik

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answered Feb 12 '14 at 08:03

user3300626

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score 1 · Answer 43 · answered Dec 27 '17 at 01:35

Most likely this is due to an out dated adb process. This may happen due to crappy developers who package adb, the dlls and install them in the root directory of Windows. Such as C:\Windows\adb.exe

Open task manager kill adb.exe, located the adb.exe most likely in root:\Windows and remove it. Then use an up to date SDK

score 1 · Answer 44 · answered May 23 '19 at 23:23

This is a lame case, but just in case... I have a mac laptop with a power/usb hub but it only has a couple usb ports so I hung another powered usb hub off that. Seems/seemed to work fairly well, but for some reason my android device wouldn't keep a connection. Plug it in, it shows 'device', but try to do anything via adb and get an error and status goes "offline". Drove me crazy. Then I decided to try plugging in Android device straight to the first hub... worked immediately and solidly. I had been using the two hub setup for a while, but all of a suddden it just stopped working. Hope it helps somebody!

score 1 · Answer 45 · answered Mar 24 '20 at 13:21

1

None of these answers worked for me. The device was always offline. What really solved it was just patience!

Namely, just waiting one minute before issuing adb devices after the adb connect command automatically fixed the issue 100% of the times.

answered Mar 24 '20 at 13:21

Davide

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score 1 · Answer 46 · answered Jul 01 '20 at 10:52

Here are the steps you can do it through command line.No need to access devices.

Step 1: do "adb devices -l" and you will see the offline device. Now note down the number after usb: Example=> usb:1-1.4.2

Step 2: echo '1-1.4.2' |sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/unbind

Step 3: echo '1-1.4.2' |sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usb/bind

Step 4: Check "adb devices -l". That devices should be online.

score 1 · Answer 47 · answered Dec 13 '20 at 05:50

1

adb reconnect offline - kick connection from device side to force reconnect

answered Dec 13 '20 at 05:50

Asthme

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This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - [From Review](/review/low-quality-posts/27833497) – k.s. Dec 13 '20 at 07:26
how do you know it does not provide answer to this question, it works perfectly for me – Asthme Dec 14 '20 at 11:19

score 1 · Answer 48 · answered Mar 19 '21 at 20:23

If you are getting this while connecting your device wirelessly through tcpip then try disconnecting your device:

adb disconnect <your_ip_address>:port_number or adb disconnect

eg

adb disconnect 192.168.1.2:5555
Or
adb disconnect

The difference is that first one will disconnect only the required device, the second one will disconnect all the devices.

The benefit of using this command is that you don't have to kill and restart the server. Killing and restarting the server requires your device to be plugged in to your computer which is most irritating process.

score 0 · Answer 49 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 15:25

I have used ADB version 1.0.29, and it could be connected to my LG-F160K (JB 4.1.2) and Nexus 7 (Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)). LG-F160K worked with ADB 1.0.29, but the device status of Nexus 7 was always "offline".

I have downloaded adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219.zip from the Google Android website, and I can connect to Nexus 7 now. I'm currently using ADB version 1.0.31.

Just download the latest SDK or update your ADB utility.

score 0 · Answer 50 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:39

I just started facing the same issue after the latest CyanogenMod nightly update (12th aug 2013) on my Samsung Galaxy S III.

I used the ADB binaries suggested in the topmost answer (by hack_on edited by w. allison), and I got a prompt on my phone asking to allow access to my PC (its RSA key)!! It's working fine now.

Download link (ADB, Fastboot and related binaries only): https://dl.google.com/android/repository/platform-tools_r16.0.1-windows.zip

score 0 · Answer 51 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:46

0

I had the same problem, while trying to install CyanogenMod on Galaxy S III from Ubuntu. In the end, I simply copied the ZIP file to the external SD card, by attaching the SD card directly to the PC. Then I moved the card back to the phone, and when I rebooted the phone, I could install CyanogenMod from the SD card.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:46

Peter Mortensen

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answered Aug 28 '13 at 03:36

Sverre

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score 0 · Answer 52 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:51

0

None of the other answers worked for me. I have just upgraded to CyanogenMod 10.1 (Android 4.2.2) on my Galaxy S III. What worked for me was to enable debugging in developer options (to enable, click seven times on the build number in 'about phone') and then plug in via USB. Then I accepted the prompt which came up.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:51

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 13 '13 at 09:00

ChrisBellew

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Until you did that the device wouldn't even show up as offline, I think you're misunderstanding the issue. – Justin Buser Nov 28 '13 at 18:50

score 0 · Answer 53 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:55

0

For me, it's that the USB cable was not plugged in all the way into the slot. Although it shows charging on my Nexus 5.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Jan 10 '14 at 08:07

ColdEar

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score 0 · Answer 54 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:56

0

Just enable/disable ADB integration from Tools -> Android. That worked for me. I am using Android Studio beta.

edited Feb 21 '14 at 21:56

Peter Mortensen

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answered Feb 11 '14 at 18:56

0cool

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user157478 · Answer 55 · 2014-03-30T22:18:57.473

Not really an answer, but more contributing to something which is obviously an issue with CM. I've got an HTC Inspire HD running cm-11-20140309 Unofficial BR1-ace (stable version). I was able to use adb prior to update, but I never installed SDK since I had no need. I've tried all of the above and more.

At first I thought my issue was the MTP driver but it wasn't. After installing and updating SDK to include 4.4.2, the HTC MTP Device driver installed fine when connected via USB but using adb from the new sdk install location still shows the device as offline on both mtp, and ptp modes on the phone with debugging both of and on. When I disable usb debugging the phone automatically reboots, and I receive the error:

"Unfortunately the process android.process.media has stopped"

The new CM has an option under developer options to enable debugging over WIFI, so I tried that as well, and it simply says unable to connect to the IP address and port. Like the other poster, I can ping the IP address.

I also checked the option to enable root access for ADB and apps because it was set to only APPS and still the phone shows offline when I do adb devices and occasionally it throws the same error shown above.

EDIT:

Now, my phone just force rebooted, I renabled debugging, plugged it in and ran adb devices, and I was finally prompted by the phone for the RSA key. For some reason I was not prompted before and now the phone is connecting. So perhaps the issue is needing to switch root access from just apps to apps and adb after a fresh reboot.

Here is why it shows offline: http://playingwithsid.blogspot.com/2013/05/android-device-offline-fixing-adb.html

score 0 · Answer 56 · answered May 06 '14 at 21:53

0

I needed to kill multiple adb processes (adb kill-server & adb start-server still left a lingering process alive.)

$ ps aux | grep adb

$ killall adb

answered May 06 '14 at 21:53

Manas Tungare

557
5
13

score 0 · Answer 57 · answered May 12 '15 at 07:38

Just share my condition:

In my LAN, all andorid boards have same MAC address default. So it will get same IP through DHCP as it have same MAC address.

In LAN, there are multiple android boards with same IP. And adb could connect to the board(one of them), and could open shell of the board(one of them), but get "device offline" when push file to board, or other operation.

Solution: rewrite MAC address, get different IP.

score 0 · Answer 58 · answered Aug 12 '15 at 20:05

None of these answers worked for me, tried Wireless too. I noticed adb.exe was constantly running in my system processes. Right clicked on them and found adb was running automatically from an installed app (Droid Explorer in my case). Once I uninstalled the app that was automatically starting ADB, i could kill the process and see that adb was no longer running on it's own. Ran the updated adb from platform-tools and good to go! Hope this helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 59 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 17:05

0

Tried everything above for several hours. Thing that made it work was running android studio with no app started. You can still use chrome for remote debugging of the device.

answered Jul 27 '16 at 17:05

bung_julio

31
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score 0 · Answer 60 · answered Oct 20 '16 at 16:10

In my case, I was running into this problem with a 1st gen Asus Nexus 7. I had increased the logging buffer size from 256K to 4M. As soon as I restored it to the default value (Settings>Developer Settings>Logger buffer sizes), unplugged and plugged the tablet back in, it worked perfectly.

score 0 · Answer 61 · answered Dec 26 '17 at 00:10

0

Disable your antivirus, reconnect usb and check if adb.exe was not moved to quarentine.

answered Dec 26 '17 at 00:10

julianm

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score 0 · Answer 62 · answered Oct 22 '19 at 20:42

OK, here's no voodoo, no blind-trying and (I hope) well explained solution to this (sorry for the rage, I tried googling for solution almost for a whole day to no avail).

First, let's read about ways adb communicates with the device: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/master/adb/protocol.txt

Short story: host adb establishes server on 5037, connects to adbd on the device via tcp port 5555 (default).

That means - to work, your adb's got to have a clear road to your local 5037 and remote 5555. You can setup adbd on the device (using device terminal) to listen without establishing USB connection first, if you cannot or do not want to use USB:

setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
stop adbd
start adbd

Check with netstat -plant | grep adbd if adbd is listening on port 5555 (or any other you've chosen).

Now fire up Wireshark with capture filter port 5555. Execute this command on your host: adb connect device_ip:5555 (replace 5555 if you're using non-standard port).

According to the document above, you should see CNXN commands from both directions! If your remote end doesn't reply, adb devices will say your device is offline! And it's a game over. adb devices doesn't do any network exchange, it just shows you the result of the adb connect command.

My problem was - I've been running Android inside a Virtualbox with NAT networking and forwarded 5555 port. Also, I had an emulator running on port 5554. It didn't occupy 5555, but somehow, these two interfered and disrupted Virtualbox's connection at the lower level, as I had lots of weird duplicate ACKs and RSTs flying all over the interface. A solution for this problem was to pick a different port.

Please tell me if I'm wrong, but I didn't see anyone proposing this before. Neither explaining how and why it should work.

score 0 · Answer 63 · answered Jan 19 '21 at 03:07

I tried absolutely everything you could think. 6hrs on this.... For a dumb solution.

What appears to have worked for me was shut down laptop, unplug laptop, pop the battery, holding the power button for 10s, starting it again.

So mad. But maybe it will help someone else.

NOTE: My situation was: everything was working hunky dory, literally had devtools windows open and working, and, poof all 3 devices went offline. (and never came back no matter the number restarts [computer + devices], install/uninstalls of drivers/adb/android studio, windows updates, toggling of debugging options.)

My theory is some kind of charge/power thing happened.....

score -2 · Answer 64 · answered Jun 18 '20 at 07:19

-2

Open Developer options from device and disable then enable USB debugging.

answered Jun 18 '20 at 07:19

Bek

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This option is not even present on all Android devices. Chrome OS for example only allows debugging via WiFi connection. – der_michael Jun 18 '20 at 23:31

score -10 · Answer 65 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:34

-10

If any of above tips are not working, try these steps to unlock OEM:

Open command prompt and set your platform tools path.
Type in "adb reboot bootloader".
Then type in "fastboot oem unlock".
On a few devices it will take more time. Please be patient till @15 min.
Reboot the device

edited Feb 20 '14 at 14:34

Peter Mortensen

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answered Mar 19 '13 at 20:25

Bala KTaduri

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No one should really try this. Depending on where you are, you are most likely going to void your warranty. Unlocking the bootloader is not a solution to every issue. – Kasisnu Apr 09 '13 at 18:27
5

If you run `fastboot oem unlock` you'll **WIPE** your phone. This is almost certainly not the solution to the problem described. – Roshan Jul 02 '13 at 21:30

Android ADB device offline, can't issue commands

65 Answers65

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