819 
$ adb --help 
-s SERIAL use device with given serial (overrides $ANDROID_SERIAL) 
$ adb devices List of devices attached emulator-5554 device 7f1c864e device 
$ adb shell -s 7f1c864e error: more than one device and emulator
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    17 Answers 17

    Reset to default
    1356

    Use the -s option BEFORE the command to specify the device, for example:

    adb -s 7f1c864e shell

    For multiple Emulator, use the process's IP and port as the id, like:

    adb -s 192.168.232.2:5555 <command>

    See How to get the Android Emulator's IP address?

    But if there is only a single Emulator, try:

    adb -e <command>

    See also http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html#directingcommands

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    7
    • 42
      For an emulator, you use the IP and port as the id, e.g.: adb -s 192.168.56.101:5555 shell
      – Jason Hartley
      CommentedDec 29, 2015 at 23:31
    • 4
      For an emulator use adb -e shell or adb emu <command>. They'll fail if there's more than one emulator going and you'll have to fall back to -s
      – Corey Ogburn
      CommentedJun 3, 2016 at 20:23
    • 2
      Note you have to use the -s option before shell. It is a very bad user experience that you cannot do this the other way around...
      – baptx
      CommentedJul 7, 2019 at 11:23
    • For wireless debugging, you use the IP and port as the id, e.g.: adb -s 192.168.178.81:45635 shell
      – Wilco Verhoef
      CommentedApr 24, 2022 at 17:18
    • 2
      Note that shell is replaceable with whatever command you want to execute on the previously specified device. In my case the command looks like this: adb -s emulator-5554 reverse tcp:8081 tcp:8081.
      – gignu
      CommentedMay 24, 2022 at 14:49
    391

    adb -d shell (or adb -e shell).

    This command will help you in most of the cases, if you are too lazy to type the full ID.

    From http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html#commandsummary:

    -d - Direct an adb command to the only attached USB device. Returns an error when more than one USB device is attached.

    -e - Direct an adb command to the only running emulator. Returns an error when more than one emulator is running.

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    4
    • 16
      Very useful if you only have one USB device and one emulator, which I imagine is most people. Thanks!
      – Joshua Pinter
      CommentedMar 4, 2017 at 17:22
    • 22
      And just a little mnemonic to help remember it each time -d is for "device" and -e is for "emulator". And if you already figured this out, give yourself a pat on the back. ;)
      – Joshua Pinter
      CommentedMar 6, 2017 at 3:42
    • 2
      This should be the TOP answer
      – Georgy Ivanov
      CommentedAug 25, 2021 at 17:49
    • Thank you, I just need to know how to go back to normal, or to switch between modes.
      – H. Allaoui
      CommentedApr 1, 2022 at 14:11
    57

    Another alternative would be to set environment variable ANDROID_SERIAL to the relevant serial, here assuming you are using Windows:

    set ANDROID_SERIAL=7f1c864e echo %ANDROID_SERIAL% "7f1c864e"

    Then you can use adb.exe shell without any issues.

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    3
    • 5
      Should be set ANDROID_SERIAL=7f1c864e, ie. without quotes.
      – Bjonnfesk
      CommentedOct 8, 2019 at 20:17
    • 6
      For bash, it should be export ANDROID_SERIAL=7f1c864e.
      – nivekmai
      CommentedFeb 25, 2020 at 16:35
    • 1
      For powershell, it should be $env:ANDROID_SERIAL="7f1c864e"
      – tteng little
      CommentedNov 3, 2022 at 6:29
    55

    To install an apk on one of your emulators:

    First get the list of devices:

    -> adb devices List of devices attached 25sdfsfb3801745eg device emulator-0954 device

    Then install the apk on your emulator with the -s flag:

    -> adb -s "25sdfsfb3801745eg" install "C:\Users\joel.joel\Downloads\release.apk" Performing Streamed Install Success

    Ps.: the order here matters, so -s <id> has to come before install command, otherwise it won't work.

    Hope this helps someone!

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      48

      I found this question after seeing the 'more than one device' error, with 2 offline phones showing:

      C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\android-tools>adb devices List of devices attached SH436WM01785 offline SH436WM01785 offline SH436WM01785 sideload

      If you only have one device connected, run the following commands to get rid of the offline connections:

      adb kill-server adb devices
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      4
      • 2
        adb kill-server fixes the problem with offline emulators
        – Morten Holmgaard
        CommentedMar 4, 2017 at 8:26
      • adb kill-server also helped to get rid of several emulator-nnnn devices which were haunting my sdk (because it was pulled as a copy from Android Studio)
        – Martin Zaske
        CommentedDec 27, 2018 at 22:20
      • adb kill-server killed my online one and my offline one was not removed
        – Logan Cundiff
        CommentedAug 23, 2022 at 19:01
      • adb kill-server sorted all the problems
        – Supun Ayeshmantha
        CommentedNov 18, 2023 at 2:57
      16

      The best way to run shell on any particular device is to use:

      adb -s << emulator UDID >> shell For Example: adb -s emulator-5554 shell
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        13

        As per https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb#directingcommands

        What worked for my testing:

        UBUNTU BASH TERMINAL:

        $ adb devices List of devices attached 646269f0 device 8a928c2 device $ export ANDROID_SERIAL=646269f0 $ echo $ANDROID_SERIAL 646269f0 $ adb reboot bootloader

        WINDOWS COMMAND PROMPT:

        $ adb devices List of devices attached 646269f0 device 8a928c2 device $ set ANDROID_SERIAL=646269f0 $ echo $ANDROID_SERIAL$ 646269f0 $ adb reboot bootloader

        This enables you to use normal commands and scripts as if there was only the ANDROID_SERIAL device attached.

        Alternatively, you can mention the device serial every time.

        $ adb -s 646269f0 shell
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          7

          This gist will do most of the work for you showing a menu when there are multiple devices connected:

          $ adb $(android-select-device) shell 1) 02783201431feeee device 3) emulator-5554 2) 3832380FA5F30000 device 4) emulator-5556 Select the device to use, <Q> to quit:

          To avoid typing you can just create an alias that included the device selection as explained here.

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          3
          • 1
            Looks nice. Too bad it is incompatible with Windows (including Cygwin).
            – Sébastien
            CommentedFeb 3, 2017 at 8:54
          • The only device ID which is always unique is the USB port of connection (e.g. "usb:3-4"). Other IDs should not be used for identification, as they could be identical for different devices. Here I propose a fork of your nice script, which uses only USB id for -s specification: gist.github.com/dmikushin/4495487dffd01af17c132644b8592cdd
            – Dmitry Mikushin
            CommentedSep 15, 2021 at 17:29
          • @DmitryMikushin thanks for the improvement!
            – Diego Torres Milano
            CommentedSep 15, 2021 at 20:10
          6

          User @janot has already mentioned this above, but this took me some time to filter the best solution.

          There are two Broad use cases:

          1) 2 hardware are connected, first is emulator and other is a Device.
          Solution : adb -e shell....whatever-command for emulator and adb -d shell....whatever-command for device.

          2) n number of devices are connected (all emulators or Phones/Tablets) via USB/ADB-WiFi:

          Solution: Step1) run adb devices THis will give you list of devices currently connected (via USB or ADBoverWiFI)
          Step2) now run adb -s <device-id/IP-address> shell....whatever-command no matter how many devices you have.

          Example
          to clear app data on a device connected on wifi ADB I would execute:
          adb -s 172.16.34.89:5555 shell pm clear com.package-id

          to clear app data connected on my usb connected device I would execute:
          adb -s 5210d21be2a5643d shell pm clear com.package-id

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            5

            For Windows, here's a quick 1 liner example of how to install a file..on multiple devices

            FOR /F "skip=1" %x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %x install -r myandroidapp.apk

            If you plan on including this in a batch file, replace %x with %%x, as below

            FOR /F "skip=1" %%x IN ('adb devices') DO start adb -s %%x install -r myandroidapp.apk
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            1
            • 1
              I recommend replacing install -r .... with %1 and then saving this script somewhere in your path. That way you can directly invoke any adb command you like by calling the script with a parameter. For example, if you call you script adball then you can call adball uninstall myapp
              – avalancha
              CommentedNov 23, 2020 at 8:29
            4

            Create a Bash (tools.sh) to select a serial from devices (or emulator):

            clear; echo "===================================================================================================="; echo " ADB DEVICES"; echo "===================================================================================================="; echo ""; adb_devices=( $(adb devices | grep -v devices | grep device | cut -f 1)#$(adb devices | grep -v devices | grep device | cut -f 2) ); if [ $((${#adb_devices[@]})) -eq "1" ] && [ "${adb_devices[0]}" == "#" ] then echo "No device found"; echo ""; echo "===================================================================================================="; device="" // Call Main Menu function fxMenu; else read -p "$( f=0 for dev in "${adb_devices[@]}"; do nm="$(echo ${dev} | cut -f1 -d#)"; tp="$(echo ${dev} | cut -f2 -d#)"; echo " $((++f)). ${nm} [${tp}]"; done echo ""; echo " 0. Quit" echo ""; echo "===================================================================================================="; echo ""; echo ' Please select a device: ' )" selection error="You think it's over just because I am dead. It's not over. The games have just begun."; // Call Validation Numbers fxValidationNumberMenu ${#adb_devices[@]} ${selection} "${error}" case "${selection}" in 0) // Call Main Menu function fxMenu; *) device="$(echo ${adb_devices[$((selection-1))]} | cut -f1 -d#)"; // Call Main Menu function fxMenu; esac fi

            Then in another option can use adb -s (global option -s use device with given serial number that overrides $ANDROID_SERIAL):

            adb -s ${device} <command>

            I tested this code on MacOS terminal, but I think it can be used on windows across Git Bash Terminal.

            Also remember configure environmental variables and Android SDK paths on .bash_profile file:

            export ANDROID_HOME="/usr/local/opt/android-sdk/" export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH" export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$PATH"
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            2
            • Using Ubuntu 16.04: /home/user/bin/select_device: line 35: fxValidationNumberMenu: command not found /home/user/bin/select_device: line 41: fxMenu: command not found
              – gerbit
              CommentedMar 21, 2018 at 13:31
            • @gerbit fxMenu and fxValidatonNumberMenu are just for reference. I'd commented it to avoid error codes. You can see a complete implementation on my repository: github.com/equiman/hardhatmac/blob/master/tools.sh
              – equiman
              CommentedMar 21, 2018 at 19:45
            3

            you can use this to connect your specific device :

             * adb devices -------------- List of devices attached 9f91cc67 offline emulator-5558 device

            example i want to connect to the first device "9f91cc67"

            * adb -s 9f91cc67 tcpip 8080 --------------------------- restarting in TCP mode port: 8080

            then

            * adb -s 9f91cc67 connect 192.168.1.44:8080 ---------------------------------------- connected to 192.168.1.44:8080

            maybe this help someone

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              3

              Use the device name before the shell command adb -s 7f1c864e shell

              Improve this answer
                2

                Here's a shell script I made for myself:

                #! /bin/sh for device in `adb devices | awk '{print $1}'`; do if [ ! "$device" = "" ] && [ ! "$device" = "List" ] then echo " " echo "adb -s $device $@" echo "------------------------------------------------------" adb -s $device $@ fi done
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                  2

                  For the sake of convenience, one can create run configurations, which set the ANDROID_SERIAL:

                  screenshot

                  Where the adb_wifi.bat may look alike (only positional argument %1% and "$1" may differ):

                  adb tcpip 5555 adb connect %1%:5555

                  The advance is, that adb will pick up the current ANDROID_SERIAL.
                  In shell script also ANDROID_SERIAL=xyz adb shell should work.

                  This statement is not necessarily wrong:

                  -s SERIAL use device with given serial (overrides $ANDROID_SERIAL)

                  But one can as well just change the ANDROID_SERIAL right before running the adb command.

                  One can even set eg. ANDROID_SERIAL=192.168.2.60:5555 to define the destination IP for adb.
                  This also permits to run adb shell, with the command being passed as "script parameters".

                  Improve this answer
                    1

                    On shells such as bash or zsh you might get automatic completion for device names after typing adb -s + tabtab.

                    Also see the project page at https://github.com/mbrubeck/android-completion which says:

                    On many Linux distributions it is installed and enabled by default. If you don't have it already, you can probably find it in your package repository (e.g. "aptitude install bash-completion").

                    Device name completion also appears to work on macos, not clear if that was done as part of Android Studio, Android SDK installation or some homebrew package.

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                      -4

                      the fix for the issue for me was very simple, I was running android emulator and the physical android device, Just close the emulator

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