ADB over wireless

Question

Hey i was wondering do you need root to do this any more? I want to install/run apps over wireless to stop all this cable switching. I have also read that it can cause some errors though? That was on old posts on this site, I was wondering is it reliable and easy to do now?

Solution 1

Rooting is not required. With USB cable connected, port 5555 opened across all involved firewalls and debug mode enabled

adb tcpip 5555

then look into wireless properties of your device and the network you use, to see which IP address have been granted to device (or configure your DHCP always to use the same for the device mac address). Then

adb connect 192.168.1.133

(were 192.168.1.133 is a sample IP address).

This is all. You can now use adb shell or adb install or adb upload or the like with USB cable plugged out.

To switch back to USB mode,

adb usb

The device may also revert back to USB mode after reboot.

This mode is needed for development of applications that use attached USB devices directly (USB port is used by device so cannot be used by ADB). It is briefly covered in the USB debugging section of the Android website.

Solution 2

I ran into the same problem today and find that things are fine on my non-rooted 4.2 Galaxy Nexus device, but does not work on my older (again non-rooted) Samsung Galaxy Y (2.3) device.

I tried the steps given here but looks like one needs a rooted phone to work on some of the earlier models (and maybe other non-nexus devices too).

This is what I tried -

$ adb shell netstat | grep 5555

No socket was opened on this port.

Tried to manually set the steps that adb tcpip does -

$ adb shell setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
$ adb shell stop adbd
$ adb shell start adbd
$ adb shell getprop | grep adb

This does not show the property that was just set.

This is what it shows on my nexus device where it works without rooting -

$ adb shell getprop | grep adb
[service.adb.tcp.port]: [5555]

So depending on what phone/OS version u have, your mileage might vary.

:-)

Solution 3

For wireless adb on my Nexus 4 @ Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat) I usually do:

1. Turn on usb debug in 'Developer options'
2. Connect via usb cable, accept an RSA key dialog
3. adb tcpip 5555
4. adb connect 192.168.?.? (device IP on local wlan)

5. Disconnect usb cable

6. Test if connection is still on: adb devices

   • If ok you'll see:
     List of devices attached
192.168.?.?:5555 device
   • Else use Kumar's method:
     https://stackoverflow.com/a/14855490/818634

Solution 4

No root required

For wireless ADB without USB cable is possible but you need to use one time setup connection with PC using usb cable. make sure USB debugging mode should be on. Connect device on same wifi. then run

• adb tcpip 5555
• adb connect yourdeviceIP

To find current device IP and to setup adb wireless use app (without rooting device)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freeappmakr.adb

Using this app you can setup your device with wireless adb.

If any error in setup use

adb kill-server

then try again

View more solutions

Comments

[Paul]

thanks, tried this but get 'unable to connect to <ip address:port>'. i'll investigate.

[Audrius Meškauskas]

Check if the port 5555 is not closed by firewall and if your IP address is correct. It is the device IP address, not the local address of connecting computer. I have tested all these commands before posting here.

[Paul]

Yes it must be closed: sudo nmap 10.10.5.121 Starting Nmap 5.21 ( nmap.org ) at 2013-01-16 12:06 GMT Nmap scan report for 10.10.5.121 Host is up (0.0000020s latency). Not shown: 997 closed ports PORT STATE SERVICE 22/tcp open ssh 443/tcp open https 902/tcp open iss-realsecure

[Paul]

no matter what port I change to it always says failed to connect to 5555, how do I get rid of that?

[Audrius Meškauskas]

adb connect 192.168.1.133:YOUR_PORT

[Paul]

I had tried that, so when I enter that I get could not connect to 192.168.1.133:YOUR_PORT:YOUR_PORT if I dont specify port I get could not connect to 192.168.1.133:5555. I'll just restart the computer but I was just wondering why this was.

[Paul]

Still there if I restart PC. so If I say adb tcpip 22. then adb connect 192.168.1.133 it tries to connect to 192.168.1.133:5555, and if I say adb connect 192.168.1.133:22 it tries to connect to 192.168.1.133:22:22

[phyatt]

One hidden step I found that I needed to do for mine, is you need to ping the device once in a while what you are wirelessly connected and about to upload code. If your android device goes to sleep, or is inactive for a bit, you may need to unlock the screen and on a separate command prompt, type ping 192.168.1.X to wake up its network connection.

[ZoFreX]

Silly question - how do you start adbd again after stopping it? Once I stop it the phone disconnects from ADB and I can't reconnect to it.

[Mattias Isegran Bergander]

Tip: To easily find the device ip, before all this do: adb shell ifconfig wlan0

[Muneef M]

is there is anyway u can connect without one time connection through USB

[Cornelius Roemer]

@MattiasIsegranBergander when I do this I get ifconfig: ioctl 8927: Permission denied

[Pramesh Bajracharya]

Link redirects to 404.