How can I adb install an apk to multiple connected devices?

Question

I have 7 devices plugged into my development machine.

Normally I do adb install <path to apk> and can install to just a single device.

Now I would like to install my apk on all of my 7 connected devices. How can I do this in a single command? I'd like to run a script perhaps.

Solution 1

You can use adb devices to get a list of connected devices and then run adb -s DEVICE_SERIAL_NUM install... for every device listed.

Something like (bash):

adb devices | tail -n +3 | cut -sf 1 -d " " | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

Comments suggest this might work better for newer versions:

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -iX adb -s X install ...

For Mac OSX(not tested on Linux):

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -I {} adb -s {} install ...

Solution 2

The other answers were very useful however didn't quite do what I needed. I thought I'd post my solution (a shell script) in case it provides more clarity for other readers. It installs multiple apks and any mp4s

echo "Installatron"

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1);
do 
  for APKLIST in $(ls *.apk);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $APKLIST on $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL install $APKLIST
  done

  for MP4LIST in $(ls *.mp4);
  do
  echo "Installatroning $MP4LIST to $SERIAL"
  adb -s $SERIAL push $MP4LIST sdcard/
  done
done

echo "Installatron has left the building"

Thank you for all the other answers that got me to this point.

Solution 3

Here's a functional one line command tailored from kichik's response (thanks!):

adb devices | tail -n +2 | cut -sf 1 | xargs -iX adb -s X install -r *.apk

But if you happen to be using Maven it's even simpler:

mvn android:deploy

Solution 4

Another short option... I stumbled on this page to learn that the -s $SERIAL has to come before the actual adb command! Thanks stackoverflow!

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do `adb -s $SERIAL install -r /path/to/product.apk`;
done

Solution 5

Generalized solution from Dave Owens to run any command on all devices:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do echo adb -s $SERIAL $@;
done

Put it in some script like "adb_all" and use same way as adb for single device.

Another good thing i've found is to fork background processes for each command, and wait for their completion:

for SERIAL in $(adb devices | grep -v List | cut -f 1);
do adb -s $SERIAL $@ &
done

for job in `jobs -p`
do wait $job
done

Then you can easily create a script to install app and start the activity

./adb_all_fork install myApp.apk
./adb_all_fork shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n my.package.app/.MainActivity

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