OS X 10.6.6 and "adb devices" fails to list android devices

Question

adb devices was working fine last year, but after upgrades and new software installs, adb devices no longer recognizes USB attached Android devices.

Here is what I have tried:

adb kill-server
adb devices

adb usb
  error: Device not found

Solution 1

If you have installed EasyTether on OS X, the EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext can prevent adb from communicating with your mobile device.

If you use Easy Tether, BEFORE you plug in your phone run:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext

(or unplug/plug your phone in after)

If you are done debugging and want to use EasyTether again, either restart or:

sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext

---

If you want to remove the EasyTether kext so it never hassels you again:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext

---

Reference/Credit: http://www.intohand.com/post.php?s=2011-02-17-android-debug-bridge-not-just-working-on-mac

Solution 2

Having just connected a brand new Motorola Atrix 2 to my Mac running 10.6.8, I had to pull down the menu from the top of the screen, tap on "USB Connection", and change it from "Motorola Phone Portal" to "Charge Only" before it would show up in my list of devices from adb. Hope this helps!

Solution 3

If none of the above works for you just as it didn't for me, just try using a different cable. The cable I was using was my friend's cable but it was only meant to charge over USB, not to pass data over USB. I don't know how to tell the difference between micro USB cables that do or don't support data over USB but it's worth a try! Good luck!

Solution 4

Following the google bug submission... I set usb mode to Charge Only, and it detected the phone immediately. Pretty silly.

Solution 5

Another alternative: on modern Apple iMac's, the USB port closest to the outside edge of the machine never works with ADB, whereas all others work fine. I've seen this on two different iMacs, possibly those are USB 1.0 ports (or something equally stupid) - or it's a general manufacturing defect.

Plugging USB cables (new, old, high quality or cheap) into all other USB ports works fine, but plugging into that one fails ADB

NB: plugging into that port works for file-transfer, etc - it's only ADB that breaks.

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Comments

[Peter van der Linden]

Also include your version of adb when you add to the google bug report. Get the adb version with "adb version". That responds with something like "Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.26"

[RyanG]

I thought I was going crazy for like 3 hours, this fixed my issue, thanks!

[Josh Metcalfe]

I had this problem with the Samsung Galaxy Tab not appearing on my list of devices as well. Thanks! I would have thought that this option was required for development.

[Bennett Von Bennett]

if it was possible to give you a +100 I would. I've been tearing my hair out over this for two days... there's a total lack of info on this solution out on the net... very frustrating. I should start a blog just so I can post this for everyone else it's making crazy. BTW - I remember now that I had the exact converse of this problem a year or more ago - I couldn't get PdaNet to work all of a sudden and someone finally suggested that maybe I was running Eclipse - and thus adb - at the same time... I was. and quitting Eclipse fixed it. I really should've remembered that!! Doh!

[Bennett Von Bennett]

oh - I should add that obviously you will have to do the same with PdaNet if you have it installed. In my case a modified Terminal command did NOT kill the process and I had to do it in the Activity Monitor. After I trashed both .kext files (PdaNet and Easytether) and now all is well again and I don't have to go out and buy a netbook just to test my apps!!

[Stofke]

I have been looking for a solution to this for almost 2 weeks. I can't thank you enough.

[clintsmith]

This fixed my issue! I had to change mine from "Motorola Phone Portal" to "None". Thanks.

[user363349]

I have two USB ports on my Mac Book 13in retina 2012. Both are working, but android only connects on one!

[talon55]

Just confirmed that this is still an issue on OS X 10.8.3. Thankfully, this answer is highly-ranked on Google.

[Akash Gupta]

Absolutely true, this worked for me on my latest iMac OS X Mavericks. It did not detect my tab on the first port towards the edge, but automatically detected when I used the first port towards the power socket.

[Erin Geyer]

This was the solution in my case. Thank you so much for bringing this up!