Mega Mover Empire: THE ANDROID DEBUG/DAEMON BRIDGE

INTRODUCTION: I am not a software developer, IT consult or a computer scientist but just an android enthusiast, who have used adb and fastboot commands for more than 3 years now and I acknowledge their usefulness. For the period I have been using smartphones and computers I have found out that when it comes to transferring files to and from phone, sometimes the conventional methods that were very effective in ordinarily button-based phones may not apply and may need sophisticated procedures with smartphones. But these are files that maybe needed urgently and you received them over WhatsApp, your email, or you just needed to share them with your worker-mate. I remember that in our ordinarily phones it was very easy once you connected the phone to your computer with a USB cable, then automatically the request would come “Use as a media device” or “Connect U-disk” and then the other would be “Connect USB for charging”. Now with smartphones things changed somewhere somehow and maybe we have not kept the norm of reading Google articles and docs plus relevant information about the specific phones from the manufacturers.

THE ADB COMMANDS: These ADB commands and ADB Shell commands work on all Android devices regardless of the device model or manufacturer. They can be used by people who are used to rooting their Android devices or customization. These are system utilities that provide access to the backend of Android when it is connected to a PC. These are also one of the constants in the Android ecosystem. Same commands will produce the same results regardless of the device you have, in most cases. ADB or Android Debug Bridge can be used when the Android device is turned on while Fastboot can be used while the device is in the Bootloader or Fastboot mode. Today we’ll take a look at some useful ADB and Fastboot commands. Before you can make use of ADB and Fastboot commands, you’ll have to enable USB Debugging which is located under development options on your Android device. The option is found in the Developer options but if you don’t know how to get there, you can follow the link below because by default, the developer options are always hidden. How to enable USB debugging in android

Besides, you’ll also need the ADB and Fastboot drivers on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. ADB commands are used when the device is powered on and you have access to the device. That is, you can unlock the device and grant ADB debugging permission to the computer. Listed below are some of the most common and useful ADB commands that you may need at some point.

1. adb devices: Shows all the devices connected to ADB. This command can be used to make sure your device is connected properly before performing any other operations. This command will display the list of all Android devices attached to your PC. After entering the command and pressing "enter", an alphanumeric figure will be displayed in front of the word device.

2. adb connect ip_address_of_device: Using the ‘adb connect’ command, you can connect the IP address of your Android device to your computer.

3. adb reboot: ADB can be used to reboot or restart your device, useful when your hardware buttons aren’t working or if you’re already using ADB. You can also reboot directly into the recovery or bootloader using this command.

4. adb reboot bootloader: Reboots the device into the Fastboot or Bootloader mode. Depending on the type of smartphone you are having, you will see a sign that you are in Fastboot mode after entering this command, and then start using the fastboot commands.

5. adb install: It can be used to install an APK file on your Android device from your computer. It is more convenient than the alternative, which is to transfer the APK to the device and then install it. This command is generally used by developers or debuggers.

6. i) adb uninstall: Use the following command if you want to uninstall an app package. But sometimes it may not be able to uninstall system apps in which case you will use the following command;

ii) adb shell pm uninstall -k –-user 0

It should be noted that, following these last three commands you have put the package name.

7. adb sideload: Just as you can flash zip packages from a custom recovery, you can also do it via adb sideload, provided the recovery supports it. This way you can flash packages directly from your computer without having to transfer them first to your device or any external storage.

8. adb shell: The ‘adb shell‘ command starts the remote shell command console in the device and lets you control the device through it.

i) adb shell pm uninstall -k --user 0: You can uninstall or remove any system app installed on your Android device. This is the easiest way to uninstall bloatware. Just use the following command followed by the app package name.

9. adb backup -apk -shared -all -f backup.ab: This command can be used to backup the entire phone.