Can't attach Android Studio's debugger to Android process

Question

I can't attach Android Studio's debugger to my debuggable application process. Anyone else had this issue? Basically I can't get my app listed in Choose Process dialog.

I'm selecting Attach debugger to Android process:

Attach debugger to Android process

And then, here's how Process selection dialog from Android Studio looks like:

No app is in the list to be debugged

Any ideas why my app is not shown in the Choose Process list?

Although, DDMS sees my app in Devices | logcat list:

<code>Devices | logcat</code> list

Android Monitor also sees the app in Devices list:

Android Monitor | Devices list

I've tried these actions:

Restarting MacBook
Restarting devices: tried with Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 (4.3) and Samsung Galaxy S4 (4.4.2)
Reenabling Settings->Developer Options on the devices
Reenabling Settings->Developer Options->USB debugging on the devices
Restarting adb by running adb kill-server and adb start-server
Reconnecting device from macbook and/or plugging to another USB port
Launching Genymotion virtual device on macbook
restarting in TCP mode port: 5555 by running adb tcpip 5555 and then connecting to it with adb connect 192.168.1.87
Waiting more&Restart when got this error saying ADB not responding. You can wait more, or kill "adb" process manually and click 'Restart' Errors in ADB: ddms: '$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools/adb,start-server' failed -- run manually if necessary Error screenshot

Update:

What I've noticed is that device appears multiple times in the Android DDMS->Devices | logcat list. If I choose 1st device from the list, it shows, there's No debuggable applications, but I select last device (4th in the screenshot) I see my debuggable application. See screenshots: 1st and 4th. Although, even there's only 1 device in the list and showing debuggable device and application, process still does not appear in the Choose Process dialog.

Check this: [Similar Question answered](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16753939/not-able-to-debug-app-in-android-studio/35230655#35230655) — Santa Teclado, Feb 05 '16 at 18:12

score 48 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 13 '16 at 08:01

48

So finally I got it working, by:

Checking 'Show all processes' checkbox!

BUT as you see in the question, checkbox was on at the beginning, so there were multiple issues.

To summarize, these are other actions to be done:

Kill all adb processes (use ps -x | grep adb and kill -9 [process id])
adb start-server in terminal
Reconnect device
adb devices (to make sure device is connected successfully)
Make sure Android DDMS Devices | logcat shows your app and only one device is listed.
Check Show all processes checkbox. See screenshot

edited Jun 13 '16 at 08:01

twlkyao

14,302
7
27
44

answered Sep 02 '14 at 14:27

ViliusK

11,345
4
67
71

3

Sorry but this is not the solution. As you mentioned, the box was checked at the beginning. If your process isn't in the list when the box is unchecked, it's not the process of the running app. – Marty Miller Nov 12 '14 at 11:11
1

Make sure that Eclipse and ADT are not open when you are trying to debug with Android Studio. – netcyrax Jan 07 '15 at 06:25
I am tired and older than ever closing and reopening things to fix them up all over again. Thanks. – Egemen Hamutçu Dec 02 '15 at 13:43
This worked for me on OSX (Mojave) with IntelliJ (2018.3) when adb *could* see my phone but IDE *would not* show it on the list to connect to for debugging. 1) make sure your project has the android facet, 2) shutdown intellij, 3) `adb kill-server`, 3) restart intellij.. this will allow intellij to start the adb server which seems to do the trick for me. – Not Mandatory Feb 10 '19 at 20:34
killing adb by terminal worked for me. Thanks a lot – Pedro Romão Mar 15 '19 at 12:35
I had the same problem, but I'm using Windows. I just restarted the Android Studio and it solved the problem. – vianna77 Aug 31 '21 at 02:43
`adb kill-server && adb start-server` did it for me. Thanks! – mowwwalker Mar 27 '23 at 21:37

score 21 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 16 '15 at 08:58

21

I solved this way

a. Closed Android Studio
b. Did adb kill-server from a terminal. Also check the adb process in also killed from the Running processes window in PC
c. Started Android Studio
d. Android Studio tried to initialize adb again and back to work.

edited Mar 16 '15 at 08:58

parakmiakos

2,994
9
29
43

answered Mar 16 '15 at 08:20

Manohar

231
2
4

I had to close and restart Android Studio (Mac) and then check "Show all processes" to get the process to appear. – Jackpile Jul 26 '15 at 20:37

score 18 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '18 at 11:04

18

I solved this by going to a terminal and doing:

adb kill-server
adb start-server

Then I clicked in the "attach debugger" button and I could use it as normal

answered Mar 01 '18 at 11:04

Daniel Reina

5,764
1
37
50

score 13 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 28 '19 at 08:58

13

It could be because the release build variant (which you can set in the Build-Variants section) has been chosen mistakenly, only debug-variant is debuggable.

Hope this can be helpful to some friends.

edited Jan 28 '19 at 08:58

Andrew

26,706
9
85
101

answered Apr 11 '17 at 03:39

user3201520

142
1
11

This was indeed the cause of my problem when trying to run on an emulator. I had to discover it from having another problem trying to run debug on a physical device, see https://stackoverflow.com/a/33219069/2848676 – Michael Osofsky Sep 28 '18 at 21:51
Thanks, you saved my time ;) – Mahdi Moqadasi Jan 28 '19 at 09:28

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 21 '15 at 07:06

This is what worked for me and its simple, go to Tools->Android->Enable ADB Integration, click on this and mark it selected if not selected this will allow your genymotion instance to connect to ADB but if this doesnt work then, if above mentioned setting is selected then mark unselected and wait till ADB is refreshed( few seconds) then again go to same setting and click on it to mark is selected, this will restart ADB and connect it. This works perfect for me each time i see this issue.

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 12 '18 at 09:16

same did happen with me, the root cause for this problem was interruption(network disconnection or force close) while updating any of the plugin(in my case kotlin) Solution For mac: goto prefrences(shortkey: cmd + ,)

For windows:(short key: **ctrl + alt + s) or through menu

then in left panel look for Languages and Frameworks -> kotlin/java updaes and upon selecting it. In right pan there will be option(button) to update the plugin. update the plugin.

Exit and Restart the android studio. now you will be able to debug with all list of available processes running.

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered May 27 '19 at 04:37

I just encountered this one as well. I was pulling my hair out and did everything that was posted here. I thought I could add to the solutions here in case everyone had tried everything. I solve it via making my build variant debuggable.

So I made a PR and it was merged, unfortunately my debuggable flag on my own build variant was turned off when I pulled the source back, so I just have to turn it back on:

on your build.gradle file:

android {
   ...
   buildTypes {
      ...
      my_build_type {
            minifyEnabled false
            shrinkResources false
            debuggable true    // was false before  
      }
   }
}

Also make sure that this build variant was set before you build your app to the device:

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 17 '18 at 16:20

You do not have to close android studio as I have seen many advise, you can use the terminal from here. In this way : 1 Go to the terminal in Android studio; 2 Did adb kill-server to kill the process; 3 Did adb start-server to running here 4. Check if the devices is attached with adb devices

Now it should work !

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 25 '19 at 06:56

1

Close the Android Studio.
Kill the adb from terminal 'adb kill-server'. Open android studio ,then attach the debugger. You will be able to see your project.

answered Jul 25 '19 at 06:56

Rajeev Shetty

1,534
1
17
27

in my case, I only had to `adb kill-server` – Saik Caskey Jun 07 '23 at 09:29
I don't think you need to close Android Studio, but it did work for me. Just used the Android Studio terminal to run `adb kill-server` and `adb start-server` – Analizer Aug 27 '23 at 18:27

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 23 '17 at 13:20

0

In addition to all answers before, If you add breakpoints that evaluate and log, may be one of them cause Null Pointer exception. So go to run -> viewBreakpoints... -> unselect all of them.

answered Nov 23 '17 at 13:20

Moaz Rashad

1,035
1
10
16

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 27 '18 at 09:00

0

In my case I just plug out and plug in cable from phone. Process was listed, and i was able to attach debugger

answered Jul 27 '18 at 09:00

Jakub S.

5,580
2
42
37

score -1 · Answer 12 · answered Mar 02 '20 at 00:12

It might not be a solution, but I eventually just switched to using an emulator device (Nexus 5), instead of a physical device.

I tried everything mentioned above, which includes:

adb commands
android studio upgrade, restart, etc
build variants
plug in and out the cable.

Can't attach Android Studio's debugger to Android process

12 Answers12

Linked