Android setup

Set up an Android emulator and the command-line tools by hand, when the guided wizard isn't the right path.

Install the Android tooling manually, create an emulator, and put adb on your PATH.

Platforms	Android
Use this when	The guided wizard failed, or you need a specific device profile
You need on PATH	adb, emulator, sdkmanager, avdmanager
Disk space	20–30 GB
Watch out	Disable the emulator's soft keyboard, or taps after typing will fail

Prerequisites

• Drizz desktop app installed and signed in

• macOS 12 or later

• 20–30 GB free disk space

• Java — the Homebrew openjdk@17 package is the configuration Drizz is tested against

• An Android SDK location you can write to

The guided setup wizard performs everything on this page, shows every command before it runs, and takes 15–30 minutes unattended.

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Run these three commands once the emulator is running. They are the verification plus the required soft-keyboard fix.

# 1. Confirm your Mac can see the emulator
adb devices

# 2. Confirm the emulator binary is on your PATH
emulator -list-avds

# 3. Disable the soft keyboard — do this on every emulator you create
adb shell ime disable com.google.android.inputmethod.latin/com.android.inputmethod.latin.LatinIME
adb shell settings put global show_ime_with_hard_keyboard 0

adb devices lists a working emulator as device. unauthorized, offline, or an empty list means Drizz cannot see it either.

Do you need the full Android Studio install?

Drizz requires the Android SDK, an emulator system image, and the command-line tools. Android Studio supplies all three, and is the route the guided wizard takes.

Both paths produce the same outcome: a running emulator that adb devices can see.

Path A — Android Studio

The heavier install, with a GUI for creating and managing emulators.

1. Download Android Studio from developer.android.com/studio, matching your Mac's chip.

2. Run the installer and complete first-run setup, granting the permissions it asks for.

3. Open Device Manager and create a virtual device. A recent Pixel profile on Android 34 with Google Play matches what the wizard creates.

4. Start the emulator and wait for it to finish booting.

5. Run adb devices and confirm the emulator lists as device.

Android Studio installs the emulator binaries, but not everything Drizz needs on your PATH. Continue with Install the command-line tools below.

Path B — Command-line tools only

A smaller install with no GUI. Emulators are created and launched from a terminal.

1. Install the SDK command-line tools, the platform tools and a system image.

2. Create an AVD with avdmanager.

3. Launch it with emulator.

4. Run emulator -list-avds and confirm the AVD is listed.

5. Run adb devices and confirm the emulator lists as device.

Java is required. The Homebrew openjdk@17 package is the configuration Drizz is tested against.

Install the command-line tools

Android Studio installs the emulator binaries by default. avdmanager, sdkmanager and running emulator from any terminal need the following steps.

1. Install the SDK components

1. Open Android Studio → Settings (Preferences on older macOS).

2. Go to Languages & Frameworks → Android SDK.

3. Open the SDK Tools tab.

4. Enable Android Emulator, Android SDK Platform-Tools and Android SDK Command-line Tools.

5. Click Apply.

6. Note the Android SDK Location shown at the top of that screen. The next step needs it.

2. Add them to your PATH

All three directories live inside your SDK location.

Tool	Directory
emulator	<sdk_location>/emulator
adb	<sdk_location>/platform-tools
sdkmanager, avdmanager	<sdk_location>/cmdline-tools/latest/bin

1. Add the exports to ~/.zshrc:

   # Replace <sdk_location> with the path shown in Android Studio's SDK Manager
   export ANDROID_HOME="<sdk_location>"
   export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/emulator:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$PATH"

2. Restart your terminal.

3. Run emulator -list-avds. A list of AVDs confirms the change applied; command not found means it has not.

Use the <sdk_location>/emulator directory. The older copy inside /tools is deprecated and does not support current features.

Disable the soft keyboard

Required on every emulator you create. The on-screen keyboard covers elements, which makes the tap after a Type step fail as undoable.

adb shell ime disable com.google.android.inputmethod.latin/com.android.inputmethod.latin.LatinIME
adb shell settings put global show_ime_with_hard_keyboard 0

Connect from Drizz

1. In the desktop app, open Connect Device and choose Android.

2. Select your emulator from the list. Boot it from here if it is not already running.

3. Choose the app under test.

4. Confirm the device panel shows the emulator as connected.

Drizz attaches to an emulator that is already running rather than booting a second one. If two are running, close both and reconnect.

Common mistakes

What you do	What happens
Skip the soft-keyboard commands	Taps immediately after a Type step fail as undoable, on random screens
Use the deprecated /tools/emulator binary	Modern emulator features don't work. Use <sdk_location>/emulator
Connect with the phone or emulator locked	Drizz refuses a locked device by design. Unlock it
Run this whole page before trying the wizard	You do the work manually, and the wizard would have skipped it all anyway

Next

• Set up a device: guided wizard

• Real Android device

• Report an issue

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Last updated: 6 August 2026