Android ADB / Chrome Inspect Quick Reset

android, adb, devtools

When my Android phone is plugged in, USB debugging is already enabled, but Chrome inspection does not recognize the device.

Main fix

adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices -l

What each command does

adb kill-server

Stops the local ADB server. Use this when the device was plugged in but ADB/Chrome stopped detecting it correctly.

adb start-server

Starts the ADB server again. This is usually the command that makes Linux recognize the connected Android device again.

adb devices -l

Lists connected Android devices with extra details.

A working result should show something like:

List of devices attached
XXXXXXXX device usb:...

Then open Chrome inspection

In desktop Chrome, go to:

chrome://inspect/#devices

Make sure:

  • the phone is unlocked
  • USB debugging is enabled
  • Discover USB devices is enabled in Chrome Inspect
  • the phone accepted the Allow USB debugging prompt

If the device shows as unauthorized

Unlock the phone and accept the RSA / USB debugging permission prompt.

Then run again:

adb devices -l

If Chrome still does not show the device

Try the manual DevTools forwarding command:

adb forward tcp:9222 localabstract:chrome_devtools_remote

Then check:

http://localhost:9222/json

If ADB does not see the device at all on Linux

Install platform tools / udev rules:

sudo apt install android-sdk-platform-tools-common
sudo usermod -aG plugdev "$LOGNAME"

After adding the user to plugdev, log out and back in.

Usual fastest fix

Most of the time this is enough:

adb start-server
adb devices -l