Those who have unlocked Android root permissions in the past should already have dealt with these two nice tools made available by Google for developers, useful to everyone. ADB and Fastboot are essential programs, not only indispensable for unlocking Android, but also for other activities, such as restoring a cell phone that seems to be dead, for reinstalling Android or a different version than that of the manufacturer, for clean system update and data recovery.
While before ADB and Fastboot, which are two small command-line tools, were only included within the Android development environment (SDK) (a very large installation), now Google also allows you to download them separately from direct links .
To download FastBoot and ADB on Windows, Mac and Linux PCs, just go to this page and download the SDK Platform-Tools .
Inside the zip file you will find the adb and fastboot files, which must be extracted in a platform-tools folder along with other things that are not needed.
ADB and Fastboot, as mentioned above, are utilities that unlock access to the Android system.
Their use requires that the computer is connected to the Android smartphone via USB cable.
ADB is normally used when Android is running .
This tool allows you to access system folders or change hidden settings, otherwise off limits for users.
You can copy system files from your PC to the phone or the other way around, and there is also a sideload function that can be used to manually install system updates and new Android subversions if available.
Fastboot, on the other hand, works when Android is not running, so if the smartphone is turned on but has not loaded the system and is started in "Fastboot mode" .
With Fastboot you can access all the partitions of the device and you can therefore also recover data from a phone that no longer turns on or repair it if the problem is only software and not hardware.
Both tools are used through the command prompt in Windows or from the Terminal on Mac and Linux .
For this reason they are not very easy to use, even if it would be enough to follow some specific guide.
To get started, you need to set up your Android phone to use developer tools.
If you have not already done so, you must activate the Developer Options by going to Settings -> About phone and tapping on the build number entry seven times.
Within the Android developer options, you must activate the USB Debugging, necessary to activate the connection via USB cable with the computer.
To make ADB and Fastboot work in Windows it is also necessary to install the drivers for the Android device, downloading it from the manufacturer's website or installing the package prepared by a user of the XDA-Developer forum
To use ADB and Fastboot you must connect the phone to the PC with a USB cable, then open the command prompt or the Terminal and move to the platform-tools folder.
On Windows, for example, type the cd platform-tools command if this folder has been saved in C:.
An easier way is to type cd [space] and then drag the platform-tools folder into the command prompt window to automatically enter the path.
Even easier, in Windows, you can right-click on the platform-tools folder and then press on Open Command Prompt from here .
If everything is configured correctly, run the adb devices command and press Enter to see a list of connected devices with the serial number.
Once everything is working well, you can run the commands, writing ADB and then the command to be executed.
Fastboot works the same way as ADB, only that the phone has to be started in fastboot mode.
This is usually done by pressing a combination of power and volume keys together when turning on the phone or using the adb reboot bootloader command.
READ ALSO: How to use ADB Sideload to install ROM, updates, recovery
Some of the more useful commands with adb and fastboot are:
- fastboot oem unlock or fastboot flashing unlock, command to unlock the Android Bootloader.
- fastboot flash recovery [filename-im.img] installs a custom recovery console, for example TWRP, on the device.
- adb sideload [update.zip path] to load a firmware update to the system via the recovery console (for example to update or install Android on Nexus from the PC with ADB)
- adb pull [file path] [folder] to copy a file stored in the phone and save it in a folder on the computer.
- adb push [file path] [folder path], to transfer a file from the PC to the phone The opposite of shooting. Send a file from the desktop to the phone.
- adb install [file path] to install an APK application on the phone.
- adb install [package name] to uninstall an app (you need to put the full package name).
- adb shell wm density [dpi] to change the pixel density of the display.
- adb devices to check if the device is recognized by the computer.
Obviously, these are just some of the adb and fastboot commands and I refer to the official guide page for a more complete explanation.
Clearly, before using these tools, you need to know what you are doing and why, otherwise you can risk finding yourself with the phone unusable for having made a mistake.
