How to connect multiple Android devices with ADB over TCP

MultipleDevicesOverTCP.md

#How to connect multiple Android devices with ADB over TCP

From your device, if it is rooted

According to a post on xda-developers, you can enable ADB over Wi-Fi from the device with the commands:

su
setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
stop adbd
start adbd

And you can disable it and return ADB to listening on USB with

setprop service.adb.tcp.port -1
stop adbd
start adbd

From a computer, if you have USB access already (NO root required)

1. For Linux and MAC User:

Step 1:

Open terminal and install adb using

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

Step 2:

Connect your phone via USB cable to the PC. Type following command in terminal to get the device ID:

$ adb devices

List of devices attached
LGV498b9cacc1   device
192.168.1.187:5558      device
192.168.1.184:5557      device
192.168.1.186:5556      device
192.168.1.143:5555      device

Step 3:

Using the device name listed above, get the IP of your Android device (if you know you can skip this step)

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 shell ip -f inet addr show wlan0

22: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    inet 192.168.1.185/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0

Step 4:

Setup the communication port using this command:

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 tcpip 5559

restarting in TCP mode port: 5559

Step 5:

Connect to your Android device IP address.

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 connect 192.168.1.185:5559

connected to 192.168.1.185:5559

Step 6:

Verify if the device was added to the list:

$ adb devices

List of devices attached
192.168.1.185:5559      device
LGV498b9cacc1   device
192.168.1.187:5558      device
192.168.1.184:5557      device
192.168.1.186:5556      device
192.168.1.143:5555      device

Now you can remove your phone.

2. For PC users:

Step 1:

Enable Developer options in your Android phone using this way.

• Open Settings> About> Software Information> More.
• Then tap “Build number” seven times to enable Developer options.
• Go back to Settings menu and now you'll be able to see “Developer options” there.
• Tap it and turn on USB Debugging from the menu on the next screen.

Step 2:

Open your cmd and type adb. If you find that the adb is not a valid command then you have to add a path to the environment variable.

• First go to you SDK installed folder. Follow this path as an example. ```` D:\softwares\Development\Andoird\SDK\sdk\platform-tools; D:\softwares\Development\Andoird\SDK\sdk\tools; ```
• Now search on windows system advanced setting
• Open the Environment variable.
• Then open the "PATH" variable and paste the previous example path to its variable value.
• NOTE: You SDK path is different from mine please use yours. Now you can connect your android phone to PC.

Step 3:

Connect your phone via USB cable to the PC. Open cmd and type following command in terminal to get the device ID:

$ adb devices

List of devices attached
LGV498b9cacc1   device
192.168.1.187:5558      device
192.168.1.184:5557      device
192.168.1.186:5556      device
192.168.1.143:5555      device

Step 4:

Using the device name listed above, get the IP of your Android device (if you know you can skip this step)

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 shell ip -f inet addr show wlan0

22: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP qlen 1000
    inet 192.168.1.185/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global wlan0

Step 5:

Setup the communication port using this command:

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 tcpip 5559

restarting in TCP mode port: 5559

Step 6:

Connect to your Android device IP address.

$ adb -s LGV498b9cacc1 connect 192.168.1.185:5559

connected to 192.168.1.185:5559

Step 7:

Verify if the device was added to the list:

$ adb devices

List of devices attached
192.168.1.185:5559      device
LGV498b9cacc1   device
192.168.1.187:5558      device
192.168.1.184:5557      device
192.168.1.186:5556      device
192.168.1.143:5555      device

Now you can remove your device and run your Android project.

First of all thanks for the tutorial. I have one query regarding port forwarding. Hope you help me.

I am doing client server communication through Socket over USB. For server side, I created one Java sample which is waiting for user to connect with specific port (38500). Server side project is running on PC. Now for client side, I created one application in Android. In that Client create Socket to connect "localhost" on specific port (38400).

Procedure to Execute:

1. adb reverse tcp:38400 tcp:38500
2. Run Server app on PC
3. Run Client App on Android Device and press to Connect.

At this point, all is working fine for 1 server to 1 client.

Issue is that, when I connect two devices (through USB) then it shows me like below output.
adb reverse tcp:38400 tcp:38500
error: more than one device/emulator

But when I do like,
adb -s ZY2235KL8Z -s ZY2238JL7F reverse tcp:38400 tcp:38500
It works fine and no error displayed. But my server only recognize only one device "ZY2238JL7F" i.e last device name enter after -s.

Should I achieve "One server multiple Client(Android Devices) through USB" from abd commands?

Thanks in Advance!

awesome tip.
Thank you so much!