Reload a React Native app on an Android device manually via command line

Question

I'd like to manually force a Reload of my React Native app on demand without physically shaking the device. (I'm getting carpal tunnel.)

I know that Live Reload / Hot Reload are available. I'm looking for a on-demand command line solution.

score 192 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 16 '17 at 11:08

192

Using the cmd line you can send a command to the Android device.

adb shell input text "RR"

This command tells the Android device to type the character "R" twice which is the React Native command to Reload on Android.

The adb shell command has many useful features many of which are described here:

ADB Shell Input Events

To open the developer menu:

adb shell input keyevent 82

edited Oct 16 '17 at 11:08

Yang

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answered May 25 '17 at 01:43

brettlaforge

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For anyone who is having issues with the first command (in cases like a text input which cannot be unfocused), an alternative is `adb shell "input keyevent 82 && input keyevent 66 && input keyevent 66"`. It manually hits 'Reload' in the developer menu – Jonny Jul 10 '19 at 19:31
Incase you are running 2 devices at the same time and it doesn't let you run any `adb` commands you can simply do: `adb -s shell input text "RR"` – Rondev Nov 04 '20 at 12:10

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 29 '18 at 10:08

26

Just posting it here in case you didn't know this trick

long press the menu button in your android device. Then you'll get this menu

tap the reload option and you are good to go

edited Jun 29 '18 at 10:08

Virb

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answered Jun 29 '18 at 08:56

vighnesh s

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my android mobile don't have menu button. is there any alternatives for my device? – Kiran Chenna Oct 15 '18 at 04:58
"How can I reload without shaking my device?" @OsmanGaniKhanMasum: "Just shake your device." – Slbox Jul 11 '19 at 19:59
You can just enable "Hard Reload" from settings. It is easy. – Osman Gani Khan Masum Jul 13 '19 at 10:11
Nice. On my Fire TV remote, I don't even have to long press, just a regular press. – Ryan H. Sep 27 '21 at 14:41
You can hold and press Square button, at bottom navigation bar in android. In some device Round button works. – utkal patel Mar 22 '22 at 11:10

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 28 '17 at 13:49

15

I use the following command. It doesn't reload the app, but it brings up the developper menu on the device, so I can then press the "Reload" option:

adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_MENU

I develop with a real device (not the emulator) and sending the "double-R" through adb doesn't work (it just shows the keyboard and types 2 Rs).

answered Aug 28 '17 at 13:49

Xavier

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That's interesting, because I develop on a real device too and the "double-R" does reload the app. If the keyboard is already open it will print "RR", but if the keyboard is closed it will reload. Maybe my answer was too general and doesn't work on all devices? – brettlaforge Oct 20 '17 at 19:33
@brettlaforge I'm a newb at native but I might guess that certain apps may be greedy about keypresses, not just different devices. Your answer's working for me on Android so thanks! – Reed Spool Mar 09 '18 at 03:46

Francois Nadeau · Answer 4 · 2019-02-26T15:14:23.597

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Add the following script to your package.json:

    "android-shake": "adb shell input keyevent 82"

Then you will be able to call

yarn android-shake

If you are looking for ios then checkout my answer on this link

edited Feb 26 '19 at 15:14

answered Nov 22 '18 at 18:29

Francois Nadeau

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score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 27 '19 at 00:16

One trick would be to add this command on ~/.bashrc profile in the case you're using unix.

use your favorite editor (ex: nano on Ubuntu) and type nano ~/.bashrc
on the end of file write alias rnreload='adb shell input text "RR"'
save it and run source ~/.bashrc in order to active it.
Now whenever you need, just type rnreload on a terminal.

Next time you enter your computer it should be already done.

Also, there's the possibility to add an other alias as well: alias rnshake='adb shell input keyevent 82' which "shakes" android. You can use it to access other commands like Hot Reloading, Debugger, Inspector, etc.

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 04 '18 at 08:13

Made an autohotkey script to reload and open the menu with keyboard shortcuts.

   ^+r::  run, %comspec% /c adb shell input text "RR",,hide  
   ^+e::  run, %comspec% /c adb shell input keyevent 82,,hide

ctrl+shift+r to reload ctrl+shift+e to open dev menu

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 11 '19 at 07:14

If you're on a Mac and using Hammerspoon, you can put the following bit of code in your ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua file:

hyper = {'ctrl', 'alt', 'cmd'}
placid = {'ctrl', 'cmd'}

-- React native reload JS on connected device
hs.hotkey.bind(placid, 'R', function()
  os.execute('/Users/peter/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb shell input text "RR"')
end)

-- React native show dev menu on connected device
hs.hotkey.bind(hyper, 'R', function()
  os.execute('/Users/peter/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb shell input keyevent 82')
end)

the os.execute command doesn't load your ENV (doing so would make running commands really slow), so make sure to run which adb in your terminal to figure out what the exact path to adb is. (in my case it was /Users/peter/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb).

Now you can reload your app using ctrl+cmd+R and show the dev menu using ctrl+option+cmd+R from anywhere and without even bothering to cmd-tab out of your favorite editor!

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 11 '19 at 09:16

-1

For device you have just to shake your device than a menu appears so click on Reload

answered Jan 11 '19 at 09:16

Asma_Kh

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It is mentioned in the question: _"without physically shaking the device"_ – Harry Theo Nov 17 '21 at 16:57

Reload a React Native app on an Android device manually via command line

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