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Note that this question Is GUI for Android SDK manager gone? has been answered with a solution that was correct in the past, but no longer addresses the problem.

In the past, I have run IntelliJ Idea to develop Android projects, and the GUI SDK manager was available. Returning to Android development I now find https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html only offers a command-line stand-alone SDK manager.

How can I install the GUI SDK manager? I am considering installing Android Studio just to get it and then maybe uninstall Android Studio and retain the SDK manager. I suspect I might have the same problems with AVDs.

Specifically with solutions offered elsewhere:

  1. There is no .../tools/android
  2. .../tools/android.bat only offers command-line options
  3. .../tools/bin/sdkmanager.bat only offers command-line options
Dr.jacky
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Steve Waring
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6 Answers6

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#Android SDK GUI is here to stay

I am glad to inform the community that there is still a fully functional workaround to use the Android SDK whilst utilising the traditional GUI that most users are accustomed to. I am pleased to say that the GUI is here to stay (despite having been officially cut off sometime in SDK 26)

If you are starting from scratch I suggest you go through this post first: How do I download the Android SDK without downloading Android Studio?

Here the most important thing is that you must first install the base packages (i.e sdk tools, platform-tools, GUI sdk and AVD manager etc) found in the last installer version of SDK if you are starting form scratch, otherwise you can skip this step if you already a working sdk installation.

I discovered that even if you update the "SDK tools", the latest version that you can get is always 25.x.x which has problem on its own as it doesn't allow you to run API levels 26, 27 or 28, as I pointed out in my post on another site: Can't start Android 8.0 Oreo on emulator: “Decryption unsuccessful”

After some weeks of investigation I figured out, this was something to do the outdated emulator which is no longer provided unless you running Android Studio (which is contrary to what we want to achieve)

From the looks of things it seems the emulator (originally distributed as part of the Android SDK Tools) is no longer updated since version 25.2.3

Thus the workaround involves a "manual/forced upgrade" of emulator tools. Currently I successfully upgraded to version 27.3.8 (and running Android 9 smoothly).

The workaround

To shorten the story, firstly make sure the base packages are still intact, and upgrade the emulator as follows:

Instructions

  • Download the latest (or suitable emulator) from the links supplied below
  • When done, decompress the downloaded emulator.zip file and extract the emulator package to %USERPROFILE%\Android\android-sdk\tools or relevant path (yes you have to merge it into that folder, since the emulator doesn't have all libraries and files)
  • After this your emulator will be updated (to 27.3.8 in my case):

enter image description here

Android SDK manager (GUI)

Now prepare your AVD (API level 27 or 28);

  • Click on the AVD manager executable to bring the AVD setup dialog box.
  • Choose the required parameters of the AVD and click ok to create.

enter image description here

Android AVD manager

Run the newly created virtual devices and you should be good to go:

  • Select the virtual device and click start;

enter image description here

enter image description hereenter image description here

#Be sure to update the relevant tools, images etc to get the best experience

Important links

Base and Emulator tools(zip)

  1. Android SDK base installer (offline windows)
  2. Linux installer (can use wget also)
  3. Emulator version 27.3.8 (linux latest)
  4. Emulator version 27.3.8 (windows latest)
  5. Emulator 27.3.8 (mac os latest)
  6. Emulator version 26.1.4 (windows)
  7. Emulator version 26.1.4 (linux)
  8. Emulator version 27.1.10 (mac os)

Update: Added latest emulator versions

Update 2: Newer emulator versions

Special thanks to androiddev for providing links for linux, eaglemt and Vladyslav Panchenko for providing the links to repos and mostly important for mac os links.

Conclusion

It seems Google intentionally decide to pull the plug on GUI for standalone Android SDK in favour of Android studio perhaps because of potential security bugs, but whatever the reason,it may not sound convincing for someone just needing the standalone package...

Another way to explain all of this a bit simpler -->

Someone
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xavier_fakerat
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  • @Steve I believe you can still use the GUI :) – xavier_fakerat Jul 19 '18 at 18:58
  • Xavier, whenever I update the emulators in **macOS** I get this error when trying to start the emulator: `Incompatible library version: qemu-system-x86_64 requires version 5.7.0 or later, but libQt5Widgets.5.dylib provides version 5.5.0`. It happens with both versions 27.1 and 27.3, and I see that **libQt5Concurrent.5.7.0.dylib** is present in the lib64/qt/lib folder, so it's actually there, but not used. Any suggestion will be appreciated. – andreszs Jul 24 '18 at 13:08
  • @andreszs quite strange let me recheck this issue and get back to you..... – xavier_fakerat Jul 25 '18 at 16:46
  • So your solution still requires to download the full Android SDK, it is not possible to just download the last version of SDK tools that had the GUI and then update? – baptx Dec 01 '18 at 20:12
  • @baptx Yes you can still download the last version of sdk then update, it works perfectly – xavier_fakerat Dec 03 '18 at 18:52
  • What is this answer? No where in your post did you say how to run the avdmanager GUI. There isn't even instructions how to run it from within Android Studio (not the answer we want though). – Eugene K Jan 28 '19 at 21:12
  • @EugeneK I'm confused about your question and complaint, since this answer is about bypassing Android Studio, why then do you want me to mention it in the answer, to run the GUI, simple click the AVD manager executable.. – xavier_fakerat Jul 13 '19 at 18:48
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    In case it helps, I found the 29.3.5 version of the emulator at https://dl.google.com/android/repository/emulator-linux-5598178.zip – Joel Cross Jan 28 '20 at 11:46
  • @JoelCross How did you find the latest version of it? I couldn't find it on google. – Unknown123 Feb 08 '20 at 02:28
  • Where could I find the download link for Emulator 29.3.6 Canary? https://androidstudio.googleblog.com/2020/01/emulator-2936-canary.html – Unknown123 Feb 08 '20 at 02:30
  • @Unknown123 It's actually quite a tricky process involving the version number string, and worthy of a bit more discussion than I can offer in a comment. If you ask a question and tag me, I will answer it fully there! – Joel Cross Feb 10 '20 at 11:21
  • @JoelCross Um, could you actually tag someone in a question? – Unknown123 Feb 13 '20 at 16:39
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It seems like the GUI is completely gone now. Atleast from SDK v26, the SDK Manager GUI is only accessible through Android Studio. The SDK Manager button on Visual Studio has become irresponsive. Now we'll probably have to install Android Studio just to manage and update the SDKs and Emulators

Google's another dreadful act for promoting its own IDE.

UPDATE :

The official Xamarin SDK Manager is now available for Visual Studio 2017 and above. It can be installed from under "Cross Platform Mobile" workload in the Visual Studio Installer. It replaces Google's standalone SDK Manager (which was deprecated in version 25.2.3 of the Android SDK Tools package). To start the SDK Manager in Visual Studio, click Tools > Android > Android SDK Manager

For VS2015 and older, we recommend downgrading SDK Tools to 25 and using the old Google Emulator manager GUI. SDK tools 25 can still be used alongside API 26, 27, and newer, and won't impact development for new platforms. This will give you an interface for managing your Android SDK for older versions of VS.

Divins Mathew
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We provide an open source GUI interface based on sdkmanager.bat: B4A Sdk Manager

B4A SDK Manager

B4A AVD Manager

It was developed mainly for B4A developers, however it can be useful for any developer who doesn't use Android Studio.

Erel
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5

According for this announcement Google doesn't intend to support ADT plugin for Eclipse since June 2015, and so as GUI for ADT at all. They explain the decision with an entire switching to Android Studio. There are no links on official Android sources where to download last GUI version, because they find it as having potential security bugs.

So you have chance to download the last saved version, till the link will not be changed. But I think it always could be possible to find by tag "installer_r24.4.1-windows.exe" in Google.

Thank to Losin' Me for links:

Found on web.archive.org

illright
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Denis Petrov
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  • But if you're after the zip package (not the installer), you can find it here: http://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r24.4.1-windows.zip (24.4.1 is the last r24) – NemoStein Aug 30 '17 at 22:01
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I have just released a simple Android SDK GUI. Maybe this little weekend project could save some people from headache of using sdkmanager command line or downloading android-tools twice.

You could check my project at AndroidGUI.

Fork as you please or better yet send me PR. Any help would be very much appreciated.

PS: It would be very useful if somebody could point me to the latest sdklib-*.jar source code. So that I could interface with Android SDK directly.

Dhipo Alam
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Well because the standalone manager is outdated and in linux commands like "android sdk" and "android adv" stop working I learned to run devices from command line tools:

Link to my response in other topic. (only for linux) https://stackoverflow.com/a/57019574/7600634

John Tribe
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