How to open the AVD manager on Ubuntu Linux from the command line?
10 Answers
For thoose coming here because the android avd
command has been deprecated*, here's how to do it now:
Using Android Studio
Open Android Studio with a valid studio project (if you don't have one, simply create one empty). After you've your project open, go to Tools => Android => AVD Manager
. Note that this menu does not appear if you don't have a valid Android Studio project open.
Now you can safely close Android Studio if you only want the AVD Manager.
From command line
If you want to use the command line you'll first need to create the virtual device using avdmanager
, located under $ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin/avdmanager
like so:
$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin/avdmanager create avd --force --name testAVD --abi google_apis/x86_64 --package 'system-images;android-23;google_apis;x86_64'
After you created the device to emulate, then you need to open it with emulator
, which is located under $ANDROID_HOME/tools/emulator
. The command for the previously created device should be something like:
emulator -avd testAVD
If it crashes saying something like...
[140022905190208]:ERROR:./android/qt/qt_setup.cpp:28:Qt library not found at ../emulator/lib64/qt/lib
Ensure you're running the emulator
command inside the $ANDROID_HOME/tools
folder, otherwise may not work.
If you already added a device VM you can list them all with
emulator -list-avds
Check out the official documentation for more details (thanks to Jeff Xiao for this—in comments).
* The depreaction note says:
The android command is no longer available.
For manual SDK and AVD management, please use Android Studio.
For command-line tools, use tools/bin/sdkmanager and tools/bin/avdmanager

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For me, I cannot close Android studio once I open the AVD manager, it closes too. Also, it is very slow/uncertain when AVD manager will be available in the menu since it seems to have to run a bunch of gradle commands first. – AnneTheAgile Oct 10 '17 at 20:36
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Which version of Android Studio are you using? In my case, under Linux, I can have the AVD manager after I close Android Studio. – elboletaire Oct 11 '17 at 09:57
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2I am using version 3.0 of Android Studio and I don't see Android submenu under Tools – apieceofbart Nov 22 '17 at 14:03
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1`emulator -list-avds` lists AVDs. here's a [referece](https://developer.android.com/studio/run/emulator-commandline.html) on the Android Studio doc. – XoXo Mar 07 '18 at 12:58
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Thank you @JeffXiao! I've added that command to the post too :) – elboletaire Mar 08 '18 at 12:43
Use android avd
to open the AVD Manager.

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19This has been deprecated, see https://developer.android.com/studio/tools/help/android.html – elboletaire Mar 16 '17 at 16:54
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************************************************************************ The "android" command is deprecated. For manual SDK, AVD, and project management, please use Android Studio. For command-line tools, use tools/bin/sdkmanager and tools/bin/avdmanager ************************************************************************* – Shivam Bharadwaj Mar 26 '19 at 12:35
Sadly commands android sdk
and android avd
stopped working so to run emulator we need to use different commands to download and build all devices and its dependencies:
- Download sdk-tools-linux (tar.gz) from:
https://developer.android.com/studio#downloads
Unpack tools to :
...android-sdk/tools
(...wherever you want)Go to :
android-sdk/tools/bin
Install needed sdk libraries:
Execute in cmd
sdkmanager --update
sdkmanager "platform-tools" "platforms;android-29"
sdkmanager "build-tools;29.0.1" "extras;android;m2repository" "tools"
sdkmanager "system-images;android-29;google_apis_playstore;x86_64"
sdkmanager "emulator"
- Setup environment variables
Add env to system by editing ~/.bashrc (Linux) in Windows just setup system enviroments.
export ANDROID_HOME=../android-sdk
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$ANDROID_HOME
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/tools/bin
alias emulator="sh $ANDROID_HOME/tools/emulator"
Note: There is possible that You need JAVA_HOME too.
Restart computer or cmd to load environments
- Create device:
Go to /bin
avdmanager create avd -n myDevice -k "system-images;android-29;google_apis_playstore;x86_64"
- run device:
Got to dir and run
cd android-sdk/tools
emulator -avd myDevice (or sh $ANDROID_HOME/tools/emulator -avd myDevice)
Issues:
qemu emulator not found in /bin....
cd android-sdk/tools/bin
ln -s android-sdk/emulator/ emulator

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For me, ./android avd
worked, where android
was the shell script under android-studio/sdk/tools
.

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3Deprecated as of AS 2.3, see https://developer.android.com/studio/tools/help/android.html – elboletaire Mar 16 '17 at 16:54
./android avd
is deprecated use ~/Android/Sdk/tools/bin/avdmanager --help
instead!
or if it is easier for you, move to the directory and use it like in the old version:
cd ~/Android/Sdk/tools/bin/
./avdmanager
check new [options]
with --help
or -h
before you use avdmanager
first occurence in Android Studio 2.3 !

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1Note that the location of avdmanager varies with your install (mine is `/opt/android-sdk/tools/bin/avdmanager`, for example). – Rich Churcher Mar 15 '17 at 19:28
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Android studio:v3.0.1
Get name:
/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools$ android list avd
Start emulator:
/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools$ emulator -avd Nexus_6_API_23

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First of all to show all devices run the following command from the location - ~/Android/Sdk/tools
/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools> ./emulator -list-avds
then you will see the list of devices id, in my case i got following devices
Nexus_5X_API_28
Nexus_9_API_28
Now just run following command with the device id you want to run.
/home/user/Android/Sdk/tools> ./emulator -avd Nexus_9_API_28

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I created shortcut with this command
/path/to/Android/emulator/emulator -avd Nexus_5X_API_26
Where "Nexus_5X_API_26" is my virtual device I created in Android Studio (2.3.3). Correct name can be checked from ~/.android/avd/ folder, where are one subfolder (with extension .avd) and one file (with extension .ini) for each. There are qcow2 files which I think could be also run directly with qemu (have not tested yet).

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Here's the command-line usage for creating an AVD:
android create avd -n -t [- ] ...
Example : android create avd -n my_android1.5 -t 2
If the target you selected was a standard Android system image ("Type: platform"), the android tool next asks you whether you want to create a custom hardware profile.
Android 1.5 is a basic Android platform. Do you wish to create a custom hardware profile [no]
Use the create avd command to create a new AVD, specifying the --skin option with a value that references either a default skin name (such as "WVGA800") or a custom skin resolution (such as 240x432). Here's an example:
android create avd -n -t --skin WVGA800
or you can refer from :-
http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/managing-avds-cmdline.html

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3The `android` command is deprecated https://developer.android.com/studio/tools/help/android.html says: "This tool is no longer supported. You should instead use Android Studio to create AVDs and create projects." – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com Jun 25 '16 at 17:31
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SDKmanager is a better alternative https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/sdkmanager – TomTom Apr 12 '20 at 00:29