Is it possible to start activity through adb shell?

Question

I want to start activity through adb shell. So that I can launch a specific activity that is needed

http://charlesliublog.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/how-to-start-an-activity-by-adb-shell-command/ — Vajk Hermecz, Nov 14 '12 at 14:24

score 279 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '12 at 14:27

279

Launch adb shell and enter the command as follows

am start -n yourpackagename/.activityname

answered Nov 14 '12 at 14:27

Robin Chander

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You can find out the activity names by running `aapt dump xmltree AndroidManifest.xml` and looking through the output. – chrisvarnz Jan 14 '14 at 17:45
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You can find the apk on the phone with `adb shell pm list packages -f` and retrieve it with `adb pull /path/to/file.apk C:\some\folder` to use with the `aapt` command Chris commented. (aapt is in build-tools) – Christopher Galpin May 29 '14 at 23:12
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Also don't forget add `android:exported="true"` line for an activity in AndroidManifest.xml file. – mbelsky Dec 01 '15 at 06:56
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A simpler way to find the apk on the phone would be `adb shell pm path ` – Doge Sep 28 '16 at 20:51
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@ChristopherGalpin No need to pull the APKs, `adb shell dumpsys package` does the job. – m0skit0 Jan 30 '18 at 18:14
**aapt** doesn't exist on my samsung tablet... also, there may be an md5 hash prepended to the activity name. – samus Feb 02 '18 at 16:55
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What does '-n' stands for here? I do not see any documentation on page: https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb under 'Call activity manager (am)' section. – Neetesh Kumar Gupta Jul 26 '18 at 22:25
Neetesh - it's here https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb#IntentSpec (click show all) – rbennell Dec 13 '18 at 11:50
@RobinChander Your command only worked as follows `am start -n yourpackagename/activityname`, i.e. the omission of `.` – Shuzheng Sep 09 '21 at 14:09

score 67 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 01 '16 at 02:18

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eg：

MyPackageName is com.example.demo

MyActivityName is com.example.test.MainActivity

adb shell am start -n com.example.demo/com.example.test.MainActivity

answered Apr 01 '16 at 02:18

Wooi

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^^^ This is correct explanation rather than " am start -n yourpackagename/.activityname " youre launch activity may be in different package, than in app pakagename – UdayaLakmal Nov 21 '16 at 08:51
It works for me only if I add quotes: adb shell am start -n "com.example.demo/com.example.test.MainActivity" – Oleg Sokolov Nov 19 '21 at 11:52
Permission Denial: starting Intent ... not exported from uid xxxx – Mattwmaster58 Mar 20 '22 at 13:00

score 27 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 11 '19 at 04:45

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You can also find the name of the current on screen activity using

adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep 'mCurrentFocus'

edited Jul 11 '19 at 04:45

Bhargav Rao

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answered Mar 22 '16 at 07:57

rbennell

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thanks a lot too, I had different build types, and strangely within the activity name, the suffix for the package isn't used :/ did learn something! – cV2 Jun 01 '17 at 12:40
Wow, really surprised. I can see every activity name of every app and every game even they have obfuscation! – Jemshit Oct 24 '19 at 11:20
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The command doesn't seem to work anymore, at least on my emulator (grep returns nothing) :( – Rick77 Mar 11 '21 at 21:59
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Try `adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep 'mActivityRecord'` – user3354265 Jun 21 '21 at 16:49
Maybe true before 2020, but now on june 2022 this does not show me anything on my Android TV – 1111161171159459134 Jun 11 '22 at 20:17

klimat · Answer 4 · 2016-04-07T11:55:21.070

I run it like AndroidStudio does:

am start -n "com.example.app.dev/com.example.app.phonebook.PhoneBookActivity" -a android.intent.action.MAIN -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER

If you have product flavour like dev, it should occur only in application package name but shouldn't occur in activity package name.

For emulator, it works without android:exported="true" flag on activity in AndroidManifest.xml but I found it useful to add it for unrooted physical device to make it work.

score 13 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 04 '13 at 23:47

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adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.xxx

Mention xxx as the action that you mentioned in the manifest file.

edited Sep 04 '13 at 23:47

spaaarky21

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answered Nov 14 '12 at 14:29

Hanif

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score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 20 '14 at 22:36

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For example this will start XBMC:

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n org.xbmc.xbmc/android.app.NativeActivity

(More general answers are already posted, but I missed a nice example here.)

answered Sep 20 '14 at 22:36

Josef Kufner

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Is it possible to start activity through adb shell?

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