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I am trying to learn to make Android apps, but am very new to Android, tablets/smartphones in general (don't have one and never used one), Java, and the Android development environment.

I installed the ADT and started running the first tutorial. This includes running a simulated tablet to run the first Hello, world! app on. In the tutorial it mentions you have to "unlock" the tablet, but never said exactly how to do that. I tried all kinds of clicks, but all seem to be ignored. It just says "android" in the middle of the screen with the highlights on that animated.

Googling only yielded videos of how to reset your tablet if you forget the unlock code, but nothing mentions how to unlock it in the first place. One video showed dragging a special sequence between some dots on the screen, but my screen has no dots and I wouldn't know what the sequence should be in any case. Several questions here discussed unlocking, but they all wanted to know how to do it programmatically. Apparently everyone just knows how to do this except me. I'd appreciate someone letting me in on the secret, unless you then have to shoot me afterwards.

Olin Lathrop
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3 Answers3

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I think when it says "unlock" your tablet, you just have to slide the circle in the center of your emulated tablet. So "drag" with your mouse the circle with the lock to the left or the right, and your emulated tablet will be unlocked

The screen may look like this one (or similar):

Gurfuffle
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CtrlX
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  • Thanks, that was the second part to what I was missing, and a direct answer to the question. The first part was that I android is still booting up when it says "android". I took a few minutes before the lock icon was visible, then dragging it did unlock the device. Now it seems I don't have to unlock it anymore, even when I run a fresh instance after a reboot of the machine. – Olin Lathrop Dec 23 '13 at 20:34
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If you see something that animates and says "android" the Emulator is booting... Wait a while, especially if you have a slow computer.

Maybe try allocating your virtual device more memory, or build a smaller device within the ADT.

If you've got an Intel processor, you may be able to use the HAXM simulation to create a faster simulator.

EDIT: If it turns out your emulator is just slow, check out some of the other similar posts on SO, like this one: Why is the Android emulator so slow? How can we speed up the Android emulator?

Community
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Matt
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  • Thanks, this helped. I didn't realize that the "android" display meant it was still booting. It took a few minutes for that to go away and show a different display that could finally be unlocked. – Olin Lathrop Dec 23 '13 at 20:36
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The shining android just means that the emulated device is starting. That can take some time if you do not have a fast computer (like mine :D). Once it loads just unlock it like a normal android device, except with mouse. (Like @CtrlX answer) If you think your emulator is too slow you can try this

Gurfuffle
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