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I rarely do something for Android so I'm a bit confused. While back there were two type of installations - Android Studio and just Android SDK. I have IDEA so I don't need Studio. Typically I download SDK that have UI tool to download its components.

I just got https://dl.google.com/android/repository/tools_r25.2.3-linux.zip and I can't see UI SDK Manager in it. There is bin/sdkmanager shell script. But it's kinda inconvenient for my purpose because going through output of --list, copy-pasting packages names and running sdkmanager would take too much time.

What's the way of installing this quickly now ?

PS. I'm on Ubuntu 16.10 in case it matters.

PS2. I just tried sdkmanager "platforms;android-25" as per documentation but it gave no output after me agreeing to terms. Where did it install SDK files? Did it even install it? Amazing.

expert
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  • Try `Android > SDK Manager > Launch Standalone SDK Manager`. – Enzokie Dec 31 '16 at 10:27
  • It's not a real solution but what I can say is that on Windows I have a SDK Manager.exe in the root of the android-sdk directory. If that helps (probably not). In case you are right, did you try to download a less recent version? – Beppi's Dec 31 '16 at 10:27
  • @Enzokie I guess it's something in Android Studio ? I have standard IDEA with Android plugin thus there is no such menu option. Or at least I don't see it :) – expert Dec 31 '16 at 10:30
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    With android sdk v26 the GUI is completely gone. It is only accessible from android studio. Too bad Google aggressively promoting android studio. – Bharat G Apr 03 '17 at 19:25
  • Alternative SDK manager is available here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/44244605/971547 – Erel May 30 '17 at 08:18
  • @Bharat@Beppi [The SDK GUI is here to stay!](https://stackoverflow.com/a/51429889/7551330) – xavier_fakerat Jul 19 '18 at 19:01
  • The GUI was deprecated and removed starting with SDK tools v25. To get the GUI, install v24 and update it [as explained here](https://www.andreszsogon.com/using-android-8-and-9-emulators-without-android-studio/). – andreszs Jul 21 '18 at 23:21

11 Answers11

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Looks like I'm not the only one who had to deal with this idiocy. The way to install it

  1. Unpack zip to some /parent folder so it has /parent/tools. I extracted content of zip's tools to /androidsdk and it was mistake. Script couldn't find it.
  2. Set ANDROID_HOME to /parent folder.
  3. Run /parent/tools/android sdk to see SDK Manager's GUI.

Google, was it hard to leave script that does the above in installation zip so people don't need to waste 40 minutes googling around ?

ooXei1sh
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expert
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  • mmm looks strange to me... the env variable `ANDROID_HOME` is never used inside the `tools/android` script... – Lino Dec 31 '16 at 11:04
  • @Lino I just realize that it was used by the IDE, therefore it might not be necessary in the OP's problem :( – Enzokie Dec 31 '16 at 11:08
  • Ridiculous this isn't documented somewhere. I had to redownload the SDK and all the old tools where gone, just had a bunch of seemingly random batch files. – Ray Jan 28 '17 at 19:42
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    Didn't understand this solution. Is the sdkmanager.exe gone or is just a "bug" in the installation? – user1845593 Mar 22 '17 at 01:13
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    What "zip" are you talking about? – Bowi Apr 04 '17 at 11:37
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    Now, `android sdk` prints out `Invalid or unsupported command "sdk"` – Asfand Qazi Jun 02 '17 at 16:29
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    `The "android" command is deprecated. For manual SDK, AVD, and project management, please use Android Studio.` – Miha_x64 Jun 22 '17 at 13:24
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    What the frick. I don't care about or need Android Studio. This is ridiculous. – Ray Sep 20 '17 at 17:39
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    I think this answer is obsolete now. it doesn't work with current sdk – Aman Gupta Oct 04 '17 at 06:15
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    Since android decided to do this, my Cordova project can't me installed & working on other devices so i have to work on my 10 year old laptop.... Some plugins I use are deprecated in cordova 7.0 but never re-created.. – Jean-Paul Dec 06 '17 at 12:41
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    I agree. Google cant even make their Angular.io example project work properly. It baffles me how a company this big makes these kind of mistakes – Ian Steffy Apr 18 '18 at 15:32
  • I understand the feeling about having to install Android Studio when not needed, but on the other side Google has now made it completely portable, so at least it won't be entangled with your system. Look for the zip / no installer on the google / android website. – Redoman May 16 '18 at 12:27
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    @agpt There is a newer alternative solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/51429889/7551330 – xavier_fakerat Jul 20 '18 at 18:34
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Officially GUI is gone, but pleasant people saved the last of it for us: installer_r24.4.1-windows.exe

According for this announcment Google doesn't intend to support ADT pluging 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. If it already happened try to search by tag.

Thank to Losin' Me for links:

Found on web.archive.org

Denis Petrov
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    +1.Managed to successfully launch an emulator with Android Monitor to view the logcat without the need for Android Studio with this answer. Thank you. Prefer my GUIs then command lines. Ergh. – Unknownweirdo Sep 05 '17 at 11:53
  • Windows (No installer): https://dl.google.com/android/android-sdk_r24.4.1-windows.zip – Unknownweirdo Sep 05 '17 at 11:53
  • Found on: https://web.archive.org/web/20160602115203/https://developer.android.com/studio/index.html#downloads – Unknownweirdo Sep 05 '17 at 11:54
  • The eclipse Andmore project is working on bring these tools back to life. So hopefully you'll have access. It was short sited of Google to force you to go through the Android Studio UI only for these options. Keep an eye out on the Andmore project for when we will have this available. I'll try to update this comment as well when it is available. – kingargyle Nov 30 '17 at 18:19
  • Thanks for GUI Windows Installer – Michael Samteladze Jul 13 '18 at 12:39
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    @Unknownweirdo Please see my post showing how to [use the GUI in latest SDK versions](https://stackoverflow.com/a/51429889/7551330) – xavier_fakerat Jul 19 '18 at 19:02
  • This may be a few years past the fact, but there is a changeset available in which at least some of the original SDK tools support was removed - https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/platform/sdk/+/331978 It should be possible to fork the AOSP platform/sdk source code, starting at either the changeset before that one, or starting at that before the later one in which it was git-cherry-picked at the AOSP platform/sdk source repository. I'm not sure how well it may integrate with existing AOSP designs, but as a matter of the tooling, hopefully it'll be trivial. – Sean Champ Sep 17 '19 at 15:03
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Late to the party, but you can download v24.4 installer like the good old day here. It will update itself to v25.x and everything works as expected. Also a big ef'u Google.

Update 2021-07 : This tool does not offer build tools version >= 30 and won't show newer packages anymore

Eric
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Since Android released build tools 25.3.0, they removed android CLI command and replaced it with avdmanager and sdkmanager located inside your $ANDROID_HOME/bin/tools

Run this command to get a list of available packages in sdk-style path: sdkmanager --list

Run this command to install a specific image: sdkmanager --verbose "system-images;android-19;google_apis;x86"

solidak
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8

From the command line, just type

tools/android sdk

and the usual GUI for the Android SDK will be prompted.

Hope this helps

Lino
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    @expert this looks like the answer you need. I tried it in Ubuntu. – Enzokie Dec 31 '16 at 10:39
  • @Enzokie Looks like something is still missing. I see jar in question in `lib` folder but I'm hesitant to read bash 3.5Kb script to find out where Google made mistake. – expert Dec 31 '16 at 10:40
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    @expert maybe you need to set the environment variable. The `./android sdk` is working in my case assuming the I `cd` to the correct folder. – Enzokie Dec 31 '16 at 10:41
  • @Enzokie Which environment variable ? Where in documentation can I read that ? – expert Dec 31 '16 at 10:42
  • Looks like I'm not the only one who had problems with this idiocy https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=230705 – expert Dec 31 '16 at 10:45
  • @expert [here](http://stackoverflow.com/a/28889144/5217712) In this case you need to have a text editor like vim or gedit to open it. Ex. `gedit ~/.bashrc` – Enzokie Dec 31 '16 at 10:47
  • Thanks so much, this helped me a lot! – stenlan Mar 05 '17 at 12:05
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    This no longer works either. "Invalid or unsupported command "sdk" and "The 'android' command is deprecated. For manual SDK, AVD, and project management, please use Android Studio. Thans Obama. – Nilzor Sep 30 '17 at 08:09
  • @Nilzor See if this post addresses your query: https://stackoverflow.com/a/51429889/7551330 – xavier_fakerat Jul 20 '18 at 18:37
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If You have Android Studio, you can point your sdk manager in Android Studio to where you just installed your SDK. You can manage it from there. That's what I had to do. The command line was so tough for me as I didn't get the full package names when running sdkmanager --list command

Jimmy Ilenloa
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    This saved me, instructions all over the web are outdated, and expect you to be able to open the gui from the command line. This was the easiest solution by far- – chrismarx Jun 15 '17 at 19:00
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    that sucks. I liked the stand alone GUI. – Martin Jul 20 '17 at 07:14
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    Google just decided to follow Apple's policy: don't let the developers relax and focus on development, we need to do something so that they spend most of their time configuring our stuff }:-[ – RAM237 Aug 25 '17 at 13:08
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Here is the link for download android sdk with GUI for windows, linux and mac:

Uncompressing and put the folder named tools inside androidsdk directory, search for android.bat: it's open GUI in windows.

Download packages and develop apps.

Stephen Rauch
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Tiago NET
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For using with Xamarin, 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).

Divins Mathew
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I am sorry for bumping a necropost. But 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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In the tools directory search for ' android.bat ' file and run it , GUI for SDK manager will open .

Praveen Shaw
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    I've tried this and no GUI opens. I get a message saying the "android" command is deprecated and to use the tools\bin\sdkmanager.bat and avdmanager.bat files which do not give you a GUI. – m.e.conroy Apr 28 '17 at 14:36
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    I guess they're trying to force people to download the Android Studio IDE, because I think that's my only solution, I don't have time to deal with the commandline for selecting and installing android images. Something that used to be easy was just made 10 times more difficult and annoying. – m.e.conroy Apr 28 '17 at 14:39
  • That how it worked last week. Not any more. Not having a stand alone GUI sucks. – Martin Jul 20 '17 at 07:16
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    It's a very cheap trick to force users install Android Studio when it's completely unneeded. – andreszs Sep 24 '17 at 18:40
  • They asked for Linux. – robbyoconnor Mar 21 '20 at 23:14
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For all Windows users: I just made a "porting" of the old GUI executables...

although porting is a big word, I just changed the executable so it would read andoid_gui.bat instead of android.bat, and added that file and some required libs (although I think only archquery.jar is needed, I also put sdkmanager.jar, sdkstats.jar and sdkuilib.jar; it seems to work even without them so let me know if they are not needed)

Just extract it in the SDK directory

Download here

Alex Sim
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