Android emulator not showing in Visual Studio

Question

I made an Android Virtual Device. It runs on the SDK emulator using Intel HAXM. I was able to see it in Visual studio (debug devices drop down list) and debug my applications on it. This is great for when I don't have a physical device to hand. Then something happened!?! It refuses to show up now?

Over the last week I have tried (In no particular order):

• Recreating my virtual device.
• Reinstalling visual studio.
• Reinstalling Android SDK.
• Installing both of the above as an administrator.
• Checking the SDK path in the windows registry.
• Tried adb kill-server / start-server.
• Checked that Adb can see the device - it can.
• Tried uninstalling/reinstalling HAXM manually.
• Made sure my project targets API of the emulator.
• Made sure that the build active configuration matches the emulator.
• Ended any other ADB processes using task manager (leaving just the one for visual studio).
• Checked windows event log for any warnings/errors. Nothing.

I have read these. Also no joy...

• https://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/10937/devices-not-showing-up-in-android-target-device-dropdown
• Visual Studio 2015 Android Emulator issue

Other info:

• I am using Visual Studio 2015 Community.
• Physical devices work and appear without fail in the devices drop down!
• latest android SDK

Answer 1

I had a similar issue using VS 2015 with Android Emulator Manager (AVD). I have to start my emulator from the Android Emulator Manager and then it will show up in the debug devices drop down list, but one day it didn't show up. Tools > Android > Restart Adb Server fixed it for me.