Android vs android-sdk-mac_86

Question

Why have I got two Android directories on my Mac?

Both are under ~/Library.

One is Android (which contains a 9.4GB sdk folder) and the other is android-sdk-mac_86 (which contains a 1.7GB system-images folder and a 1.7GB add-ons folder).

What's the difference and can I delete one of them?

Answer 1

The first question is which of the SDKs you use from your IDE (Android Studio?). If it's not declared in your Android Studio preferences, it might be in a system variable (try echo $ANDROID_HOME from terminal)

My guess is that you're using the android-sdk-mac_x86, and you should keep that one. this looks like the latest official Stand-alone SDK, as written in the developer site:

Unpack the ZIP file you've downloaded. By default, it's unpacked into a directory named android-sdk-mac_x86. Move it to an appropriate location on your machine, such as a "Development" directory in your home directory.

Make a note of the name and location of the SDK directory on your system—you will need to refer to the SDK directory later when using the SDK tools from the command line.

The folders you mentioned also fit what this SDK comes with.

If you are still not sure, you can rename one of them and see if everything still ticks.

I would personally delete both, and start with a fresh SDK that fits your current SDK packages, we usually carry junk from the past we don't actually need (http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing/adding-packages.html)