How to use Android SDK Documentation offline

Question

Improved solution for displaying documentation (from sources).

Found, that if you download documentation via SDK manager (it will be located in .../sdk/docs/reference), you're going to use only 24 API documentation. (Imagine, your project target SDK is 25 or 22, for instance).

To fix this, you need:

1. Delete documentation via SDK manager in Android Studio.
2. Right there, download sources for interested APIs (sources already contain documentation). Also I found, that fetching documentation from sources a bit faster comparing with offline one inside .../sdk/docs/reference.

3. Delete all javadoc paths from jdk.table.xml. Path to this file on OS X: ~/Library/Preferences/AndroidStudio.../options/jdk.table.xml

   --> Delete all of these and all occurrences -->
   
   <javadocPath>
     <root type="composite">
       <root type="simple" url="http://developer.android.com/reference/" />
     </root>
   </javadocPath>
   

4. Reboot Studio. Enjoy!

I downloaded it too, and I noticed that the Android Studio didn't generated the javadocPath properly in jdk.table.xml, that's how the file looks like (part that has the jdk tag with the name Android API ## Platform):

...
<jdk version="2">
  <name value="Android API 25 Platform" />
  <type value="Android SDK" />
  <homePath value="$USER_HOME$/android-sdk" />
  <roots>
      ...
    <javadocPath>
      <root type="composite">
        <root type="simple" url="http://developer.android.com/reference/" />
      </root>
    </javadocPath>
      ...

File is located at Android Studio Configuration folder/config/options/jdk.table.xml

Notice that the javadocPath is pointing to the online url, just change that to your local copy, in my case, the docs folder is in /home/mauricio/android-sdk/docs, in Windows is something like C:/android-sdk/docs.

The url structure that you have to follow is file://<path-to-sdk>/docs/reference

You have to point to the reference folder inside the docs.

It'll look something like this:

  <root type="simple" url="file:///home/mauricio/android-sdk/docs/reference" />
  <!-- if it's Windows -->
  <root type="simple" url="file://C:/android-sdk/docs/reference" />

Then, if it's running, restart the Android Studio and it's done.
I have a SSD too, and the offline documentation makes it open instantly.

Note: You have to do that in all javadocPath in the file (pretty easy using Replace all in any text editor), and when you download a new Android API, you have to do that again because it generates the url pointing to the online docs.

---

I think this is a bug in Android Studio, because the sourcePath and classPath is detected and generated correctly. It's worth reporting to them.

One way to fix config/options/jdk.table.xml is to stop the IDE, delete the file, ad restart. The IDE finds the installed SDKs, and it regenerates the options file.

I had issues with an upgrade from a preview release to 3.2 and docs were slow to display, and the above fixed the issue.

For sdk tools v26, using the command-line:

PATH_TO_SDK/tools/bin/sdkmanager "docs"

Then go to the directory PATH_TO_SDK/docs and open index.html file.