'Visual Studio Emulator for Android' devices are not listed in the Android Device Monitor

Question

I can start the VS Emulator devices just fine, but they simply don't show up in ADB/Android studio.

I searched and found a similar SO question (same issue, only I installed the standalone emulator) but OP provided a workaround and I would like to know how to actually fix it so it shows up every time as intended instead of having to connect it manually (and as per SO etiquette didn't want to ask there in the comments).

I also found a "solution" in a Microsoft FAQ post which instructs you to edit a registry key under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Android SDK Tools

but the 'Android SDK Tools' is nowhere to be found under 'Wow6432Node' in my registry, which could very well be the cause of the problem to begin with. I'm not sure if it's missing because of the Android Studio/SDK installation or something else, but for example Genymotion devices connect to ADB without any problems. (I always feel uneasy about adding anything to registry manually, but maybe I should add the 'PATH' myself?)

I installed everything just today on a fresh Windows 10 installation and didn't mess with anything in the registry myself.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I experienced this issue when i moved my android SDK (due to disc space reasons).

If you open regedit and go to the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Android SDK Tools

and edit the value Path to look at your new android sdk location it should work.

you may have to call:

adb kill-server adb start-server 

and relaunch your emulator again to get adb devices to see it but it should show up in the end

You may also need to restart your machine just to be safe

Answer 2

In my case I didn't have that entry in registry. But all you need to do is just create the key Android SDK Tools that entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node

Then add the two keys as shown (right click -> New -> String Value). Add the correct path to your Android SDK. Here is what it should look like:

Once you add those entries

adb kill-server adb start-server

Restart the Visual Studio Emulator for Android then run adb devices and hopefully it should just appear.