One pretty important thing to discuss is why you will need this tool. Well, consider it like this. You need the device-specific USB Drivers installed when you connect your device to a PC to transfer files, images, and videos. If they aren’t installed, your PC will refuse to identify the connected device or show it as unrecognized. This is similar to the case with these tools, although their usage goes a step further. These tools aren’t needed when you connect your device to a PC for file transfers. Instead, the need for these tools arises when you are about to carry out ADB and Fastboot commands.
If these tools are installed, the PC will only identify your device in fastboot or ADB mode. There are many commands you would need to carry out the abovementioned tweaks. Well, the first and foremost requirement is an unlocked bootloader. Unless you do so, you won’t be able to try any higher-level customizations. But even to unlock the bootloader, you must install the Android SDK Platform Tools. Apart from that, here are some of its other pretty important uses:
Booting Device to Bootloader/Fastboot:
Using the ADB and Fastboot binaries, you could easily boot your device to bootloader or fastboot mode. Just enter the adb reboot bootloader command, and that’s it. The best thing about this code is that it is universally applicable to all Android devices.
Booting to Recovery:
Booting your device to a custom recovery like TWRP or stock recovery is also possible with this single line of code: adb reboot recovery.
Checking ADB and Fastboot connection:
You could easily execute a single line of code to ensure your device has successfully booted to ADB or Fastboot modes, granted you have installed the Android SDK and Platform Tools on your PC—type in adb devices to check for an ADB connection or fastboot devices to verify a Fastboot connection.
Unlock Bootloader:
As mentioned, the fastboot oem unlock command opens the gate to many customizations.
Flashing ZIP Files:
You could also flash the ZIP files like the TWRP installer using the fastboot flash recovery recoveryname.zip
Booting IMG Files:
Likewise, booting your device via IMG file is also quite easy. We usually do so while booting TWRP Recovery to any A/B partition device by using the fastboot boot recovery.img
Rebooting Device:
Furthermore, you can use the fastboot reboot command to boot your device directly to Android OS from the fastboot mode.
To be fair, these are just some of the commands used normally. Many other ADB and Fastboot commands exist that you could/would come across while dealing with these customizations. However, no single code will be executed successfully if you don’t have the Android SDK Platform Tools installed on your PC. So with this, we guess by now you might have a pretty strong idea of this tool’s need and importance. Let’s now proceed ahead with the download links as well as the usage instructions for this tool across various platforms.
What’s New in Version:
36.0.2 (Sep 2025)
- adb
- Make legacy USB backend the default on Linux (instead of libusb) due to instability reports (device disconnection, interface read failure, and delayed netlink events preventing device detection).
- Fix bug where Samsung devices were not properly detected (b/404741058).
- Fix bug where old Android devices using USB class Miscellaneous (0xEF) were not properly detected (b/365009755).
- Fix bug where last character of a file was truncated when pulled or pushed [Windows only] (b/439152273).
36.0.1
Never released past Canary due to b/439152273.
36.0.0 (Apr 2025)
- adb
- Re-written libusb USB backend (uses sync API instead of async API). Improves reliability and fixes memory exhaustion on Linux.
- Libusb USB backend hot-plug now supports for Windows (enabling USB speed detection).
- Improved server-status now displays if mdns is enabled.
- Fixed macOS bug where Zero Length Packets were not sent, resulting in stalled connection (b/208675141).
- Fixed use-after-free in the libusb backend.
35.0.2 (July 2024)
- adb
- Fix openscreen mDNS backend bug bringing down server on truncated query issue #294120933.
- Make openscreen mDNS backend work on macOS.
- Make openscreen mDNS backend default on all platforms.
- Support to detect USB SuperSpeed+ (current and negotiated speeds) for diagnostic purposes.
- Graceful shutdown: Release all USB interfaces on shutdown (all OSes).
35.0.1 (March 2024)
35.0.0 (February 2024)
- adb
- Switch to libusb as the default on Linux issue.
- Fix adb startup on hosts without USB.
- Fix adb hangs caused by USB devices incorrectly reporting zero-length descriptors issues.
- Fix the return code of
adb shell when the device disconnects issue.
- fastboot
- Limit the maximum size of the incoming packet queue.
- Remove bottlenecks that previously limited download speeds to around 120MB/s. Now fastboot can saturate a SuperSpeed+ bus and achieve speeds up to 980MB/s, depending on the device
34.0.5 (October 2023)
- adb
- adb now defaults to libusb on macOS to address issue #270205252.
- Previously, adb responded with a successful code when wireless pairing fails. Resolved this by returning a failure code (1) and user-facing error (
error: protocol fault (couldn't read status message...)). echo $? now reports 1.
adb wait-for-disconnect is now operational for non-USB (wireless debugging).- Added new DbC interface for future support of ChromeOS over adb.
- fastboot
- Fixed flashall on Pixel 3 devices.
34.0.4 (July 2023)
- adb
- Propagate
-a (gListenAll) when adb forks an adb host server (previously, the flag only worked for adb -a server nodaemon)
- Faster root and unroot
- Reland
Flag(env) guarding clear endpoint (device) feature for OSX usb start. (issue #270205252).
- fastboot
- Mac: remove retries on invalid IO iterator (flashing failure with LIBUSB_TRANSFER_CANCELLED)
- Windows: fix “Sparse file is too large or invalid” when using “flashall”
- All platforms: fix “ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT not set” when using “update”
34.0.0 RC2 (March 2023)
- Updated with the release of Android 14 Developer Preview 2.
34.0.1 (March 2023)
- adb
- macOS: Reverted “unstable connectivity (MacBook high speed cable)” resolution due to adb install hang (issue #270205252).
- fastboot
- Windows: Fixed “mke2fs: Illegal or malformed device name while trying to determine filesystem size” error introduced in Platform tools 34.0.0 (issue #271039230).
34.0.0 (February 2023)
- adb
- Fixed zero length packet sends for macOS (issuetracker: 208675141).
- Addressed unstable connectivity (MacBook high speed cable): frequent adb disconnects.
- Improved error message for adb push with insufficient number of arguments.
- fastboot
- Improved flashing:
flashall will now skip reboots to userspace if it can.
- Fixed zero length packet sends for macOS (issuetracker: 208675141).
- Fixed flashing recovery.img resulting in wrong AVB footer.
You could now download and install the Android SDK Platform Tools for your operating system from the below links:
Once you have downloaded the ZIP package from above, extract it to a convenient location on your PC. However, it is highly recommended that there shouldn’t be any spaces between the names of the folders. For example, C:\GetDroidTips\platform-tools is the correct example, but C:\Get Droid Tips\platform-tools isn’t. Once you have extracted the folder, you should see the name as platform-tools. Here is how that folder looks in Windows.
Now to execute any ADB or Fastboot commands, there are two requirements, one on the device side and the other on your PC. First, let’s check out what needs to be done on your Android device. After which, we will shift our attention to the PC side.
STEP 1: Mobile Requirements- Enable USB Debugging:
So that your device gets recognized by your PC in the Android Debugging or ADB mode, you will have to enable USB Debugging. Here is how it could be done:
- Head over to Settings on your Android device.
- Navigate to About Phone and tap on Build Number 7 times.
- Then go back to Settings > System and tap on Advanced.
- You should now see the Developer Options. Within that, enable the USB Debugging toggle.
- Now connect your device to your PC via a USB cable and move over to the next section.
STEP 2: PC Requirements- Entering Commands:
There are two ways to enter commands on your PC: the command prompt and Windows Power Shell. Let’s examine both methods.
Executing Commands via Command Prompt
- If you wish to take the CMD route, then here is what needs to be done:
- Head over to the platform-tools folder on your PC.
- Type in CMD in the address bar inside that folder and hit Enter.
- This will launch the Command Prompt. Now, type in the desired command, and that is it.
Entering Commands in PowerShell Window:
- Head over to the platform tools folder on your PC.
- While pressing the Shift key, right-click in an empty area inside the platform-tools folder.
- From the menu that appears, select Open PowerShell window here (in Windows 10) or Open command window here (in earlier builds of Windows).
- Type in the needed commands and hit the Enter key to execute them.
However, do keep in mind that if you are using the PowerShell window, you might have to prefix ./ before each command. So to avoid any confusion, many users prefer to go ahead with the Command Prompt window itself.
STEP 3: Identifying your Device in ADB or Fastboot Mode:
Now that you have enabled USB Debugging and opened the PowerShell or Command prompt, here is how to begin with the ADB commands.
- Type in the below command and hit Enter
adb devices
- You should now see a prompt on your device, asking for USB Authorization. Tap on Allow and if it’s your PC, you should also tick mark the “Always allow from this computer” option, as shown below.
- Once that is done, you should now see an alphanumeric string followed by the adb keyword. This signifies that your PC has successfully recognized your device in ADB Mode.
- For fastboot mode, type in the below command and hit Enter:
adb reboot bootloader
- Now enter the below code and if you get the alphanumeric code followed by the fastboot word, the fastboot connection has been successfully established.
fastboot devices
That is it from this guide. We have provided the Android SDK Platform Tools download links, the installation steps, and some of the important ADB and Fastboot commands. If you have any queries concerning the abovementioned steps, let us know in the comments section. To round off, here are some iPhone Tips and Tricks, PC tips and tricks, and Android Tips and Tricks that you should also check out.
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