Developer Console

Connect to Fire Tablet through ADB (Fire Tablets)

You can use Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to connect your Fire tablet to your computer for testing and debugging. You connect your computer to your Fire tablet through a micro-USB cable.

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a command-line utility for running and managing Android apps on your device or emulator. For more information and instructions on using ADB, see Android Debug Bridge.

If you're looking for instructions on connecting to a Fire TV instead, see Connect to Fire TV Through ADB.

Step 1: Enable Developer Options

  1. Go to Settings > Device Options and look for a Developer Options menu. If it's not there, do the following:

    a. Go to Settings > Device Options > About Fire Tablet. b. Tap your Serial Number seven times. c. Return to Device Options. A new menu appears called "Developer Options."

  2. Tap Developer options. (2013 models might call this option "Security.")
  3. Set Developer options and USB debugging to ON.
  • If you have a Kindle Fire 1st Generation, ADB is enabled by default.

Step 2: Install the Kindle Fire Driver (Windows Only)

  1. If you're using Windows, download this Kindle Fire driver: kindle_fire_usb_driver.zip.
  2. After downloading the file, extract the contents into a new folder and double-click the Fire_Devices ABD drivers file.
  3. Proceed through the installation wizard screens to install the driver.

Step 3: Install Android Studio

ADB is available on your computer when you install Android Studio. If you don't already have Android Studio, download and install Android Studio. If you're not using Android Studio, you need to download and install Android SDK platform tools.

Step 4: Connect Your Fire Device to Your Computer with a USB Cable

  1. Using a USB cable, connect your Fire tablet to a USB port on your computer.

    Note that Fire tablets can treat the USB with different transfer options. After connecting the USB cable, swipe down from the top of your tablet to see the USB option used. You might see various notifications, including the USB connection type that was used when you connected the cable. The relevant notification is highlighted in the screenshot below.

    Media Device (MTP) USB debugging option
    Media Device (MTP) USB debugging option

    If you don't see "Connected as Media Device", press Tap for other USB options. Then select Media device (MTP). Later Fire OS versions have a different interface here. If you're using Fire OS 7, select File Transfer.

    Media Device (MTP) USB debugging option
    Media Device (MTP) USB debugging option

    If you don't see the USB connection type in the above notifications, go to Settings > Device Options > Developer Options > USB computer connection. Set this to Media device (MTP). For Fire OS 7, select File Transfer.

  2. When the Allow USB debugging? dialog appears on your tablet, tap OK.

  3. Open Android Studio and look for the device to appear in devices drop-down menu:

    Connected tablet devices appear in this Devices menu
    Connected tablet devices appear in this Devices menu

    The device's name will use the android.os.Build.MODEL property for the device. KFSUWI refers to Fire HD 10 (2017) tablet. You can see a list of build model names in the Identifying Fire Tablet Devices.

    If you have not selected the "Allow USB Debugging" dialog on your tablet, the name "Unknown device" will appear in the devices drop-down menu in Android Studio until you allow debugging.

  4. With the tablet connected, you can now run your app on your tablet by clicking the Run App button Run 'app' in Android Studio.

If you run into issues, see the Troubleshooting section below.

Check for Device Connections Using ADB (Optional)

Instead of looking in the devices menu in Android Studio, you can also use some ADB terminal commands to confirm that your device is connected. ADB is useful for performing many other operations as well, such as entering sandbox mode or installing other assets. Follow these two sections:

If you skip adding ADB to your PATH, you can also Check for Connected Devices If ADB Isn't In Your PATH.

Add ADB to Your PATH

First, add ADB to your PATH so you can more easily run ADB commands. (Your PATH is an environment variable used to specify the location of the program's executable. If you don't add ADB to your PATH, running ADB commands will require you to browse to the <Android SDK>/platform-tools directory to run adb.)

Mac

To add ADB to your PATH on Mac:

  1. Get the path to your Android SDK platform-tools directory:

    1. Open Android Studio and click the SDK Manager button . The location to your Android SDK appears near the top next to Android SDK Location. For example: /Users/<your username>/Library/Android/sdk

      If this is your first time opening Android Studio, there isn't an SDK Manager button. Instead, at the Welcome to Android Studio prompt, click Configure > SDK Manager and provide the location to the Android SDK.

    2. Copy the path to the SDK and paste it somewhere convenient, such as a text editor.
    3. Add /platform-tools to the end of the path you copied in the previous step. ("platform-tools" is the directory containing the ADB executable.)
    4. Copy the full path to your clipboard.
  2. Use the following command to add ADB to your .bash_profile. Replace <your username> with your actual username. Also, make sure the path points to your Android SDK.

    echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/Users/<your username>/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/' >> ~/.bash_profile
    

    Your .bash_profile file is usually in your user directory, which you can find by typing cd ~ (change to your user directory). Then type ls -a (list all) to show all files, including hidden ones.

    If the file isn't there, simply create one. You can then type open .bash_profile to see the paths listed.

    After you add this PATH to your bash profile, you should see the following in your .bash_profile file:

    export PATH=$PATH:/Users/johndoe/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/
    

    (Only instead of johndoe, you will see your own username.)

  3. Fully restart any terminal sessions, and then type adb. If you successfully added ADB to your path, you will see ADB help info rather than "command not found."

Windows

To add ADB to your PATH on Windows:

  1. Get the path to your Android SDK platform-tools directory:

    1. Open Android Studio and click the SDK Manager button .

      The location to your Android SDK appears near the top next to Android SDK Location. For example: C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk

      If this is your first time opening Android Studio, there isn't an SDK Manager button. Instead, at the Welcome to Android Studio prompt, click Configure > SDK Manager and provide the location to the Android SDK.

    2. Copy the path to the SDK and paste it somewhere convenient, such as a text editor.
    3. Add /platform-tools to the end of the path you copied in the previous step. ("platform-tools" is the directory containing the ADB executable.)
    4. Copy the full path to your clipboard.
  2. Click your computer's search button Run 'app' (next to Start) and type view advanced system settings.
  3. Click View advanced system settings.
  4. When the System Settings dialog opens, click the Environment Variables button.
  5. Under System Variables (the lower pane), select Path and click Edit.
  6. Do one of the following:

    • On Windows 7 or 8, move your cursor to the farthest position on the right, type ; and then press Ctrl+V to insert the path to your SDK that you copied earlier. It may look like this: ;C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools. Click OK on each of the three open dialog boxes to close them.
    • On Windows 10, click the New button and add this location.
  7. Restart any terminal sessions, and then type adb. If you successfully added ADB to your path, you will see ADB help info rather than "command not found."

Check for Connected Devices

  1. Assuming ADB is added to your PATH, run the following commands:

    adb kill-server
    adb start-server
    adb devices
    
  2. Confirm that the serial number for your Fire tablet appears in the list of devices. For example:

    List of devices attached
    G000N8978167088A	device
    

    On your tablet, your device's serial number is located under Settings > Device Options.

Check for Connected Devices If ADB Isn't In Your PATH

If your terminal doesn't recognize adb as a command (that is, you didn't add ADB to your PATH), you might have to run the commands from the SDK directory that contains ADB.

  1. In Android Studio go to Tools > SDK Manager.
  2. In the SDK Manager dialog box, copy the Android SDK Location.
  3. Browse to this location in your terminal or command prompt. For example:

    Mac

    cd /Users/<username>/Library/Android/sdk
    

    Windows

    cd C:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk
    

    Then go into the platform-tools directory:

    cd platform-tools
    

    The platform-tools directory contains adb.

  4. Now run the ADB commands as follows:

    Mac:

    ./adb kill-server
    ./adb start-server
    ./adb devices
    

    Windows:

    adb kill-server  
    adb start-server  
    adb devices
    

    The response should list your device's serial number. For example:

    List of devices attached
    G000N8978167088A	device
    

    If your Fire tablet is still not detected, you may need to reboot your computer or log out and back in for the changes to take effect.

Troubleshooting

Tablet doesn't appear in list of devices in Android Studio

  1. If you don't see your tablet device in the list of devices in Android Studio, click the devices drop-down menu and select Troubleshoot device connections:

    Troubleshooting device connections
    Troubleshooting device connections
  2. Click Rescan devices.

    Rescanning devices
    Rescanning devices

    If rescanning devices doesn't detect your Fire tablet as a device, your micro-USB cable might be bad, you might have the wrong USB connection type (e.g, camera instead of media device), or you might not have enabled USB debugging. You can also try restarting your computer and the tablet.

Uninstall the non-ADB Driver (Windows)

If you previously connected a Fire tablet without first enabling ADB on the Fire tablet, you might need to remove the existing USB device driver and force re-installation of the driver. To remove the non-ADB driver:

  1. Using a micro-USB cable, connect your Fire tablet to a USB port on your computer.
  2. On your computer (Windows 10), click the search button Run 'app' (next to the Start menu) and type Device Manager in the search. Then select it in the results. (Other Windows versions have different options for accessing the Control Panel.)
  3. In the Device Manager window, expand Portable Devices.
  4. Right-click the Fire device and then click Properties.
  5. In the Properties window, on the Driver tab, click Uninstall, and then Confirm.
  6. Unplug your Fire tablet from your computer.

Confirm the Fire Driver Is Installed Correctly

You can confirm that the Fire driver is installed correctly by doing the following:

  1. On your computer, click the search button search button Run 'app' (next to the Start menu) and type Device Manager.
  2. In Device Manager, under Fire Devices, verify that that a device appears called Android Composite ADB Interface.

    If your Device Manager shows an Other Devices section with a second Fire device with a yellow alert sign, your computer is listing Amazon's unrecognized ADB module as a separate device. To fix this issue:

    1. Under Other Devices, right-click the Fire device and select Properties.
    2. On the Driver tab of the Properties window, select Update Driver…
    3. Choose to browse for the driver software, then navigate to Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer > Show All Devices > Have Disk.
    4. Navigate to the folder where you installed the Amazon driver (typically C:\Program Files (x86)\Amazon.com\Fire_Devices\Drivers) and select it.
    5. Ignore the warning regarding installing drivers and proceed.

      You should now correctly see your Fire tablet with the ADB driver installed.


Last updated: Jun 28, 2022