ADB server version (36) doesn't match this client (39); killing [duplicate]

Question

After installing the Android O preview on a test device my ADB stopped working and started giving me this error.

adb server version (36) doesn't match this client (39); killing...
adb E 03-27 08:01:55  2925 147690 usb_osx.cpp:333] Could not open interface: e00002c5
adb E 03-27 08:01:55  2925 147690 usb_osx.cpp:294] Could not find device interface
error: could not install *smartsocket* listener: Address already in use
ADB server didn't ACK
* failed to start daemon *
error: cannot connect to daemon

The only answers I have come across on this issue referred to Genymotion being out of sync with ADB but I don’t use Genymotion. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have already wiped and reinstalled Android Studio as well as all of its tools and settings yet seem to still have this issue.

Answer 1

In my case this error occured when I set up my environment adb path as ~/.android-sdk/platform-tools (which happens when e.g. android-platform-tools is installed via homebrew), which version was 36, but Android Studio project has Android SDK next path ~/Library/Android/sdk which adb version was 39.

I have changed my PATH to platform-tools to ~/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools and error was solved

Answer 2

This works for me...

• go to GenyMotion settings -> ADB tab
• instead of Use Genymotion Android tools, choose custom Android SDK Tools and then browse your installed SDK.

Answer 3

The main point that all the others have missed, is that you will get this error when you have a running adb process in the background. So the first step is to find it and kill it:

ps aux | grep adb
user          46803   0.0  0.0  2442020    816 s023  S+    5:07AM   0:00.00 grep adb
user          46636   0.0  0.0   651740   3084   ??  S     5:07AM   0:00.02 adb -P 5037 fork-server server

When you find it, you can kill it using kill -9 46636.

In my case, the problem was an old version of adb coming from GapDebug. If you got this with GapDebug, get out of it and then do

adb kill-server
adb start-server

because with GapDebug in the background, when you kill the adb server, GapDebug will start its own copy immediately, causing the start-server to be ignored

Answer 4

I had the same problem with Android Studio - adb server version (37) doesn't match this client (39). I fixed by the following solution :

• In Android Studio go to Tools -> Android -> SDK Manager

• In the SDK Tools tab untick Android SDK Platform-Tools, click Apply to uninstall.

• I then renamed the folder Platform-Tools to Platform-ToolsOld

• Then back in the SDK Manager re-tick the Platform-Tools to re-install.

Answer 5

I had the same error. In my case, using Appium, I had two versions of ADB

$ /usr/local/bin/adb version 36

and

$ /Users/user/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb version 39

The solution was:

1. be sure that your $PATH in bash_profile is pointing to: /Users/user/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/

2. stop the adb server: adb kill-server and check Appium is stopped.

3. delete the adb version 36 (or you can rename it to have a backup): rm /usr/local/bin/adb

4. start adb server: adb start-server or just starting Appium

Answer 6

As mentioned by others here, that you could have two adb's running ... And to add to these answers from a Linux box perspective ( for the next newbie who is working from Linux );

1. Uninstall your distro's android-tools ( use zypper or yum etc )

   # zypper -v rm android-tools
   

2. Find where your other adb is

   # find /home -iname "*adb"|grep -i android
   

   Say it was at ;

   /home/developer/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb

3. Then Make a softlink to it in the /usr/bin folder

    ln -s /home/developer/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb  /usr/bin/adb
   

4. Then;

    # adb start-server
   

Answer 7

You have two versions of ADB

$ /usr/local/bin/adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.36
Revision 0e9850346394-android

and

$ /Users/user/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.39
Revision 3db08f2c6889-android

You could see which one your PATH is pointing to (echo $PATH) but I fixed it with a adb stop-server on one version and a adb start-server on the other.

Answer 8

To add yet another potential solution, Helium by Clockworkmod has it's own version of ADB built in that kept being started. Exiting the Helium Desktop application resolves the issue.

Answer 9

I think you have multiple adb server running, genymotion could be one of them, but also Xamarin - Visual studio for mac OS could be running an adb server, closing Visual studio worked for me