If you have ever rooted a phone then you must know more or less about ADB and Fastboot. Basically these utilities are used as rooting tools. Things can be a bit complicated but I will try to discuss in detail in this tune. If you want to customize the phone settings as your own then this tune can come in handy for you. Sometimes you may want to install a custom ROM on your phone, in which case, learn the basics today. If you don’t want to wait for the update to come, you can install the update on your phone yourself.
If you want to know what ADB and Fastboot is and how to set it up, finish this tune. You’ll learn more about what to do with Fastboot.
What is ADB and Fastboot?
ADB and Fastboot is a kind of utility tool through which the phone can be connected to the desktop with a USB cable, accessing the phone’s Android system and unlocking it. ADB requires PC and cable. ADB can also be used wirelessly but it is a complicated process.
ADB can be used while the phone is running, through which access to the system folder, tweaking hidden settings can be done. System files can be copied via ADB while system updates can be installed via the sideload function.
On the other hand Fastboot works when the phone is off. The phone boots in “Fastboot mode” instead of booting normally. Through this, you can access the device partition, not only the Android system, but you can also access the data partition and the boot partition.
Fastboot is a diagnostic tool, used to unbrick the phone and install custom recovery.
Both of these are collections of Android Developers. The tool can be run via Command Prompt on Windows, Mac Terminal and Linux. This means they are not so user friendly.
How to set up ADB and Fastboot
First, the phone should be adapted to use the tool. Enable Developer Options Go to About Phone from Settings to enable Developer Options and tap Build Number seven times.
Now, enable USB debugging from Settings > Developer options.
Download ADB and Fastboot from the Android Developer website. Unzip the file. After unzipping you will get a folder called platform-tools.
If you are a Windows user then you need to download the driver according to the device. Go to this link to download the driver . No driver required for Mac or Linux.
Use Command Prompt or Terminal
Open Command Prompt or Terminal app to start working. Now navigate to the platform-tools folder to run ADB and fastboot.
To do this issue the following command
cd command: enter cd [path to platform-tools]
An easy way to copy the platform-tools folder path is to cd followed by a space and drag the folder to the Command Prompt.
In case of Windows, you can do another thing, hold Shift and right click on the folder and open it in Command Prompt.
Differences between Windows and Mac/Linux
There are some differences between Windows and Mac/Linux, with additional commands on Mac and Linux. / has to be added.
Where you type adb on Windows, you type ./adb on Mac and Linux. And write fastboot to ./fastboot.
How to use ADB
Boot the phone and connect it to PC with cable. Open CMD and point to Platform folder.
Type adb devices and enter. Connect devices will show with serial number. Type adb and enter to execute. Now you can perform various important tasks with specific commands. For example, adb reboot will restart the phone.
How to use Fastboot
Fastboot works in the same way but in that case the phone needs to be booted into Fastboot. Turn off the phone and boot the phone into Fastboot by pressing the Power and Volume keys together.
Alternatively, you can also do this with ADB by typing adb reboot bootloader.
Type fastboot devices and enter to confirm whether the phone is connected. Enter the fastboot reboot command to boot into Android.
What can be done with ADB and Fastboot?
Now we will know how to use ADB, Fastboot and what to do.
Adb pull [path to file] [path to folder] can copy any file on the phone to a specific folder on the PC.
adb push [path to file] [path to folder] This is the opposite direction, the file will be sent from the PC to the phone.
APK can be installed on the phone through adb install [path to file]. It is mostly used by app developers.
adb uninstall [package name] You can use this command to uninstall the app. In this case the whole package name should be written. The name will be com.devname.appname Here the app name should not be entered normally.
adb shell wm density [dpi] You can use this command to change the pixel density of your display. Reduce the number of fits to increase the content on the screen, increase the fits to reduce the content. Like OnePlus 3’s DPI, 480. Setting it to 400 will make text, icons, and everything smaller.
adb sideload [path to update.zip] You can give this command to install custom recovery on the phone, to install firmware. You can install the firmware yourself without waiting for the official update.
You can completely format the phone with fastboot oem unlock or fastboot flashing unlock. For Android 6 and later devices, enable OEM unlocking from developer options.
fastboot flash recovery [filename.img] Use this command to install custom recovery like installing TWRP. To simplify the task, name the image twrp.img and move it to the platform-tools folder
fastboot -w Use this command to completely format the phone before installing custom ROM on the phone.
fastboot update [path to rom.zip] Run this command to flash custom rom.path This option is useful if your phone is not rooted.
Conclusion
You can think of the commands mentioned above as basic guidelines. Not all commands may work on all devices. Try these only when you have a good understanding of this and know how to undo.
ADB, Fastboot is very important to root the phone and mod the game. If you want to root for phones and mod game then better learn how to use ADB, Fastboot. Also, since your phone now has developer mode enabled, it will be very useful for now.
