Howto: make adb recognize your android device

adb (android debug bridge) is the official tool for android development.

Usually it is activated just by connecting your android device, select USB debugging and verify connection using the “adb devices” command, that should return a list with the serial numbers from the connected devices.

That is the theory. On the real world only devices from established manufacturers as HTC, Motorola, Samsung are recognized automatically… if your device is from some obscure or newcomer manufacturer or even some cheap chinese device you get something like this:

adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached



To your device be recognized it must have it’s identifier added at the adb_usb.ini file.

How to identify the manufacturer:

Conect you device to the USB port on your computer (enable USB debugging).

Linux: type the command lsusb and look the device list


$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 10ab:0816 USI Co., Ltd
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04f2:b1da Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 002 Device 004: ID d324:9018


The android device is the last in the list. The first four digits group after ID is VendorID, the code that we need

The example device is a Genesis GT-7250 tablet. The lack of manufacturer description when you use lsusb is typical from rush made chinese devices, that are released without proper care. Usually they just use the base design released by the CPUs and chipset manufacturer.

Windows: open Control Panel -> System and Safety -> System -> Device Manager and look for the properties of a device named as Android Phone or Android ADB Interface.

Right click that device and select Properties. Select the Details tab and the select on the combo box Hardware IDs.

The value at front of the text USB\VID_ is the VendorID.

How to update the file:

Linux: on your home directory there should be a hidden directory named .android, the file adb_usb.ini is inside that directory.

Update that file with your device using the command

echo 0xd324 >> adb_usb.ini

Windows: on your personal folder there should be a folder named .android, the file adb_usb.ini is inside that folder.

Open that file using some editor that has no special format, like notepad and add a line with the VendorID

0xd324

Be sure that USB debugging is enabled on your device and check if your device has been identified:

adb kill-server
* server not running *

adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached
1234567890ABCDEF device

If that folder is not present, open a command promp window (Windows Explorer does not create folders whose name start with a dot) and type these commands to create the folder and file:

cd /d %USERPROFILE%
md .android
cd .android
echo 0xd324 >> adb_usb.ini

Done! Now you can use adb and do nice things to your android devices like app development or rooting.

This post is a translation from another post in this blog, since I realized that I was getting many hits looking for that information coming from USA and Europe. I hope that translation makes easier to readers that don’t speak portuguese to use that information. Feel free to suggest corrections on grammar or spelling, since english is not my native language.