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((EDIT)) I suggest you guys don't waste your time and just use Android Studio. Check back with VS 2022 android emulator in 2026.
TOPIC: Visual Studio 2022, Android Emulation, Android Device Manager, ADB Command Prompt
From Visual Studio 2022, I launched an android emulation:
TOOLS -> ANDROID -> ANDROID DEVICE MANAGER -> START
The android emulation is open and running.
How can I copy an APK quickly? I should be able to drag and drop an APK to the phone emulation, to quickly install it, similar to Android Studio. Unfortunately that doesn't work.
Now I have to use a very archaic method to copy files. I tried using the following commands to manual copy a file:
adb push "C:\1.apk" /sdcard/Download/1.apk
adb push "C:\1.apk" /storage/emulated/0/Download/1.apk
But the files don't show up in the phone when I check those directories; by tapping Download; looking through various folders or the recent tab.
So using adb, I manually checked to see if my file exists in those folders:
adb shell ls -lrta /sdcard/Download
adb shell ls -lrta /storage/emulated/0/Download
I also downloaded an APK from the web in the android emulation, and I can see that APK file in the download folder, next to my APK that I pushed via adb:
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw 44764251 2023-06-22 20:03 1.apk
-rw-rw---- 1 root sdcard_rw 22375332 2023-06-22 20:18 from_web.apk
1.apk is my file that I adb pushed. The file: from_web.apk is what I downloaded from the web; in the emulation's chrome browser.
The problem is I can't see my file that I pushed, even though it's in the same directory!
I spent all day trying to get the android emulator to work, but now finally I get to the most important part, which is being able to actually drag an APK over to install it, and that doesn't work. Copy files doesn't work either because they won't show up in the emulation so they can be run.
Can you help me figure out how to simply drag and drop an APK, or tell me why my APK file, that I manually copied to the emulation, won't show up in the emulation's explorer?
Thanks ahead of time, I could really use your help. I'm exhausted.
[ACCEPTED ANSWER]
I ended up using Android Studio. I suggest anyone who reads this thread do the same. Check back with VS2022 Android Emulator in 2026. The existing state of VS2022 Android Emulation feels like a late alpha testing, and I don't have time for that.
(If I could accept my own answer, as an answer, I would.)
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Hello @Honorly2 ,
Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.
Did you run Visual Studio or the emulator with elevated permissions? If so, please try to run VS or emulator not as administrator and test again.
If possible, you can also try to download and install Visual Studio Emulator for Android separately, drag and drop the APK file to test.
Best Regards,
Tianyu
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Hi Tianyu, thank you for the welcome. I'll respond to every question and recommendation with maximum thoroughness. I need to get this issue resolved and am ready to provide you with as much information as needed.
First, some basic info, I'm on a fresh install of Windows 10 Pro, 64bit, ver:22H2, build:19045.3086 (fully updated)
Did you run Visual Studio or the emulator with elevated permissions? If so, please try to run VS or emulator not as administrator and test again.
I may have ran Visual Studio 2022 once as administrator, but 99% of the time I run it without elevation. When I was testing the APK drag and drop, VS2022 was not elevated. Here's a screenshot showing elevated status of each relevant process, as I test:
As you can see, Visual Studio 2022 is not running with elevated permissions, but the other apps are. Please note, I didn't do that; these permissions are based on default installations made by Visual Studio 2022. If any of these elevations are incorrect, please tell me which ones to change and how to fix them please. It would also be prudent to tell the devs who made these apps to set the correct permissions during installation, so I don't have to manually change them.
On a side note, I get this error after running an emulation from Android Device Manager; from within VS2022 (error: emulator error, device error: could not get emulator name after starting):
If possible, you can also try to download and install Visual Studio Emulator for Android separately, drag and drop the APK file to test.
I downloaded and installed Visual Studio Emulator for Android separately, like you recommended from this link: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/msft-android-emulator/, unfortunately it has two major problems:
(1) it errors out when you drag and drop an APK (error: file transfer failed. (error: unable to install the file through adb. adb.exe not found. make sure you have android sdk tools installed..):
Interesting it gave that error, I believe Visual Studio 2022 already installs Android SDK Tools. Here is the location of android tools; note, I didn't install it here, these tools ended up here from default installation from individual components in VS installer:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
(2) Unfortunately Visual Studio Emulator for Android doesn't have any profiles for Android version 7.0 and up. I need to test my APK on Android 7.0. All the profiles are for Android versions 5.0 to 6.0.
Sorry to bombard you with so many problems, but it is what it is. I'd like to preferably resolve all these issues. So if you're ready to take the time, so am I, thank you. I look forward to your answer, because I need these problems fixed asap.