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How to Install Android Adb & Fastboot Drivers on Your Windows PC [Guide]

ADB – stands for Android Debug Bridge and helps you to build a connection between your Android Emulator or Android Device and your computer. Having ADB and Fastboot drivers installed is essential if you want to play with your device by installing new recoveries, flashing custom ROMs and mods and trying other similar tricks. Android ADB and Fastboot drivers must have a thing for Google Nexus owners as well as these are important for some other devices like HTC.

If you are looking for a method to install Android ADB and Fastboot drivers on your Windows PC you’ve spotted the right place as we will learn today how we can install these drivers.

First of all, you need to download Android SDK Tools form Android Development Site.

In order to make the Android SDK Manager work, you must have Java installed in your PC. Download & Install Java SE Development Kit 7 for your windows. While installing JDK leave all the options selected as default and finish the installation.

Run the downloaded Android SDK Manager .exe file and select C:/ drive as path as it will be easier for you to access it later.

Complete the installation process and press the Finish button in the end in order to run the Android SDK Manager.

As soon as you press finish, Android SDK Manager will open up showing you a number of options/features. Here you only need to select the required files. Uncheck all these options.

Check only Android SDK Platform-Tools and Google USB Drivers, You’ll find the Google USB Drivers at the bottom in Extras.

After checking the required two options, you need to accept the Terms and Conditions for both Android SDK Platform-tools and Google USB Drivers and begin the installation.

As soon as the installation begins you’ll see Android SDK Manager Log showing you installation logs.

As soon as ”Done Loading Packages” appears at the bottom of Android SDK Manager Logs, you’ve successfully installed the ADB & Fastboot Drivers on your Windows PC, Congrats!
To make sure that the installed drivers are working or not, connect your device to the computer. Your computer will now automatically detect your device and install the required USB drivers for it.

Also Check: How to Install ADB & Fastboot drivers on Windows 8/8.1 with USB 3.0

Ok so now when we have the ADB Driver installed, the Fastboot driver has already been installed along with the ADB Driver as it is included in the Android SDK Manager package. Fastboot is the basic tool to modify your phones by flashing a custom image, insecure kernel, flashing custom recoveries, flashing custom roms and modifying your Android device in other similar ways.

In order to start modifying your phone using the Fastboot your device needs to boot in the Fastboot Mode. Different manufacturers have different methods for booting their devices into the Fastboot / Download mode. You need to find your device’s method first and boot into the fastboot.

The fastboot method for the HTC device is quite simple. Turn off your device, then long press Volume Down + Power button and your device will boot into the recovery, here you can highlight the fastboot mode by moving up and down using the Volume Up and Down keys.

Here’s the method now how you can flash a custom recovery/image/rom on your android device using fastboot.

Make sure that you’ve completed the ADB & Fastboot driver installation process exactly as explained above.

Open the Android SDK Manager installation directory and open platform-tools i.e C:\Android-SDK-Manager\platform-tools.

Copy the following three files from the Platform-tools folder.

Get back to the Drive C and create a new folder named ‘‘Fastboot”. Paste the copied adb.exe, fastboot.exe and AdbWinApi.dll in the Fastboot folder.

- Now copy an image file (*img) into the Fastboot folder.

Now press shift and then right-click anywhere on your desktop and press ”open command window here”.

In the command prompt type ” cd c:\fastboot “

Or simply open the Fastboot folder, press shift and then right-click and press ”open command prompt here”. Skip the [cd:c:\fastboot] as it will directly open the Fastboot folder in command prompt using this.

Boot your device into the fastboot / download mode.

Connect your device to the computer.

To flash a specific image using the fastboot, you need to type a command by specifying the image name and image format, for example, you have an image named as ”example.img”. You need to type the following command ” Fastboot Flash Boot Example.img ”.

Fastboot allows you to do a lot of other things as well, in order to learn what you can do type ” Fastboot help ” in the command prompt and you’ll find the following commands with the instructions.

Find drivers for your other Android Devices here

And here’s our list of Useful Android ADB & Fastboot Commands.

Here’s a guide on How to fix “Waiting for device” error in Android ADB & Fastboot

That’s all you got to do with the ADB & Fastboot Drivers installation. We hope that you find this guide helpful and recommend it to your friends. Got any queries? Feel free to leave a comment below and we’ll try our best to help you out.

This post was last modified on January 5, 2020 2:51 pm

Usama M

Usama is a software engineer by profession and at TechBeasts.com he uses his expertise to solve everyday consumer tech problems with his main areas of interest being Android, iOS and Windows.

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View Comments

dhammika says:

October 1, 2013 at 2:54 am

nice instructions worth million dollars. tks.
Dhiman Bhattacherjee says:

October 11, 2013 at 8:26 am

where will i get *img
- um009 says:
  
  October 11, 2013 at 5:23 pm
  
  @dhimanbhattacherjee:disqus *img file is the one, that you will flash using the adb and fastboot mode. That might be a recovery or a mod. You can find the cwm recovery files on the official clockwork mod site, while the others may be found on their respective sites as well.
umair says:

November 5, 2013 at 4:51 pm

how to format a mobile
Ryan says:

November 27, 2013 at 1:23 am

my command prompt line is still waiting for device
im on my nexus 4 and its on fastboot recovery mode
- um009 says:
  
  November 27, 2013 at 7:39 am
  
  May i please know which operating system are you using? This happens most probably because the PC your using is not picking up your device's drivers, make sure that you've installed the drivers by following the tutorial explained above carefully. Also it may be kept in mind that Windows 8 is the victim in most of such cases.
Steven K says:

October 20, 2019 at 12:35 pm

Hello excellent guide! I believe I have completed all the steps, but am unable to find my phone (HTC one m7 unlocked) after typing "adb devices". My phone is in a boot loop, but I can enter fastboot and bootloader screen. When I plug my phone into my computer(windows 7) and its in fastboot mode, my computer makes the "dun-dun" sound but doesn't show it in device manager or anywhere else. When I unplug it or select the bootloader option, my computer makes the "don-don" sound like it does when ever I unplug some hardware. Any ideas? I need to enter fastboot in order to "fastboot erase cache" so I can enter recovery. Thank you for your time!
Usama Mujtaba says:

December 12, 2013 at 10:42 pm

@disqus_M4HhPOSEmD:disqus try disabling your firewall and anti virus if enabled and then connect your phone. Additionally, you can try installing HTC drivers and then connect the device in fastboot mode. The proper way is, turn off your device, boot into recovery and highlight fastboot and then connect it.
- Steven K says:
  
  December 14, 2013 at 1:33 pm
  
  Those instructions are good, but I did try them before contacting. Interestingly enough, it would show up when I typed "fastboot devices" and the phone would display fastboot usb when connected. I was able to fastboot erase cache, but that wouldn't get me out of boot loop. I searched high and low for what to do or the file to flash from fastboot but couldn't find anything. The only thing I think happened was that I installed the latest twrp version that was corrupted because when I would boot into recovery the "teamwin" (I think) logo for twrp would display for 5 seconds and then it would bootloop. Fortunately enough, I found the RUU.exe from HTC, did a "fastboot oem lock", and the RUU returned it to stock/working. Do you know why my phone would show up in fastboot but not adb? I really appreciate you taking the time to write back, thanks!
  - um009 says:
    
    December 14, 2013 at 10:26 pm
    
    to connect your phone in adb, you just need to enable USB debugging options and connect your phone. connecting phone in fastboot mode is totally different from adb, simply turn on USB debugging and plug in your phone, then type "adb devices" and check if it shows you your device. After you unlock your bootloader, try flashing the proper recovery again in order to get it to work.
    - Steven K says:
      
      October 20, 2019 at 12:34 pm
      
      Excellent! Thank you sir!!!!
Marciano Canto says:

October 20, 2019 at 12:34 pm

Hi Usama, nice web and great quide. Unfortunately not working for me :(

My cousin brought me phone from China its K-Touch Kiss U90 and I tried it to flash it with new ROM but have some difficulties with it.

I manged to root my device(with VRoot ), but I can't flash recovery. When my phone is on and connected to computer is working fine as I installed drivers from phone. But when I restart to recover mode(green screen) and connect phone to PC, it can't find drivers(not able to install drivers from phone or any other), when am trying to follow your instructions it just show me "waiting for device" (tried even firewall and antivirus off), tried to use MobileUncle app but am not able to load custom recovery.

Do you have any idea how to get over it and load custom recovery on this Chinese phone.

Thank you very much for you time and wisdom :)
Usama Mujtaba says:

December 14, 2013 at 10:20 pm

@marcianocanto:disqus May I please know which operating system are you using? Try installing the USB drivers for your device, also turn on USB debugging mode in Developer options under settings and try reconnecting then. If its windows 8.1 pro, you are not going to get your phone connected as the adb and fastboot drivers don't work with windows 8.1 for some devices.
Additionally, you can flash a recovery only if you have the .img file specifically for your device. Flashing an invalid file may result in bricking your phone.
- Marciano Canto says:
  
  December 18, 2013 at 12:17 am
  
  Hi,
  
  Thanks for reply.
  
  I had USB debugging turned on, but still nothing and I'm pretty sure that recover img is the right, but still can't make it work ...still showing "waiting for device" and I am using Windows 7, any idea?
  
  thanks :)
  - um009 says:
    
    December 18, 2013 at 5:09 pm
    
    @marcianocanto:disqus find the fastboot drivers for your phone separately and then attach it. The problem is with the drivers for sure.
Usama Mujtaba says:

December 20, 2013 at 11:51 pm

@disqus_M4HhPOSEmD:disqus Glad that your issue has been resolved. Have a great day!
mohannad ahmad says:

February 17, 2014 at 11:55 pm

hey
Usama i really appreciate that great work and guide
it's not working for me too
i have done all the instructions carefully
i'm running huawei honor u8860 official ICS
my debugging is off
i've installed a wrong CMW recovery which not for my device and i think i've bricked it so i'm stuck at recovery but i can access the fastboot which stucks and the (pink screen) but still not working
so i've tried your method by adding a custom kernel "image (.img) "
all the drivers are working correctly.
but the command window says waiting for device
i know it's a big problem
i'll really appreciate it if you help me
thanks :)
- um009 says:
  
  February 18, 2014 at 6:26 pm
  
  @mohannadahmad:disqus this is connection issue. Please search for your device' fastboot drivers and try installing em'. Also please use windows 7 if you're using windows 8 or 8.1 it will not work.
  the 2nd thing you can try out is changing the port on your PC. unplug all other connected usb devices except mouse and keyboard.
  give it a try.. let me know it works or not..
  last thing..disable firewall and antivirus for a while and then connect it..
  update me when you're done
  - mohannad ahmad says:
    
    February 18, 2014 at 6:30 pm
    
    Thank you so much i appreciate your support, the device worked right when i used volume up with power button lol
    - um009 says:
      
      February 18, 2014 at 9:18 pm
      
      @mohannadahmad:disqus that's great! Have a nice day :)