[android] ADB server version (36) doesn't match this client (39) {Not using Genymotion}

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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
   

First of all, please remove the "{Not using Genymotion}" from the title. It distracts readers like me who don't know what Genymotion is. The absurd here is that you got the second highest voted answer with currently 90 points which says "go to GenyMotion settings"...

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

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.

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.