Android emulator doesn t take keyboard input - SDK tools rev 20

Question

I ve upgraded the SDK tools to revision 20  from 18  and since the upgrade  the emulator doesn t seem to accept input from laptop s keyboard  But only using the emulator s own  soft  keyboard  that appears when an input field is focused    I ve tried reinstalling the SDK tools  and the whole SDK for that matter   uninstalled and reinstalled Eclipse Android plugins  re-created emulator devices  But none of that seem to help and its driving me mad  Its hopeless to key-in using a laptop s trackpad   Has anyone encountered this problem

User · Answer

I have used an emulator for API Level 23  which does not take keyboard input for installed apk  So I have created new emulator for API Level 29  and then it works  Following is the step to install new emulator   Open  quot Android Virtual Device Manager quot  Create new Virtual Device  When you select a system image  please choose and download the last version API Level29  on  quot Virtual Device Configuration quot  window

User · Answer

Restarting the emulator helps sometimes when typing is unavailable - despite keyboard input being enabled for your Android Virtual Device

User · Answer

Just in case somebody finds it usefull   I had a problem with the KEYCODE DPAD UP it belongs to the trackBall  to solve this change your avdfolder config ini hw trackBall yes and push DEL or F6

User · Answer

Update  As of SDK rev 21 the Android Virtual Device Manager has an improved UI which resolves this issue   I have highlighted some of the more important configuration settings below     If you notice that the soft  screen-based  main keys Back  Home  etc  are missing from your emulator you can set hw mainKeys no to enable them     Original answer  Even though the developer documentation says keyboard support is enabled by default it doesn t seem to be that way in SDK rev 20   I explicitly enabled keyboard support in my emulator s config ini file and that worked   Add  hw keyboard yes  To     android avd  lt emulator-device-name gt  avd config ini  Similarly  add hw dPad yes if you wish to use the arrow-keys to navigate the application list   Reference  http   developer android com tools devices managing-avds-cmdline html hardwareopts  On Mac OS and Linux you can edit all of your emulator configurations with one Terminal command   for f in    android avd   avd config ini  do echo  hw keyboard yes   gt  gt    f   done    On a related note  if your tablet emulator is missing the BACK HOME buttons  try selecting WXGA800 as the Built-in skin in the AVD editor    Or by manually setting the skin in config ini   skin name WXGA800 skin path platforms android-16 skins WXGA800    example is for API 16

User · Answer

Recreating an AVD with the Hardware Keyboard   setting the boolean to true was the only solution that worked for me  the other two main solutions  terminal or editing an existing AVD  via GUI  both resulted in software emulator crashes on my Mac  Making a new AVD resulted in the keyboard working just fine

User · Answer

Google wanted to give some more headache to the developers     So  what you have to do now is edit your AVD and add  Keyboard Support  for it in the Hardware section and change the value to  Yes

User · Answer

Look for the hidden  android folder in your user home folder  You might rename or delete this folder  recreate your AVD  and restart the emulator  It could be there is a  ini file in that folder that has that setting munged

User · Answer

In your home folder   android avd  config ini add the line hw keyboard yes

User · Answer

Confirmed  I had the same problem after upgrading to Tools version 20  I had to Edit the AVD to add an option as follows    From Eclipse  Go to AVD Mananger   Select the particular AVD and click on Edit Go to the Hardware section  click on New  Select the Property Name   Keyboard Support  By default  it is added with a value of  no   Just click on the value column and change it to  yes   Click on Edit AVD again    This will add a property hw keyboard yes in config ini file for the AVD   You also have to set hw mainKeys   yes

User · Answer

Here is some workaround that actually worked for me  it is the same solution as in the most popular answer - just      add hw keyboard yes to config ini  but since this didn t work for me I additionally    renamed config ini  any name will do  to something like consssssfig ini restarted emulator  obviously it didn t start  renamed config ini back again  I am not sure if relevant  I added this new parameter  hw keyboard yes  at the beggining of config ini file

User · Answer

Look in AVD Manager  select the AVD and click in Edit  In Hardware section  click in  New  and search for  Keyboard support  and add with OK button and set the value to  yes  and save changes with  Edit AVD

User · Answer

In Android Studio  open AVD Manager  Tools   Android   AVD Manager   Tap the Edit button of the emulator    Select  Show Advanced Settings    Check  Enable keyboard input    Click Finish and start the emulator to enjoy the keyboard input

[android] Android emulator doesn't take keyboard input - SDK tools rev 20

Examples related to android

Examples related to android-emulator