How to install Android emulator without installing Android Studio

This is the step-by-step note that answering the question: How to install and launch Android emulator without installing Android Studio itself.

1. Download and install JDK

2. Set JAVA_HOME variable.

   Open Command Prompt (Win+R, type cmd and press Enter) or use any other terminal you like. For me path to JDK is E:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_251. Execute the following:
   

   setx JAVA_HOME "E:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_251"
   

   or use Start -> Edit the system environment variables -> Environment variables... -> New...
   

3. Download and install Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM) (you also need to switch off Hyper-V feature and enable Virtualization in BIOS for successful installation).

4. Download Command-Line-Tools: Go to Downloads page , scroll down to "Command line tools only" section and download the archive with tools.

5. Go to AppData\Local:
   

   cd %localappdata%
   

6. Create the following folder structure and go inside:
   

   mkdir Android\cmdline-tools
   cd Android\cmdline-tools
   

7. Extract downloaded commandlinetools-win-*_latest.zip folder into cmdline-tools folder:
   

   tar -xf C:\Users\a\Downloads\commandlinetools-win-6200805_latest.zip
   

   Starting from Android SDK Command-line Tools 1.0.0 (6200805), in contrast to Android SDK 26.1.1 (4333796), the tools directory hierarchy has been changed. Previously it was placed right inside ANDROID_HOME, now it's still named as tools (the only thing you'll get after unpacking the downloaded commandlinetools zip file), but differently, you have to place it inside a directory called cmdline-tools on your own.

8. The structure is supposed to be the following:
   

   ├── cmdline-tools
      └── tools
          ├── bin
          ├── lib
          ├── NOTICE.txt
          └── source.properties  
   

9. Set ANDROID_HOME environment variable:
   

   setx ANDROID_HOME %localappdata%\Android
   

10. Create new entry in Path environment variable:
    

    setx path "%PATH%;%ANDROID_HOME%\cmdline-tools\tools\bin" /m
    

    Note: you'll probably need to restart cmd in order the changes take effect.

11. The next command allows us to see the list of available packages:
    

    sdkmanager --list
    

12. We need to install such packages like platform-tools, platforms;android-* and system-images;android-*;google_apis;x86_64, where * means the version:
    

    sdkmanager "platforms;android-29" "system-images;android-29;google_apis;x86_64" "platform-tools"
    

13. Next we have to accept a bunch of licenses. Type the next command and answer y to each question:
    

    sdkmanager --licenses
    

14. Now we are ready to create new virtual device:
    

    avdmanager create avd -n test_avd_29 -k "system-images;android-29;google_apis;x86_64"
    

15. To see the list of virtual devices just type:
    

    avdmanager list avd
    

16. Go to emulator folder:
    

    cd %ANDROID_HOME%\emulator
    

17. Last but not least thing is launching:
    

    emulator -avd test_avd_29
    

Cheers!

Comments

[Govarthenan]

Is this procedure guaranteed to work?
And also does the AVD save the changes or do I get a brand new one every time I boot it up?

[Andrei Fedotov]

Hey Govarthenan,
if by saying "procedure" you mean this step-by-step note for launching emulator then the answer is yes, it is. I use it for dev purposes and it works.
In terms of saving changes yes it does: you can launch emulator, do some actions, close it, open again and see the previous state

[HemanthJabalpuri]

Can you please update the guide to commandline-tools 3.0.
I am having error as said in stackoverflow.com/questions/655464...

Use ANDROID_SDK_ROOT instead of ANDROID_HOME according to stackoverflow.com/a/61176718/11620356

Also unzip correctly as said in UPDATE! in above stackoverflow link.

Thanks for guide.

[Anton Prafanto]

thank you bro, it's work

[Sufian-Afridi]

At step 14 it says:
Error: "emulator" package must be installed!
null
I did all the steps exactly as they are mentioned above.

[Daniel Sitnik]

In step 12 it's missing the "emulator" in the list of packages to install.

You can just run:

sdkmanager "emulator"

[Thong Truong]

Thank youuu

[A.K.]

step 16 should be:

sdkmanager "emulator"
cd %ANDROID_HOME%\sdk\emulator

[Harsh Rathod]

Thanks! It is so much helpful.

[ahmad13faizan]

i was not confident of my technical skills required here still i dont know how i did this perfectly. maybe just because of u people