PhonAndroid ADB and Fastboot on Android: what is it for and how to download them

When you have the slightest problem on your phone or are looking to recover root rights, you often come across the mysterious “ADB” and “Fastboot” on Android. We explain what they are, and what they will be used for.

Nexus 6P fastboot menu.

When you start to take a little more interest in the Android universe, two words quickly start to appear: ADB and Fastboot. Whether it's to repair a hasty modification of your phone, or to start personalizing in depth, the two concepts are widespread on the web.

And with good reason, since they govern the in-depth modification of the free mobile operating system for anyone who wants to take control of their phone. But if you want to take advantage of root access on your mobile phone, you will need to master them. We will help you there.

What is ADB and Fastboot?

One of the great strengths of Android is and will always be its ease of access for developers, who can directly use their everyday smartphones to create everything and its opposite on these devices. And this is partly due to the accessibility of the platform's development tools, including ADB and Fastboot.

ADB stands for “Android Debug Bridge”, and designates the process by which the phone can connect with a computer (PC or Mac, whatever) and “send orders” to it at a high level. It thus has many commands, such as flashing a system image, clearing caches or performing a memory scan, which can be used without having to interact with the device. It is a client (smartphone) / server (computer) relationship.

Fastboot is a mode in which you can launch your phone, usually by starting it while pressing and holding the "Volume Down" key until a small android appears. Think of it like opening the cover of your phone: it's a diagnostic tool giving you access to the guts of your system. Coupled with your computer's "fastboot" commands, it allows you to save a new system to your phone.

Fastboot mode therefore allows you to launch your device in “repair mode”, then connect it with a USB cable to your computer to be able to give it simple commands with ADB or flash a complete system. Being at the root of the system, you can access root rights or flash a new system image through this.

Download and install ADB and Fastboot drivers for Android

These tools are all found in the Android SDK, available both solo (if you only want the tools you want) or integrated into Android Studio. You just have to go to the official developer site to find them, the pure SDK versions being at the bottom of the page for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

Once you have the installer, just run it and choose a location to install it to. By default, this one is not necessarily very accessible and it is recommended to change the destination to something more known (My Documents for example).

To see: root your phone in one click with Towelroot

Once the installation is complete, you find yourself in front of the SDK update interface which by default is empty of components. Leave the basic components checked, and go down to the bottom of the list to make sure that “Google USB Driver” is checked.

Without these drivers, you will not be able to really take advantage of ADB and Fastboot to act on your smartphone via your computer. Don't worry though: these are common to all Android devices. Click on “Install XX packages”.

Also read: how to know if your smartphone has root rights

Once all the components are installed, just head to the installation folder, then “platform-tools” to find adb. If you have installed the Android Studio version, all you have to do is go to “sdk/platform-tools”.

You now know what the two main customization tools on Android are for and how to download and install them! Enjoy the latest system updates directly from the community, root access and deep backup of your phone!

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