Featured image of post Fix adb Server and Client Version Mismatch on Mac
MacOS

Fix adb Server and Client Version Mismatch on Mac

Homebrew and Android SDK each install a separate adb, causing server and client version conflicts. Remove the Homebrew copy and point PATH to the SDK to fix it.

The Problem

After updating the Android SDK, running adb devices threw:

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adb server version (41) doesn't match this client (40)

It turned out that I had previously installed android-platform-tools via Homebrew on my Mac, resulting in two different versions of adb on the system. The server and client were picking up different versions.

The Fix

First, remove the Homebrew-installed copy:

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brew uninstall --cask android-platform-tools

Then add the Android SDK path to ~/.bashrc so the system uses a single adb:

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export ANDROID_HOME="/Users/recca0120/Library/Android/sdk"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/tools/bin:$PATH"

Finally, run source ~/.bashrc to apply the changes, then adb devices should work normally.