Connecting a physical USB device to an Android emulator is not natively supported through the standard Android Studio GUI, but you can achieve it via USB Passthrough
using command-line arguments or third-party virtualization software Stack Overflow Option 1: Native USB Passthrough (Command Line) Android Open Source Project
provides a method to "pass through" a USB device from your host machine directly to the emulator. Android Open Source Project Identify Device IDs
: Connect your USB device to your host machine. Use the command (Linux/macOS) or check Device Manager (Windows) to find the Example Output: Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0b05:17cb (VendorID is , ProductID is Launch Emulator via CLI
: Open your terminal or command prompt and start the emulator manually with the -usb-passthrough
emulator -avd YOUR_AVD_NAME -usb-passthrough vendorid=0xXXXX,productid=0xYYYY YOUR_AVD_NAME with your actual emulator name and the with your device's IDs. Android Open Source Project Option 2: Using VirtualBox (For Android-x86) connect usb device to android emulator better
If the standard Android Studio emulator (QEMU-based) is too restrictive, many users opt for an Oracle VirtualBox
setup with an Android-x86 image, which has more robust USB support. Stack Overflow
: Download an Android-x86 image and create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox Enable USB Controller : In the VM's settings, navigate to and ensure the USB controller is enabled. Add Device Filter : Click the Add Filter
(plus icon) and select your connected USB device from the list. This ensures the VM "grabs" the device as soon as it boots. Access in Android
: Once booted, you can typically find your device in a file manager under or similar. Stack Overflow Option 3: ADB Forwarding (For Software Testing) Connecting a physical USB device to an Android
If you only need your emulator to interact with a service or data on a USB-connected device (like a secondary phone), you can use Android Debug Bridge (adb) to bridge communication. Port Forwarding adb forward to send requests from a host port to the emulator's port. adb forward tcp:6100 tcp:7100 Verification : Always run adb devices
to ensure the host recognizes the connected hardware and the emulator instance simultaneously. Android Developers Essential Setup Checklist
Connecting physical USB devices to an Android Emulator is notoriously difficult because the emulator runs inside a virtual machine (QEMU), which creates a layer of abstraction between the guest OS (Android) and the host OS (Windows/macOS/Linux).
Here is an interesting post-style breakdown of how to solve this, ranging from the "easy way" to the "hard way."
If you are reading this because the default Google Emulator is giving you headaches, the absolute "best" way to connect USB devices is to switch engines. Level 4: The Nuclear Option (Genymotion) If you
Genymotion is an alternative Android emulator that uses VirtualBox under the hood. VirtualBox has incredibly robust USB passthrough support (supporting USB 3.0 filters, etc.).
The Result: Flawless hardware recognition. The Android OS sees the device instantly. If you do heavy hardware integration testing, Genymotion's USB support is vastly superior to the default Android Emulator's implementation.
The Android Emulator’s built‑in USB support is insufficient for production testing of many USB peripherals. By repurposing Linux’s USB/IP stack and a simple Ethernet bridge, we achieve near‑native device performance and reliability with hotplug support. The method is practical for Linux‑based CI/CD farms and developers willing to use rootable AVDs. We release scripts at [github.com/example/usb-android-emulator].
You need the emulator process to access the raw USB device.
sudo chmod 666 /dev/bus/usb/001/005
(Note: This is temporary. For permanent rules, create a udev rule.)