How long does the Android Emulator take to start? Do you need to close/start if every time you change Java code?

Question

When developing for Android do you typically need to stop the emulator and restart it every time you make a change to your Java code or is there a faster way? The emulator takes about 1.5 minutes to start for me, is this normal?

Answer 1

Yes. Starting an emulator is slow, but you don't need to reboot it usually when you make changes. You can just target the already running emulator, at least in eclipse.

Answer 2

The emulator take some time to start, depending on the running machine and the amount of programs you are running on the host.

If you installed the eclipse plugin, you don't need to restart the emulator each time: simply hit run in eclipse, and the plugin will take care of making the .apk package, put it in the device and start the activity (if any).

Answer 3

Mine takes a minute + to start. I tried adding -no-boot-anim to speed it up, but the few tests I did it did not speed it up.

Answer 4

There is really no need to restart the emulator. You can keep it running all day (or longer). If you do not use eclipse: adb install -r will do the job (-r to replace the existing package) and restart your app.

Answer 5

I have noticed that sometimes I have to shut down the emulator and restart it. It appears to hang at "waiting for home to launch". This only hangs the first time. Once it successfully launches I can reinstall repeatedly with no issues.

Answer 6

To start the emulator in Eclipse, go to Window -> Android SDK and AVD Manager, then select the virtual device you want and hit start. This way it will stay on and not shutdown when your app terminates.