[Solved]“ADB is Not Recognized as an Internal or External Command”

ADB is an advanced command line used for debugging your android phone or for other developmental purposes. The “ADB is not recognized as an internal or external command” error occurs when trying to execute the ADB command or trying to install ADB for the first time in either Command Prompt or PowerShell.

It usually occurs because SDK Platform Tools, which contains the ADB package, isn’t installed or when Command Prompt or PowerShell can’t access it.

As this error only occurs for these reasons, you can quickly fix them by downloading SDK or configuring your System Environment Variable.

How to Fix “ADB is Not Recognized as an Internal or External Command”

You can fix this particular error by simply making sure the SDK Platform Tools is downloaded and your command line and terminal can access them. You can go through the method below to solve this error.

Download SDK Platform Tools

Without the SDK PLatform Tools, your ADB command will not work no matter what. So, you should first make sure that you have it installed. 

Here’s how you can install SDK Platform Tools on your computer:

1. Download SDK Platform Tools for Windows from the official website,
2. Right-click on the downloaded .zip file and choose Extract All. (Double-clicking the zip file will open it. You can also copy and paste the folders inside to a different location to extract the zip file.)
   
3. Click on Browse and select a folder where you want to save the extracted files.
   
4. Click on Select Folder and Extract.

The above method uses the default file extractor that is built into Windows File Manager. If you like, you can also use other file extraction tools like WinRAR or 7-zip.

Simply installing the SDK Platform Tool will not get rid of this particular error. You will also need to give command line interfaces access to the extracted folder for the adb command to work. You can use either one of the methods below to do so.

Run ADB From Platform Tools Folder

The Command Prompt or Powershell can not access the Platform Tools folder by default. So, you can directly give them this access by opening Command Prompt or Terminal from the extracted folder to fix the issue.

Here’s how to do so:

1. Go to the location where you have extracted the SDK Platform Tools and open the Platform Tools folder.
2. Enter cmd in the Address bar to open Command Prompt in that folder. (You can also change the current directory to that of the extracted folder to let it access this particular folder.)
   
3. Enter the adb command, and it should start working.
4. For Powershell, right-click the empty area in the Platform Tools folder and select Open in Terminal.
   
5. Check if the adb command works now.
6. If it doesn’t work in PowerShell, you may need to utilize the command as .\adb

This method will let Command Prompt and PowerShell access the Platform Tools folder, but you will have to always use this method for the ADB command to work. You can use the method below if you want a more permanent fix.

Set System Environment Variable Path

You can set the file path of the Platform Tools folder as default in System Environment Variable to fix this error permanently. When a folder is set as a system variable path, command line tools can access the contents in those folders regardless of the current working directory.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Launch Run box by pressing Windows + R hotkey.
2. Enter sysdm.cpl to open System Properties.
   
3. Go to the Advanced header.
4. Click on Environment Variables.
   
5. In System variables, double-click on Path.
6. Click on Browse from the right options menu.
   
7. Navigate to where the Platform Tools folder (SDK Platform Tools extracted folder) is located.
   
8. Select that folder and click on OK.
9. Click OK and OK again.