beeware
Android emulator sometimes isn't visible on Windows
Describe the bug
Following the tutorial on Windows, in tutorial 5 I've managed to create and build for android. I see the generated apk. But when I try briefcase run android and select the emulator beePhone, the process seemingly stalls out at this line:
D/ProfileInstaller: Installing profile for com.example.helloworld
A new application appears in the Windows taskbar but when I select it doesn't actually show me any screen. There are no obvious error messages in the terminal output.
Steps to reproduce
I've followed the latest tutorials. This is a new laptop so this is all newly installed (including Android support tools which were only installed through briefcase).
Expected behavior
I expect the Android emulator to be visible and interactive.
Screenshots
Environment
- Operating System: Windows-11-10.0.22631-SP0
- Python version: 3.12.9
- Software versions:
- Briefcase: 0.3.22
- Toga: 0.4.9
Logs
briefcase.2025_03_17-17_15_52.run.log
Additional context
No response
Even though the emulator isn't visible, it looks from the log like the app is starting correctly. I'm not sure if there's anything significant about the ProfileInstaller message – this may just be the last message of a normal startup on this version of Android.
Maybe the emulator window is off screen for some reason. Try one of the methods from this page.
Since we haven't heard from you for a week, I'll close this issue. If none of those methods worked, please comment below and let us know what happened.
Hi, I got exactly the same issue, I am stalled at the same place. It happens also while running the tutorial, I am new to BeeWare (I just changed helloworld to firstapp). So, there is the emulator icon visible in the Windows taskbar (I am in a Windows environment), but no way to make it visible on the screen, 3 possibilities, qemu-system-x86_64.exe, pin it to the taskbar, or close the window. When choosing the .exe, I've got the following error, the libandroid-emu-metrics.dll is missing. Is the error coming from the fact that I have not so much RAM available? (but it seems not asking more than 2GB), or something else?
Could you please reopen the issue, thank you very much!
Did you try the methods I linked in my previous comment? If they didn't work, what happened?
Hello, yes I had tried the first method, but I can just have a glimpse of how the emulator would be like (see image), and now I have tried the second one, setting windows.x and y to 0 (instead of 100), but without result. Notice that at the very beginning the emulator appears at (0,0) with a decent size, but only for a blink. Thank you very much in any case.
Hervé Guérin
Hello, yes I had tried the first method, but I can just have a glimpse of how the emulator would be like (see image)
Try the following:
- Right click on the "glimpse".
- Select "Move".
- Press any arrow key on your keyboard., and the emulator should move back on-screen.
If that doesn't work, try using Android Studio to start an emulator before running Briefcase.
Hi, it's far too quick and I cannot catch it with the right click, even with my finger on that key/button. So I will try with Android studio, but before installing it, I have to release space on my hard drive...
I installed Android Studio, add a system image to the emulator, and it works after having launched the emulator from the studio. It runs very slowly and the emulator is a little too big, but that's another story.
This came up at EuroPython; t might be lack of familiarity with Windows, but I couldn't find any way to access a "move" menu option. Right clicking on the glimpse didn't present any menu item; right clicking on the icon gave options to close, but not move.
I see what you mean. On Windows 10 and emulator 34.2.15, even when the emulator is working and visible, right clicking on its taskbar thumbnail doesn't display a menu, it just focuses the emulator window.