Reference
Tables for looking things up: shortcuts, settings, file locations, limits and the adb command behind each button. This page describes DroidDeck 1.0.4.
Tabs
| Tab | Purpose | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Devices | Device list, states and details | Connect a device |
| Logcat | Live device log with filters | Read the device log |
| Apps | Install, launch, stop, clear, uninstall, extract | Manage apps |
| Files | Browse, push, pull, rename, delete | Browse and transfer files |
| Screen | Screenshot, recording, scrcpy mirror | Use the screen tools |
| Wireless | Pair, connect, saved devices | Connect over Wi-Fi |
| Shell | Terminal and quick actions | Use the shell and quick actions |
| Settings | Paths to adb and scrcpy | This page |
Shell tab shortcuts
| Keys | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + C | Copy the selection and clear it. With nothing selected, interrupt the running command. |
| Ctrl + Shift + C | Copy the selection. |
| Ctrl + Insert | Copy the selection. |
| Ctrl + V | Paste. |
| Ctrl + Shift + V | Paste. |
| Shift + Insert | Paste. |
| Ctrl + Shift + A | Select all. |
| Ctrl + A | Sent to the shell: move to the start of the line. |
| Right-click | Open a menu with Copy and Paste. |
Elsewhere, Enter in the Connect by IP field connects, and Enter in the New folder and Rename windows confirms a valid name.
Settings
The Settings tab has one section, Tools, with a card for each program.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Custom adb path (leave empty to auto-detect) | The full path of the adb program to use, for example /home/you/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb. | Empty: auto-detect |
| Custom scrcpy path (leave empty to auto-detect) | The full path of the scrcpy program to use, for example /usr/bin/scrcpy. | Empty: auto-detect |
Select Save & re-detect to store both fields and look for the tools again. Each card then shows a green tick with the version and path it found, or a red cross with advice.
Where DroidDeck looks for adb and scrcpy
DroidDeck uses the first working program it finds, in this order:
- The custom path in Settings.
- Your
PATH. - These locations, in order:
| Program | Locations |
|---|---|
adb | ~/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb, /usr/lib/android-sdk/platform-tools/adb, /opt/android-sdk/platform-tools/adb, /usr/bin/adb, /snap/bin/adb |
scrcpy | /usr/bin/scrcpy, /usr/local/bin/scrcpy, /snap/bin/scrcpy, ~/.local/bin/scrcpy |
The adb card on the Devices tab shows which adb was chosen and its version.
Where files are saved
In the names below, the serial is the device's serial as shown in the device picker.
| What | Folder | File name |
|---|---|---|
| Pulled files and folders | ~/Downloads | The same name as on the device |
| Extracted APKs | ~/Downloads/droiddeck-apks/, in a folder named after the package | The APK names from the device |
| Logcat export | ~/Downloads | droiddeck-logcat-, serial, date and time, .log |
| Screenshot | The folder you choose, or ~/Pictures/droiddeck | droiddeck-, serial, date and time, .png |
| Screen recording | ~/Videos | droiddeck-, serial, date and time, .mp4 |
| scrcpy recording | ~/Videos | droiddeck-scrcpy-, date and time, .mkv |
DroidDeck creates these folders when they do not exist.
Limits
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Logcat lines held in memory | 50,000; the oldest are dropped after that |
| Shell scrollback | 10,000 lines |
| Screen recording length | 30, 60 or 180 seconds per clip |
| Transfers shown in the Transfers panel | The 3 most recent |
| Pairing code | 6 digits |
| APKs installed per action | 1 |
The adb command behind each action
Useful when you want to do the same thing in a script. DroidDeck adds -s and the device's serial to each command so it reaches the selected device.
| Action | Command |
|---|---|
| Logcat stream | adb logcat -v threadtime |
| Clear (logcat -c) | adb logcat -c |
| Install APK | adb install -r -t, then the file |
| Force-stop | adb shell am force-stop, then the package |
| Clear data… | adb shell pm clear, then the package |
| Uninstall… | adb uninstall, then the package |
| Extract APK | adb shell pm path, then adb pull for each APK |
| Push here | adb push |
| Pull to ~/Downloads | adb pull |
| Delete… | adb shell rm -rf, then the path |
| Capture | adb exec-out screencap -p |
| Screen recording | adb shell screenrecord --time-limit, then the seconds |
| Enable tcpip :5555 | adb tcpip 5555 |
| Revert to USB | adb usb |
| Connect | adb connect, then host:port |
| Pair | adb pair, then host:port and the code |
| Discovered list | adb mdns services |
| Back, Home, Recents, Power | adb shell input keyevent with 4, 3, 187 or 26 |
| Density | adb shell wm density, then the value or reset |
| Size | adb shell wm size, then the value or reset |
| Dumpsys shortcuts | adb shell dumpsys, then battery, activity top or meminfo |
Commands to start DroidDeck
| Package | Command |
|---|---|
.deb, PPA | droiddeck |
| Snap | adb-deck |
| Flatpak | flatpak run com.dhivalabs.droid_deck |
The snap also provides adb-deck.adb, the adb it uses, for commands such as adb-deck.adb kill-server.