Wireless ADB Manager for Visual Studio
Wireless ADB Manager is a Visual Studio extension that helps you pair, connect and manage Android devices for Wireless Debugging — all from within Visual Studio, without leaving your IDE.
v2.0 is a full rewrite built on the new VisualStudio.Extensibility out-of-process model, targeting Visual Studio 2022 17.14 and later. It brings USB-to-wireless switching, automatic device model detection, wireless ADB state management, and a unified device list alongside all the original wireless pairing and connection features.
⚠️ Upgrading from v1? — Duplicate extension cleanup
Due to the architectural change to the new VS Extensibility model, v2 is registered under a different identity in Visual Studio. If you updated from v1 and now see two "Wireless ADB Manager" entries, follow these steps to clean up:
- Open Extensions → Manage Extensions
- Find the new v2 entry and click Uninstall (VS will queue it for removal after restart — do not restart yet)
- Find the old v1 entry — if there is a pending auto-update shown next to it, click Cancel to stop it re-installing v2
- Click Uninstall on the v1 entry as well
- Click Modify / Close and restart Visual Studio — both entries will be removed
- After restart, reinstall the extension from the Visual Studio Marketplace or via Extensions → Manage Extensions → Online
What you can do
Easily manage all your ADB connections — both wireless and USB — from a single window inside Visual Studio
Pair and connect Android devices by scanning a QR code for Wireless Debugging
Pair and connect Android devices by entering a pairing code
Directly connect to already-paired devices without scanning a QR code or entering a pairing code again
Disconnect a connected device
Switch a USB-connected device to wireless ADB in one click — the extension detects the device's WiFi IP automatically and handles the adb tcpip switch for you, no terminal needed
See the model name of USB-connected devices directly in the list
Know at a glance whether wireless ADB is already on for any USB-connected device
Turn off wireless ADB from the USB device row when you no longer need it, or be prompted automatically when disconnecting a device you switched to wireless — saving battery on the device
Get it here!
✅ Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=dimitrios-iliopoulos.WirelessADBManager
✅ Search it in the Visual Studio Extension Manager
Getting Started
Usually no setup is required after installing the extension. Wireless ADB Manager will use a running ADB server instance without an issue. In case the ADB server is down or killed, Wireless ADB Manager will try to start it. To do so it needs to know the location of adb.exe. By default it will try to find it in the PATH environment variables (both User and Machine) by identifying a path containing android-sdk\platform-tools. As a fallback it will try the default VS installation path C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe. If neither is found, the extension will prompt you to set the correct path in its settings. You can also set it manually at any time via the extension settings under Tools → Options.
Usage
The Wireless ADB Manager can be found under the Tools menu in Visual Studio. The PC and Android devices must be on the same network for wireless features to work.
Switch a USB-connected device to wireless ADB
If your Android device is connected via USB with Developer Options and USB Debugging enabled, it will appear automatically in the device list with a USB icon and a "Switch to Wireless" button. The extension will:
- Detect the device's WiFi IP address automatically (or prompt you to enter it if it cannot be determined)
- Enable TCP/IP mode on the device via
adb tcpip
- Connect to the device wirelessly
Once switched, the row transitions to a wireless entry with the device ready to use. If wireless ADB was already enabled on the device before you plugged in the USB cable, a "Turn off wireless ADB" button is shown next to the USB row so you can disable it without a terminal.
Turn off wireless ADB
There are two ways to turn off wireless ADB on a device (switches adbd back to USB-only mode, equivalent to adb usb):
- From the USB device row — if the device has wireless ADB on while the USB cable is connected, a "Turn off wireless ADB" button appears directly in the list
- On disconnect — when you disconnect a device that was switched to wireless by this extension, a prompt asks "Would you like to turn off wireless ADB on the device?" so you can disable it in one step to save battery
Pair and connect with QR code
The extension automatically displays a QR code ready to scan. On the Android device, go to Developer Settings → Wireless Debugging and tap "Pair device with QR code". Scan the QR code shown by the extension. After pairing completes the device will connect automatically and appear as a target in Visual Studio.
Pair and connect with pairing code
In Wireless Debugging on the Android device tap "Pair device with pairing code". This shows the device's IP, port and a 6-digit pairing code, and announces the device on the network. The device will appear in the extension's list with a "Pair" button. Click it, enter the pairing code shown on the device, and the extension will pair and connect.
Connect to an already-paired device
Devices that have previously been paired show a "Connect" button when they are discovered on the network (i.e. Wireless Debugging is enabled on the device). No additional action on the device is needed. If the pairing is still valid the connection will succeed immediately.
Disconnect a device
A connected device shows a "Disconnect" button. Clicking it disconnects the ADB session. Pairing is preserved, so you can reconnect instantly without going through pairing again. If the device was switched to wireless by this extension, you will be asked whether to turn off wireless ADB on the device as well.
How it works
The extension is built on the VisualStudio.Extensibility out-of-process model — it runs in a separate host process from Visual Studio, which makes it more stable and compatible with future VS versions.
Under the hood it uses three core libraries:
- Makaretu.Dns.Multicast for mDNS/Bonjour service discovery. v1 used Zeroconf, which performed a one-shot scan per discovery session — requiring a new scan each time the tool window was opened and missing devices that announced themselves between scans. Makaretu.Dns.Multicast exposes a lower-level multicast socket API that allows a single passive listener to run for the entire VS session lifetime, continuously forwarding
_adb-tls-pairing._tcp and _adb-tls-connect._tcp announcements to all open tool windows via channels. Credit to novotnyllc/Zeroconf for powering the original v1 implementation.
- QRCoder.Xaml to generate the pairing QR code rendered as a WPF path geometry.
- AdvancedSharpAdbClient for pairing, connecting and disconnecting devices. Low-level ADB wire protocol commands (device transport selection,
tcpip:, usb:, host:track-devices, host:disconnect) are implemented directly over TCP sockets where the library's higher-level API does not apply.
USB device tracking uses host:track-devices to stream real-time plug/unplug events. Device model names are read via getprop ro.product.model and wireless ADB state via getprop service.adb.tcp.port — both fetched in parallel when a USB device appears.
If you have any questions, feedback or a bug to report, feel free to open an issue 😊
Credits
