cordova platform add android not working while listing Android targets

Question

I got problem when i want to add an android platform to my phoneGap application. I got this message in my CLI when i execute the command cordova platform add android :

Checking Android requirements... (Error: An error occurred while listing Android targets)

I already try to add my android sdk location in the path variable.

Please help me ! :D

I work on Windows 7 64 bits, i install the android API 17, 18 and 19 with the android SDK. I am on 3.2 phoneGap version.

Have you installed Ant and configured it correctly? – Purus Dec 02 '13 at 13:28 — Purus, Dec 02 '13 at 13:28

score 167 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 15 '14 at 15:52

167

To work, this cordova command needs to use some programs located into your sdk/tools directory. You need also have installed apache ant.

Then you must add these directories into your PATH system variable:

Background:

let's assume you have installed your Android SDK to the c:\sdk\android directory
you have installed you Apache ant to the c:\tools\apache-ant directory

Then you must create two system variables:

ANDROID_HOME with the c:\sdk\android value
ANT_HOME with the c:\tools\apache-ant value

Finally, you must modify the PATH variable and add those two to the end of the PATH' value:

;%PATH%\tools;%ANT_HOME%\bin;%ANDROID_HOME%\tools;%ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools

NOTE: for those who uses Linux, the instruction differs a bit.

More documentation available here.

edited Jan 15 '14 at 15:52

shybovycha

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answered Dec 02 '13 at 16:29

l.cotonea

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Gees, I don't understand why it's so hard for the open source project team to take some effort for good documentation. It always creates a big gap between a fairly good product and its users, leaving users fumbling around and wasting time until some light shed by the experienced. – Marshal Dec 10 '13 at 03:58
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I understand you. I think that these last years, open software projects have lost in quality. It's maybe the latest fad: each day, there is 5 starred project under github and everyone seems to zap to take the last popular project. However, in our case (Cordova), I think this is a planning problem. They have to release quickly some new versions to fix some problem with Androïd Kit Kat. I suppose that the team wants to stabilize this version in a primary goal, and after that, they will probably finish the documentation part... – l.cotonea Dec 11 '13 at 09:15
I agree with @Marshal, for the mediocre programmer this is close to rocket science. I really dont get why there's gaps in documentation (like phonegaps) that regular people have big issues with :( – Camathon Mar 19 '14 at 20:41
I am getting the same error. however all of my variables are defined you can see here. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23422961/cordova-cannot-add-android-failed-with-exit-code-enoent – Barış Akkurt May 02 '14 at 08:59
This worked for me. In addition, I had to remove an existing reference to Ant that was already in the PATH variable. On my machine, the PATH had an absolute reference to Ant already (it was C:\Program Files\apache-ant-xxx or something like that). The command prompt could find ant, but cordova couldn't. Everything started working when I removed the full reference and replaced it with %ANT_HOME%\bin. – John Walthour Jul 07 '14 at 13:07
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I would have got this working first time if I had remembered to close and re-open my command prompt window. Wasted around 15 minutes before I realized. – 0x6C77 Aug 12 '14 at 11:41
Here is a blog about installing it from start to finish with a little more detail than phonegap/cordova docs offer. A lot easier than piecing together the different stack questions: http://www.andrewsavory.com/blog/2013/2517 – mrshickadance Aug 12 '14 at 22:49
I have this and still the same error. export HOME="/Users/rover" export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Documents/Dev/Android/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64-20140702/sdk" export ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS="$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools" export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME:$ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS:$ANDROID_HOME/build-tools:$PATH" export ANT_HOME="/usr/local/bin/ant" #export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin" $ which ant /usr/local/bin/ant $ ls /usr/local/bin/ant /usr/local/bin/ant $ ant -v Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.4 $ cordova --version 4.0.0 error is: node_modules/q/q.js:126 throw e; – mylord Nov 06 '14 at 15:14
If you install the full Android Studio w/SDK, it automagically sets all this up for you. – Brian Knoblauch Jul 07 '16 at 18:21

shybovycha · Answer 2 · 2014-05-19T18:08:04.750

For those chosen ones, who preferred Linux development environment

Requirements

First of all, you will need a few things to get started. They are: Android SDK and Apache Ant. Of course, you will need Java SDK (JDK) installed.

To get Android SDK working for all users, you shall need to modify the /etc/environment file and then restart your PC. But if you do not want that hard way - follow me, think of yourself as the only PC user. And use /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.bashrc file to edit.

Let's remember your home path one time to prevent further long lines. Add this one to your /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.bashrc:

export HOME="/home/YOUR_USERNAME"

We'll then use the $HOME notation when we want to say "/home/YOUR_USERNAME directory".

Setting up Android SDK

Download the Android SDK archive and unzip it somewhere. Let's say, yo your home directory, $HOME/adt-bundle/.

Add these lines to your $HOME/.bashrc:

export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/tools"
export ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/platform-tools"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME:$ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS:$PATH"

Setting up Ant

Just as with the Android SDK, download an archive and unzip it to your home directory. Then add these to your .bashrc:

export ANT_HOME="$HOME/ant"
export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin"

I've installed one via the apt-get so this did not affect my .bashrc.

Applying changes

To make these changes work, you should either work in a new terminal window (opened after the changes), or run source ~/.bashrc to make changes available in the current terminal window.

Wrapping up

At the end, you will got:

Two directories at your home directory - ant and android-bundle

A few lines, added to your .bashrc:

export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/tools"
export ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/platform-tools"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME:$ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS:$PATH"

export ANT_HOME="$HOME/ant"
export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin"

Clarification: this should prep a system to not need PATH environment mods for ant: sudo apt-get install ant ant-contrib ant-optional ant-gcj — deinerson1, Jan 23 '14 at 04:42
@deinerson1 but are you sure, Debian/Ubuntu repositories contain the correct, or event the *required* Ant version? ;) — shybovycha, Jan 24 '14 at 10:10
This command displays the version in the ubuntu/debian repos to aid in validating compatibility (Version: 1.9.2-1 as of this comment): apt-cache show ant — deinerson1, Feb 08 '14 at 02:32
@deinerson1 different Ubuntu versions use different package sets. So, for example, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will not contain the latest version of Ant within its repos. I unified this process. Ah, yes, and `gcj` is not `oracle-java7` or whatever. Those are different Java compilers ;) — shybovycha, Feb 08 '14 at 09:39
and make sure to open up a new terminal window or run `source ~/.bashrc` after making these changes!! I forgot to do that and I thought it still wasn't working. — , May 17 '14 at 06:32

score 21 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

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Run the "android" command from your adt\sdk\tools folder and install the latest Tools and SDK. Also make sure your PATH has the right variables.

For this you will need ANT to be installed , a JAVA JDK and an Android SDK installed

JAVA_HOME (C:\Program Files\Java\jdk)

ANT_HOME ({ant location}\apache\apache-ant)

ANDROID_HOME ({android sdk location}\android-sdk)

Add these to your PATH variable like %ANT_HOME%/bin;%ANDROID_HOME%\tools;%ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools;%JAVA_HOME%\bin

Close and re-open your cmd and run your command again.

Similiar to PhoneGap/Cordova Android Development

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Feb 06 '14 at 20:47

Llewellyn Collins

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Concise solution for Windows platform. Great! – swdev Feb 15 '14 at 12:49
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This answer gave me the hint in LINUX, since I can also run `android` command to open the Android SDK Manager and install Andrid SDK Build-tools 19.0.2. Before that I also installed Android SDK from their site, and add `export PATH=${PATH}:/home/YOUR_USER_HERE/adt-bundle/sdk/platform-tools:/home/YOUR_USER_HERE/adt-bundle/sdk/tools` to `~/.bash_profile`. After that everything is installed ok. – tirenweb Apr 17 '14 at 17:12

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 08:52

I'm not sure if this is your problem, but I've encountered similar errors when the cordova library cache gets polluted with something corrupted. To fix it, you just need to delete the cordova cache, and it will automatically repopulate next time you use 'cordova'.

On OS X, this directory is ~/.cordova. On Windows, I assume it's .cordova in your users home directory still.

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 17 '14 at 19:39

The answer is "All of the Above". Do as mentioned with the environment variables, however, also do this:

C:\Users{YOUR_NAME}.cordova\lib\android\cordova\3.5.0\framework edit the project.properties file and change target=android-19 to target=android-20.

Presumably this will need to be changed for the next rendition of android sdk's as well until this little issue gets resolved.

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered May 27 '14 at 20:20

I had the same issue even though path variables were set exactly as per the instructions. After going through multiple files I finally got it resolved. For me (Windows 7 enterprise 64 bit) I had to modify check_reqs.js and create.js from "C:\Users\.cordova\lib\android\cordova\3.5.0\bin\lib\" folder to include absolute path for the android.bat. My android SDK is under "C:\Android\android-sdk".

In check_reqs.js I modified

child_process.exec('android list targets', function(err, stdout, stderr) {

to

child_process.exec('C:\\Android\\android-sdk\\tools\\android.bat list targets', function(err, stdout, stderr) {

In create.js I modified the statement

return exec('android update project --subprojects --path "' + projectPath + '" --target ' + target_api + ' --library "' + path.relative(projectPath, targetFrameworkDir) + '"');

to

return exec('C:\\Android\\android-sdk\\tools\\android.bat update project --subprojects --path "' + projectPath + '" --target ' + target_api + ' --library "' + path.relative(projectPath, targetFrameworkDir) + '"');

Also do not forget those double "\\" in the absolute path

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 05 '14 at 16:45

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after a long struggle, after doing all of the above suggestions more then once with growing desperation, i simply openned my cmd as administrator. it worked. i guess i just got too used for "sudo" before i got this pc.

answered Feb 05 '14 at 16:45

Yuval Perelman

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 31 '14 at 04:36

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For those who have encountered this problem I add something extra that can be helpful, in my case had all the variables properly configured and this was still unable to add android platform and I did was disable my avast antivirus and puff! everything flowed smoothly, what was happening was that the antivirus was blocking the creation of the platform.

Also important for me was to restart the pc. ;)

Regards.

answered Mar 31 '14 at 04:36

Darq Roya

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Same thing for Comodo... [>.<] – Jeffrey Nicholson Carré Jul 04 '14 at 08:56

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 28 '14 at 14:27

I noticed the problem with Cygwin/Windows 7. The problem stems from the slightly different ways Cygwin and MS-DOS shells treat .bat files.

During "add platform", cordova invokes "android":

C:\Users\xxx\.cordova\lib\android\cordova\3.4.0\bin\lib\check_reqs.js

Where it calls 'android list targets' (on line 73)

"android" should resolve to /xx/android-sdk/tools/android.bat or xx:\android-sdk\tools\android.bat. (And, in fact it does, I can run "android" on the MS-DOS command shell - but not in Cygwin shell. There I need to add ".bat".)

"android" without ".bat" fails in Cygwin shell because android.exe doesn't exist (only .bat does). Changing line 73 to invoke 'android.bat list targets' will solve your problem (or give a reasonable error message).

Another work-around is to run cordova in a MS-DOS shell instead of Cygwin shell.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Jun 13 '14 at 07:37

We have a list of solutions here, so I add my one. That was not clear for me until I just try. You should add %ANT_HOME%\bin;%ANDROID_HOME%\tools;%ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools to USER PATH variable, not to a System one. System PATH variable will automatically concatenate the USER PATH variable and translate variables to its value. Hope that helps somebody. P.S. My OS is Win 7x64

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Sep 09 '14 at 11:27

0

This problem is usually cause because of PATH variable has not been set for Android SDK.

export HOME="/home/yourname"
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/tools"
export ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS="$HOME/android-bundle/sdk/platform-tools"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME:$ANDROID_PLATFORM_TOOLS:$PATH"
export ANT_HOME="$HOME/ant"
export PATH="$PATH:$ANT_HOME/bin"

answered Sep 09 '14 at 11:27

Bastin Robin

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I have this and still the same error. I don't have $ANT_HOME however, as there is no bin dir on osx? $ which ant /usr/local/bin/ant $ ls /usr/local/bin/ant /usr/local/bin/ant $ ant -v Apache Ant(TM) version 1.9.4 compiled on April 29 2014 $ cordova --version 4.0.0 – mylord Nov 06 '14 at 15:05

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 11 '14 at 13:21

0

Accepted answer is good and to the point.

I have come across another page where its very well explained with screen shots.

You can refer http://bealers.com/2014/06/phonegap-android-development-environment-for-windows/

answered Nov 11 '14 at 13:21

Tejasvi Hegde

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