Android Screenshots and Screen Capture, code-name Ashot, is dedicated to capture screen of Android phone without rooting a handset. However, you will need to have a phone connected to a desktop/laptop via USB port. In such a way it can be used for full screen presentations, automatic screen capture, and screenshot transformations such as scaling and rotating.
To install application please visit installation instructions.
As soon as you get Ashot up and running on your desktop or laptop, it automatically connects with Android device and starts showing exactly what you see on your mobile screen.
Now the picture can be adjusted:
- Zoom in and out
- Scale to original size of the handset
- Rotate
…and even shown in a full screen mode which is our favorite for demos and presentations.
After you had played enough, let Ashot fulfill its purpose. You can save a single screenshot with a click of a button on the toolbar or in the main menu.
Or you may start automatic Screen Capture in specified folder. All screen changes of Android display will get saved to that folder.
Enjoy our Mighty Tool and let us hear back what you think about it.
The tool is available for download at SourceForge Android Screenshot and Screen Capture page.
I am not able to download the source from Sourceforge… .
BTW I really like the application!
Jan, sorry for missing source. We feel like the code needs some refactoring before we release it to the community. In a couple of weeks it will be out there, after we publish our primary app to the market.
And thank you for the feedback! It’s the best kind of appreciation.
Alex.
Hi guys, but this app doesnt work for me. When I tryed to run app for the first time I receive an error like “Could not find the main class”
Serg, thanks for sending a feedback.
We’ve heard the similar problem from people who started “ashot.jar” from inside zip archive. In other words without unpacking the archive.
Could you please provide more details on steps to reproduce? BTW, if you are on Windows you may want to try the new Windows Installer.
Alex.
Thanks for quick feedback, I really appreciate that.
So before I ran the app and after read the installation file
What I have:
*AndroidScreenCapureSetup.v0.5.exe
*java jdk1.5.0_05 (didnt find the requirements for the java, is it the last one version 1.6?)
*Android SDK, the last one and exact directory as was described
*Windows USB driver
*turn on USB Debugging for Android
run the installer again and receive an error
Serg,
You might be right about Java version. Please try jdk 1.6.
In the meantime, I’ve updated installation instructions to specifically request JDK 1.6
Thanks!
Alex.
Hello guys!
I am very interested in capturing screencasts of mobile devices. Do you have some examples of already captured videos with this tool?
Thank You,
Waldemar | ScreenFab
Hey, Waldemar,
Thanks for your interest. Unfortunately, I don’t have any video recording from Android device to share with you. One of the reasons is that frame rate offered by the platform is very low (something around 1 frame per second). That said I would suggest making screenshots in Screen Capture mode offered by the Android Screen Capture tool (Ashot) and then make a video out of those screenshots. Ashot is good at making screenshots only if screen has changed.
BTW I am going to shoot a new video of Mighty Grocery in a couple of days, and will make Ashot video recording for you as well.
Please let me know if there anything else I can help you with.
Alex.
As I promised, here is the video of Android Screenshots and Screen Capture tool used for screen casting an Android application.
http://www.mightypocket.com/2010/09/android-screenshots-and-screen-capture-in-action/
Dear MightyPocket,
I have followed the installation instructions, however I am using OSX Snow Leopard and when I run your AShot-1.0.jar I get the application but can’t connect to my Sony Ericcson Xperia 10 mini pro = “Connect to Handset” is grey… It is connected through USB “Connect your Phone” in AND USB debugging mode is connected. I can see on OSX desktop the SD Phone Card and view files, etcetera, so I know the phone is connected, but not in AShot-1.0.jar
Regards,
Peter.
Hi, Peter,
Thanks for you interest in our tool.
Assuming that you have SDK path configured correctly, could you please confirm your pc can grab your phone screen by standard means. Launch ddms (from SDK/tools/ folder). There should be your device in the list. Click on the device, and then from Device menu choose “Screen Capture”.
The only obstacle for Ashot to see the screen of your phone I can think of is Turning on USB Storage. Though Nexus One will display phone screen in any case, it might be the difference in firmware. So please try connecting your phone so that SD card is inaccessible to your pc.
Also please make sure you have Java 1.6 configured for your Mac by default (in Terminal — java -version). With recent Java update from Apple, my settings were silently changed back to Java 1.5 so I had to reconfigure it manually to 1.6. Though Ashot won’t start at all with Java 1.5, so I am pretty sure you are running Java 1.6. For the record, I am running previous Mac OS, Leopard.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi Alex.
I have also followed the installation instructions, word for word, and everything seemed to have installed as it should, but it will not connect for me, I am running Windows XP, so where am I going wrong… Thanks John
John,
Could you please try the standard ddms (from SDK/tools/ folder) to take a screenshot? Hopefully it will work, and we will find out how to fix this in ashot.
The other suspect is incorrect SDK path. Unfortunately, there is no check if the path is correct at the moment, though we are going to add this soon.
Alex.
Please try execute “adb devices” from $android_sdk$/tools folder. It should list all connected devices. If it doesn’t it means your device is not supported by drivers or your drives haven’t been installed properly. You can check it in Hardware manager. You should have “Android Composite ADB Interface” under the “Android Phone” item.
Otherwise you can run AShot application from the command line “java -jar AShot-1.0.jar” and check the output. It would be great if you share the output of “adb devices” and “java -jar AShot-1.0.jar” with us.
Alex.
Just tried the standard ddms, and that worked and I was able to get a sceen shot. But it’s still not connecting in ashot.
John, just to double-check — do you have SDK installed in “C:\android\android-sdk-windows” folder and you have *exactly* the same value in ashot’s Edit –> Options –> Setup path to Android SDK?
It would be nice if you could run application from the command line and check the output as explained above by etf. I know, that sounds kinda geeky, so we want to push an update to have access to logs from application UI.
Thanks!
Alex.
Hi Alex.
It’s working now, I had the path wrong in ashot, but I’m glad it worked as I hopeless at using command prompt… Thanks John
John, thank you for the great news!
I am sorry for inconvenience with SDK path. Will be adding SDK path check to prevent this in the future.
Cheers,
Alex.
Peter notified by email that ashot started working for him. But the reason why ashot did not work remains unknown. Kinda mystery.
I installed your program for my Android 1.5 phone and when I started it up, it gave me a box to navigate to a location on my PC. So I went to the location of my Android phone (which was connected via USB) and your program said “Location of Android SDK invalid”. If I close the box, the app just shuts down.
Ideas??
Mark, thank you for giving the tool a try.
I guess the path you’ve entered does not contain Android SDK which is required to run the Android Screenshots tool. You may want to have a look at installation instructions and check section “2. Android SDK”. Per that section, if you have installed SDK in “C:\android” folder, the SDK path will look like “C:\android\android-sdk-windows”.
Please let me know if you need any more details.
hello, trying this tool for the first time and i put my phone into ” USB Debugging ” and when i open up the program it does not connect at all…. Nor in regular USB mode…? any clue what could be wrong? my USB drivers are properly installed and i also have SDK installed.
Hi Louis,
Could you please confirm you followed our Installation instructions and that standard ddms tool will work with your device?
To test screenshot with standard tool, launch (sdk install folder)/tools/ddms –> Select device from the list –> (Main Menu) –> Device –> Screen capture…
I am eager to use your app, but am having similar issue as some of the others have — except I CANNOT get even DDMS to work, as I get this error:
“Failed to get the adb version: Cannot run program “adb”: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified”
I have googled and can’t find info that resolves this for me. The SDK is installed for me here:
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk-windows\tools
I note that this is not directly in C:\… could this be the problem? That it just doesn’t find adb which is in the platform-tools subfolder? Is there a way to get DDMS to point to that location instead, or do I need to uninstall all of the SDK and restall fresh at C:\Android\android-sdk-windows
Sorry… I’m completely new here! — Tom
Hi Tom, thank you for your interest in our tool.
I am sad to hear about your issues but you need to make ddms running in order to use our Android Screenshots and Screen Capture tool. I guess the best bet would be to start installing SDK from scratch and try to follow our Installation Guide.
Hopefully this helps.
Tom, I ran into this too. To resolve it, I had to add the SDK path to my Windows system path. Right Click My Computer, Properties, Advanced Settings (left panel), Environment variables, Locate Path and edit it. I usually copy the whole thing to notepad which is easier to edit. At the end, add a semi-colon if none exists and add the path to the SDK. e.g.
“c:\program files\android\android-sdk-windows;”
Or
“c:\program files\android\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools;”
I can’t remember which one worked. Once saved, you should be able to run ddms.bat.
Hi guys,
Has anyone gotten it working on a Galaxy Tab? I’ve finally gotten DDMS working (requires a Samsung download into the SDK) but the Ashot is not doing anything. Buttons for Start and Save are gray.
Any clues?
-Glen
FYI I got mine working after reading about the new platform-tools dir. My tools dir still exists and I was running adb there, ashot not working. I copied the new files including adb.exe from platform-tools into tools (don’t know if that was necessary but I did), restarted adb and ddms in the new platform-tools dir, restarted ashot, and bingo.
Hi Glen, thank you so much for sharing your solution with everyone.
As a side note, it was enough to copy just adb.exe to platform-tools. Anyhow, I am glad you could make the tool work for you and thanks again for writing back.
This worked perfectly.
For those on Windows 7:
Edit your system path environment variable (Start Menu -> Right Click Computer -> properties -> Advanced System Properties -> environment Variables -> path -> edit) to include the path for the JDK 1.6 for java, and also the path for the Android app platform tools (mine are in x86 as i have a 64 bit system):
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_23\bin;c:\Program Files (x86)\android\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools
Once you do that, go to your Android SDK folder, the one listed above (platform-tools), and copy everything to the ‘tools’ folder, no need to replace anything, just merge em all in.
c:\Program Files (x86)\android\android-sdk-windows\tools
Once you do that the program should launch without issue.
Now, if only it would update the screen capture at like 30fps lol
Phillip, thank you very much for writing the comment.
30 fps… I guess it would be a kind of magic
It seems not to work with the lastest gingerbread sdk.
I had to copy adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll from /platform-tools into /tools
Oscar, thank you for your comment.
Unfortunately, this is true. We had to add this ugly hack to our installation instructions.
Sorry for inconvenience, hopefully this will get resolved with the new update.
I also have the new gingerbread and had to move the same three files. I finally got it to connect but all I get is a black screen. What should I do next?
Hi Caroline, could you please try if the standard ddms tool is capable of taking screenshots? If not, there is no way Ashot can do it either.
It doesn’t work for me. I’m using MacOSX Snow Leopard 10.6.6.
How can I do for that?
Hi, thanks for your question.
In order to use Ashot on Mac please consider the following checklist:
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
I did exactly following this:
Install Platform-tools package: launch [install dir]/tools/android –> Available Packages –> Android Repository –>
but it kept showing me this message.
XML verification failed for https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/addons_list.xml.
Error: java.lang.NullPointerException
XML verification failed for https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml.
Error: java.lang.NullPointerException
Help
Hi Roz, thank you for your question.
Kindly note that issue seems to be in Android SDK install, which is out of our control. I would recommend reading posts like this and/or google on the subject.
Cheers!
Hmm still didn’t work for me. But thanks for your reply anyway.
Ok – this is a really important pice of information. One _must_ copy (or symlink) the adb from platform-tools to tools.
On a side note – why doesn’t it look for adb in both places?
Good question. I hope it will do it eventually.
Wonderful – worked for me – I was getting rather frustrated
thanks
It is complex to download, install, run & configure. Especially if its official lappy, it’s tough. But your efforts are Amazing…The thought, the program, the support, that to everything free is highly appreciatable…..
I will look forward to see new apps from you!
Thank you on behalf of all……
Thank you so much, Sarath! It’s a pleasure to be helpful and create convenient tools.
hi alex,
first of all thanks of the tool ..
i need your help to modify according to our need, i downloaded the code also.
we are facing error to start debugging,
please let share or
give procedure to try to modify it
Hello Sravanth, thank you for your question.
If you would like to customize Ashot to your needs, I would recommend using NetBeans as development environment. Please pay attention to error messages, they may be helpful to compile the project.
I’ve tried all the tricks above, but I cannot make ashot work with my HTC Desire HD. ddms works though. Can this problem be related to the HTC driver? In device manager, it shows up under “Android USB Devices” as “My HTC”, not Android Composite ADB Interface, as soon as the detect process is finished. Tried 3 computers, win7 and XP, same result.
Hi John, thank you for your question.
Kindly note that as soon as ddms can successfully connect and capture screenshots of your phone, it means that USB driver is fine. Could you please confirm that you have copied adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll, from platform-tools to tools folder?
Thanks for the app. Works well on my Win 7 laptop. For those who have problem, make sure adb can list your devices and also make sure that you copy adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll into the Android SDK tools folder, as noted in the installation.
If there is any improvement to be made, it would be the screen refresh rate.
Great app. Great job.
Thanks so much for the feedback!
hi alex,,
would give me the code of this app???
I need it so much…
reply me soon…
Hi Reynald, thank you for your interest.
Kindly note that the source code is available for download from Ashot’s Develop page at SourceForge.
Alex,
I had the application and ddms working flawlessly with my Epic 4G until today when I updated the tool set.
I updated the Android SDK tools to revision 10 and the Android SDK Platform-tools to revision 3, my phone now fails to be recognized as online. Revisions 9 and 2 (respectively) worked without issue. The phone is recognized by ddms, as offline, but for the life of me I cannot get it to be “online.”
BTW: I had to re-copy adb.exe and the 2 .dll files from the “platform-tools” folder back to the “tools” folder after the update.
Do you think could be an issue with the SDK, your application and/or the Samsung drivers? Any suggestions?
Thanks,
-Sam
I’m an idiot! I solved this issue during my initial setup of AShot months ago, but just realized I was repeating the same problem as back then.
I apologize for the erroneous post. Hopefully my stupidity helps others avoid this issue:
Problem: Phone is recognized by ddms, but only as “offline.”
Solution: Do not use a laptop dock USB port, but rather use a USB port directly on the laptop itself.
Hi Sam,
I am glad that you could resolve the issue. And thank you so much for sharing your solution with everyone!
Cheers!
Hello,
I think your program is great for presentations but I do have a little problem, because the caputered pictures I take are all in red.
Here is an example http://img29.imageshack.us/i/forupload.png/
I think it could be a problem with android 2.3.3 that is running on the handheld ?
Best regards,
Thomas
Hi Thomas, thank you so much for your feedback.
This looks like a weird problem, and it’s unlikely related to Android 2.3.3 because screenshots from Nexus One running this OS will look just fine. Couple of questions:
1. What device are you using?
2. Will ddms tool make the same red screen shot?
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you again.
Hey Alex,
the device is the Sony Erricson Xperia neo and yes DDMs makes the same red screenshots.
Thanks for the fast answer !
Me again, I just wanted to tell you that I tried it with a HTC Wildfire (Android 2.1) and it worked fine.
Hi Thomas, thanks for providing additional details.
Apparently, this problem has something to do with the hardware and/or system software of the phone. Hopefully, manufacturer will come up with the solution eventually.
Hi,
I am running Ashot manually after downloading and unzipping AndroidScreenCapture-1.1.zip. But I am unable to capture (nothing is displayed).
There is an indicator in the bottom right that indicates that I’am connected. Below is what my log file looks like. Could you please help me find out what I am doing wrong?
Log:
2011-04-08 06:29:03,887 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:124] initBridge
2011-04-08 06:29:03,923 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:126] create bridge
2011-04-08 06:29:04,205 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:129] bridge is created
2011-04-08 06:29:04,209 INFO [Device List Monitor] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:135] deviceConnected: HT0CHRX06581
2011-04-08 06:29:04,430 ERROR [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:117]
com.android.ddmlib.AdbCommandRejectedException: device offline
at com.android.ddmlib.AdbHelper.setDevice(AdbHelper.java:736) ~[ddmlib-1.0.jar:na]
at com.android.ddmlib.AdbHelper.getFrameBuffer(AdbHelper.java:285) ~[ddmlib-1.0.jar:na]
at com.android.ddmlib.Device.getScreenshot(Device.java:271) ~[ddmlib-1.0.jar:na]
at com.mightypocket.ashot.AndroDemon.fetchScreen(AndroDemon.java:108) [AShot-1.1.jar:na]
at com.mightypocket.ashot.AndroDemon.doInBackground(AndroDemon.java:73) [AShot-1.1.jar:na]
at com.mightypocket.ashot.AndroDemon.doInBackground(AndroDemon.java:27) [AShot-1.1.jar:na]
at javax.swing.SwingWorker$1.call(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask$Sync.innerRun(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at javax.swing.SwingWorker.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) [na:1.6.0_23]
2011-04-08 06:29:04,439 ERROR [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:117]
com.android.ddmlib.AdbCommandRejectedException: device offline
….
Sorry. Persistence is key. In a last attempt I rebooted my system and phone amd launched Ashot again. Now it is working. Don’t know why, but I’m happy. Thanks for nice application
I have a problem about the screen capture.
I used android SDK ddms.bat to capture, but it always all in red.
My device is sony ericsson ARC and ARC version is android 2.3.2 .
Unfortunately, this is a known issue of Sony Ericsson Arc compatibility with ddms.bat. Unless ddms.bat makes correct screenshots, Ashot won’t be able to make them either.
Dear Alex:
Thanks for your apply.
But Ashot can not connect to my ARC.
The “connect to handset” can not used.
I have already copy the adb.exe from “platform-tools” to “tool”.
Do you have any suggest?
This is my ashot.log
2011-04-14 12:50:18,651 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:124] initBridge
2011-04-14 12:50:18,679 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:126] create bridge
2011-04-14 12:50:18,682 TRACE [pool-1-thread-1] c.m.a.AndroDemon [AndroDemon.java:129] bridge is created
Thanks for your help.
BR
Ed.Chiang
Dear Alex:
I have already try Ashot success, it have the same problem like you said.
So, this problem need sony release new firmware to solve this problem, right?
Do you think sony know this problem?
BR
Ed.Chiang
Hi Ed.Chiang,
Good to know you could launch Ashot.
As to the problem, unfortunately we can only guess what causes it. Hopefully, it will get resolved over time.
Best regards,
Alex.
Great work! Finally got it to work on my Thunderbolt. Win7 wasn’t recognizing the driver AND ASHOT wouldn’t recognize the device (it wasn’t showing up…I think this was because the driver issue). Tried all you tricks and tips and nothing still…then I downloaded HTC Sync (maybe the driver was in there, I don’t know) but viola! Once i did that I was good to go. Great job everyone…looks amazing.
http://www.htc.com/us/search?q=usb&t=support&p=1&d=128
TJ, thanks so much for your feedback and sharing your solution with everyone.
When I try to run the Ashot installer, it stops at ‘Windows cannot open this file: install.jar
I am prompted to let Windows find the Program or I can; I choose Selelct a Prgraom, Browse to I browse to the Program Files\Java\jdk 1.6.0_24\bin and have selected java.exe and severla other and the install fails. I can connect to the device with ADK, do screen caps, etc. I have added the items listed above to the Env paths, copied the adb and dll files to the Tool directory, etc, but Ashot still won’t install.. Any suggestions?
Please have a look at this comment where a nice person shares their experience of making install.jar to work.
after opening ddms and screen capture, i get “unable to get frame buffer: timeout” at command prompt.
droid1, vista
Hi Roy, have you followed all the recommendations in Installation Instructions?
I would recommend double-checking that device driver is installed properly.
double checked and reinstalled. still same.
now getting “E/EventLogParser: uknown tag number ” at command prompt when running application.
Roy, unfortunately, we are unaware of the solution for your issue. As a general recommendation, the first step would be to install Android SDK and make sure ddms works. Once ddms can make screenshots, Ashot should be able to do it too.
1) You have no support on sf.net.
2) Installer hangs. (screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/q7hqs.png )
Hi Scott, thank you for your feedback.
1) We offer support in comments section of this site.
2) You may need to extract application from zip archive manually if installer won’t work for you.
I can’t get the ashot software to install. Does it work on vista 64. I can do regular screenshots through ddms.bat no problem.
Hi Kirk. Have you followed the installation instructions? What are the steps you take to install the software and is there any error message? Thanks.
I have installed JDK 1.7 and added its path in both user and system variables. However, when I try to install the Android SDK, I get the message that Java JDK is not found.
There is not option in the installer window to point Android to the path, and I’ve added the path to the environment variables, what else can I do?
I’m running windows xp SP3.
thank you
I fixed it. On another forum, I read that when the “can’t find” message comes up, simply click “back”, then “next” again and it will find it. Stupid, but it worked.
Hi from Spain, guys! I’m trying Android Screen Capture for my personal blog and I can’t find the AutoCapture function on Windows. Is it only available for Mac? Anyway, your program works perfect and if you need help to translate it into spanish I can help you. Thanks!
Hi, there. The Auto Capture feature is available for Windows too. Please try File –> Start capture.
Thanks for you offer to translate to Spanish. We may consider this going forward.
Hi, there. The Auto Capture feature is available for Windows too. Please try File –> Start capture.
Thanks for you offer to translate to Spanish. We may consider this going forward.
Great Job. I was using with Android SDK 7. I moved to SDK 12 and now adb is moved from “tools” to “platform-tools” and thus while troubleshooting, I ran “java -jar ashot.jar” and get “cannot run android-sdk\tools\adb” I think this is the problem.
Again.. great work.
Hi Dan, thanks for your feedback.
Have you tried copying adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll, from platform-tools to tools folder as suggested in Installation instructions?
Great!
It works on Nexus one, windows 7, 64 bits. I have to use the .jar with the console (.exe did’t work and neither double click on .jar
After that the application is working very well
Thanks a lot.
Hey,
This is an awesome app. I can really use it for my school..
I only have one problem. The first time I started it, it was working great.
One day later I tried to start Ashot again, but it didn’t connect. I tried many things and I turn my phone on and off many times.. is there something I have to do before using it the second time? I already tried to First connect the phone and then start the app and vise versa, but it didn’t work? On my phone I selected ‘Use as a diskdrive’ and it worked good the first time.
Hi there. There is nothing special you should do to use Ashot the second time. Please make sure that your phone has “USB Debugging” option enabled and all steps in Installation instructions are followed. Also, I believe you should NOT use “as diskdrive” option.
Cheers!
Is there any way of improving the frame rate? i am trying to get games playing on my xperia play and the rate rate is just a bit to slow! even on 30fps, would this be down to the data transfer via the USB cable?! do you know of any way to improve this? or are there any plans to up the frame rate?
thanks
Jamie
HI Jamie, unfortunately there is no way to improve frame rate through USB. It’s current limitation of Android platform. Hopefully, this will change in the future. Best regards, Alex.
Alex,
Great app & great instructions – just enough to get me up and running. I’m also impressed by your support and feedback to users here.
For your records: Works on my Sammy Intercept
One quick question – the “screen changes” are captured and stored, but what do you recommend for turning that into a true “movie”?
Thx.
Hi DT, thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately, the frame rate provided by Android devices is low. It does not allow creating a good video using USB connection. The only working solution as of the moment is using external camera to record phone’s screen.
I finally figured out how to make this work on my Mac so I’m gonna share this with you today.
1. Download the zip file
2. Go to Android SDK ➞ platform-tools ➞ adb, then copy-paste this file in Android SDK ➞ tools…… you should have 2 copies of this file now!
3. Enable debugging mode on your phone and connect it to your Mac with the USB cable.
4. Launch the ashot.jar application
When the application asks to select a path for the Android SDK, simply select the path where you’ve installed your Android SDK folder.
If you installed your Android SDK folder in Applications/Android SDK, then the path you’ll select is also Applications/Android SDK
The adb file will be erased from the tools folder if you upgrade your Android SDK. Simply follow the steps above and you’ll be good to go once again.
Just tried this a few minutes ago and it worked.
You can ignore my previous comment (no need to post). I finally figured out that the “text-less” window was looking for a path to the Android SDK. I supplied it and things are working now.
This works on my XP machine but will not install on Win 7, 64 bit. Installation locks with a spinning indicator during the installation process.
Is there a Win 7 compatible version?
Hi there, thanks for your question. If there are any issues with running the installer, you may want to try unzipping Ashot files from archive available from Source Forge download page. Thanks!
Hey I was just wondering before I download this, can I control my G1 In any way or does it just display what’s on my phone?
Hi Zach, thanks for your question. The tool only allows showing your phone’s screen at your desktop. No ability to control your phone. Cheers!
Thanks, so by any chance do you know of a program that does allow me to control it from my PC?
Unfortunately, no recommendations. Google search might be helpful.
Nice program as I was looking for something to do precisely this.
One question though. Is it possible for show the screen for multiple (e.g two) Android devices onscreen at once? It would be great for showing network traffic and seeing how an action on one phone affects the second phone.
Hi Josh, thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately, the tool can display only one phone screen at a time. Perhaps in the future we may allow starting a few instances of the tool so that each of them could connect with different phones attached to a computer. Cheers!
Really nice tool
I have a minor problem, though: I’m running on Windows XP and my App is fixed to running in landscape mode (android:screenOrientation=”landscape” in AndroidManifest.xml).
On my device – Samsung Galaxy Tab – this displays nicely in landscape and with the 4 “buttons” to the right.
In ashot, though, the display is upside down.
Am I the only one with this problem? And/or how to fix it?
Cheers
Søren
Hi Soren, could you please let me know what is the result of ddms tool? Is it upside down as well?
Can’t capture the screen of my HTC Desire S.
I also tried to run ddm and capture a screenshot, but my device isn’t listed there.
Any ideas what to do?
Have you tried following Installation instructions?
If I connect my smartphone Android to my laptop, will I be able to freestreem videos and still websites to my PC from my Android which is grabbing the web via its broadband web browser in the phone ? Is it legal or acceptable to my phone carrier if I use my cell phone as a internet source to my PC ?
Thanks,
Chuck Lakin
Hi Chuck, thanks for your question. Unfortunately, I don’t think that you’ll be satisfied with the frame rate you’ll be getting from Android phone on your laptop. This is the current limitation of the device. Therefore I doubt there going to be any legal issues. Cheers!
It is possible to run this application on Linux? I’m using Ubuntu 11.10 and have tried to run the jar, it opens, but do not detect the device. I’ve tested the screenshot by using ddms, and it works. What I should do?
Hi there, I guess you just need to copy adb from platform-tools to tools folder. Cheers!
Yes! It worked, with the copy of adb. Thanks for the tip
By the way, I liked this program very much, congratulations for the nice work! It will be helpful 
Cheers!
I tried installing v1.1 but it did nothing when I clicked on Next. When I clicked on Next a second time, it hung. I’m running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
The Android SDK and the Java SDK were installed previously, although not in their default directories.
Thank you.
If Ashot installer does not work for you, you may need to intall the tool manually by unzipping the archive available at SourceForge. Cheers!
I’ve read this entire comment thread and several other tutorials with no success. No one seems to agree with me that this is all VERY confusing and some things are being skipped.
I have copied adb over to the tools folder. I have told Ashot the correct folder for SDK. I realize that I must be able to use DDMS before Ashot will work (however, that makes Ashot sound pointless, since all I want is to be able to take one screenshot). However, DDMS won’t let me connect to my handset and I don’t know why.
In addition, everyone who has tried to be helpful and break down the Mac OS X process into four easy steps has forgotten what I think is one critical piece of information: by what method do you connect your phone to your computer?? Four options (PC Mode, Windows Media Sync, USB Mass Storage, Charge only) and no one has mentioned what it should be!
I seriously need a simple, yet thorough walkthrough for my Droid X on a Mac OS 10.7. And for the love of god, why doesn’t someone compile these individual tutorials into a nice, neat wiki so people don’t have to read hundreds of comments?
Have you seen the Installation instructions? As the minimum, section 4 describes how you should set up your phone to get it connected with your computer.
Hey,
Okay – I have a Motorola Defy, and I have done:
Installed the Android SDK, and run ddms.bat – ddms can find my phone.
My phone is plugged in, set to ‘None’ (so my PC can’t find the SD Card) and is on USB debugging. Still, this does not seem to work. I’m on Android 2.2.2, and Windows 7.
Hope you can help, and thanks for your time.
Hi Dave, you might need to copy adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll, from platform-tools to tools folder as suggested in installation instructions. Cheers!
It worked!
Thank you so much! Again, thanks for your time.
Just installed everything according to the install guide and everything is working great on Windows 7 with both my Asus Transformer and my Motorola Droid Razr. Thank you!
I tried this program in the hopes that screen capture meant recording video. But all I can get the program to do is snap an image every second or so. I want to record video guides and tips and snapshots won’t work for me. Am I right that this program will not allow recording of video?
Unfortunately, no. The frame rate is way too low for recording videos, and It’s the current limitation of the Android hardware.
Hi
I have downloaded the app and it runs in my Mac, but the options for Save screenshot and Start Capture are grayed out. There is a “Disconnected” msg in the status bar, at the bottom.
I am able to take screenshots with my Eclipse and DDMS perspective, as usual.
Do I have to install anything on my phone?
I have searched in the options of the app, but no way.
What could I do to be able to use your app?
Regards – Pedro
Pedro, you might need to copy adb file from platform-tools to tools folder. Cheers!
Hello,
First, thank you for this program.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t use this to view what the camera sees. I wanted to use the phone to monitor a small, hard to see area. I see that people above asked about viewing videos and you said the frame rate is pretty bad over USB. Do you have any plans to add this feature, perhaps using different connectivity?
Hi, Sarah. It sounds like you remote camera tool, not the screen capture tool. Perhaps something like this one could work for you: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.busywww.cameraremote
Cheers!
Hi Alex
running the install from your installer and it is never ending installation
I’m running Seven 64 bits
Alex : just reinstall JDK and SDK in order to be sure
same never ending installation
but when ending the installation program your directory and prog are there
Hi Bruno, you may need to install the app manually by unzipping the archive available on SourceForge.
nice and good application it works on acer iconia tab a501 but is there a new version that follows the movement of the display of the device accurately? Thanks for the app.
Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately, the low frame rate is hardware limitation, and there’s nothing we can do on program’s side.
Thanks for a great application.
It works perfectly on my Mac OSX 10.6, HTC Desire.
Thanks for making this freely available.
Best Wishes,
Mike
Hello and thanks for a great application. I run the program against an app that draws a continuous sine wave at my HTC desire S. As if it goes step by step. This is extremely slow on my computer (windows 7). So my question is whether there is any way I can speed up. Best regards.
Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately, the low frame rate is hardware limitation, and there’s nothing we can do on program’s side.
Just a heads up for any Linux users. AndroidScreenCapture works with minimum issue on Linux proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WwRvQymyaQ
Tested /w Ubuntu 11.10 and my ARCHOS G9 10.1 internet tablet for the internets.
I cannot get the Ashot installer .exe to complete. It begins extracting, and gets to about 72% before it disappears. It doesn’t hang or freeze, it just disappears and nothing happens.
I can see my device’s screen in ddms.bat, so that component is working.
Carl, if rebooting your computer does not help, you will need to unzip the tool manually. The zip package is available on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ashot/files/
I’ve installed the screen shot program and it doesn’t do anything when I launch it. I’ve got the SDK path correct and I can use the DDMS to get screen captures from my phone.
If I run the command adb devices it shows
List of devices attached
015DB9C80C026022 device
If I run your program like this java -jar ashot.jar, it launches the program but it gives this error
C:\Program Files (x86)\Android Screen Capture>java -jar ashot.jar
12:37:59 E/adb: Failed to get the adb version: Cannot run program “C:\Users\USER
\android-sdk-windows\tools\adb”: CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find t
he file specified
It seems to be looking for adb in the wrong place.
Barry, please make sure that:
1. You copied adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll, and AdbWinUsbApi.dll, from platform-tools to tools folder.
2. Path to SDK is set as suggested in the Installation instructions.
It’s too urgent please help me. I need complete working code to take screen shot in android . Thank you
You can get Ashot source code from Source forge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/ashot/