Member Avatar for Rushabh Verma

I've problem about using Genymotion Android emulator for xamarin development.

I have intalled Genymotion desktop app and several Android devices within it. Whenever i run any of the installed device in Genymotion desktop app via start button, it works fine but there is no Genymotion emulator in the list of available emulators in Visual Studio, neither in Xamarin studio (There are only built-in Android Emulators and devices installed in Xamarin Android player).

I found some articles about using Genymotion Emulator for Xamarin and all of them says that :

Both Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio with Xamarin discover it, no problem
I am using Visual Studio Enterprise Edition, Xamarin business editiorn and free edition of Genymotion, if that matters.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rproffitt

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reported the Genymotion VM runs but Visual Studio / Xamarin does not list it, and suspected the free edition. The usual, reliable cause is an ADB mismatch: Genymotion ships with its own Android tools by default, so Visual Studio’s adb may never see the Genymotion device unless both use the same Android SDK/adb. (docs.genymotion.com)

Quick, actionable checklist that fixes this in almost every case:

  1. In Visual Studio note the Android SDK Location: Tools → Options → Xamarin → Android Settings. (stackoverflow.com)

  2. In Genymotion open Settings → ADB and enable “Use custom Android SDK tools”, then point it to the SDK root you copied (the SDK root folder, not platform-tools). Restart the Genymotion VM. (docs.genymotion.com)

  3. From a shell run the standard adb commands to refresh the server and list devices:

    adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices -l
# if needed (get VM IP from VirtualBox):
adb connect 192.168.56.xxx:5555

    These are the official adb workflows for discovering and (if necessary) connecting emulators by IP. (developer.android.com)

If the device still does not appear: ensure only one adb binary is on PATH, fully quit and restart Visual Studio, update Genymotion/VirtualBox, and confirm the VM is actually running (check VirtualBox). Some people also need to close/reopen the solution for VS to refresh the device list. (c-sharpcorner.com)

About licensing: ’s warning has a basis — Genymotion Desktop’s free edition is for personal use only and has feature/support limits; commercial or automated testing requires a paid license (Genymotion offers a trial for Pro). Check Genymotion’s support/terms for the exact restrictions. (support.genymotion.com)

Member Avatar for rproffitt

After looking over Genymotion's web pages it appears the free version isn't for developers. So they may have left out the code that connects it to the debug systems. Ask them directly as well.

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