adb-tray

A system tray icon for your Android devices. Right-click to list connected devices, mirror the screen, rotate, take screenshots or connect wirelessly – without opening a terminal.

Built for Linux Mint / Cinnamon, on top of adb and scrcpy.

[icon] ─┬─ SM-X210  (USB)        ─┬─ Mirror screen
        ├─ ▶ SM-X210  (Wi-Fi)     ├─ Lock portrait / Lock landscape / Auto-rotate
        ├─ Connect via Wi-Fi  ►   ├─ Screenshot
        ├─ Refresh                ├─ Open adb shell
        ├─ Restart adb server     └─ Switch to Wi-Fi / Disconnect
        └─ Quit

The menu follows your desktop language. English is the default; see Languages.

Contents

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Getting started
• Languages
• Configuration and files
• Troubleshooting
• Uninstall
• Contributing
• License

Features

Area	What you can do
Devices	Lists USB and Wi-Fi devices with model names, refreshed every 4 seconds. Shows when a device is waiting for authorization or is offline.
Mirroring	Start/stop scrcpy per device. Active mirrors are marked with ▶. Several devices can be mirrored at once.
Rotation	Lock portrait, lock landscape or restore auto-rotate – also while mirroring.
Tools	Screenshot to your Pictures folder, adb shell in a terminal, restart the adb server.
Wi-Fi	Switch to Wi-Fi from a USB-connected device, reconnect to previous addresses or a new one, or pair using Android's Wireless debugging.

Requirements

• Linux Mint / Cinnamon (the icon uses XApp.StatusIcon). Other desktops with StatusNotifier support via xapp-sn-watcher should work but are untested.
• Python 3 with PyGObject
• Packages: adb, scrcpy, python3-gi, gir1.2-gtk-3.0, gir1.2-xapp-1.0, libnotify-bin, gettext

Installation

git clone https://github.com/aelmen/adb-tray.git
cd adb-tray
./install.sh --deps

--deps installs the packages above with apt (requires sudo). Leave it out if they are already installed.

The installer

• copies the program to ~/.local/bin/adb-tray
• compiles the translations to ~/.local/share/locale/<lang>/LC_MESSAGES/adb-tray.mo
• adds ADB Devices to the application menu
• starts the program at login (skip with NO_AUTOSTART=1 ./install.sh)
• starts the icon right away

Run ./install.sh again after git pull to update.

Getting started

Over USB

1. On the device: Settings → About device → Software information, tap Build number seven times to unlock developer options.
2. Developer options → USB debugging – turn it on.
3. Plug in the cable and tap Allow in the dialog on the device (ticking Always allow is recommended).
4. The device appears in the menu. Choose Mirror screen.

Over Wi-Fi, no cable at all

1. Developer options → Wireless debugging – turn it on and choose Pair device with pairing code.
2. In the menu: Connect via Wi-Fi → Pair (wireless debugging)... and enter the pairing address, the code and, optionally, the connection address shown under Wireless debugging.

Over Wi-Fi after USB

Choose Switch to Wi-Fi on a USB-connected device. The address is saved and can be picked under Connect via Wi-Fi next time. This mode lasts until the device reboots.

Languages

The menu, dialogs, notifications and the application-menu entry use the same language as your desktop, selected through the standard LANGUAGE, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES and LANG environment variables. If no translation exists for your language, English is used.

Language	Status
English	built in
Swedish (sv)	complete

To try another language without changing your desktop settings:

pkill -f 'adb-tray$'; LANGUAGE=sv adb-tray &

New translations are very welcome – see Translations.

Configuration and files

Path	Contents
~/.local/bin/adb-tray	The program
~/.local/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/adb-tray.mo	Compiled translations
~/.config/adb-tray/hosts.json	Recently used Wi-Fi addresses (max 10)
~/.config/adb-tray/scrcpy-*.log	Output of the latest mirroring session per device
~/.config/autostart/adb-tray.desktop	Autostart at login

The default scrcpy flags (-m 1600 --stay-awake, plus -b 6M over Wi-Fi) are in SCRCPY_OPTS at the top of adb-tray.py.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
No icon is shown	Make sure the Xapp Status Applet is in your panel. Run adb-tray in a terminal and read the output.
Device is shown as authorize on device	Tap Allow in the dialog on the device. If no dialog appears, choose Revoke USB debugging authorizations in developer options and reconnect.
Mirroring closes immediately	Read ~/.config/adb-tray/scrcpy-*.log. Some devices cannot encode full resolution – lower -m in SCRCPY_OPTS.
Wi-Fi connection fails	The device has probably rebooted. Connect over USB and choose Switch to Wi-Fi again, or use pairing.
Everything seems stuck	Choose Restart adb server in the menu.
The menu is in English although my desktop is not	Your language has no translation yet, or gettext was missing during install. Run ./install.sh --deps.
Failed to load module "xapp-gtk3-module"	Harmless message, can be ignored.

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Settings in ~/.config/adb-tray/ are kept.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome through pull requests. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md first. Report security issues as described in SECURITY.md.

License

MIT © Anders Elmén