Macos Android Emulator Slow

Verdict: BlueStacks is one of the best Android emulators for Windows 10 and macOS as it supports up to 97% of the offered applications from Google Play Store. It perfectly simulates an Android Operating System with free to download basic options. You may manage the emulator using input devices as well as the touch screen. In large part, because the emulator is software trying to pretend to be hardware. In hardware, everything happens at every clock cycle. Massively parallel. In software, you can do some parallel things, but where one thing depends on another, thing.

This page lists known issues, workarounds, and troubleshooting tips for theAndroid Emulator.

If you encounter an issue not listed here or are unable to successfully use aworkaround listed here, please report a bug.

Checking for adequate disk space

To avoid crashes and hangs caused by not having enough free disk space, theemulator checks for sufficient free disk space on startup, and will not startunless at least 2 GB is free. If the emulator fails to start for you, check tosee that you have adequate free disk space.

Antivirus software

Because many security and antivirus software packages work by monitoring everyread and write operation, use of such software can decrease performance of toolslike the Android Emulator.

Many antivirus packages provide the ability to add specific applications to alist of trusted applications, which enables these applications to operatewithout performance degradation. If you are experiencing poor performance withsaving or loading of AVD snapshots, you may improve this performance by addingthe Android Emulator application as a trusted application in your antivirussoftware.

The performance impact differs between various antivirus software packages. Ifyou have additional antivirus software installed beyond that which is includedwith your operating system, you can run simple tests to determine whichantivirus software has a greater performance effect on emulator load and saveoperations.

Some antivirus software may be incompatible with the Android Emulator.

If you're using Avast software and are having trouble running the AndroidEmulator, try disabling Use nested virtualization when availableand Enable Hardware assisted virtualization in the Avast Troubleshootingsettings. In addition, after Avast hardware virtualization is disabled, ensurethat HAXM is set up properly again with a full re-installation of the latest HAXMfrom the SDK Manager.

HAXM on older, unsupported versions of Mac OS

If you are using Android Emulator on older, unsupported versions of Mac OS X(such as 10.9), then you may need to use an older version of HAXM (6.1.2), too.

Android Emulator runs slowly after an update

A number of external factors can cause the Android Emulator to begin runningslowly after an update. To begin troubleshooting, we recommend thefollowing steps:

If you are running Android Emulator on Windows, check to see if you haveinstalled Windows UpdatesKB4013429andKB4015217.Some users reported improved Android Emulator performance after uninstallingthese updates. Users also reported improved Emulator performance afterinstalling Windows UpdateKB4015438.
If you have an Intel GPU (and in particular, the Intel HD 4000), ensure youhave downloaded and installed the latest Intel graphics driver.
If your machine has both an Intel HD 4000 GPU and a discrete GPU,disable the Intel HD 4000 GPU in Device Manager to ensure you areusing the discrete GPU.
Try running the emulator using the -gpu angle, -gpu swiftshader, or-gpu guest modes. For more information about configuring graphicsacceleration options on the command line, seeConfigure hardware acceleration.
Ensure that your router is not using IPv6 addresses if you do not have anIPv6 connection.

If you are still experiencing problems with the Android Emulator runningslowly, Report a bug, including thenecessary Android Emulator Details so we can investigate.

Windows: Free RAM and commit charge

When the emulator starts, it needs to initialize the Android guest operatingsystem's RAM. On Windows, the emulator asks Windows to account for the fullsize of guest memory at start time, even though during actual operation, thememory may be paged in on demand. The emulator requests the full amount of guestmemory at start time because Windows is conservative in ensuring that there isenough physical RAM and pagefile available to hold the entire potential workingset; this prepares for the worst case, in which all guest memory is touchedquickly, without any opportunity to discard or otherwise free memory.

Sometimes, when the emulator asks Windows to account for this full guest memorysize, the request exceeds the current commit limit, which is the total of theavailable physical RAM and pagefile. In this case, Windows can't guarantee thatthe worst-case working set will fit in either physical RAM or pagefile, and theemulator fails to start.

In typical cases, the amount of hard drive space allocated for the pagefile plusphysical RAM is more than enough for most use cases of the emulator. However, ifyou experience failures to start the emulator because of exceeding the commitlimit, we recommend examining the current commit charge, which can be seen inthe Performance tab in the Windows Task Manager. (To open the Task Manager,press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.)

You can lower the likelihood of exceeding the commit limit in various ways:

Free physical RAM before launching the emulator by closing unused applicationsand files.
Disable third-party memory management and memory compression utilities. Theseutilities can inefficiently cause an excess commit charge and bring yoursystem closer to the commit limit.
Use a system managed size for the Windows pagefile, which can more flexiblyand dynamically increase the pagefile size (and therefore the commit limit) inresponse to increased demand from the emulator and other applications.
For more information on commit charges and why a flexible setting works best,see this Microsoft article.

-->

This article explains how to use your computer's hardware accelerationfeatures to maximize Android Emulator performance.

Visual Studio makes it easier for developers to test and debug theirXamarin.Android applications by using the Android emulator insituations where an Android device is unavailable or impractical.However, the Android emulator runs too slowly if hardware accelerationis not available on the computer that runs it. You can drasticallyimprove the performance of the Android emulator by using special x86virtual device images in conjunction with the virtualization featuresof your computer.

Scenario	HAXM	WHPX	Hypervisor.Framework
You have an Intel Processor	X	X	X
You have an AMD Processor	X
You want to support Hyper-V	X
You want to support nested Virtualization	Limited
You want to use technologies like Docker	(with WSL2)	X	X

Accelerating Android emulators on Windows

The following virtualization technologies are available foraccelerating the Android emulator:

Microsoft's Hyper-V and the Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX).Hyper-Vis a virtualization feature of Windows that makes it possible to runvirtualized computer systems on a physical host computer.
Intel's Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM).HAXM is a virtualization engine for computers running Intel CPUs.

For the best experience on Windows, it is recommended that you use WHPX toaccelerate the Android emulator. If WHPX is not available on yourcomputer, then HAXM can be used. The Android emulator willautomatically make use of hardware acceleration if the followingcriteria are met:

Hardware acceleration is available and enabled on your developmentcomputer.
The emulator is running a system image created foran x86-based virtual device.

Important

You can't run a VM-accelerated emulator inside another VM, such asa VM hosted by VirtualBox, VMware, or Docker (unless using WSL2). You must run the Androidemulator directly on your system hardware.

For information about launching and debugging with the Androidemulator, seeDebugging on the Android Emulator.

Accelerating with Hyper-V

Before enabling Hyper-V, read the following section to verifythat your computer supports Hyper-V.

Verifying support for Hyper-V

Hyper-V runs on the Windows Hypervisor Platform. To use the Androidemulator with Hyper-V, your computer must meet the following criteriato support the Windows Hypervisor Platform:

Your computer hardware must meet the following requirements:
- A 64-bit Intel or AMD Ryzen CPU with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).
- CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPUs).
- Minimum of 4-GB memory.
In your computer's BIOS, the following items must be enabled:
- Virtualization Technology (may have a different label depending on motherboard manufacturer).
- Hardware Enforced Data Execution Prevention.
Your computer must be updated to Windows 10 April 2018 update(build 1803) or later. You can verify that your Windows versionis up-to-date by using the following steps:
1. Enter About in the Windows search box.
2. Select About your PC in the search results.
3. Scroll down in the About dialog to the Windows specificationssection.
4. Verify that the Version is at least 1803:

To verify that your computer hardware and software is compatible withHyper-V, open a command prompt and type the following command:

If all listed Hyper-V requirements have a value of Yes, then yourcomputer can support Hyper-V. For example:

Enabling Hyper-V acceleration

If your computer meets the above criteria, use the following stepsto accelerate the Android emulator with Hyper-V:

Enter windows features in the Windows search box and selectTurn Windows features on or off in the search results. In theWindows Features dialog, enable both Hyper-V and WindowsHypervisor Platform:
After making these changes, reboot your computer.

Important

On Windows 10 October 2018 Update (RS5) and higher, youonly need to enable Hyper-V, as it will useWindows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) automatically.

Install Visual Studio 15.8 or later(this version of Visual Studio provides IDE support forrunning the Android emulator with Hyper-V).
Install the Android Emulator package 27.2.7 or later. Toinstall this package, navigate to Tools > Android > Android SDKManager in Visual Studio. Select the Tools tab and ensure thatthe Android emulator version is at least 27.2.7. Also ensure thatthe Android SDK Tools version is 26.1.1 or later:

When you create a virtual device (seeManaging Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager),be sure to select an x86-based system image. If you use an ARM-based system image,the virtual device will not be accelerated and will run slowly.

Hyper-V should now be enabled and you can run your accelerated Android emulator.

Accelerating with HAXM

If your computerdoes not support Hyper-V, you may use HAXM to accelerate the Android emulator. You mustdisable Device Guardif you want to use HAXM.

Verifying HAXM support

To determine if your hardware supports HAXM, follow the steps inDoes My Processor Support Intel Virtualization Technology?.If your hardware supports HAXM,you can check to see if HAXM is already installed by using thefollowing steps:

Open a command prompt window and enter the following command:
Examine the output to see if the HAXM process is running. if it is,you should see output listing the intelhaxm state as RUNNING. Forexample:
If STATE is not set to RUNNING, then HAXM is not installed.

If your computer can support HAXM but HAXM is not installed, use thesteps in the next section to install HAXM.

Installing HAXM

HAXM install packages for Windows are available from theIntel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager GitHub releasespage. Use the following steps to download and install HAXM:

From the Intel website, download the latestHAXM virtualization engineinstaller for Windows. The advantage of downloading the HAXMinstaller directly from the Intel website is that you can be assuredof using the latest version.
Run intelhaxm-android.exe to start the HAXM installer. Acceptthe default values in the installer dialogs:

Troubleshooting

For help with troubleshooting hardware acceleration issues, see theAndroid emulatorTroubleshootingguide.

Accelerating Android emulators on macOS

The following virtualization technologies are available foraccelerating the Android emulator:

Apple's Hypervisor Framework.Hypervisoris a feature of macOS 10.10 and later that makes it possible to runvirtual machines on a Mac.
Intel's Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager (HAXM).HAXMis a virtualization engine for computers running Intel CPUs.

Android Studio Emulator Slow

It is recommended that you use the HypervisorFramework to accelerate the Android emulator. If the HypervisorFramework is not available on your Mac, then HAXM can be used. TheAndroid emulator will automatically make use of hardware accelerationif the following criteria are met:

Hardware acceleration is available and enabled on the developmentcomputer.
The emulator is running a system image created foran x86-based virtual device.

Important

You can't run a VM-accelerated emulator inside another VM,such as a VM hosted by VirtualBox, VMware, or Docker. Youmust run the Android emulatordirectly on your system hardware.

For information about launching and debugging with the Androidemulator, seeDebugging on the Android Emulator.

Accelerating with the Hypervisor Framework

To use the Android emulator with the Hypervisor Framework, your Mac mustmeet the following criteria:

Your Mac must be running macOS 10.10 or later.
Your Mac's CPU must be able to support the Hypervisor Framework.

If your Mac meets these criteria, the Android emulator willautomatically use the Hypervisor Framework for acceleration. If you are not sure if Hypervisor Frameworkis supported on your Mac, see theTroubleshootingguide for ways to verify that your Mac supports Hypervisor.

If the Hypervisor Framework is not supported by your Mac, you can useHAXM to accelerate the Android emulator (described next).

Accelerating with HAXM

If your Mac does not support the Hypervisor framework (or you are usinga version of macOS earlier than 10.10), you can use Intel's HardwareAccelerated Execution Manager(HAXM)to speed up the Android emulator.

Before using the Android emulator with HAXM for the first time, it's agood idea to verify that HAXM is installed and available for theAndroid emulator to use.

Verifying HAXM support

Android Emulator For Slow Pc

You can check to see if HAXM is already installed by usingthe following steps:

Open a Terminal and enter the following command:
This command assumes that the Android SDK is installed at thedefault location of ~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-macosx;if not, modify the above path forthe location of the Android SDK on your Mac.
If HAXM is installed, the above command willreturn a message similar to the following result:
If HAXM is not installed, a message similar tothe following output is returned:

If HAXM is not installed, use the steps in the next section toinstall HAXM.

Installing HAXM

HAXM installation packages for macOS are available from theIntel Hardware Accelerated Execution Managerpage. Use the following steps to download and install HAXM:

From the Intel website, download the latestHAXM virtualization engineinstaller for macOS.
Run the HAXM installer. Accept the default values in the installer dialogs: