Mobile testing – Screen recording on Android – non-rooted device

In my previous post Mobile testing – Screen recording on Android – rooted device I was talking about screen recording on rooted Android devices. The easy way to get a screencast app is by installing the app directly on the device(requires rooted device and in 99% with rooting users will void the warranty).
Here, we’ll describe how a user can record the screen onto a non-rooted device(this way is a little bit more complicated than the previous one.)

To record the screen of your device, you can use the following screencast tools:<>

I decided to test the Android Shot.

1. Install JAVA JDK
First of all you will need to get Java Development Kit 1.6+ installed on your system.
– Download it from this LINK (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html).
– Click on Download JDK and after that choose – Accept License Agreement and select the file for your platform.
– Execute the downloaded installer
NOTE: that you may need to manually add Java directory to your PATH variable if ddms and/or Ashot won’t launch. (In Environment Variables, add new Variable Name:PATH with value “C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_11\bin\”)

2. Install Android SDK
– Download it from the following link – http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html – click on “USE AN EXISTING IDE” and click on “Download the SDK Tools for Windows”
– Execute the installer and accept defaults.
– Click Finish to open SDK Manager.

3. Install Windows USB driver & Platform Tools
– DO NOT CONNECTED your device to your computer.
– Run SDK Manager.exe from SDK path. And wait until it has finished refreshing sources.
– Choose only Platform-tools and USB driver for screen capture application.
– Expand the Android Repository and set check next to Android SDK Platform-tools.
– Expand Extras and check Google USB Driver Package.
– Select Available packages on the left panel.
– Click Install Selected.
– Click “Accept All” to accept License and then click Install.
– When install finishes, the USB Driver will be in “C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver “.
– Close SDK Manager.
– Copy adb.exe from platform-tools to tools folder.
– Also copy AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll from platform-tools to tools folder.
– Connect your phone. You will be prompted for a driver, which is located in the path mentioned above.
(if this usb driver is not working with your device, try your device vendor usb drivers)

4. Turn on USB Debugging for Android
To capture screens from your Android phone, it needs to have USB Debugging setting activated.
– On your Android device click Menu button.
– Tap Settings.
– Tap Applications
– Tap Development
– Check USB Debugging, if it is not checked

5. Install the Screencast app
– Download latest installation package: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ashot/
– Execute the downloaded file
– After the installation is finished, run the application
– A dialog window appear, here you have to set Android SDK folder to set SDK path.(You can find it in C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk-windows)

6. The program
After you have successfully installed the Ashot, start it and it should automatically connect with Android device and start showing exactly what you see on your mobile screen.
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.

Similar Posts from the author:

• Mobile testing – Screen recording on Android – rooted device
• Configuring Selenium RC using Eclipse
• Screen recording – screencast – part III
• Screen recording – screencast – part II
• Getting started with JMeter II – record traffic with Jmeter