Configure Google Nexus 7 to work with Android SDK Tools / ADB.exe [Nexus 7 Device is offline fixed]

I wanted to deploy my first “hello world” Android application from Eclipse on Windows 8 to my Google Nexus 7 tablet. I plugged the Nexus 7 into my development PC using the USB cable and then I used adb.exe to list the devices, but no devices were found.

The summary of steps I took to get the device to show with ADB:

1. Enabled the USB debugging setting on the tablet (If this option is not appearing then click here) 
2. Changed the USB connection mode to Camera (PTP)
3. Updated the Google USB Driver in Windows

Initially Adb.exe shows no devices:

If the Android emulator is running, it shows as the only device:

The first step is to enable the Developer options the Nexus 7. Go to Settings –> About tablet. Then tap the “Build number” 7 times!

Now you will see the “Developer options” setting. Go into Developer options and enable the “USB debugging” setting:

When you get the “USB debugging connected” notification, tap the “Connected as a media device” option.

The default USB mode is “Media device (MTP)”, change this to “Camera (PTP)”:

Install the Google USB Driver using Eclipse / ADT: Window –> Android SDK Manager. In the Android SDK Manager, select Extras –> Google USB Driver. This installs the driver to your android SDK folder under sdk\extras\google\usb_driver.

Now update the device driver using Device Manager in Windows 8:

Find the “Nexus 7” device in the Device Manager under “Other devices”, then right click and select “Update Driver Software…”:

Provide the path to the Google USB Driver:

Select “Always trust software from Google Inc” and install the driver:

Now the “Android Composite ADB Interface” will show in the Device Manager:

Run ADB.exe again and confirm the new device is available. It may show as offline:

If the device shows as “offline”, then make sure to confirm on the tablet that you allow USB debugging:

Now the device is online:

That’s it!

I’m using Windows 8 64bit, Android Developer Tools (ADT) v21.1.0-569685 and the Nexus 7 is running Android 4.2.2. I used the information on this StackOverflow post to figure everything out.