Android Studio Emulator Blank Screen

AVD Emulator Blank ScreenSo today while doing some Android development, I ran into an interesting issue. I was testing on the emulator that comes with Android Studio and something I did in my code caused it to crash. I then corrected the issue but when I tried to run my app in the simulator, it would open up and just display a blank black screen. I tried opening a different virtual device with the emulator but it ended up doing the exact same thing.

I found multiple sources listing different fixes for the issue, but none of those seemed to solve my issue. Most were related to adjusting the configured RAM or turning on or off “Use Host GPU”. I even went to the extent of unchecking the emulator in the SDK Manager and then telling it to reinstall. Unfortunately that didn’t help either. After about 45 minutes of trying different solutions, I finally stumbled upon a link that had a very simple solution for the the AVD Emulator being stuck at the black screen. It said to Wipe Data in the AVD Manager. I was very pleased that this did the trick. I was surprised that this answer was not easier to find so I figured I would go ahead and do this write. Hopefully it will make it a little easier for people to find and fix their issue quickly.

Here are the specs of my machine and my Android development setup:

  • MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
  • 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7
  • 8GB of RAM
  • Android Studio 1.5
  • HAXM Emulator 5.5

Here are some screenshots that show how to “Wipe Data” if you are unfamiliar with the option:

AVD Manager Wipe Data AVD Manager Wipe Data Confirmation

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Fedil

I was originally born in Missouri, but traveled around most of my childhood. My mom finally got tired of moving while we were in Dallas, Texas and I have been here ever since. After high school I started college at the University of North Texas (UNT) and started working in the computer field. I currently work for JCPenney as a front end software engineer for their e-commerce website. Before this I worked for AT&T about 12 years and started with them in 1999 (when they were Southwestern Bell). I have many passions and I really love photography. Besides photography I also love sports. I not only like to watch it, but I also love to play. Currently my friends and I play indoor soccer and flag football.

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