Set up Your Computer and Phone

When you use App Inventor, you create apps on your computer that appear live on your Android phone as you build them. This page describes how to set up your computer and your phone so you can get started with App Inventor.

Your computer will need to meet the following system requirements before you can download the App Inventor Extras Software.

Operating system:

Macintosh (with Intel processor): Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6
Windows: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
GNU/Linux: Ubuntu 8+, Debian 5+

Browser:

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and higher
Apple Safari 5.0 and higher
Google Chrome 4.0 and higher
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and higher
In general, the more updated the version of the browser, the better.

Tips: If you are using Firefox and have the "noscript" extension installed, you'll need to disable it or else you'll see errors saying that the system cannot access your project definitions. Other tools and system configurations that restrict access to your computer (e.g., firewalls) may also interfere with App Inventor. You should check for these if you encounter errors about reading definitions or connecting to the phone.

Test your Java configuration

Your computer needs to run Java 6 (i.e., Java 1.6). You can download Java from www.java.com.

Test your Java configuration by performing both of the following tests:

Visit the Java test page. You should see a message that Java is working and that the version is Java 6 (also called version 1.6).
Visit the page of Java Web Start Demos and click on one of them, e.g., Draw. Java Web start should start, and download the program, and your browser should start it automatically. You may need to tell your computer to run the downloaded program with Java Web start and give the program permission to run. You may also need to configure your browser to open jnlp files.

App Inventor will not work on your computer if these tests do not succeed. Don't go on to try to use App Inventor until you've dealt with the problem.

Tips: If you are using a Mac, we recommend that you use JRE 1.6 (Java 6). Many Macs have both Java 5 and Java 6 installed, but are configured to use Java 5 by default. You can change that default to Java 6 with the following steps:

In the Finder, open the Applications > Utilities > Java folder.

Run Java Preferences.

Select the General tab.

You'll see two version lists — one for Java applets and one for Java applications. In each list, drag the "Java SE 6" to the top of the list.

If your Mac doesn't have 1.6 installed, Java 1.5 should work, but 1.6 is preferred.

Tips: If you are using GNU/Linux, then you should use Sun Java rather than OpenJDK. App Inventor does not work well with OpenJDK.

Install the App Inventor Extras Software

Follow the instructions for your operating system to do the installation, and then return here to continue with setting up the phone.

Set up your phone

Follow these steps to set up your phone:

From your phone's home screen, select the menu, then Settings, then Applications.
If your phone has an Unknown Sources box, it should be turned on (checked).
Still on the Applications screen, tap Development.
Make sure both USB Debugging and Stay Awake are checked.
Go back to the Settings screen (you can tap the Back button twice to get there).
Tap Sound & Display. Scroll down to Orientation and make sure it's not checked. Note: On some phones there might be be only a Display settings item. If so, tap that and make sure that the Auto-rotate screen item is not checked.

Tips: When you're not using App Inventor, you should uncheck Stay Awake, to help preserve your phone's battery power. You might also want to enable Orientation, to allow your phone apps to reformat when you turn the phone sideways. Be sure to change these back before using App Inventor again.

Tips: Some Android devices do not have an Unknown Sources setting that permits installing non-Market applications. You can still use App Inventor to create apps without allowing Unknown Sources. You will not be able to download the packaged apps to your phone with the barcode scanner, but downloading with the USB cable should work fine.

Make sure your phone is unlocked &mdash that is, ready to make call or run an app. Connect the cable from the phone to the computer's USB port. You should see two new notifications appear on the phone, with icons in the status bar:

A "USB connected" notification that the phone is connected to the computer via USB
A "USB debugging connected" notification that the phone has USB debugging turned on

If you don't see both these notifications, then check to make sure that the phone settings are correct and that the USB cable is plugged in correctly. You should see the two icons appear and disappear as you connect and disconnect the phone.

Tips: On some devices, you may need to select the correct USB connection mode. Pull down the notification panel and press the "USB connected" button. The options shown will depend on the phone model:

On the Nexus One, you'll see a button to "Turn on USB Storage" — don't select it.

On the Droid, you'll see four different options. Select the option for "Charge Only".

Other phones may require other USB settings. Before going on, you should check the App Inventor user group to see if there are comments about your particular phone.

Tips: App Inventor has been tested and works on the common Android devices. It generally will work on the current version of the Android operating system for your phone. There may be some App Inventor components that don't work on all versions of the Android operating system due to occasional inconsistencies, hardware differences or bugs. One requirement is that your phone must have an SD card. Most Android models come with SD cards preinstalled, but there a few that do not.

Your computer and phone should now be set up. Now you are ready to connect App Inventor to your phone and get started!