This Is What Happens

Ok, so I don’t know if all people get this error but sure thing is I did and I saw a lot of people who also were struggling with this. So, let me show you how the error looks like. I opend the Android SDK and AVD Manager by going to Windows -> Android SDK and AVD Manager and clicked on the Available Packages section. In my case the error appeared during the installation of SDK Platform Android 1.6, API 4, revision 2.

I clicked on Install Selected, accepted everything and began the installation. After downloading the package I got this error.

So it seemed that Eclipse or some component of the Android SDK locks my installation folder. Pretty nasty, especially since you need to run Eclipse if you want to access the Android SDK and AVD Manager, right? Wrong!

This Is How You Do It

On Windows XP open your start menu and choose “Run…”. Enter “cmd” into the textfield and hit ENTER. On Windows Vista and Windows 7 simply enter “cmd” into the search field at the bottom of the start menu and hit CTRL-SHIFT-ENTER. An UAC dialog might pop up. Simply press Ok on that one. This opens the console window with administrative privileges. In your new console window type “android” and hit enter. Important: If you do not have the Android tools directory in your path, you have to browse to that directory and run “android” from there.

Looks familiar? You have just started the Android SDK and AVD Manager without the need to run Eclipse. Now go the Available Packages section and proceed as usual.

Great, But It Still Does Not Work

If you click on the checkbox next to the repository.xml you may in some cases get another annoying error.

So the Android SDK and AVD Manager failed to fetch the URL of the repository. Well, don’t worry as this one is also very easy to fix. Just go to the Settings section and check the option “Force https://… sources to be fetched using http://”. Don’t forget to click on “Save & Apply”.

After that just close and restart the application. Now if you click on the checkbox next to repository.xml everything should be working fine.

Proceed as usual and you should finally see something like this.

You can then close the application and the console window. That’s it, you’re done! I hope you found this article useful.

1. Android SDK 1.6 (a.k.a Donut): How to Update
2. How to Update Your Development Environment to Android SDK 2.0
3. Episode #2 – Create A New Project And Run It
4. Episode #1 – Getting Started!
5. New Android SDK: The Donut Has Arrived!