Android SDK not found. Make sure the SDK and NDK are install

Error message

Android SDK not found. Make sure the SDK and NDK are installed and the ANDROID_HOME and NDK_HOME environment variables are set.

What it means

Thrown by the Tauri CLI's Android environment setup (ensure_android_dev) when ANDROID_HOME/ANDROID_SDK_ROOT are unset or invalid AND the default per-OS SDK location (macOS: ~/Library/Android/sdk, Linux: ~/Android/Sdk, Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Android\Sdk) does not exist. In non-interactive mode (--ci) the CLI cannot prompt to download the command line tools, so it aborts immediately instead of offering automatic setup.

Source

Thrown at crates/tauri-cli/src/mobile/android/mod.rs:523

      } else {
        "not set".into()
      }
    );

    #[cfg(target_os = "macos")]
    let default_android_home = dirs::home_dir().unwrap().join("Library/Android/sdk");
    #[cfg(target_os = "linux")]
    let default_android_home = dirs::home_dir().unwrap().join("Android/Sdk");
    #[cfg(windows)]
    let default_android_home = dirs::data_local_dir().unwrap().join("Android/Sdk");

    if default_android_home.exists() {
      log::info!(
        "Using installed Android SDK: {}",
        default_android_home.display()
      );
    } else if non_interactive {
      crate::error::bail!("Android SDK not found. Make sure the SDK and NDK are installed and the ANDROID_HOME and NDK_HOME environment variables are set.");
    } else {
      log::error!(
        "Android SDK not found at {}",
        default_android_home.display()
      );

      let extract_path = if create_dir_all(&default_android_home).is_ok() {
        default_android_home.clone()
      } else {
        std::env::current_dir().context("failed to get current directory")?
      };

      let sdk_manager_path = extract_path
        .join("cmdline-tools/bin/sdkmanager")
        .with_extension(if cfg!(windows) { "bat" } else { "" });

      let mut granted_permission_to_install = false;

View on GitHub (pinned to 52e4b6e71d)

Solutions

Install the Android SDK via Android Studio (or cmdline-tools) and export ANDROID_HOME and NDK_HOME to its root (e.g. export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk, export NDK_HOME=$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/<version>)
Point ANDROID_HOME/ANDROID_SDK_ROOT at an existing SDK: `export ANDROID_HOME=/path/to/sdk`
On CI, use a runner image with the SDK preinstalled (e.g. GitHub's macOS runners ship ~/Library/Android/sdk) or add a setup-android-sdk step before the tauri command
Verify with `sdkmanager --version` or `test -d $ANDROID_HOME` before rerunning `tauri android` commands

Example fix

# before (CI job, no env)
tauri android build --ci
# after
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Library/Android/sdk"
export NDK_HOME="$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/27.0.0"  # your installed NDK version
tauri android build --ci

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# before running any `tauri android` command in CI:
test -n "$ANDROID_HOME" && test -d "$ANDROID_HOME" || { echo "ANDROID_HOME missing"; exit 1; }
test -n "$NDK_HOME" && test -d "$NDK_HOME" || { echo "NDK_HOME missing"; exit 1; }

Prevention

Pre-install the Android SDK and NDK in your CI image or a setup step instead of relying on tauri's interactive bootstrap
Export ANDROID_HOME and NDK_HOME in the CI job environment (not just your local shell profile)
Validate SDK presence with a guard step that fails fast with a clearer message than the bail

When it happens

Trigger: Running `tauri android init`, `tauri android dev`, or `tauri android build` with --ci (non_interactive=true) on a machine where ANDROID_HOME and ANDROID_SDK_ROOT are not exported and the default SDK directory does not exist.

Common situations: CI runners without the Android SDK preinstalled; fresh machines where Android Studio was never launched (so the SDK directory was never created); ANDROID_HOME exported in an interactive shell profile that CI jobs do not source; the SDK installed in a non-default location.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@52e4b6e71d (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/811b02127e9f9e28. Report an issue: GitHub.