getprop

read-only

Prints the system properties — the phone's own answer to what it is.

Command: adb shell getprop
Commands: System and logs
Risk: read-only

Syntax

getprop [<name>]

Flags and arguments

Token	Meaning
<name>	Print one property's value on its own, with no brackets around it.

Examples

```
getprop
```
Everything. Over a thousand entries on a modern phone.
```
getprop ro.product.model
```
One value, unadorned.
```
getprop ro.build.version.sdk
```
The API level, which is the honest way to ask how old this Android is.

Reading the output

Sample output

[ro.product.model]: [Pixel 7]
[ro.build.version.sdk]: [34]

With no argument, one `[key]: [value]` line per property. A value can itself contain a closing bracket, so anchor on the `]: [` separator and the bracket that ends the line rather than splitting on brackets. With a name, the value is printed bare.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
ro.product.model	Marketing model name.
ro.product.manufacturer	Who made it.
ro.build.version.release	The Android version as a human sees it.
ro.build.version.sdk	The API level. The number worth branching on, if you must branch.
ro.build.fingerprint	The whole build identity in one string.
ro.serialno	The serial number, where the build still exposes it.

Version and vendor notes

A duplicate key is possible; the last value printed is the effective one.
`ro.` properties are read-only after boot. Others can change while you watch, so two reads a minute apart can legitimately disagree.
Manufacturers add and remove properties freely. The absence of one is not evidence about the hardware.

We have a UI for this

Android ADB Toolbox runs this command over USB and parses what comes back — a Chromium browser, no SDK, nothing uploaded.

Open Android ADB Toolbox

Related commands

Commands that turn up in the same session as getprop.

Command	What it does
settings get	Reads one value out of the phone's settings provider.
dumpsys battery	The battery service's live state: level, status, health, voltage and temperature.
top	A one-shot process table: CPU share, memory, state and command line.

More System and logs commands

Command	What it does
logcat	Streams the system log: the running commentary of everything happening on the phone.
run-as	Runs a command as one app's own uid — the way to read a debug build's private files without root.

Checked against AOSP, toybox and kernel sources while writing the parsers behind our Web ADB tools. Where a behaviour genuinely varies by Android version or manufacturer, this page says so instead of giving a number that would be wrong on half the phones out there.

Frequently asked questions

How do I run an adb shell command?

Switch on developer options and USB debugging on the phone, plug it in, then run `adb shell <command>` from a machine with platform-tools installed — or run `adb shell` on its own to get an interactive prompt and type the command without the prefix. If the command produces binary output, such as a screenshot, use `adb exec-out` instead of `adb shell`: the plain shell service attaches a terminal, which rewrites newline bytes and corrupts the data.

Do adb shell commands need root?

Not the ones on this reference. They run as the `shell` user, which can manage packages for its own Android user, read most `dumpsys` services, write the settings provider, inject input and read shared storage. Root is only needed for things this reference deliberately avoids — reading another app's private data (except through `run-as` on a debuggable build), writing system partitions, or reading `/data/anr` directly.

Why does the output look different on my phone?

Either the Android version or the manufacturer. Some flags and fields arrived in a specific release, and those are noted per command. The rest is OEM patching, which hits `dumpsys` hardest: a dump is debug output whose text is whatever the service author last printed, and manufacturers change it and backport their changes. Read fields by name rather than by position, and treat an unfamiliar shape as a difference rather than as a failure.

Can I run this from a browser instead of a terminal?

For many commands, yes — the Web ADB tools on this site talk to a phone over WebUSB from a Chromium-based desktop browser, with no SDK installed and nothing uploaded. Each page links to the tool that runs its command, when one exists. Two limits are worth knowing: only one program can hold the ADB interface at a time, so a desktop `adb server` has to be stopped first, and `adb forward` and `adb reverse` cannot work in a browser at all.

Would rather click than type? The Web ADB Toolkit runs commands like this from a browser over USB. Or browse every command.