Mac Apps Hardware Acceleration Not Working

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This article describes the most common warning messages and issuesthat occur while configuring and running the Android Emulator. Inaddition, it describes solutions for resolving these errors as well asvarious troubleshooting tips to help you diagnose emulator problems.

Use hardware acceleration. Hardware acceleration is when a browser uses a computer’s GPU to. This issue occurs because the device that you are using doesn't have a graphics processing unit (GPU) installed, or GPU hardware acceleration is disabled. The Give Control drop-down menu doesn't work unless hardware acceleration is supported on the system. This behavior is by design.

Deployment issues on Windows

Toggle on ‘Use hardware acceleration when available’ under the ‘System’ section. If Chrome notifies you that it needs to be restarted, just close all the tabs and relaunch it. Type “chrome://gpu” in the address bar. Check if most of the items under the ‘Graphics Feature Status’ have ‘Hardware accelerated’ value. The hardware acceleration function of the operating system relies on up-to-date and compatible display drivers. Note Hardware acceleration that uses the video card is always disabled when Office is running in a Remote Desktop session, and also when the application is started in safe mode. Hardware acceleration works nicely on my HD530, and it doesn't seem to give me the random freezes, but I need dual monitors and I couldn't get dual monitors to work with the iGPU. I was hoping to be able to use this RX570, but it's not cooperating.

Some error messages may be displayed by the emulator when you deployyour app. The most common errors and solutions are explained here.

Deployment errors

If you see an error about a failure to install the APK on the emulatoror a failure to run the Android Debug Bridge (adb), verify that theAndroid SDK can connect to your emulator. To verify emulatorconnectivity, use the following steps:

  1. Launch the emulator from the Android Device Manager (selectyour virtual device and click Start).

  2. Open a command prompt and go to the folder where adb isinstalled. If the Android SDK is installed at its default location,adb is located atC:Program Files (x86)Androidandroid-sdkplatform-toolsadb.exe;if not, modify this path for the location of the Android SDK on yourcomputer.

  3. Type the following command:

  4. If the emulator is accessible from the Android SDK, the emulatorshould appear in the list of attached devices. For example:

  5. If the emulator does not appear in this list, start the AndroidSDK Manager, apply all updates, then try launching theemulator again.

MMIO access error

If the message An MMIO access error has occurred is displayed,restart the emulator.

Missing Google Play Services

If the virtual device you are running in the emulator does not haveGoogle Play Services or Google Play Store installed, this condition isoften caused by creating a virtual device without including thesepackages. When you create a virtual device (seeManaging Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager),be sure to select one or both of the following options:

  • Google APIs – includes Google Play Services in the virtual device.
  • Google Play Store – includes Google Play Store in the virtual device.

For example, this virtual device will include Google Play Services and Google Play Store:

Note

Google Play Store images are available only for some base device types suchas Pixel, Pixel 2, Nexus 5, and Nexus 5X.

Performance issues

Performance issues are typically caused by one of the following problems:

  • The emulator is running without hardware acceleration.

  • The virtual device running in the emulator is not using an x86-based system image.

The following sections cover these scenarios in more detail.

Hardware acceleration is not enabled

If hardware acceleration is not enabled, starting a virtual device fromthe Device Manager will produce a dialog with an error messageindicating that the Windows Hypervisor Platform (WHPX) is notconfigured properly:

If this error message is displayed, seeHardware acceleration issues below for steps youcan take to verify and enable hardware acceleration.

Acceleration is enabled but the emulator runs too slowly

A common cause for this problem is not using an x86-based image in yourvirtual device (AVD). When you create a virtual device (seeManaging Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager),be sure to select an x86-based system image:

Hardware acceleration issues

Whether you are using Hyper-V or HAXM for hardware acceleration, youmay run into configuration problems or conflicts with other software onyour computer. You can verify that hardware acceleration is enabled(and which acceleration method the emulator is using) by opening acommand prompt and entering the following command:

This command assumes that the Android SDK is installed at the defaultlocation of C:Program Files (x86)Androidandroid-sdk; if not,modify the above path for the location of the Android SDK on yourcomputer.

Hardware acceleration not available

If Hyper-V is available, a message like the following example will bereturned from the emulator-check.exe accel command:

If HAXM is available, a message like the following example will bereturned:

If hardware acceleration is not available, a message like the followingexample will be displayed (the emulator looks for HAXM if it is unableto find Hyper-V):

If hardware acceleration is not available, seeAccelerating with Hyper-Vto learn how to enable hardware acceleration on your computer.

Incorrect BIOS settings

If the BIOS has not been configured properly to support hardwareacceleration, a message similar to the following example will bedisplayed when you run the emulator-check.exe accel command:

To correct this problem, reboot into your computer's BIOS and enable thefollowing options:

  • Virtualization Technology (may have a different label depending on motherboard manufacturer).
  • Hardware Enforced Data Execution Prevention.

If hardware acceleration is enabled and the BIOS is configuredproperly, the emulator should run successfully with hardware acceleration.However, problems may still result due to issues that are specific toHyper-V and HAXM, as explained next.

Hyper-V issues

In some cases, enabling both Hyper-V and Windows HypervisorPlatform in the Turn Windows features on or off dialog may notproperly enable Hyper-V. To verify that Hyper-V is enabled, use thefollowing steps:

  1. Enter powershell in the Windows search box.

  2. Right-click Windows PowerShell in the search results and selectRun as administrator.

  3. In the PowerShell console, enter the following command:

    If Hyper-V is not enabled, a message similar to the following example will bedisplayed to indicate that the state of Hyper-V is Disabled:

  4. In the PowerShell console, enter the following command:

    If the Hypervisor is not enabled, a message similar to the following example will bedisplayed to indicate that the state of HypervisorPlatform is Disabled:

If Hyper-V and/or HypervisorPlatform are not enabled, use the followingPowerShell commands to enable them:

After these commands complete, reboot.

For more information about enabling Hyper-V (including techniques forenabling Hyper-V using the Deployment Image Servicing and Managementtool), seeInstall Hyper-V.

HAXM issues

HAXM issues are often the result of conflicts with other virtualizationtechnologies, incorrect settings, or an out-of-date HAXM driver.

HAXM process is not running

If HAXM is installed, you can verify that the HAXM process is runningby opening a command prompt and entering the following command:

If the HAXM process is running, you should see output similarto the following result:

If STATE is not set to RUNNING, seeHow to Use the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager to resolve the problem.

HAXM virtualization conflicts

HAXM can conflict with other technologies that use virtualization,such as Hyper-V, Windows Device Guard, and some antivirus software:

  • Hyper-V – If you are using a version of Windows before theWindows 10 April 2018 update (build 1803) and Hyper-V is enabled,follow the steps in Disabling Hyper-V so thatHAXM can be enabled.

  • Device Guard – Device Guard and Credential Guard canprevent Hyper-V from being disabled on Windows machines. To disableDevice Guard and Credential Guard, seeDisabling Device Guard.

  • Antivirus Software – If you are running antivirus softwarethat uses hardware-assisted virtualization (such as Avast), disableor uninstall this software, reboot, and retry the Androidemulator.

Incorrect BIOS settings

If you are using HAXM on a Windows PC, HAXM will not work unlessvirtualization technology (Intel VT-x) is enabled in the BIOS. If VT-xis disabled, you will get an error similar to the following when youattempt to start the Android Emulator:

This computer meets the requirements for HAXM, but IntelVirtualization Technology (VT-x) is not turned on.

To correct this error, boot the computer into the BIOS, enable bothVT-x and SLAT (Second-Level Address Translation), then restart thecomputer back into Windows.

Disabling Hyper-V

If you are using a version of Windows before the Windows 10April 2018 Update (build 1803) and Hyper-V is enabled, you must disableHyper-V and reboot your computer to install and use HAXM. If youare using Windows 10 April 2018 Update (build 1803) or later, AndroidEmulator version 27.2.7 or later can use Hyper-V (instead of HAXM) forhardware acceleration, so it is not necessary to disable Hyper-V.

You can disable Hyper-V from the Control Panel by following thesesteps:

  1. Enter windows features in the Windowssearch box and select Turn Windows features on or off inthe search results.

  2. Uncheck Hyper-V:

  3. Restart the computer.

Alternately, you can use the following PowerShell command to disablethe Hyper-V Hypervisor:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-Hypervisor

Intel HAXM and Microsoft Hyper-V cannot both be active at the sametime. Unfortunately, there is no way to switch between Hyper-Vand HAXM without restarting your computer.

In some cases, using the above steps will not succeed in disablingHyper-V if Device Guard and Credential Guard are enabled. If you areunable to disable Hyper-V (or it seems to be disabled but HAXMinstallation still fails), use the steps in the next section to disableDevice Guard and Credential Guard.

Disabling Device Guard

Device Guard and Credential Guard can prevent Hyper-V from beingdisabled on Windows machines. This situation is often a problem fordomain-joined machines that are configured and controlled by an owningorganization. On Windows 10, use the following steps to see if DeviceGuard is running:

  1. Enter System info in the Windows search box and selectSystem Information in the search results.

  2. In the System Summary, look to see if Device GuardVirtualization based security is present and is in the Runningstate:

If Device Guard is enabled, use the following steps to disable it:

  1. Ensure that Hyper-V is disabled (under Turn Windows Featureson or off) as described in the previous section.

  2. In the Windows Search Box, enter gpedit.msc and select the Editgroup policy search result. These steps launch the Local GroupPolicy Editor.

  3. In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to ComputerConfiguration > Administrative Templates > System > Device Guard:

  4. Change Turn On Virtualization Based Security to Disabled (asshown above) and exit the Local Group Policy Editor.

  5. In the Windows Search Box, enter cmd. When Command Prompt appearsin the search results, right-click Command Prompt and selectRun as Administrator.

  6. Copy and paste the following commands into the command prompt window(if drive Z: is in use, pick an unused drive letter to useinstead):

  7. Restart your computer. On the boot screen, you should see a prompt similar tothe following message:

    Do you want to disable Credential Guard?

    Press the indicated key to disable Credential Guard as prompted.

  8. After the computer reboots, check again to ensure that Hyper-V isdisabled (as described in the previous steps).

If Hyper-V is still not disabled, the policies of your domain-joinedcomputer may prevent you from disabling Device Guard or CredentialGuard. In this case, you can request an exemption from your domainadministrator to allow you to opt out of Credential Guard. Alternately,you can use a computer that is not domain-joined if you must use HAXM.

Additional troubleshooting tips

The following suggestions are often helpful in diagnosing Androidemulator issues.

Starting the emulator from the command line

If the emulator is not already running, you can start it from thecommand line (rather than from within Visual Studio) to view itsoutput. Typically, Android emulator AVD images are stored at thefollowing location (replace username with your Windows user name):

C:Usersusername.androidavd

You can launch the emulator with an AVD image from this location bypassing in the folder name of the AVD. For example, this command launchesan AVD named Pixel_API_27:

This example assumes that the Android SDK is installed at the defaultlocation of C:Program Files (x86)Androidandroid-sdk; if not,modify the above path for the location of the Android SDK on yourcomputer.

When you run this command, it will produce many lines of output whilethe emulator starts up. In particular, lines such as the followingexample will be printed if hardware acceleration is enabled and workingproperly (in this example, HAXM is used for hardware acceleration):

Viewing Device Manager logs

Often you can diagnose emulator problems by viewing the Device Managerlogs. These logs are written to the following location:

C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalXamarinLogs16.0

You can view each DeviceManager.log file by using a texteditor such as Notepad. The following example log entry indicates thatHAXM was not found on the computer:

Deployment issues on macOS

Some error messages may be displayed by the emulator when you deployyour app. The most common errors and solutions are explained below.

Deployment errors

If you see an error about a failure to install the APK on the emulatoror a failure to run the Android Debug Bridge (adb), verify that theAndroid SDK can connect to your emulator. To verify connectivity, usethe following steps:

  1. Launch the emulator from the Android Device Manager (selectyour virtual device and click Start).

  2. Open a command prompt and go to the folder where adb isinstalled. If the Android SDK is installed at its default location,adb is located at~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-macosx/platform-tools/adb;if not, modify this path for the location of the Android SDK on yourcomputer.

  3. Type the following command:

  4. If the emulator is accessible from the Android SDK, the emulatorshould appear in the list of attached devices. For example:

  5. If the emulator does not appear in this list, start the AndroidSDK Manager, apply all updates, then try launching theemulator again.

MMIO access error

If An MMIO access error has occurred is displayed,restart the emulator.

Missing Google Play Services

If the virtual device you are running in the emulator does not haveGoogle Play Services or Google Play Store installed, this condition isusually caused by creating a virtual device without including thesepackages. When you create a virtual device (seeManaging Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager),be sure to select one or both of the following:

  • Google APIs – includes Google Play Services in the virtual device.
  • Google Play Store – includes Google Play Store in the virtual device.

For example, this virtual device will include Google Play Services and Google Play Store:

Note

Google Play Store images are available only for some base device types suchas Pixel, Pixel 2, Nexus 5, and Nexus 5X.

Performance issues

Performance issues are typically caused by one of the following problems:

There are two ways to clear cache from your Mac. By Cache removing tool. As there are heaps of temporary files related to each apps and to seek out them individually is de facto very hard. Pack up cache using tool is straightforward and you'll easily delete all of your cache which makes your Mac performance better. However, in previous versions you always had the option to set OS X and allow unsigned apps from “Anywhere”. In macOS High Sierra that option is missing and, you will always have to go to System PreferencesSecurity & Privacy and click on a new button that says “Open Anyway”. Luckily there’s an easy fix for this: 1. Mac allow all apps to run from anywhere opyion.

  • The emulator is running without hardware acceleration.

  • The virtual device running in the emulator is not using an x86-based system image.

The following sections cover these scenarios in more detail.

Hardware acceleration is not enabled

If hardware acceleration is not enabled, a dialog may pop up with amessage such as device will run unaccelerated when you deploy yourapp to the Android emulator. If you are not certain whether hardwareacceleration is enabled on your computer (or you would like to knowwhich technology is providing the acceleration), seeHardware acceleration issues below for steps you cantake to verify and enable hardware acceleration.

Acceleration is enabled but the emulator runs too slowly

Hardware Acceleration On Or Off

A common cause for this problem is not using an x86-based image in yourvirtual device. When you create virtual device (seeManaging Virtual Devices with the Android Device Manager),be sure to select an x86-based system image:

Hardware acceleration issues

Video Hardware Acceleration

Whether you are using the Hypervisor Framework or HAXM for hardwareacceleration of the emulator, you may run into problems caused byinstallation issues or an out-of-date version of macOS. The followingsections can help you resolve this issue.

Hypervisor Framework issues

If you are using macOS 10.10 or later on a newer Mac, the Androidemulator will automatically use the Hypervisor Framework for hardwareacceleration. However, some older Macs or Macs running a version ofmacOS earlier than 10.10 may not provide Hypervisor Framework support.

To determine whether or not your Mac supports the Hypervisor Framework,open a Terminal and enter the following command:

If your Mac supports the Hypervisor Framework, the above command willreturn the following result:

If the Hypervisor Framework is not available on your Mac, you canfollow the steps in Accelerating with HAXMto use HAXM for acceleration instead.

HAXM issues

If the Android Emulator does not start properly, this problem is oftencaused by problems with HAXM. HAXM issues are often the result ofconflicts with other virtualization technologies, incorrect settings,or an out-of-date HAXM driver. Try reinstalling the HAXM driver, usingthe steps detailed inInstalling HAXM.

Additional troubleshooting tips

The following suggestions are often helpful in diagnosing Androidemulator issues.

Starting the emulator from the command line

If the emulator is not already running, you can start it from thecommand line (rather than from within Visual Studio for Mac) to viewits output. Typically, Android emulator AVD images are stored at thefollowing location:

~/.android/avd

You can launch the emulator with an AVD image from this location bypassing in the folder name of the AVD. For example, this commandlaunches an AVD named Pixel_2_API_28:

If the Android SDK is installed at its default location, the emulatoris located in the~/Library/Developer/Xamarin/android-sdk-macosx/emulator directory;if not, modify this path for the location of the Android SDK on yourMac.

When you run this command, it will produce many lines of output whilethe emulator starts up. In particular, lines such as the followingexample will be printed if hardware acceleration is enabled and workingproperly (in this example, Hypervisor Framework is used for hardwareacceleration):

Viewing Device Manager logs

Gpu Acceleration Not Working

Often you can diagnose emulator problems by viewing the Device Managerlogs. These logs are written to the following location:

~/Library/Logs/XamarinDeviceManager

You can view each Android Devices.log file by double-clicking it toopen it in the Console app. The following example log entry indicatesthat HAXM was not found:

Firefox dates back to the early days of the Internet in its current manifestation. Created as an open source project in 2002, by a group of developers working for and with Netscape in 1998, before they were bought by AOL. The Mozilla community set about creating a web browser that would challenge Internet Explorer, making it the successor to the original Netscape Navigator.

Google’s biggest rival

Hardware Acceleration Software

Firefox was then launched in 2004, earning over 60 million downloads in 9 months. It has grown in popularity over the years, with people using it on laptops, tablets and mobile devices, now with over half a billion users worldwide across every device and platform. However, it isn't a perfect browser, and at times we are forced to ask why is Firefox so slow?

Thankfully, there are a number of ways you can speed up and improve the experience, and improve Firefox performance.

Here are a few ways to quickly and easily speed up Firefox on a Mac.

How to speed up Firefox?

1. Use hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration is when a browser uses a computer’s GPU to load pages more quickly, which is something you can do with Firefox Quantum. For quite a few computers, this is something that isn't automatically enabled, so you need to do this manually. Here is how:

  1. Launch Firefox
  2. Go to About > Preferences
  3. Within General, scroll to Performance
  4. Uncheck this box: Use recommended performance settings
  5. Now check the Use hardware acceleration when available box
  6. Underneath it is an option you can modify known as Content process limit;
  7. Use this to decide how much GPU to let Firefox use if you've got the capacity, if you think anything more than 4GB is needed (which is the minimum default setting).

Enabling hardware acceleration and content processing limits are the first things you should check if you want to speed up how Firefox operates. However, there are other ways to improve the speed and overall performance of Firefox.

2. Delete Internet plugins

One of the things slowing Firefox down could be Internet Plugins and Launch Agents — small background apps that you aren't even aware of. Some of these could be malware or viruses, so it’s worth checking what internet plugins you've got and deleting any that aren't needed. Here is how you can do that with software — we’ll be using the free version of CleanMyMac by MacPaw.

  1. Open CleanMyMac X (download a free edition here)
  2. Click the Extensions tool
  3. Click Internet plugins
  4. Select which ones to delete

Now test how quickly Firefox is running.

Also, click the Maintenance tab and disable unneeded Launch Agents.

3. Switch off data collection

Something else slowing Firefox down is the automated anonymous collection of browser data being transmitted back to the Mozilla Foundation and Corporation. If you want, this can be switched off.

  1. Launch Firefox
  2. Go to About > Preferences
  3. Click on Privacy & Security
  4. Scroll down to Firefox Data Collection and Use
  5. Now uncheck all boxes in this to ensure that nothing goes back to the Mozilla Foundation and Corporation
  6. Restart Firefox, and again with this small improvement it should be operating faster.

4. Switch off Accessibility Services

Another way Firefox is always looking out for its users is through something called Accessibility Services. For those who need need assistive technologies for physical impairments - such as poor eyesight or dyslexia - this can be incredibly helpful as not every website has features built-in that make the browsing experience accessible for everyone.

But for those who don't need this assistance, switching off this feature can further accelerate the speed of Firefox, which is equally useful.

  1. Launch Firefox
  2. Go to About > Preferences
  3. Click on Privacy & Security
  4. Check the Prevent accessibility services from accessing your browser box
  5. Now restart Firefox

5. Run Mac Maintenance Scripts

Another way to speed up the performance of Firefox is by running maintenance scripts. Here is how you do that, with a useful app we've mentioned earlier, CleanMyMac X:

  1. Download CleanMyMac X (get a free download, here)
  2. Click on Maintenance
  3. Let the app identify what needs fixing and make quick automatic improvements
  4. Now restart Firefox

Mac Apps Hardware Acceleration Not Working Together

CleanMyMac X is an incredibly useful app for improving Mac performance. It works just as well with native macOS apps and third-party apps, such as Firefox. It can fix and identify problems. Safely delete malware and viruses. Clean up clutter and systems junk, and get your Mac working as good as new again: fine-tune your Mac with CleanMyMac X.

Mac Apps Hardware Acceleration Not Working Windows 10

With a few tweaks and improvements, you should be able to get Firefox running faster. Giving it a boost will improve your browser experience, which means you can work quicker.