Android Emulator Toolbar on Mac: What Each Button Does

During a match, the Android emulator’s window carries a small strip of round buttons: turn your keys off, adjust the volume, rotate the screen, power off the device, all without leaving the game. In MACOS EMULATOR, the launcher replaces the emulation engine’s toolbar with its own. Here is where to find it, what each button does, and how to straighten a screen that has turned sideways.

Where to find the toolbar

It only exists while the Android device’s window is open, and where it sits depends on the resolution chosen in Settings:

• With “Screen fit”: horizontal, at the top left of the game window, level with its title bar.
• In the other resolutions, such as Fluid: vertical, against the right side of the window.

The toolbar starts with the app’s logo and ends with the red Power off button: at the bottom of the vertical toolbar, at the far right of the horizontal one. Rest the mouse on a button for a moment and a tooltip says what it does. Clicking the toolbar does not bring the launcher to the front either: the game stays in the foreground.

The seven buttons, in order

1. 1Keyboard: turns your keys on or off, without leaving the match. It is orange while they are on.
2. 2Eye: shows or hides your key markers on screen, without turning the keys off.
3. 3Performance, the gauge icon: a six-second report for support, which the guide to measuring FPS in an emulator details.
4. 4Volume up: raises the Android device’s volume.
5. 5Volume down: lowers it.
6. 6Rotate screen: turns the device’s screen a quarter turn.
7. 7Power off: shuts the device down.

There is no screenshot button: to attach one to a message for support, use the macOS shortcut, Shift + Cmd + 5.

Keyboard and eye: your keys, in one click

The keyboard button turns your keys off while you type a password in which one letter would press a game button, then turns them back on. Off, they trigger nothing, and their markers vanish with them. The eye (“Hide the key markers (keys keep working)”) only hides the markers: once you have learned where they sit, they clutter the picture.

Both choices are kept, even into your next session, until your next click: if your keys stop responding, check the color of the keyboard button first. The guide to keyboard and mouse in an emulator explains how to place them.

Volume up and Volume down: Android’s sound, not your Mac’s

The game’s sound goes through two volumes in a row: Android’s, inside the device, then your Mac’s. Every time the device starts, the launcher sets Android’s volume to the maximum, so that the Mac’s slider is the only one you need to touch. If the game is too quiet, it is your Mac’s volume you should turn up.

Volume up and Volume down act on the Android stage, like the buttons on a phone: handy for turning down the game alone, until the next start. Click at a steady pace: three clicks in quick succession on Volume up only raise it by one step, whereas clicks four tenths of a second apart each count.

Rotate screen: a sideways screen, and how to put it back

Each click on Rotate screen turns the device’s screen a quarter turn and switches off Android’s auto-rotate. One click out of curiosity is enough to leave the device lying on its side, and it stays that way: the launcher never sets it upright again on its own.

To get back, click again, one click at a time, while watching the screen: there are four positions, and the fourth click brings you back to where you started.

Power off: shutting the device down cleanly

The red button (“Power off the device”) stops the Android device immediately, and the game with it, without asking for confirmation: finish your match first. It is the right move at the end of a session: a clean shutdown writes the device’s data and saves a snapshot, which the next start reloads quickly. “Play”, in the launcher, turns the device back on.

• While the device is starting, leave it alone: it cuts off the boot in progress. The guide to an Android emulator not starting explains what is normal.
• Before installing a new version of the app, power the device off with this button: the launcher only upgrades its engine while the device is off.
• Quitting the launcher does not power off the device, which keeps running without it. To stop it, open the launcher again: the toolbar comes back, with its Power off button.

Two buttons that only appear when needed

• Full screen: only if the “Full screen” switch on the “RENDER” card is on, with “Screen fit”. One click makes the window cover the whole screen, a second click undoes it. The guide to full screen in an emulator details the condition.
• Sound, orange and crossed out: only when the launcher sees that the sound is cut off, and its tooltip says what a click will do. If your audio output changed (headphones plugged in or unplugged along the way), a click briefly restarts the device, without losing anything. The guide to sound cutting out or crackling in the emulator sorts out the other causes.

Where did the toolbar go?

• You are moving the window: the toolbar fades out while it moves and comes back as soon as the window stops.
• Another app’s window covers its spot: the toolbar fades out, and comes back once the spot is clear. Switching apps without covering it does not hide it.
• The device is off: no window, so no toolbar. “Play” brings it back.

If it is missing while the window is still and uncovered, and your keys have stopped responding too, start with the Accessibility permission: in System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Accessibility, turn the app off, then back on.

Frequently asked questions