Thumb-Key not appearing on Android Studio emulated device

https://photos.app.goo.gl/iEN6U7f8pHWU8Jq67

I'm using Android Studio on Windows 11, and trying to debug ThumbKey on an emulated device.

For some reason, the ThumbKey keyboard doesn't appear.

Looking at the logs in Logcat, there is one suspicious line:

2025-07-24 19:50:30.200  4769-4769  ImeBackDispatcher       com.dessalines.thumbkey.debug        E  Ime callback not found. Ignoring unregisterReceivedCallback. callbackId: 88733492

I'm new to Android dev, so I'm not sure how to debug this.

I tried fiddling with the keyboard settings of the emulated device, and some other proposed solutions I found on StackOverflow, but nothing I tried worked so far.

I am testing this on version 5.0.3 (commit acad975f51d7b399a567b2d1217a3209b6bbef96)

4 points · 8 comments · view on lemmy.world

8 Comments

dessalines@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y (5 replies)

I'm not sure if anyone's got it properly working with an emulated device, because you'd need to enable and then select that ime. I always just develop on a wifi connected device.

Toldry@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (2 replies)

If i understand correctly, enabling and selecting is very easy to do. i do it in the video in the OP. So I don't understand why that is an impediment.

Do you use Android Studio for developing on a wifi enabled device? Is step-by-step debugging possible via wifi?

dessalines@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Yes, I use android studio and test on a read device via wireless debugging. I used to try to use the internal emulators but they have a lot of problems.

You get full logcat logs sent from your device when you do that, so it makes errors easy to find.

Toldry@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y

Thanks! I'll give this a try.

Toldry@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 200d (1 reply)

I just figured out something critical:

This problem happens on an emulation of a device with Android API 36 but it does NOT happen with API 35 or below.

EDIT: I created a bug report for this issue

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/479743217

dessalines@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 200d

Whoa, that's a weird one.

MastodonTech@social.vivaldi.net · 1 pts · 1y

[ removed ]

Toldry@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y (1 reply)

More suspicious logs that appear when I click a text input field (and the keyboard fails to appear):

2025-07-24 20:04:42.625  4769-4769  ImeTracker              com.dessalines.thumbkey.debug        I  system_server:b8af6eee: onFailed at PHASE_IME_ON_SHOW_SOFT_INPUT_TRUE
2025-07-24 20:04:43.246  4769-4769  com.thumbkey            com.dessalines.thumbkey.debug        D  request for cursor updates succeeded, cursor updates will be provided
2025-07-24 20:04:43.272  4769-4769  ImeTracker              com.dessalines.thumbkey.debug        I  com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:5b3df7fa: onFailed at PHASE_IME_ON_SHOW_SOFT_INPUT_TRUE
2025-07-24 20:04:43.728  4769-4769  com.thumbkey            com.dessalines.thumbkey.debug        D  cursor moved

dessalines@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 1y

It should show an error, not just a debug line, if it's failing to open. I'd recommend just using a real device instead of an emulator.