[Nexus 7 (2013) General] xdhall:
OK. To do this, you just need to create a file called ".bash_profile" (without the quotes) that directs terminal to your platform-tools folder.

There are a lot of different ways to do this. I've tried talking a few people through it using different terminal commands, and some people get flustered by terminal. So I've given you two options. One with a set of hopefully more foolproof terminal commands, and one without the terminal commands. Personally, I think the terminal commands are easier.

With Terminal Commands:

1. Open a terminal window.

2. Run the following command:

touch .bash_profile

3. Copy and paste, but do not run (don't press enter) the following command:

echo "export PATH=${PATH}:

Be sure there is no trailing space and no closing quotation marks

4. Open a finder window and find your "platform-tools" folder.

5. Drag your "platform-tools" folder and drop it in your terminal window. What this does is paste the absolute path for your platform-tools folder into terminal. It should look something like this when you're done:

echo "export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/yourhomefolder/Desktop/sdk/platform-tools

6. You still haven't executed that command (pressed enter), because you have to add a few more things. Copy and paste the following directly after the path of your platform-tools folder:

" >> .bash_profile

Now the terminal command should look something like this:

echo "export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/yourhomefolder/Desktop/sdk/platform-tools" >> .bash_profile

7. Press enter

8. Close and reopen your terminal window, plug in an android device (be sure it's on and USB debugging is enabled), and check to be sure it works with the following adb command:

adb devices

WIthout Terminal Commands:

1. Create the file

a. Open the program TextEdit

b. Copy and paste the following to the first line of your new file:

export PATH=${PATH}:

c. Directly after the last colon, enter the path to your platform-tools folder, beginning with:

/Users/yourhomefolder

Your home folder is the folder that shows up in finder with the home icon in front of it.

Here's an example. Lets say your home folder was named GEICO (presumably that's where geckocaveman comes from) and you put your android sdk folder on your desktop, then your new text file would read:

export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/GEICO/Desktop/sdk/platform-tools

Here's another example. My home folder is named coltrane, and all my android files are placed in a folder called Android_Development

export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/coltrane/Android_Development/sdk/platform-tools

Now, once you have a TextEdit file with a line of text as described above, you're going to want to save it in your home folder as a plain text file called ".bash_profile". Here's how you do this:

2. Change the format of the file from rich text to plain text

You can do this with the keyboard shortcut "Shift + Command + T" or, under "Format" from the drop down menu, select "Plain Text".

3. Save the file

a. Use the drop down menu (File/Save), or keyboard shortcut "Command + S"

b. Name the file as follows:

.bash_profile

c. Under "Where", select your home folder

d. Be sure the option for "Plain Text Encoding:" is "Unicode (UTF-8)

e. Un-tic the option "If no extension is provided, use ".txt"."

A dialogue box will pop up saying:

Names that begin with a dot "." are
reserved for the system.

If you decide to go ahead and use a name which
begins with a dot the file will be hidden.

f. Select: Use "."

Now you should be all set. To test this, plug an android device into your computer (ensuring it's on and USB debugging is selected), and run the following command:

adb devices