Installing the app on Mac needs a few more steps, but once running, it gives one of the best experiences. You can soon have the SailViewer running on a Mac by following the steps below.
Install and Run the Android Studio
Download and install the latest version of the Android Studio here: https://developer.android.com/studio. Choose the one for your Mac chip.
There are versions for Intel and Silicon Macs available. You can see which Mac you have by clicking on the Apple logo in the top left and selecting “About This Mac.” If it says M1 or M2 processor, choose Mac with Apple Chip. Otherwise, it is the Mac with an Intel chip.
Once Android Studio is installed, at the first setup, it will ask to download the Android SDK. Just click Next to proceed.
If the download is successful, the next screen will appear. Just choose Finish.
Once the Android Studio is installed, run it. Create a “New project” and select “Phone and Tablet” and “No Activity”.
Install Android Emulator
The next step is creating an Android Emulator within the Android Studio. Below are the recommended settings. If those don’t perform well enough, you can create an Emulator with different settings. For older laptops, using an older Android System image could help. As long it is Android 8.1 or above.
In Android Studio, click on the Device Manager icon. It is on the top right of the screen.
Under Virtual, click on Create Device button
It is now possible to select that our emulator is based on different devices. Below is one of the options that work fine.
Under “Select Hardware” choose Tablet and Nexus 10
Under System Image choose the last already published one. In case you run the app on older Macs and it feels slow, I would recommend using the “Pie” or “Oreo” one (28 or 27). In case it is not yet downloaded, just click on the download arrow next to it.
Click “Show Advanced Settings” and set them up as shown below. Changing the camera to Webcam0 will make your Mac ask for permission to use it. In the app, it is used for faster input of the unlock code via QR. If you don’t want to use your Mac camera, just leave it as it was.
In case you cannot click the “Finish” button, make sure that Skin is selected as No Skin from the top of the skin menu.
Once finished, you will have your emulator shown in the list on the “Device Manager” window in “Android Studio”. Click the Play arrow next to it and it will run. If the emulator is running inside the Android Studio window, do the following steps to run it in its own window. Restart the Android Studio to have the changes applied.
Installing the SailViewer App
Emulator Has Google Play Store
If you have Google Play Store on the emulator. Start it, search for SailViewer on it, and install it.
Emulator Does Not have the Google Play Store
This step is needed if you don’t have the Google Play Store on the emulator.
You will have the emulator running. Open the “Google Chrome” app within the emulator.
Go to ib-sailing.com/sailviewer-app in Chrome on your emulator and download the APK file from the provided link.
Follow the Steps above to install the app.
The App should be running in the emulator. Whenever you need to start the emulator, start the Android Studio, and under the Device Manager, start your emulator. If you close the Android Studio, the emulator will close. However, to prevent Android Studio from using the device resources, you can “Force Quit” it from the “Activity Monitor” app on your Mac. This trick keeps the Emulator on while Android Studio is closed. There is probably no need to do it on any newer devices with enough RAM. It might help on low RAM devices (8 GB or less).
Transferring Logs To Emulator
Once in the emulator, it is possible to set up the Gmail app and receive the logs via email.
Telegram
Another recommended option is to use the Telegram messaging app. If the emulator has no Google Play Store, it must be installed directly from the Telegram website.
The files can be sent to your own telegram account by sending them to Saved Messages. Once received on the Emulator, click on menu for each log and choose “Save to Downloads”. Once downloaded, files are in the Telegram folder, which is inside of the emulator’s Download folder. You can access the Download folder with File Explorer by pressing the menu button in the top left corner.
Uploading Files from Mac to Emulator
To upload the files, just drag and drop them onto the Emulator window:
Another way is to upload trough the Android Studio:
Navigate to the “sdcard” folder and right-click on the “downloads” folder. Choose “Upload”, select the files you want to upload and they will become available in the Downloads folder in your emulator. You can also drag and drop the files into the Downloads folder. Select the Download folder to find your file once Import is used in the SailViewer app.
