How to Mirror Your Phone Screen to a PC via Scrcpy

What Scrcpy Is and Why It's Different

Scrcpy (short for "screen copy," pronounced any way you like) is a free, open-source command-line tool that mirrors an Android device's screen to your PC and lets you control it with your mouse and keyboard, over either a USB cable or Wi-Fi. Unlike most phone-mirroring apps, scrcpy doesn't require root access, doesn't install anything on the phone itself beyond what ADB already needs, and streams video with very low latency (typically well under 100ms on USB) because it uses the Android platform's own screen-recording APIs rather than screenshotting in a loop. It's a favorite among Android developers for testing, and equally useful for anyone who wants to reply to phone-only apps (like WhatsApp or a banking app with no desktop client) using a full keyboard.

Step 1: Install ADB and Scrcpy

Scrcpy depends on ADB (Android Debug Bridge), which handles the actual device communication.

Windows

1. Install via winget (easiest, handles the ADB dependency automatically):

winget install --id=Genymobile.scrcpy -e

Alternatively, download the prebuilt Windows zip from the official scrcpy GitHub releases page, which bundles the required ADB binaries — extract it anywhere and run scrcpy.exe from that folder.

macOS

brew install scrcpy
brew install android-platform-tools

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt install scrcpy adb

Step 2: Enable USB Debugging on Your Phone

1. Open Settings > About phone.
2. Tap Build number seven times until you see "You are now a developer!"
3. Go back to Settings, open the newly unlocked Developer options menu (usually under System).
4. Enable USB debugging.

Step 3: Mirror Over USB

1. Connect the phone to your PC with a USB cable that supports data transfer (some cheap cables are charge-only).
2. On the phone, a prompt will appear asking to allow USB debugging from this computer — check Always allow from this computer and tap Allow.
3. On your PC, open a terminal and run:

scrcpy

A window opens showing your phone's screen within a second or two. Click anywhere in the window to control the phone with your mouse; your keyboard input is forwarded directly to the phone as well, so you can type in any app using your PC keyboard.

Step 4: Mirror Wirelessly (No Cable)

Scrcpy 2.0 and later has a built-in one-command wireless pairing flow that doesn't need you to manually run adb tcpip commands:

scrcpy --tcpip

Running this while the phone is connected via USB switches the ADB connection to Wi-Fi automatically and disconnects the cable's control link, letting you unplug and keep mirroring over the same network. For a fully cable-free pairing on Android 11+ using ADB's wireless debugging pairing code:

1. On the phone, go to Developer options > Wireless debugging and enable it.
2. Tap Pair device with pairing code; it displays an IP:port and a 6-digit code.
3. On the PC, run:

adb pair 192.168.1.42:37251

Enter the 6-digit code when prompted, then connect and launch scrcpy using the separate connection port shown on the main Wireless debugging screen:

adb connect 192.168.1.42:41231
scrcpy

Useful Flags for Everyday Use

# Lower bitrate for weak Wi-Fi (default is 8 Mbps)
scrcpy --video-bit-rate 2M

# Cap resolution to reduce bandwidth/CPU load
scrcpy --max-size 1024

# Turn the phone's own screen off while mirroring (saves battery, adds privacy)
scrcpy --turn-screen-off

# Keep the phone awake while connected
scrcpy --stay-awake

# Record the session to a video file while mirroring
scrcpy --record recording.mp4

# Show the window without the phone's screen also being on (Android 12+)
scrcpy --turn-screen-off --stay-awake

Copy-Paste Between PC and Phone

Scrcpy synchronizes the clipboard between your computer and the phone automatically in both directions by default — copy text on your PC and paste it directly into an Android app, or the reverse. If clipboard sync misbehaves, force a manual push with Ctrl+Shift+V inside the scrcpy window, which sends your PC clipboard to the device as a paste action.

Troubleshooting

• "adb: no devices/emulators found" — the USB cable is likely charge-only, or you haven't approved the debugging prompt on the phone yet. Try a different cable and check the phone's notification shade for the pending authorization dialog.
• Black screen but audio/controls work — some manufacturer skins (notably certain Xiaomi/MIUI builds) require an additional permission for screen capture, granted under Developer options > USB debugging (Security settings).
• High latency over Wi-Fi — both devices need to be on the same network and ideally the same band; lower --video-bit-rate and --max-size if the connection is congested, and prefer 5GHz Wi-Fi over 2.4GHz where possible.