# Mastering Your First React Native Project: A Comprehensive Guide 🧑‍💻

When I initially began working on my react-native application, it seemed like a daunting task as my emulator struggled to display the boilerplate code👨‍💻 on the screen. I wondered what mistake I had made, but after hours of puzzling 😵 over it, I discovered a simple solution (which actually only took a few minutes ⏳ to fix).

Here are the steps below:

1. Open your **React Native project**.
    
2. Right-click on the project folder, select "Open in Terminal," and enter 'code .' to open the project in VSCode.
    
3. Start the Metro bundler by running the command 'npx react-native start'. This will launch the Metro bundler, which runs on port 8081 and provides several options, including:
    
    * 'i' for running on iOS
        
    * 'a' for running on Android
        
    * 'd' to open the Dev Menu
        
    * 'r' to reload the app
        
4. Choose the **'a' option** to run the app on Android.
    
5. If you encounter the error message stating "SDK location not found," follow these additional steps:
    
    * Create a new file named "[local.properties](http://local.properties)" inside the "android" directory of your project.
        
    * Add the following line to the "[local.properties](http://local.properties)" file according to your system preferences:
        
    
    ```plaintext
    //for windows
    sdk.dir=C\:\\Users\\username\\AppData\\Local\\Android\\Sdk
    //for mac
    sdk.dir=/Users/username/Library/Android/sdk
    ```
    
    Replace 'username' with your actual username.
    

By following these steps, you should be able to resolve the SDK location issue and continue developing your React Native application smoothly 🤗🚀.