diff --git a/build/scripts/android-uitest-run.sh b/build/scripts/android-uitest-run.sh
index 65cc9ba48..961cd896b 100644
--- a/build/scripts/android-uitest-run.sh
+++ b/build/scripts/android-uitest-run.sh
@@ -59,19 +59,31 @@ then
 
 	# based on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/hosted?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml#hardware
 	# >> Agents that run macOS images are provisioned on Mac pros with a 3 core CPU, 14 GB of RAM, and 14 GB of SSD disk space.
-	echo "hw.cpu.ncore=3" >> $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
-
+	CORES=3
 	# Bump the heap size as the tests are stressing the application
-	echo "vm.heapSize=256M" >> $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
+	HEAP=256M
+
+	# set up for Linux or macOS
+	OS="$(uname -s)"
+	echo "Running on $OS"
+	if [[ $OS == "Linux" ]]; then
+		SED_I_CMD="sed -i "
+	elif [[ $OS == "Darwin" ]]; then
+		SED_I_CMD="sed -i ''"
+	else
+		echo "ERROR: this does not work on $OS"
+		exit
+	fi
 
-	echo $ANDROID_HOME/emulator/emulator -list-avds
+	echo "CHANGE: vm.heapSize=$HEAP & hw.cpu.ncore=$CORES in $AVD_CONFIG_FILE"
+	$SED_I_CMD '/^hw.cpu.ncore/d' $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
+	$SED_I_CMD '/^vm.heapSize/d' $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
+	echo "vm.heapSize=$HEAP" >> $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
+	echo "hw.cpu.ncore=$CORES" >> $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
+	cat $AVD_CONFIG_FILE | grep "hw.cpu.ncore"
+	cat $AVD_CONFIG_FILE | grep "vm.heapSize"
 
-	cat $AVD_CONFIG_FILE
-	if [ ! -f "~/.android/avd/$AVD_NAME.ini" ];
-	then
-		echo "found avd .ini file"
-		cat ~/.android/avd/$AVD_NAME.ini
-	fi
+	echo $ANDROID_HOME/emulator/emulator -list-avds
 
 	echo "Starting emulator"