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I'd like to use someone else's (Nexus 7) tablet for some development and testing, however it seems that the normal method of enabling developer mode only works for the 'owner' user. I could use the owner's account, but I'd rather it were possible to use my own.

Seems fairly straightforward that what I want is not allowed (perhaps it would be possible with some rooting and fiddling, which I may or may not bother with on this device).

Is this documented anywhere?

PeterT
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  • What do you mean of "Can I enable developer mode for a user other than the owner on an Android tablet" – Ajay S Feb 15 '14 at 16:48
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    I don't understand the ambiguity: there are two users on the device; myself and the owner. I can enable development mode for the owner account (by pressing build number repeatedly in settings), but doing this from the perspective of my own account does nothing. – PeterT Feb 15 '14 at 16:51
  • There is no relationship for this either you are owner or other user – Ajay S Feb 15 '14 at 17:00
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    Right, so what I want to know is why 'other user' isn't allowed to be a developer. I can get there is an assumption that the owner is the main admin, but it can't be too unusual for developers to want to borrow other people's devices to test some stuff... – PeterT Feb 15 '14 at 17:03
  • Imo, other user should work as for testing the app on the device – Ajay S Feb 15 '14 at 17:07
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    Don't suppose you figure this out - I'm just trying to do same thing. enable debugging on other users. I can enable it for the owner, but not for a restricted user or other user. Need to be able to debug as another user. – delp Apr 02 '14 at 13:24
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    actually answered here - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14223748/android-4-2-developer-settings-still-unavailable – delp Apr 02 '14 at 13:27
  • Please someone. I also need this answer. I need to use adb on the secondary user account. I can enable USB debugging in the main user space but the USB debugging does not carry over to the secondary user. I get an error on my phone that says "current user didn't switch on USB debugging. Please switch to primary user." How can I enable USB debugging in secondary user space??? – Joshua Robison Dec 21 '20 at 03:37
  • You can switch to your admin user, enable USB debugging and use a few ADB commands listed [here](https://source.android.com/devices/tech/admin/multi-user-testing#adb-interactions-across-users) on your secondary (non-admin) user. For example you can installpackages to your secondary user with this command `adb install --user `. But I think this won't allow you use IDE debugging unfortunately.. – Mustafa Berkay Mutlu Jan 20 '21 at 11:12

4 Answers4

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Yes. Enable whatever developer settings you want as the main user; then it will be the same across all users (at least, this is what worked for me). Note that often if you are connecting to something there will be a prompt on your device asking if it's okay to connect to the computer/application. You need to switch back to the main user to accept the prompt, then it should work on all users

pete
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  • I can confirm it's still valid for Android 12. – Tomasz Dzieniak Apr 21 '22 at 07:50
  • But how can I access the storage of the user in `/storage/emulated/*`? Despite being logged in as different user and only connecting the phone when I was in that session, I can only access `/storage/emulated/0`, but no other storages including the own one. – Martin Braun Oct 24 '22 at 15:25
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If the developer settings is enabled by the admin user, then it is enabled for other users as well. If you have a debug version of the app on the device before creating a user, then remove the app and debug it again. If you dont remove the app, it will fail to install apk and start activity in other user.

Murat
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  • after deleting the admin user debug app , i was able to install it in other system user account. – Sam Aug 25 '22 at 05:04
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Hi I had the same problem using two Galaxy Tab A tablets

On one I could debug using a guest account on the other not. I found that the difference was this Logging in as the owner and attaching the debugger it asks to enable debugging. There is an option there to say always allow this computer to access. Clicking this and then changing the account lets you debug while using the guest account.

Rune
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Isn't "clicking the Build Number 7 times" all that is required to activate developer options (and checking enable usb debugging)??

I don't think anything else has any impact on being able to use a device for development...

Werner
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    That's why I say it seems straightforward that what I want isn't allowed; because "clicking build number 7 times" doesn't do anything. I suppose I wasn't really expecting much more answer than that, but I thought at least there might be some documentation out there. – PeterT Feb 15 '14 at 21:53