Ok so this has to be among the silliest UI “innovations” I’ve encountered.

After updating my phone, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, to Android 4.2.2, I could no longer find the Developer Options menu. And here’s why … Google seems to have decided to no longer make that menu visible by default.

We can argue over why they made such a change ( my guess is to make the developer options less accessible to non-devs ) … but whatever the reason, it’s a pain.

So how to get it back ? (you’re not gonna believe this) …

  1. Open your settings menu
  2. Scroll down and select “About phone”
  3. Locate the entry labeled “Build number’ (probably near the bottom)
  4. Tap repeatedly (I believe its 7 times) on the “Build number” entry  (I’m not making this up)
  5. As you do you’ll eventually see a message something like “You are now X steps from being a developer” … continue to tap until the “Developer Options” menu become visible.

And now you have your “Developer Options” menu back … it’ll appear on the Settings menu (screen just prior to reaching the screen with the “Build number” value)

Kind’a crazy … ain’t it

Checkout other Android Developer related information from Jim in his courses from Pluralsight.

PSAndroid_216x155

Unknown's avatar

Posted by hedgehogjim

30+ years as a professional software dev, 17+ years developing mobile solutions, Pluralsight Author, Founder JWHH, LLC

9 Comments

  1. Unknown's avatar
    Steven Horton May 10, 2013 at 4:45 am

    That actually WAS crazy! … I honestly *DIDN’T* believe it. I tried it anyway, because Google is… sometimes a little bit quirky… Thank you, weird blogger guy.

    Reply

  2. Unknown's avatar

    awesome crazy stuff//

    Reply

  3. Unknown's avatar

    Also make sure you’re logged (Jelly Bean 4.2.2) as “Owner” user instead of another user, otherwise everything will seem to work fine but “adb devices” will still list your device as “offline”.

    Reply

  4. Unknown's avatar

    craaaazzzyyyyyyy !!! 😀

    Reply

  5. Unknown's avatar

    Waaahhhh sounded silly, but that did it! Thank you Jim!

    Reply

  6. Unknown's avatar

    Thanks, man. I freaked out for a second there. Weird way to enable it. But I admit, it was kinda fun 😛

    Reply

  7. Unknown's avatar

    […] Some 4.x versions of Android hide “Developer options” by default. See this post for instructions for unhiding […]

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