How to Enable Android Developer Mode

To gain quick access to some additional features of your Android device we sometimes need to enable Developer Mode. So today I’m going to show you a very quick step by step tutorial about how to enable this hidden menu in Android.

Developer Mode for Android gives you access to some additional features that not many Android users are aware of. It is a hidden menu that can be found on just about every single Android device out there. I’ve even been able to find it located on my Moto 360 smartwatch.

In Developer Mode, we will get access to things like USB Debugging, the ability to show touches on the screen, the ability to customize or disable the animations and full control of the background task limits that Android sets by default.

You_Are_Now_a_Developer

Enable Developer Mode

  1. Launch the Settings Application
  2. Scroll Down and Tap on About Phone(or About Device)
  3. Locate the Build Number Section
  4. Tap on the Build Number Option 7 Times
  5. Go Back to the Main Settings Page
  6. Scroll Down and Tap on Developer Options

Enable Developer Mode on Xiaomi Devices

  1. Open up the Settings application
  2. Tap the My Device option
  3. Tap the All Specs option
  4. Then tap the MIUI Version option 7-10
  5. When you tap it enough times you’ll see a toast message at the bottom that says you are now a developer.

 Explanation

This is all you have to do to enable the Developer Mode or the Developer Options menu in Android. What we’re doing is opening the Settings application on Android and then scrolling down to the About Phone. This menu is sometimes called About Device if it is a tablet and sometimes it is just called About(like it is on Android Wear). We look for the Build option from within the About section and then tap on it 7 times in a row. After you tap on it 3 or 4 times you start to see a countdown toast message and it tells you that you are about to enter Developer Mode.

For every tap, after that ,you will see it continue to countdown until you see that “You are now a developer!” message that you see in the image above. I do want to warn you about the settings and options from within this menu. Some of these settings are critical and they can completely change the way your smartphone operates. Then again some other options here are rather trivial. You definitely do not want to enable or disable something from this menu if you do not know what it is. So please be very careful.

This is just a simple tutorial but it will be one that I reference in a lot of articles here at Android Explained so I wanted to write out a step by step build for it. This will allow me to link to it from other articles and it will prevent me from having to write out the same steps in every single tutorial that requires the Developer Mode to be enabled.

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26 comments
      1. nope nothing… tried tapping 7 times… and above… i turned off the option coz of moto 360 sync loop….and when went to find the setting its not there…

        1. The Moto 360 sync loop isn’t anything bad though. It’s just extra information that gets displayed because the device is in developer mode. It’s like additional debug text that typically gets hidden when Developer Mode isn’t enabled.

          If you have had developer mode enabled before, but disabled it, then the menu option should still be in the main Settings list. All you have to do is go back into it and tap on the toggle at the top right of the screen.

          If you have disabled developer mode in the past, and the menu is no longer there and you cannot bring it back by tapping on the Build Number option, then there is a bug in the ROM.

          If this is the case, then you’ll want to stop by the XDA thread and report the bug/see if anyone else can reproduce it. I’ve never used Blisspop so I don’t know how buggy/stable the custom ROM is

          1. The ROM is very stable I have been using it for a month only… This developer thing happened just 2 days back…. Nope its not appearing in the list for me to enable again

          2. Hrmm, I would ask about this in the Blisspop thread on XDA. If it’s not a common bug then a clean install of the ROM is probably your best bet

  1. what if you cannot get into the phone. i forgot which email i used and i reset phone without signing out. now i cant get into the phone to enable debugging. how can i get around that ?

  2. Can’t seem to find developer mode on my Motorola X2, lollipop 5.1. Any suggestions?

    1. Motorola generally uses a clean version of Android, so it should be the same as the guide says. Does nothing happen when you tap on the Build Number option 10 times?

      1. Something happened…A lollipop appeared. When I tap on that, a game opened, where I’m bouncing a little Android through a field of lollipop boundaries!

        1. That’s Lollipop’s easter egg game and that is only supposed to appear when you tap 10 times on the Android Version number option. Are you 100% sure you’re tapping on the ‘Build Number’ option?

          1. OK, that was cool! However, there isn’t a “build number” item. It worked when I tapped on the “Build Number” cell.

          2. But, no option in Settings for changing the display settings:/

  3. Thanks a lot. This helped. Have had terrible issues with ghosting on a Moto G4. One of the tips is to turn on the GPU rendering. I had to do some digging to find out how to do that!!! And this website helped. Much appreciated !!!

    1. You’re welcome, Catherine. Has this GPU rendering trick fixed the ghosting issues you were experiencing?

  4. NOW that your done, how to you put it back to normal by hiding the “Developer Mode”?

  5. Hi my pixel went into bootloop on dec 22 2018 . I cant go into developers mode . Is there a way that i can still able to flash my phone – Thank you

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