chrome inspect blinking with remote debugging

Question

I'm trying to use Chrome's support for remote debugging with my Android device. I've been successful doing this many times, even though it is a bit tricky to setup up.

(I need 'port forwarding' and 'virtual host mapping' so my device can access domain names on my local server.)

The problem is that (today) chrome://inspect shows the tabs on my device for only a second, then hides them, then shows them again, then hides them...

When Chrome hides all the tabs on my device, the following message appears:

Pending authentication: please accept debugging session on the device.

Bad Blink

Good Blink

I see no notification on my device that I can 'accept'.

Even stranger, if I am quick to click on my host, I actually seem to be able to able to use the dev tools for the device like in previous successful situations.

Why is chrome://inspect blinking and how can I fix it?

My setup

• Device: Android 5.0 Galaxy S4 for AT&T, with Developer options enabled.
• Device's wifi settings require Proxy, with info for Charles running on host.
• Device connected via USB.
• chrome://inspect has Port Forwarding enabled.
• Chrome: Version 44.0.2403.157 m.
• Android bridge performed by starting Android Studio (version 1.3.1).

Answer 1

Thanks to @SOreadytohelp for the helpful comment.

I borrowed this from the chromium bug report:

Downgrading Android SDK Platform-tools from revision 23 to revision 21 will solve the issue