Chrome remote debugging, the device is not showing up

Question

I'm trying to debug a Website in Chrome on an Android device. For this I'm following the official remote debugging guide.

Things are working up to 6. Make sure that Discover USB devices is enabled., but then in point 7. Connect your Android device directly to your development machine using a USB cable., the device is not showing up. Also on the device, I do not get the the Allow USB Debugging permission prompt as described in point 8.

The device has USB Debugging enabled, and Windows recognises the device.

I'm able to connect to the device using Android Studio, and then use Chrome remote debugging. But it looks like overkill to install several GigaBytes just to be able to clic ont the Allow USB Debugging permission prompt on the device.

What can I do to launch remote debugging without installing Android Studio ?

Answer 1

If you turn on Developer options on your Android device, you should be able to toggle USB Debugging from there. Download the standalone ADB package or install Android Studio. Run adb server in the command line. Connect it and then the prompt to accept the device's RSA key fingerprint should appear and you should be good to go.

The docs do a better job of showing the step-by-step process https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/remote-debugging/

P.S. if you'd like to test this multiple times on the same two devices you can click Revoke USB debugging authorizations in the Developer options to revoke all previously connected devices' RSA keys.