Android Chrome Remote Debugging with DevTools - Cannot get past Pending Authorization

Question

I am struggling to get past the "Pending Authorization" stage when trying to do some Remote Debugging with my Android phone and Chrome running on my PC.

I have successfully got past this "Pending Authorization" twice now, so I know it is possible. Also my PC can read the files on my phone as well, so the connection between them is sound.

The problem is the pop up on my phone asking for authorization rarely pops up, and when it does, allowing authorization rarely does anything.

These are the steps I have tried - all of this assumes that both my PC and Phone are on, they are not locked and they both have Chrome running on them.

• Plug my phone into my PC via a USB cable
• Almost immediately a "Use USB to transfer files" pop up appears on my phone, whether I ignore this pop up or tap OK or Cancel seems to make little difference to the problem I am having.
• After a short while I then get the "Allow USB Debugging" pop up. In Chrome on my PC I can see under Remote devices that there is an "Unknown" device that is "Pending Authorization".
  • Ticking the box "Always allow from this computer" makes little difference, and my PC still complains that my device is "Pending Authorization"
• If I hit OK what usually happens is very little, the pop up on the phone disappears and my PC/Chrome still shows "Pending Authorization".
• Occasionally the phone and my PC connects, and I get past the "Pending Authorization" part. However this doesn't last long and I end up with "Debugging connection was closed. Reason: Connection lost." - however despite it saying "connection lost" here I can still connect to the files on my phone.

To reiterate - the connection between my phone and my PC seems stable and fine, I have no problems transferring files between the two.

The problem I am having is getting past this "Pending Authorization" stage - can anyone help?

Some details:

Phone: Nokia 3

Android: 8.0.0

Chrome (on Phone): 76.0.3809.132

PC: Windows 10

Chrome (on PC): 76.0.3809.132

Answer 1

You need to turn on usb debugging on your phone, otherwise you can not connect to your device. You can turn on usb debugging through the Developer options on your device.

Developer options is also something your have to turn on. You can accomplish this by following the steps explained on this page: https://developer.android.com/studio/debug/dev-options