Enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy Phones

USB Debugging in Android smartphones is a option for Android developers to test and troubleshoot their in-progress programs on Android phones or tablets. The USB debugging can also be found, activated or disactivated on Samsung Galaxy mobile phones, like Galaxy S4, S5, S6. If you are a developer, you can enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy phones, then install your Android app on it and test the apps in a real-world setting on a physical Android device. Basically to enable USB debugging mode on Samsung Galaxy S phone enables you to transfer your self-developed apps to the smartphone via USB cable. If you want to root smartphones, recover photos and other data from Samsung mobile, flash ROM or install any custom ROM or firmware, you must also firstly turn on USB debugging mode on Samsung Galaxy.

Enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy

    • Go to the menu, select Settings.
    • Scroll down to the bottom and select ‘About device’.

samsung galaxy settings about device
Note: You will not see the Developer Options by default. You need to access the About Device to enable Developer Options on Galaxy smart phones.

    • Scroll down and tap Build Number seven times until you see a message that says “Developer mode has been enabled”.

enable developer options samsung galaxy

    • Now go to Developer Options.

samsung galaxy settings developer options

    • Here you can find the USB debugging box under developer mode options. You can check to enable the USB debugging mode from there.

enable usb debugging samsung galaxy

That’s it! Now you’ve enabled USB debugging on Galaxy phones, such as Galaxy S4, S5, S6, etc.

Tips to Enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy or More

The instructions do not only apply to Samsung Galaxy A series, but also Galaxy S Series and more Samsung or even Android powered smart phones. For example, you can enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy S6 following the instructions above. If you are using another Samsung smartphone or other Android smartphones, you can also follow the above steps to activate USB debugging on them. See how to enable USB debugging on Android phones. It is similar to any Andoird based devices, including smartphones and tablets.

18 thoughts on “Enable USB Debugging on Samsung Galaxy Phones”

  1. I successfully enabled USB debugging in my S5. But everytime S5 reboots it is disabled automatically. I want USB debugging to be enabled across reboots any suggestions??

    1. have you installed custom ROM on the phone? You may try downloading and installing the USB driver for your phone from Samsung website to your computer while your phone is being connected to the computer.

  2. Matt. I accidentally deleted my family vacation photos. I did a factory reset and all the pictures are gone. Please help. I have the galaxy 6

    1. Samsung Galaxy S5 has different variants. Based on our experiment, the Android recovery works for Galaxy S5 SM-G900V and other models that are running on different Android versions. You can check out the samsung photo recovery guide linked in the last reply see if any help.

  3. I connected my phone to my Samsung laptop because I wanted to upload 1 video.
    It came up with all of the pics and videos from my “Camera” folder in my phone. I deselected them all then just selected the one I wanted to upload.
    Now I have no pics left in my camera folder on my phone! They didn’t upload to the laptop either. Help!!

  4. this does not work for me…I do not have the developer option on my phone at all? It’s a verizon galaxy 5s…when I clicked the build number it said there were 4 more steps to developer???
    please help.

    1. You need to keep tapping on the build number multiple times (about 7 times) in a row until you see a message that says something like “Developer mode has been enabled”, “Developer options have been enabled” or ” You are now a developer”.

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