How to Enable USB Debugging on the LG G Watch

USB debugging is a setting on all Android devices that allows a developer to plug their device in via USB and, um, debug it. What that means is they can plug their, LG G Watch in, for instance, turn on USB Debugging and then use the computer to send commands though ABD (Android Debug Bridge) to the device to investigate the app their developing, etc. What us mere mortals do with USB debugging and ADB is a bit different.

We use USB debugging and ADB to send commands to the device in order to change its operating system and get it to do what we want. In the case of the LG G Watch, you can use USB debugging to then connect to the device, root it, and even flash a custom ROM to speed up it’s performance and change the UI.

The process of enabling USB debugging on the LG G Watch is pretty similar to the way to do it on any other Android device, but it’s in a slightly different place since this is Android Wear and not normal Android. Here’s how to enable it and even connect to it.

I. Before You Begin

1. To connect to it via ADB, you need to have the Android SDK installed. You can check out our How to Setup ADB tutorial for how exactly to do that, then return here to continue.

2. I’m showing how to do this via Windows, but it would work the same with Mac just by putting a ./ in front of the commands in Section II (and by using Terminal instead of Command Prompt).

I. Enable USB Debugging on the LG G Watch

1. Double tap the watch face to get the Google Now voice prompt.

2. Swipe up and scroll down to Settings > About.

3. Tap on Build Number repeatedly until it says you are a developer.

4. Swipe to the right to go back and tap on Developer Options and Enable ADB Debugging.

II. Connect to the LG G Watch Using ADB

1. Plug the LG G Watch in via USB using the cradle it comes with.

2. When prompted, make sure to select Always allow from this computer and click OK on the paired Android device.

3. On your computer navigate to C:/android-sdk/platform-tools/ (or wherever your platform tools folder is if you didn’t follow our ABD procedure).

4. While holding shift on your keyboard, right-click any blank space in that platform-tools folder and select Open Command Window Here.

5. In the new command window that appears, type the following with hitting enter at the end of the line.

adb devices

5. If you see a serial number, you are all set. If you don’t, you might want to recheck our How to Setup ADB procedure and manually install the drivers.

With this new found debugging ability, why don’t you check out some of the other LG G Watch How To’s we have that use it, hmm?