How To Tell If Your Chromebook Is In Developer Mode

There is no doubt that Chromebooks are amazing devices. The devices are ideal for students, senior citizens, people in business, and ideal for anyone who is looking for an easy-to-use device having a secured OS. However, like other electronic devices, Chromebooks have also some downsides. For example, if you are using a Chromebook, at a certain point in time, you may feel frustrated due to its limitation.

However, the company is adding more and more features to make the device useful and secure for the users. However, you can find more features in Developer Mode, and it is not a difficult task to enable this. If you are Chromebook users, you can enjoy the PIN Unlock feature in Developer mode. With this, you don’t have to type the Google password for signing-in.

Here you will get to know about how to know if the Developer mode is activated in your system, process to enable and disable the developer mode. Well, before getting into that, let’s know about some advantages and disadvantages of developer mode.

Advantages or things that you can do in developer mode

• The Chromebooks are quite limited by specifications and designs. But the developer mode will completely open them up. One of the crucial things that you will enjoy by enabling developer mode is you will get access to the powerful tool, Developer Shell. It will let you carry out different tasks such as running various Linux commands, connecting to the SSH, pinging a website, and more.
• You can install a standard Linux desktop environment whenever you want to perform some complicated tasks.

Issues or disadvantages that you can face in developer mode

• Remember that Google doesn’t officially support the developer mode. You can lose the warranty period after enabling the developer mode.
• You will lose all your data stored locally.
• The system may take a long time to boot up.
• The chrome book will turn less secure after enabling the developer mode. Chromebook, by default, comes with various safety features. But when you activate developer mode, they will get completely disabled.

How to know whether the OS is in developer mode or not?

To know whether your Chromebook is in developer mode or nor, just follow the below-mentioned steps.

1. First, you need to turn off your Chromebook. To shut down the system, you can click on the start menu then click on shutdown. Besides, you can press and hold down the power button for a few seconds until the system’s display goes black.
   
2. Now press the power button again to restart your Chromebook.
   
3. While booting, if you see any scary warning screen, then your Chromebook is in developer mode.
   
4. If you see the standard sign-in screen, then your Chromebook is in a safe condition, and the device is not in developer mode.
   

Steps to activate the developer mode on your Chromebook:

Before doing this, prefer to back up all your data. So, if something went wrong, you can restore the system to the default setting.

1. If your Chrome book is on, then shut it down.
   
2. Now press and hold Esc and Refresh key simultaneously and press the power key.
   

Look for an icon with a circular arrow mark. That is the refresh key. However, generally, it is the F3 key.

1. Once done, wait for some seconds. You will see a screen saying Chrome OS is missing or damage. Look at the below image.
   

   2. Now, you need to press Ctrl and D key simultaneously.
   

   3. If asked, then press Enter key.
   

   4. Now, wait for some minutes and let your Chromebook to reboot.
   

5. You have now successfully activated the developer mode.

6. Now follow the on-screen process to set up the Chromebook.

However, if you have already been enabled the developer mode, and want to turn it off, then here are the steps that you need to follow.

Steps of disabling the developer mode on your Chromebook

Turning off the developer mode is indeed quite easier than turning the developer mode on. In fact, with just one keystroke, you can bring back the Chromebook to its original version. Here are steps to disable it.

It will be useful for you to back up your data before moving into the process. All the data stored locally will get removed when you disable the mode.

1. If the device is on, then press and hold the power button to shut it down.
   
2. Now, turn on your device.
   
3. You will see a screen saying OS verification is OFF.
   
4.  Now, just hit the Spacebar and follow the on-screen steps to disable the developer mode altogether.