Prepare your phones

Each hosted phone is used by other people, so it starts from a factory reset with nothing of yours on it. Do this once per phone; it takes about 15 minutes.

1. Take out the SIM card (and any memory card), and move anything you want to keep off the phone. Hosted phones don’t use mobile service. Delete every eSIM too, in Settings › Network & internet › SIMs (choose the eSIM, then Erase SIM or Delete SIM): an eSIM stays on the phone without a card, and renters could see its carrier and SIM details.

2. Reset the phone to factory settings. On most phones: Settings › System › Reset options › Erase all data (factory reset).

3. Set it up without your accounts. During setup, connect to your guest Wi-Fi (see why), skip signing in to Google or any other account, and choose no screen lock (None or Swipe). A PIN, pattern or password would keep renters at the lock screen, and the check after each rental fails while one is set.

4. Install system updates now, in Settings › System › Software updates. While the phone is listed, the hub holds back automatic updates so they can’t interrupt a rental.

5. Turn on the charge limit, if the phone has one (on recent Pixels: Settings › Battery › Battery health › Charging optimization › Limit to 80%). A phone that stays plugged in lasts longer that way.

6. Turn on USB debugging. In Settings › About phone, tap Build number seven times to turn on Developer options. Then, in Developer options (under Settings › System on many phones), turn on USB debugging. Some brands need one more switch: see settings some phones need.

7. Plug the phone into your hub with a data cable, through your powered USB hub. When the phone asks Allow USB debugging?, tick Always allow from this computer and tap Allow.

Settings some phones need

Some brands add their own switches that block what the hub does over USB. Set these before you plug the phone in:

Phone	Setting	Why
OnePlus, OPPO, realme (OxygenOS, ColorOS)	In Developer options, turn on Disable permission monitoring.	Without it the hub can’t grant or reset app permissions, so cleanup fails and the phone is taken out of service.
Samsung (One UI 6 and newer)	In Settings › Security and privacy › Auto Blocker, turn Auto Blocker off.	Auto Blocker blocks app installs and commands over USB.
Xiaomi, Redmi, POCO (MIUI, HyperOS)	In Developer options, turn on Install via USB and USB debugging (Security settings).	They let the hub install the agent and send renters’ taps. Xiaomi only allows them while signed in to a Mi account, which hosted phones can’t have, so email [email protected] before hosting one.

What happens next

Within a minute the phone appears in your dashboard under Hosting › Phones as Setting up, with its model and Android version. The hub checks that:

• USB debugging is allowed for the hub;
• the phone runs Android 8.0 or newer;
• no accounts are signed in;
• at least 4 GB of storage is free;
• no eSIM profile is on the phone.

It then installs the small PocketShare app (the agent), makes it the phone’s device owner (Android’s administrator role), and records the phone’s starting state, which cleanup restores after every rental. As device owner the agent stops renters (and anyone else) from factory resetting the phone from Settings, adding users or accounts, starting it in safe mode or removing the agent, and holds system updates until the phone isn’t rented. To take a phone back, run pocketshare-hub device-owner disable on the hub (as administrator on Windows, with sudo on Linux); no factory reset is needed. To keep it off for every phone on a hub, set "deviceOwner": { "enabled": false } in the hub’s config.json. The phone’s page lists each step as it passes, ending with PocketShare’s review. The phone shows Waiting for review until PocketShare approves it; then set a price to list it.

If a step fails, the phone’s page says which one and how to fix it, and Hosting › Phones lists it under Needs attention. The hub checks again within a minute, and retries the app install every few minutes.

Note

Don’t change the phone’s settings, install apps or sign in to anything once it is hosted. Cleanup puts the phone back to the state it recorded, and changes it can’t explain take the phone out of service until it is wiped and checked again.

A phone doesn’t appear

What you see	What to do
Nothing at all	Try another cable (many are charge-only) and another port, and check USB debugging is still on.
Allow USB debugging? never shows	In Developer options, tap Revoke USB debugging authorizations, then unplug the phone and plug it in again.
The dashboard says the phone is waiting for Allow	Unlock the phone and tap Allow on the prompt. Unplug and replug it if the prompt went away.
“no permissions” on Linux	Unplug the phone and plug it in again, or restart the hub computer.
A phone on Windows never appears	It needs its USB driver: see Windows.
A check failed	The phone’s page says which: remove every account (Settings › Passwords & accounts), free some storage, or update Android.
No eSIM profile failed	Delete every eSIM in Settings › Network & internet › SIMs. Turning it off isn’t enough: the hub checks again within a minute.
PocketShare app installed failed	The phone blocked the install or its permissions over USB. Set the switch for your brand in settings some phones need (OnePlus, OPPO and realme: Disable permission monitoring), then restart the phone. The hub tries again every few minutes (hub 0.3.17 and newer report this step).
Cleanup fails on a OnePlus, OPPO or realme phone	Turn on Disable permission monitoring (see settings some phones need), then wipe the phone from its page.