The multi user and guest account feature is not available on either of the two recent releases of Lollipop for the Z3v. I did some research and it appears this is the case, not only on other Verizon handsets like the Droid Turbo and the Galaxy S5 / S6, but a few other non-VZW devices as well. I'm not sure why it was removed but apparently it's just hidden. It can be enabled and I followed the instructions for doing this for the various other devices and can report that it works for our Z3v (see attached screenshots).
I've kind of cleaned up the instructions and put them below. Usual disclaimer - I'm not responsible for anything that may happen to you or your cat if you choose to do the following. You DO need root access to edit and write to the system file.
** To be safe, please make a backup of your phone and/or a copy of the build.prop file that you are going to edit.
Get ES File Explorer. Run it and enable Root Explorer setting. (You may be able to use any file explorer and editor with root access but this is used most in the instructions and works.)
With ES File Explorer, go to device/system/ and find the file: build.prop
Choose to edit it with ES Note Editor.
Scroll to the end of the file and type in the following:
fw.max_users=5
fw.show_multiuserui=1
Save the file.
I'm not sure if the next step is required but it was in half the instructions I saw, and I did it myself: Click and hold the file, go to Properties, and then change the permissions to Read, Write & Execute. [all three]
Reboot your phone.
When you're up and running, access multi user mode by pulling down your notification shade and then clicking on your user icon at the top right corner.
Notes so far:
As a guest user I could not use the file explorer to access my original user files on the internal drive - the guest user had their own file directory. The guest CAN access the External SD Card, though. A very strange thing, though, is that the Movie Creator app has a "highlight" movie that is composed from photos I took this morning as the main user (I just enabled multi user a little while ago). This is obviously a privacy concern and I'm wondering if the location of the files that Movie Maker created for the highlights is the reason why.
The guest user cannot use the text messaging app (a warning pops up that only the main user can). That is expected. However, the guest user cannot open the dialer and make a call. They CAN receive an incoming call.
I just created an actual additional user but haven't been able to test it or use it much. They may be able to do things the simple, temporary guest user cannot. You can find out more about the nuances of additional users with your Google Fu.
Enjoy!
I've kind of cleaned up the instructions and put them below. Usual disclaimer - I'm not responsible for anything that may happen to you or your cat if you choose to do the following. You DO need root access to edit and write to the system file.
** To be safe, please make a backup of your phone and/or a copy of the build.prop file that you are going to edit.
Get ES File Explorer. Run it and enable Root Explorer setting. (You may be able to use any file explorer and editor with root access but this is used most in the instructions and works.)
With ES File Explorer, go to device/system/ and find the file: build.prop
Choose to edit it with ES Note Editor.
Scroll to the end of the file and type in the following:
fw.max_users=5
fw.show_multiuserui=1
Save the file.
I'm not sure if the next step is required but it was in half the instructions I saw, and I did it myself: Click and hold the file, go to Properties, and then change the permissions to Read, Write & Execute. [all three]
Reboot your phone.
When you're up and running, access multi user mode by pulling down your notification shade and then clicking on your user icon at the top right corner.
Notes so far:
As a guest user I could not use the file explorer to access my original user files on the internal drive - the guest user had their own file directory. The guest CAN access the External SD Card, though. A very strange thing, though, is that the Movie Creator app has a "highlight" movie that is composed from photos I took this morning as the main user (I just enabled multi user a little while ago). This is obviously a privacy concern and I'm wondering if the location of the files that Movie Maker created for the highlights is the reason why.
The guest user cannot use the text messaging app (a warning pops up that only the main user can). That is expected. However, the guest user cannot open the dialer and make a call. They CAN receive an incoming call.
I just created an actual additional user but haven't been able to test it or use it much. They may be able to do things the simple, temporary guest user cannot. You can find out more about the nuances of additional users with your Google Fu.
Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment