houseTV 43" (CVTE, Android 14): no Developer options, how to enable ADB?

[macluiggy]

TV: houseTV 43" FHD Smart TV (box says "houseTV | ANDROID 14.0")
Platform: CVTE (com.cvte.settings 6.0.37)
Hardware: 4 cores, Mali-450, 1 GB RAM
Firmware: 20250823_142206

The system menu has no Build number or Developer options.
Searching develop / debug / adb in Activity Launcher finds nothing.
Is there a hidden menu or key combo to enable ADB on this board?

[macluiggy]

Title: houseTV 43" (CVTE, Android 14): no Developer options, safe way to enable ADB?

TV: houseTV 43" FHD Smart TV (box says "houseTV | ANDROID 14.0")
Platform: CVTE (com.cvte.settings 6.0.37, also com.tcl.browser installed)
Hardware: 4 cores, Mali-450, 1 GB RAM
Firmware: 20250823_142206

Problem:
The system menu (System settings > Common settings / System info) has no
Build number and no Developer options.

Already tried:

• OK x7 on the Firmware and Android version rows: nothing.
• Activity Launcher, searching develop / debug / adb: nothing found.
• com.android.settings / com.android.tv.settings present? (yes/no)
• Up/Down/Left/Right on the remote in System info: (result)

I'm NOT touching any factory/fac menu, since it's known to break CVTE
boards.

Is there a safe hidden menu or key combo to enable ADB on this board?
Any CVTE owner who got ADB working, how did you do it?

[Gathin23]

Thanks for the careful details, @macluiggy, and you're right to stay out of the factory menu: on another CVTE board, opening it switched off the Input key and HDMI-CEC (https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv/blob/main/docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md#working-on-the-tv). One thing worth checking before giving up: on some sets only the way into Developer options is hidden, not the screen itself. In Activity Launcher, look for the Android TV Settings app (package com.android.tv.settings) instead of searching a word, and if it's there, open .system.development.DevelopmentActivity; any app can also open that screen with the action android.settings.APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT_SETTINGS. If the TV has neither, there's no USB debugging to switch on and nothing here can reach it; we don't know of a key combination for CVTE boards. The rest of the checks are in https://github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv/blob/main/docs/TROUBLESHOOTING.md#connecting