While making this new SideQuest guide, I discovered an experimental build that allows you to sideload
without having to connect your Quest to anything. So no PC or even a mobile phone is needed.
Look, my Quest isn’t connected to anything right now, as you can tell by the red icon
here BUT I can still sideload games! And fast! This makes sideloading SO MUCH easier, so
it’s time to update my guide.
Unfortunately, you still need to do some initial steps using a PC or mobile phone. However,
you only have to do that once, and it’ll be EZ pz after. I’ll show you how today.
So if you already have SideQuest configured, you can skip to step 4 to see the new method
straight away. Timestamps are below. If this is your first time sideloading, keep watching.
Join me beyond reality.
First, this is what you need for the initial steps.
Your Quest 1 or 2 A high-quality USB-C cable that supports data
transfer, you can use the cable that came in the box
Lastly, your weapon of choice 😉 a PC, laptop, OR Android phone.
Again, if you’ve done the initial steps already, you can skip to step 4. Now let’s
start with…
Step 1. Register As A Developer To sideload on your Quest, you have to enable
Developer Mode. Before you can do that, Meta requires you to register as a developer. But
no worries, it’s free and easy to do.
Using any device, open up a browser and go to dashboard.oculus.com. To make things easier,
all the links I mention in this video are also in the description below.
Now, on this page, log in using the same account you’re using for your Quest.
Click on the Create button in the menu. You can fill out any organization name you
want here since it’s not a real developer account. Follow the steps, agree to the terms…
etc. You may also get asked to verify your account
using a credit card or phone number. Make sure to do that. If they don’t ask you to
do it, then your account is already verified 😉
You should now see your new dope organization in this drop-down menu, which means your account
is ready!
Step 2. Enable Developer Mode on your Quest Grab your Quest headset and whatever mobile
device you have the Oculus app installed. You should have already done that when you
set up your Quest. So launch the Oculus app, click on the menu,
then Devices. Make sure your Quest headset is turned on and connected here.
Then scroll down, and you should see Developer Mode, tap it and toggle it on.
Then go back to the Settings and tap ‘Unlock Pattern.’ Here, make sure you’re NOT using
an Unlock Pattern as it may give trouble. You’re good to go if this is what you see.
Now reboot your Quest just in case. Just hold-press the power off button and wait until you hear
this…
Step 3. Install the SideQuest App on your PC or Phone
There are two ways to do this. Via a PC, or if you don’t have one, you can also use
an Android phone. I’ll show you both methods in this step. You can use the timestamps to
skip to what you need.
3.1 Using a PC / Laptop
Let’s start using a PC or laptop Go to sidequestvr.com and click on “Get
SideQuest.” Download the correct file for your OS. I’m on Windows 11 so getting the
Windows 10 version, which should work. Once it’s done downloading, you can double-click
on it to install SideQuest. Just follow the steps until it’s finished.
There’s no need to start it yet because we need to install the drivers first. Now
the SideQuest developer has told me you may not need the drivers. So you can try to skip
this step and see if it works. But just in case, I’m keeping it in this guide.
Go to this link in the description. Download the Oculus Go ADB drivers. Then right-click
it and click Extract All to unzip it. Then open the extracted folder and, right-click
the android_winusb file, click Install. In Windows 11, you need to click “Show more
options” first to see the Install option. If you get a pop-up, allow it to make changes.
The drivers are now installed. Now launch SideQuest.
Connect your Quest to your PC using your USB cable.
Make sure to turn it on if you haven’t turned it on yet.
With the cable connected. Put on your Quest, and in VR, you’ll see a pop-up about USB
debugging, click on the “Always allow from this computer” button so you don’t get
this pop-up all the time. If you get another pop-up to allow access, make sure to do that.
Now, on your PC, the SideQuest app should show that it’s connected with this little
green dot. Leave it here and move to step 4 using the timestamps below.
3.2. Using an Android phone
Ok, if you don’t have a PC, you can grab your Android phone or tablet. Unfortunately,
this does NOT work on iOS devices. But you only need your phone to sideload an app on
your Quest; after that, you no longer need your phone. So maybe you could also borrow
an Android device from friends or family.
Once you got your Android device, Go to the Google PlayStore and find the SideQuest app.
Download and install it on your phone. Then launch it and give it any permission
needs by tapping allow. Now get your USB cable and connect your Quest
directly to your phone.
Your phone will get a pop up asking for permission. Just click allow and also tick the box to
always allow so you don’t get this message the whole time.
You may also get the message to choose an app to use with the USB device. Select the
SideQuest app here, and then you can also click ‘Always’ so your phone remembers
your choice and you don’t get these pop-ups each time.
Now put on your Quest and you will get a pop up here too. And it will ask for USB debugging.
Click on the “Always allow from this computer” button. You will probably get a couple of
these popups. Just click on always allow. Now take off your Quest and look at your phone
again. So if the app gets stuck now, which just happened.
Then just restart the app and you should be able to see this screen right here and the
icon at the bottom is now green! Which is good, which means it’s connected successfully.
And you can start sideloading with the cable connected.
But if you want to know how to sideload wirelessly using WiFi, continue watching. If not, you
can go to step 4 right now. For wireless sideloading, click on this WiFi
icon on the left side; your phone and headset IP should be right here, visible. If not,
make sure your Quest is connected correctly as per the previous steps. If it is, Click
on “Enable WiFi” here. Wait a bit, and if you don’t get any errors, you can remove
the cable. So if you see this. It’s good! Removing the cable now.
Now as you could see, the icon at the bottom turned red and then green. It means that it
connected automatically, but if it didn’t. You can click on the WiFi icon again. Scroll
down and click on “Connect” right here. And you can manually connect there.
This means your Quest is connected even without the cable! Leave it like this, and let’s
go to step 4.
Step 4. Install the experimental SideQuest Mobile app on your Quest
You can do this on both your PC and phone as long as you followed the previous steps.
Launch SideQuest on the device you’re using, search for SideQuest here, click on this app.
Now, scroll to the pink Download button. Do not click it as we are not getting the App-Release.
Instead, click the ARROW and click “Download Experimental” This will get you the right
build that includes the new sideloading method. On PC, just click on “Continue” and it
will start installing. You’ll see this message when it’s done.
On mobile, it is exactly the same. Just click on continue and it will start installing that
APK on your Quest directly.
Now, there’s only one more step to do and that is to smash that like button because
that supports us for free 😉 Those were all the steps you only have to do once for
the sideloading. Now, you never have to do this again.
Step 5. Sideloading from within Quest / VR!
You can now sideload games without any device needed, just easily within VR. So put on your
headset, click on the app’s icon, click on the drop-down menu at the top right, click
on “Unknown Sources,” and find the SideQuest app here.
Launch it, and you will see the SideQuest mobile app from within VR. This already worked,
but with this new experimental build, you don’t need an external device anymore to
sideload. I’m talking about the apps not available in AppLab, such as the Beat Saber
mod BMBF or Questcraft. This is actually anything that doesn’t have the label AppLab in the
thumbnail. Of course, you can still download the AppLab games using this method.
If you found an app or game you want to install, just click on the download button, and if
it’s your first time sideloading this way, you’ll get a pop-up. You need to give permission
again, so click Settings, toggle Allow from this source on, go back and try downloading
again by clicking Retry in the Downloads tab or just click the download button again.
And it’ll install it on your Quest! You can see that I don’t have any device connected
to my Quest. If you look down here, the dot is still red, which means nothing is connected.
Yet, it is still able to install! :D
I think that’s pretty cool because SideQuest really expands our Quest libraries with so
many more titles to check out. Yes, they’re not all very polished, but it’s just a lot
of fun exploring random things in VR. I highly recommend it.
So if you have any trouble using this guide, there are a couple of things you can check.
I know I’m going to get a lot of repeated questions, so to make things easier, I made
a Frequently Asked Questions page on our website with troubleshooting steps you can try. The
link is below. I’ll update this page as we get questions in the comments below, so
feel free to ask your questions down there, and don’t forget to like this video. VR
on.