On the Oculus Go... have you tried downloading Netflix content to watch offline?
If you did then just like me you probably have noticed that this does not work.
Annoyingly.
But I have found a way to do this by sideloading the standard Android app on the Oculus Go.
And.. in this video I'll tell you how to do this exactly.
Coming up now
So in this video I will tell you how to sideload apps to Oculus Go and more specifically I
will sideload the standard Netflix Android app, because that version allows you to watch
Netflix content offline like you can on your phone.
But if you want to sideload any other app, you can do that as well with this guide.
If you already know how to sideload APK on Oculus Go and only want to know how to watch
Netflix content offline, then skip to about 7 minutes.
Let me explain quickly what sideloading does just in case you don’t know what it is.
By sideloading APK you essentially get access to games and apps that aren’t in the Oculus
Store yet.
Since the Oculus Software is also build on Android, you can download any Android game
or app and install it on your Go.
Be aware though that those apps are not always built for the Go, so it might not always work.
Ok, to get started you need to do the following.
First of all, create an Oculus developer account.
- Go to the Oculus website.
Link is down below and sign into your Oculus account.
Make sure it is the account that you use for your Oculus Go too.
- Create a name for your "Organization".
Doesn’t matter what you call it.
- If you agree to the terms, check the box and press "I Agree."
Turn on Developer Mode in the Oculus Go app on your phone.
- Open the app - Click on Your Oculus Go > More Settings
> Developer mode and then toggle Developer Mode on.
If you cannot turn on Developer mode, then you should double check if you used the right
Oculus account to create an organization in the first step of this guide.
If you have an Android phone, the settings could be located somewhere else.
But I trust in you guys to be able to find it ;)
Download the SDK Platform-Tools From the Android developers website, which I already opened
here.
You can find the link down below as well.
- Just click on SDK platform tools for Windows if you have Windows.
- If you agree to the terms, just checkmark this and click on download.
Wait until it’s finished.
- Once it’s finished just open the map, unzip it, and now copy this folder and place
it anywhere you want.
I placed it in my C > Dev > Android folder as you can see here.
- Now you have to add the path of the folder to your Environment Variables.
I’m going to copy this path here.
- I’m going to my Environment Variables.
In Windows 10 you can just type into Windows Search “Environment Variables” and it
will show up here.
- Click on it.
- Click on “Environment Variables”.
- Now find “Path” here.
Double click it.
Click on new New and Paste your path here.
- Now click on Ok.
And another ok.
And another one.
- Now we are going to test if it works.
So we are going to the command prompt.
In Windows 10 just click on your Start Button.
Type in CMD and make sure you open command prompt as administrator by right clicking
it.
Run as administrator.
Click yes.
- Now type in ‘adb help’ and if you see this, it means it works and you have succesfully
installed adb.
- If it doesn’t work and you see ‘adb’ is not recognized as a command, then you have
to check your environment variables.
- Or you can navigate to your installation folder of ADB in command prompt and run the
adb.exe there.
- I’ll show you that quickly in command prompt...
If you navigate to the folder where you put your platform tools which I have already done
here.
Now just launch adb by typing adb.exe instead and help.
You will see it works that way as well.
Now install the Oculus ADB drivers from the Oculus website which you can also find down
below.
- Make sure you have version 2.0 here.
- Click on I agree.
Download.
Wait until it’s finished.
Go to the download folder and unzip this as well.
Now just go inside the folder and right click on this inf file and click on install.
- It will say the operation completed succesfully and you’re finished.
Yes, you are now ready to install APK’s!
- Just connect your baby Oculus Go with an USB cable to your computer.
Now open command prompt again.
Don’t forget to open it as administrator.
- Now type in ‘adb devices’.
Now if you see this.
This means it recognized your Oculus Go and yeah you can start installing APK’s.
- If you don’t see a device here, you have to either restart your Go and replug it to
your PC or...
I also have another quick tip.
I actually had trouble getting ADB to recognize my device even after restarting.
This was because I had an older version of ADB installed.
If you type adp help and scroll up you can see what version you have.
I have this verison now.
1.0.40 and well this version works so.
If you downloaded adb by going to the official Android developer website that I linked below
as well, then you already have the latest version and it should work.
- If you run adb devices and you see unauthorized here behind the device.
- Then you have to put on your Go and use your controller to accept first and then it
will be able to go inside your Oculus Go.
Now I’m going to install the standard Android Netflix app APK.
Sorry guys, I don’t think can’t tell you where I got the APK from, but I’m pretty
sure a little Google search will get you far ;)
- Once you have it make sure you navigate to the folder where you downloaded it.
And now just install the Netflix APK with this command:
adb install path/to/your.apk - And this is my APK file.
Just press enter.
Now you have to wait a bit, and once installed you will see the message “Success”.
Normally after installing an APK, you can launch it by putting on your Oculus Go.
- Then go to Library > Unknown Sources.
And the installed APK will load in this list.
Just click on it to load the sideloaded app.
I said normally, because compatible APK’s will load in this list.
The bad news is that Netflix isn’t one of those compatible apps for the Go straight
away.
No worries though, because we will make this work in a different way using Oculus TV.
The good news is that you can now sideload any APK by just running the “adb install
command” and compatible ones will show up in your Unknown Sources list.
Also, now you have all this setup already, you don’t have to set it up again.
Nice right?
By the way, big shoutout to Headjack.io since their article helped me a ton getting this
working.
I’ll link their article down below.
BUT let’s move on to the last step of getting Netflix working now!
So if you have an app that doesn’t show up in Unknown Sources, you can try opening
it in Oculus TV with a command in adb.
To launch Netflix an awesome person on Reddit: J03ggernaut has made an Oculus TV launcher.
So the last step is to install Oculus TV and J03ggernaut’s Oculus TV launcher to make
it work offline too.
- So Install Oculus TV if you haven’t, it’s a free app in the Oculus Store.
- Now download the Oculus TV launcher that J03ggernaut made.
- Shout out to J03ggernaut for making this launcher by the way! :D
Thank you.
- With your Oculus still plugged in, install this apk like we did before by running this
command: adb install oculustvlauncher.netflix.apk
Now you can launch the Oculus TV Netflix by going in Oculus Go, Libary > Unknown Sources
and click the launcher.
The standard Android Netflix app will open now, where you can watch downloaded content
offline!
That’s it everyone! :D