Remote Control Unavailable Despite Accessibility Service Enabled — Disable/Re-Enable Service

Android

When Remote Control is enabled but touch input and keyboard commands cannot be sent during a remote session, the Esper Accessibility service may have loaded without fully initializing — even if remote viewing appears to work normally.

Why this happens

Remote viewing and remote control are handled separately. The Esper Accessibility service must initialize correctly at startup to relay touch and keyboard input. If the service registers as enabled but did not complete initialization — which can occur after an agent update, device reboot, or initial provisioning — remote viewing continues to work while interactive control does not.

Fix remote control directly on the device

Use this method if you have physical access to the device.

On the device, open Settings → Accessibility. The exact path varies by manufacturer — on some devices this is nested under Settings → Additional Settings → Accessibility.
Locate Esper Accessibility in the list of installed accessibility services.
Tap Esper Accessibility and disable the service, then confirm any system prompt. Disabling and re-enabling forces the service to reinitialize from a clean state rather than resume a partially loaded session.
Wait 10–15 seconds.
Tap Esper Accessibility again and re-enable the service, then confirm any system prompt.
In the Esper Console, navigate to Devices & Groups → [Device Name] → Remote Viewer and start a new session.

Verify: You should be able to send tap gestures and type keyboard input within the remote session immediately after the session starts. Remote viewing alone does not confirm that control is restored.

Fix remote control using ADB

Use this method if you cannot access the device physically. ADB must already be authorized on the device.

Open a terminal or command prompt on your computer and confirm the device is visible:
```
adb devices
```

Disable the Esper Accessibility service:

adb shell settings put secure enabled_accessibility_services ""

Wait 10–15 seconds, then re-enable the service:

adb shell settings put secure enabled_accessibility_services com.esper.accessibility/.EsperAccessibilityService
adb shell settings put secure accessibility_enabled 1

If the above commands return an error, confirm the correct package name for your device:
```
adb shell pm list packages | grep esper
```
Replace com.esper.accessibility/.EsperAccessibilityService in step 3 with the package name returned.
In the Esper Console, navigate to Devices & Groups → [Device Name] → Remote Viewer and start a new session.

Verify: You should be able to send tap gestures and type keyboard input within the remote session immediately after the session starts.

If this doesn't resolve it

Try the following before contacting support:

Check the Esper Agent version. In the Esper Console, go to Devices & Groups → [Device Name] → Device Info and compare the Esper Agent version against a device where remote control works. A version mismatch can cause initialization failures. If the versions differ, apply a matching update via Esper Software Updates.
Reboot the device. Restart the device and repeat the steps above. If the issue returns after every reboot, the service is failing to initialize at startup rather than intermittently.
Reprovision the device. If the toggle steps do not resolve the issue, reprovisioning clears any corrupted state introduced during the original setup.

If none of the above resolves the issue, contact Esper Support and include the following:

Device serial number and model
Esper Agent version on the affected device and on a working device
A bug report captured immediately after re-enabling the Esper Accessibility service
A description of when the issue first appeared (e.g., after a specific update or reboot)

Still need help?

If remote control remains unavailable after disabling and re-enabling the accessibility service, please submit a support ticket and include your device's serial number, the Esper agent version, and details about when the remote control functionality stopped working.