Physical removal/disabling of Essential Key?

Anonymous784 · 2025-04-02T09:54:31+00:00

I hate this key so much… it gets pressed too easily with the official Nothing case as it's too tight around the edges, and pulling it out my pocket often turns the screen on due to the button I don't think I'll ever actually use the feature, so wondered if physically removing the button and filling it in with white epoxy (I have a white 3a) would cause any issues? I am on the verge of returning the 3a due to the button, but thought maybe just removing it entirely would solve it. Any thoughts?

neilbaldwin

I don’t know if this has been covered already but you can disable the functionality using ‘adb’ tool

https://developer.android.com/tools/adb

Once you have ADB working and Developer Mode enabled on your phone the two commands you need are:

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialspace

and

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialrecorder

You can re-enabled them using the same command but replace ‘disable-user’ with ‘enable’

I quite like the concept of Essential Space but I find not being able to disable it from the OS unacceptable, especially due to the rather un-useful idea of making the button lower down than the volume keys - means I can’t put the phone in my car dock/holder without it pressing the Essential key.

The adb method disables it completely though it might not be for everyone especially if you’re not comfortable using command-line/Terminal to change settings on your phone.

AntonDevia

I wrote an automated script to disable this button via ADB.
The script doesn’t just disable the feature — it also disables the button itself, so it won’t wake the phone while it’s locked.
github

Here’s how to do it manually if you prefer:
adb devices

adb shell settings put secure nt_block_essential_key 1

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialspace

adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialrecorder

To turn it back on:
adb devices

adb shell settings put secure nt_block_essential_key 0

adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialspace

adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.nothing.ntessentialrecorder

You can also use Shizuku if you don’t have a way to do this from a computer.

Shizuku is a way to run ADB commands without a computer, directly from your phone.

Download Shizuku from Google Play:
google play

How to enable and set up Shizuku:
reddit

Sloth_mb5uL6IbtZ

swiss

life saver this shi button always activated when i put it into the phone holder in my car useless button

Harry_275 I would suggest having a 0 effort button added to the OS options, seeing how they love buttons they just couldn’t add one to disable the physical one, it so dumb not to mention useless. whoever taught it was a good idea to add a button without a way to disable it natively at nothing marketing team should be fired,

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