run-as: Could not set capabilities: Operation not permitted

Question

on android 6.0.1 I am getting this error when trying to use run-as.

⋊> ~ adb shell                                                          14:29:01
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Answer 1

I had previously posted an answer here which was deleted, maybe because it was a link to another stackoverflow question referring to the answer I gave there, instead of containing the full answer.

Reposting its contents here from https://stackoverflow.com/a/43242739/7823460:

I had a very similar issue on Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, trying to start debugging on VS2015, I got a different error, much less verbose than in the attached screenshot:

run-as: Could not set capabilities: Operation not permitted

Based on the contents of the attached screenshot above, I tried 'initializing' / factory resetting the device using Samsung's Smart Switch and it actually fixed the 'run-as' issue I was having.

This is the only solution which worked and didn't involve rooting the device, so I believe it must be publicly available. Of course people attempting this should keep in mind that factory reset means that data will be lost, unless it's backed up. The same Samsung software helps with backing up your data.