Everyone faces this problem at least once: you connect your smartphone or tablet to your computer via a USB cable, but nothing happens other than charging. The computer does not see the phone or identifies it as an unknown device. The situation is common, but ambiguous, and there are quite a few reasons why it occurs. Today we will figure out what causes such problems and how to deal with them.
Software and hardware failures lead to a situation where the PC does not recognize the mobile device connected to it:
- Lack of device driver in the PC operating system.
- The driver does not match the device model.
- Absence from the system USB drivers or a malfunction in its operation.
- Connection with a cable that is not suitable for data transmission or is damaged.
- Malfunction of the USB socket (both on the computer and on the phone), group of sockets or USB controller on the PC.
- Malfunction of any of the computer equipment, blocking static electricity.
- Error in phone system settings.
- Blocking access to the phone using security programs running on a PC (including if the gadget is infected with a virus).
- The application used to synchronize your phone and PC (if you are using) has crashed.
In case of software problems, the computer, as a rule, does not display the contents of the phone’s memory, but the device charges normally when connected to it. If the problem is due to a physical malfunction, charging most often does not work either, but there are exceptions when only the data lines do not work.
Draw a circle possible reasons It helps to analyze the previous situation - what happened before the problem arose. For example:
- You have reinstalled the operating system on your computer or removed some of the drivers (the reason is the lack of the required driver).
- The phone (tablet) was no longer detected after flashing the firmware, cleaning it from viruses, deleting applications, optimizing and other manipulations with the OS (the operating system of the mobile device malfunctioned).
- The device has been subjected to mechanical damage (the USB socket is damaged) or has been repaired (after replacing parts, a driver of a different version is needed or the fault has not been completely eliminated).
- You are using a USB cable that you have never used to connect your phone to a computer before (the cable is only for charging or is damaged), etc.
We quickly determine the culprit of the problem
Tracing a cause-and-effect relationship makes it much easier to localize the problem, but in about half of the cases there is nothing specific that precedes it. If this is the case for you, the following steps will help you determine where the failure occurred - in your mobile device, PC or USB cable.
- Move the cable in the area of the connectors (kinks most often form in these places) and see if the phone (tablet) is detected in the explorer or device manager of the computer. Or connect the devices with another cable that is known to work and is suitable for data transmission.
- Connect your phone to another computer, as well as another mobile device to this PC. If the phone is not detected anywhere, the problem is definitely in it. The same is the case with a computer.
- If the problem seems to be in the computer, check the phone in all USB sockets; perhaps the problem is in one or more of them (for example, only in the front group).
If you conclude that the cable is the source of the problem, simply replace it. What to do in other cases, read on.
The culprit of the failure is the phone. What to do?
If the diagnostics clearly indicate a problem with your mobile device, perform the following steps in order. After each step, check to see if the problem is resolved. If not, move on to the next one.
- Reboot your device.
- Connect your phone to your computer. After connecting, slide down the menu bar quick settings and make sure that the "Connect as" list does not have "charge only" or "camera" or "media device" checked. Select the "USB storage" option.
- Open system Android settings(in older versions - “Options”). Go to the section " Wireless network" Turn on modem mode. Or vice versa, if it is on, turn it off. In some editions of Android, this parameter controls not only the modem, but also the connection of the gadget to the PC as a drive.
- Experiment with putting your device into USB debugging mode. Open the “System” and “For Developers” sections in the settings. Uncheck or check the box next to “USB Debugging”.
- Disconnect the phone from the computer, turn it off and remove the battery from it (the phone) (of course, if it is removable). After 5 minutes, replace the battery, turn on the device and try connecting again.
- Remove applications that failed after installation. If the connection doesn't work in a particular sync app, clear its cache. If it doesn’t help, reinstall (both on your mobile device and on your PC) or try using an analogue.
- Scan your device with an antivirus.
- Reset the device's operating system to factory settings.
The culprit of the failure is the computer. What to do?
- Shut down the OS, turn off the PC from the outlet (or press the key on the power supply) and hold it pressed for 15-20 seconds power button. This will discharge the capacitors and remove stray static charge, which may block detection of the connected device.
- If your phone is not recognized by only one group of USB ports, open the cover system unit and make sure that their connections are secure. By the way, normal charging mobile device through the port does not yet indicate the serviceability of the second one.
- Boot the operating system. Open Device Manager and check if portable devices are listed in the equipment list, and your phone is among them. If it is present, but marked with a black arrow in a circle (disabled), right-click on the line and select the “Enable device” command from the menu.
- If there are unknown devices in the equipment list (marked with an exclamation mark in yellow triangle), perhaps one of them is a telephone. To make sure it is him, disconnect your mobile device from USB. If the unknown device disappears from the list, then that’s it. And the reason for the failure is the lack of the required driver in the system. We will tell you below how to reinstall and where to download the driver for your phone.
- The problem with recognizing connected devices may also be due to boot failure, damaged or missing USB drivers. In this case, the exclamation marks will be in the “USB Controllers” section.
- Reinstalling drivers didn't help? Scan your computer disks with an antivirus and then temporarily disable security programs. By the way, the latter can block access to a mobile device as a storage medium if it contains suspicious or clearly malicious software. So it’s worth checking your phone for viruses too.
- Uninstall the programs whose installation caused the problem, or perform a system restore to a checkpoint created on a day before the problem occurred.
- If, in addition to the phone, the computer does not recognize other devices connected via USB - a mouse, keyboard, printer, flash drives, etc. (whether they are charged or not is not indicative), the source of the failure may be any faulty component of the system unit or something then from the periphery. You can determine the culprit at home by turning off the equipment one by one or replacing it with a known good one.
How to Reinstall Mobile Device Driver and USB on Windows Computer
iPhone
- Connect iPhone to PC.
- Open the folder %CommonProgramW6432%\Apple\Mobile Device Support\Drivers (to avoid typing the command manually, copy it from here, paste it into the address bar of any folder and click the go button). It contains 2 files (out of four) with the .inf extension - usbaapl.inf and usbaapl64.inf.
- Open the context menu of each of these files and run the “Install” command.
- After installation, restart your computer.
Android
Smartphones and tablets for Android, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Meizu, HTC, etc., as a rule, do not create separate folders for storing their drivers, and they are often not found on official websites so you can just download and reinstall. Therefore, to begin with, you should trust the reinstallation of the drivers already present in the system by Windows itself.
How to do it:
- Open the context menu of the problematic device in Device Manager. Select the "Update Driver" option.
- In the next window, first select automatic search updates. If Windows does not find anything suitable, check the second item - installing and searching for drivers manually.
- Next, click “Select from the list available on your computer.” A new window will display all mobile device drivers that are already installed on the PC.
- To narrow your search, in the “Select a driver for this device” section, check “Compatible only.” Check the one that best suits your request (if there is more than one item in the list) and click “Next” to proceed to the installation.
For the driver to work correctly, restart your computer.
If reinstalling the driver already installed in the system did not help, you will have to look for something else on the Internet (with the risk of downloading a virus instead of the one you are looking for), so download them only from reliable and trusted sites, like w3bsit3-dns.com, and check with an antivirus before installation.
Drivers for the most common models of mobile gadgets are also collected in the “USB Drivers for Android” application, which is available for free download on Google Play.
USB drivers for Windows can usually be easily found on the websites of laptop or desktop PC motherboard manufacturers. Sometimes they are included in the chipset driver.
If the phone is not recognized in firmware mode
The fact that the computer and phone do not see each other in fastboot mode is indicated by the message “ Waiting for device", which appears in the firmware program. Most often, this error occurs due to the lack of a mobile device driver in the system, so first of all, do what is written above - reinstall the driver or download and install it again.
If it doesn't help:
- Make sure that you follow the instructions for working with the firmware installation program exactly and that it is running as an administrator.
- Check if USB debugging is enabled on your smartphone (if not, enable it), and the device itself is in bootloader mode. If this mode is blocked, find instructions online for unlocking the bootloader specifically for your device model.
- Connect the phone to the rear USB socket as short as possible and with a known good cable, without using any adapters or hubs.
- Your phone may not support USB 3 (blue socket), so only connect it to USB 2.0 (black sockets).
- Install all released Windows updates on your computer.
If the problem persists even after doing this, try flashing the phone on another PC. And better - with a different version of the operating system.
When the problem is a broken physical interface
It is advisable not to use faulty physical interfaces, especially on a mobile gadget, at all (do not load them with current to avoid worsening the breakdown), even if the phone or tablet retains the ability to charge through them. You can organize content transfer either by wireless communication(Wi-Fi, bluetooth), or through cloud services that are available on both devices. In particular, iTunes and iCloud for Apple technology, Google Drive, Yandex Disk, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive and many others - for everyone.
Cloud services Convenient to use for transferring photos, videos, music, documents and other types of files. There are enough options to synchronize contacts on Android and PC Gmail. And to control your phone directly from your computer, you can install an application like MyPhoneExplorer (consists of 2 parts - for the phone and for the PC), which supports both wired and wireless connections of devices without requiring driver installation. Very comfortably.
In short, there is always a way out and it is often much simpler than it seems at first glance.
You bought a brand new smartphone and, say, you want to download your playlists from your computer to it. Or your phone is already a year old and only now you decided to connect it to your computer. But that was not the case: the computer simply does not see the phone connected via a USB cable.
There may be several reasons why this happens. Let's deal with everything in order.
The first thing you need to pay attention to is the cable with which you connect the phone to the computer. If you purchased an inexpensive cable for this, it may easily not meet the necessary resistance or material requirements. In this case, it is better to use the standard cables that come with the phone.
The second thing to check is Computer USB port, to which the phone is connected. Connect the phone to any other port on the computer; if everything is fine, then the port itself is faulty. The reason for this may or may not be installed drivers, or the USB port is simply not connected to the motherboard.
Now try restart your computer and phone. It happens that after a banal reboot, the devices begin to “see” each other. When the phone is turned off, remove it from battery, wait a couple of minutes and insert it back - this may also help.
If you have an operating system installed Windows system XP and you connect to Android computer device, then install Media Transfer Protocol on your computer. It can be downloaded from the official Microsoft website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=19153.
For some phone models, when connecting to a computer, you can select USB connection option. Place a marker next to the item "Media device (MTP)". If you don’t see such a menu, then go to “Settings” – “Network” and enable one of the parameters: or "Media device (MTP)", or "USB drive".
Another reason why the computer does not see the phone via USB may be installed drivers. First, disconnect your phone from your computer. Then go to “Start” - "Control Panel" – "Device Manager".
Here we click on the transparent arrow opposite the item "USB Controllers" to open the list. Now connect your phone using a cable to your computer. Device Manager should refresh and the new device will appear in the list. For comparison, I posted two photos. After connecting, on the second, it appeared.
Everything is fine with my drivers. If you have a yellow exclamation point or a red cross next to this item, as shown in the figure below, this means that the drivers require updating or are not installed at all.
To fix this, right-click on the item "USB Mass Storage Device" and choose from context menu"Properties" .
Then you can find drivers by device instance code. How to do this is described in the article. If you have the Windows 7 operating system installed, from the drop-down list instead of "Device Instance Code" look for "Equipment ID".
Another problem why the computer does not see the phone can be viruses. Check devices using antivirus program, if it finds something, delete the malicious files. Then restart your computer.
I hope one of the tips will help you and a similar problem will not arise in the future.
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The problem that arises for many users of smartphones with completely different operating systems.
In this article, we will, if possible, reveal all the possible and most common causes of this problem, and also help give the necessary advice on how to eliminate them.
Why does the computer not see the phone via USB, but is charging?
Having connected your smartphone to your PC, you expect that a notification window should pop up in front of you, requesting or already confirming the connection of the smartphone to the computer.
If nothing of the kind is observed, but only automatic battery charging has turned on, then you need to proceed as follows:
- The system unit of a PC or laptop can have from 3 to 10 USB connectors. Some of them are designed for mice, keyboards, modems, flash memory cards and other devices. Quite often, USB connectors on the front panels do not support mobile devices. Try plugging the cord into another USB input, preferably black (USB0), since it is intended for working with gadgets.
- If you have other universal cords at home, then try using them. It is quite possible that the reason lies in the problematic USB cable.
- The problem may be related to the mobile device socket itself. If it is too loose or moisture gets in, malfunctions may occur. Try charging your phone through a wall outlet. If the charge goes on, then the problem is not in the socket.
- Just in case, connect your smartphone to another PC. Perhaps due to the recent reinstalling Windows, the settings have gone wrong, or some drivers have not been installed. It's unlikely, but it happens one in a million.
Ask yourself, do flash drives connect to your computer? If not, then check its settings manually. To do this, go to Control Panel => Troubleshooting => Setting up devices. This is automatic troubleshooting.
If this method did not help, then try disabling the power saving mode in Generic USB Hub.
Be sure to check your gadget's default settings. If the charging only mode is selected, then it is natural that the computer does not see the phone via USB.
You can tick absolutely all the points, except MIDI, because practically no one uses it anymore.
Why doesn't the computer see the Android phone via USB and charge?
If a problem arises, it is worth analyzing whether your computer always detected the phone, or did it just happen now? Has the phone stopped being visible via USB on its own, or after certain manipulations?
Every day more and more new smartphones are released, which have upgraded software. If you are the owner of an old PC by today's standards, then most likely the phone is not visible due to the lack of certain plugins. Try installing the MTP protocol – Media Transfer Pritocol.
The new generation of Samsung, starting with the model Samsung Galaxy S3 may require installation of this program. If, on the contrary, your PC is more modern, and your phone is not the latest model, it is most likely worth updating the Android version.
Now consider the situation when the computer does not see smartphones Windows phone 8.1 and new Windows phone 10. Remember that Android and Windows phone smartphones that have a graphical or digital lock key must be unlocked when connected to a PC, only then will you have access to all folders.
When connecting to a PC, check whether a notification appears or the USB icon is displayed. If no signs are visible on the smartphone screen, open the connection settings, it will describe in detail what type of device your smartphone is connected to (as a camera, as a memory card, or as a full-fledged gadget).
Windows phones have many, many connection modes, so it's always worth checking which one is selected before you panic. The best option is the MTP mode, which allows you to exchange all files.
Also the computer does not see Android phone via USB, but is charged in cases where the drivers on the computer are outdated, or they do not fit the model of your phone. This problem is common on new phones whose trade marks relatively recently appeared on the market.
If you scour the Internet, you can see that owners of the brand new Xiomi Redmi note3 often encounter similar situations.
In such cases, you should proceed as follows:
People experience great inconvenience when connecting their smartphones to a PC. Iphone owners. operating room iOS system quite complex and specific. If it so happens that when you connect your iPhone or iPad to your PC, the device is not displayed, then you should try the following methods:
- Try to force reboot the system. Moreover, by doing this, not by turning the phone off and on again, but by simultaneously pressing the “Home” button and the lock button. If your PC and smartphone are working properly, this should work.
- One common problem is the USB cable itself. It often happens that you have to use a non-original lace. If you purchased a cheap, low-quality cable, then that's the problem, it simply does not display the external device and is only able to charge the battery.
- Your computer may not have been updated for a long time. iTunes version. Remove existing program and install a new one from the official website.
- Many people think that it's all about the firmware, but this is not so. Don't write off updating iOS version. If your phone doesn’t glitch or throw you out of programs, then try resetting your geolocation in the settings. This should help.
- A firmware update may only be necessary if it is broken. The world-famous Cidia application, which makes it possible to install paid content for free, is often the reason for the incompatibility of a smartphone with a PC. At first, this is reflected by the inability to import certain files, and soon the PC stops seeing the phone. By updating the firmware, you will remove this application and everything should work again.
Note! If for some reason you cannot use standard data exchange using USB, do not be upset, because you can exchange between devices in other ways:
- Synchronization using virtual storage.
- Wireless exchange programs – AirDroid.
Alexander Grishin
As a rule, if the computer does not see the Android phone connected to it, then the problem looks like this: the charging process is displayed on the smartphone screen, but there is no access to the files located on it and to the device itself. In this article you will find out why the computer does not see samsung phone via USB.
The reasons may be the following:
Damage to the USB cable
A cable malfunction may not always be immediately visible. Very often, the charging wire can fail without obvious external signs. The reason for this is the low-quality devices that the market is teeming with.
To check the functionality of the USB cable, just connect it to another computer, and for greater reliability, to another phone. If these actions do not produce results, then the wire needs to be replaced.
Damage to the computer USB port
It is impossible to repair the port without the help of a specialist, but you can check it simply. If the computer does not recognize the smartphone, then you need to connect through another USB port. If it helps, it means the cause has been found, if not, let’s move on.
System problems in the phone
Sometimes the problem of lack of connection can be solved very simply: by turning off the smartphone, removing the battery from it for a few seconds, returning it to its place and turning on the device. Simple and effective.
Phone jack failure
If the phone has been damaged by water, or its connector has been mechanically damaged, then this may be the problem. Alas, if cleaning the socket does not give any results, then only replacing the damaged part will help.
Incorrect connection settings
In the device settings, you need to find the menu for USB connection to a computer. In many Samsung models, it is located at “Memory” > “Properties”. If by default the checkbox is next to using USB as a modem, uncheck it, find the “Media device” item and activate it.
Driver problems
They are solved by installing drivers from the “native” disk, or downloading them from the manufacturer’s official website.
Also, the problem may be that power is turned off on some ports on the computer. You can check this by going to the “Control Panel”, finding the item “Hardware and Sound”> “Power Options”> “Power”. Next, open the appropriate settings and click on change additional parameters. In the menu that opens, open the USB options, and then the options for temporarily disabling the USB port. Change its value to “Prohibited” and activate it with the “Apply” button.
Problems with device drivers
In “Device Manager”, select “ Portable devices” should be without any warning signs. You should also check the functionality of the device through “Properties”. If it is not there, then you need to reinstall the corresponding driver.
Another solution would be to update your smartphone drivers. On the Samsung Galaxy A5, as well as on other models of the brand, this can be done using the Samsung Kies software.
Android OS malfunction or viruses
In this case, cleaning the phone with an antivirus, resetting the settings to factory settings, or completely reflashing it can help.
As you can see, there can be a lot of options for why the connected Samsung phone is not located on the computer, so to find a solution you need to be patient. We hope everything works out for you!
Many users, when trying to connect their phone to a computer using a USB cable, are faced with the fact that the computer does not recognize the connected gadget. The connected device is charging, but there is no access to the smartphone itself and its internal contents. I also encountered this synchronization problem, and in this material I will tell you why the computer does not see the phone via USB, and I will also share various methods for solving this issue.
I would divide the whole complex of reasons for the problem that the PC does not see the smartphone via a USB cable into hardware and software, and below I will list each of them, simultaneously providing instructions for correcting it. But before using the methods I indicated, try restarting your computer and smartphone - this does not help as rarely as it seems. This problem mainly occurs with devices Samsung, Lenovo, HTC, LG and Fly.
So why doesn’t the computer see the phone via USB, but charges - hardware reasons
1. The cable is damagedUSB. It often happens that the cause of this dysfunction is damage to the USB cable itself. Cables from little-known or “non-name” manufacturers do not have a large margin of safety, and can fail within just a couple of months from the start of operation, and as a result, the computer will not recognize the connected phone.
In addition, even the most reliable cables from global brands are subject to stochastic damage - they can be accidentally damaged during use, chewed by pets or spoiled by children. Therefore, first of all, inspect your USB cable for the possibility of mechanical damage, and, if the cable is externally intact, try using it to connect your device to another computer. If the device is not recognized on another PC, try replacing the cord.
2. The port is damagedUSBon the computer. USB ports used on a computer are also susceptible to various mechanical damage, including damage to the USB controller, as well as south bridge motherboard. Try inserting the cable into another USB connector, if this did not help fix the connection of the phone to the PC, follow further advice.
3. The cable socket on the phone is damaged. Has water entered the smartphone socket or is it damaged? If yes, then it needs to be replaced.
4. Try to remove the battery. According to reviews from some users who also had a problem with the computer not seeing the phone through U-ES-BI, removing the battery from the smartphone helped.
Turn off the battery, remove the battery from it for a few seconds, then put it back, and turn your device back on.
If nothing helps you fix it this problem, then describe your situation. What have you already done and what is happening to your Android device at USB connection gadget for PC in the comments, I will try to help not only me, but also everyone who has encountered this problem.
The computer does not see the phone via USB - software reasons
After describing the hardware reasons, we list the main ones software reasons, if your computer still does not recognize cellular telephone, connected with via USB cable, follow the instructions below.
1. Working with the settings.We go to the settings of our device, select “Memory” there, click on the three dots at the top (Properties), select “USB connection to a computer” and check the box next to “Media device” (“ USB drive"). If you have a checkmark next to using USB as a modem, uncheck it.
Must be enabled on PC Windows service Update (for downloading phone drivers) and new device detection service. Don't forget to unlock your phone when connecting to your computer, this is important.
If you are a conservative and have Windows XP, download the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) for XP from the Microsoft website and install it on your computer.
2. If your drivers are lostUSB-ports, the computer may not see the phone.If drivers for USB ports malfunction, the latter simply stop working. To fix this problem, install USB drivers from the “native” driver disk for your PC’s motherboard, or download the latest drivers from the motherboard manufacturer’s website.
Also, due to some reason, power may be turned off for a number of ports.
3. Device drivers have crashed. Go to Device Manager and see if there is a question or exclamation point in the "Portable Devices" section.
Check if your device is there and make sure it is working properly by right-clicking on it and clicking “Properties”. If it is not there, or you have doubts, remove the driver, disconnect the phone from the computer, and then turn it on again, and let the system install the driver again. This may help solve the problem that the smartphone does not connect via USB to the computer.
It also wouldn’t hurt to go to your smartphone manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers for it to your PC (for example, there is special Samsung Kies software for Samsung).
4. Install the updateK.B.3010081 (K.B.3099229). For Windows 10 owners, you may need to install update KB3010081, which is responsible for working with Windows Media Player. This player is directly related to the normal operation of the MTP service (Media Transfer Protocol), so download and install the update data.
Also, a common cause may be an unreliable build of the OS itself on the PC. The only thing that will help here is to reinstall Windows to a more working version.
5. Custom firmware is not working. The desire of many fans to play with the firmware for their Android device can do them a disservice in the form of the device’s failure to work normally with the computer. Try to restore standard firmware or restore from backup (if available).
There are no drivers for the phone on the computer
Although, usually, a computer with the latest OS detects and sees a smartphone via USB without problems, the opposite cases may also occur. Try looking for a driver for your smartphone on the Internet; sometimes a driver for similar models of the same brand may be suitable.
The phone may not be detected by the computer due to viruses
It’s trite, but all kinds of virus programs can block work with external mobile devices. Try checking your computer with Dr. antivirus applications. Web CureIt!, in some cases this may help.
If the problem of the computer detecting a mobile device is not resolved, reset the settings
If still, your computer does not see the phone via USB, resetting the smartphone settings using Hard Reset. Go to your phone's settings, select the menu item " Backup", and in it select "Data reset".
But I warn you right away that you will lose your files and settings that are in internal memory phone (the files on the SD card will remain untouched), so this item should be used only as a last resort!
Conclusion
As you can see, problems with the lack of visibility of a connected phone on a PC can be both software and hardware in nature, and there are a considerable number of such problematic factors. I would advise you to first pay attention to the probable mechanical damage in the cable and device, and only then switch to software methods.
In many cases, simply rebooting the smartphone (temporarily removing the battery), as well as working with the phone’s USB connection settings, can help. If all of the above does not help and the computer does not see the phone via USB, but is charging, then you may need to contact a qualified service center.
P.S. For those who like visual demonstrations, I present a video on the issue:
