The computer doesn't see the phone. Reasons and solutions when the phone is not detected in a computer or laptop

If a problem occurs in which the computer does not see the Android phone, you should figure out what caused it.

We have collected all the ways to solve this problem.

The computer does not see via USB

If at one moment you find , that the computer does not see the Android phone via USB, you should remember what manipulations were carried out before the malfunction.

Maybe everything is not so complicated and you won’t have to take any drastic actions.

If you don't remember anything unusual, you should look into the problem.

First you need to check:

• is everything in order in the operation of the telephone itself;
• Is the computer functioning normally?
• Is the USB cable damaged?

If no faults are found, there is a problem with the operation of the program.

Check the cable for damage.

Is there any mechanical damage on it, do the connections look good? Maybe the cause is a clogged nest and after cleaning it, work will resume.

If such manipulations did not help, you should find a similar cord and use it to make sure that the problem has been found.

Restart your PC

If the computer for a long time without a reboot, everyone knows that the quality of its work decreases.

This means that the first thing to do if any problems are detected is to reboot the device.

It happens that USB on it does not work correctly over time.

At the same time, restart your mobile phone. If the question arises why the computer does not see the Android phone, pay attention also to mobile device.

Maybe it's malfunctioning. Just for ten minutes, disconnect the battery from the smartphone itself and turn it on again. This might help.

Broken connector on mobile

If this does not solve the problem, you need to look further. Check the connector in the mobile device itself. Remove dirt and dust from there.

Wipe gently with alcohol or cologne. Check with another cord or flash drive or modem, a device that is definitely working.

Drivers

Maybe the PC simply does not have the necessary drivers that ensure its connection to the phone.

This often occurs when connecting a new mobile device. In this case, the computer will not see the smartphone at all, or will display system message about the error.

To check, you need to go to "Device Manager" which is in the menu "Start". Also, it has an icon on the toolbar.

If the icon is missing or there is a yellow exclamation mark on it, the drivers have problems.

This means you need to download the file from the Internet, install it and, after rebooting, try connecting the devices to each other again.

There is an option that the drivers are present, but they are an old version. Then you should do the following:

1 You need to go to "Device Manager" and find the tab in it "Usb controllers".

All existing controllers are located here.

Among other things, you need to find the name of your mobile phone. It is often signed in the same way as the modification of the device itself or the name of the operating system.

2 Now you need to understand whether the device is active. Right-click on the icon and in the window that opens, find the item "Properties".

4 Now you can update drivers, in an automatic way, or manually.

5 If the update will be carried out independently, it is necessary that the file with the program be recorded on the same computer.

6 When auto-updating, an Internet connection is sufficient. It happens through "Task Manager". You need to right-click on the name of the smartphone and go to the item "Updates", in the window that opens.

7 After specifying the method by which the actions will be performed, the problem will be resolved.

It is advisable to choose automatic change parameters, then you will not need any further action. There is less risk of doing something wrong.

Viruses

Another possible reason that the computer does not see files on the Android phone may be the presence of viruses on the PC.

Wouldn't hurt to install antivirus program and run the scan. Clean the device from unnecessary garbage and reboot.

Then try pairing with your mobile phone.

If all the manipulations carried out do not produce results, contact your smartphone service center. You will probably need professional help.

Device Compatibility

There are also cases when everything seems to be installed and everything is working correctly, but the PC cannot detect the phone.

This malfunction occurs due to interruptions in the computer processor.

The solution to this problem is very simple. You need to restart both devices. Close unnecessary processes and delete cache on your phone.

.

• Viruses that are not in desktop computer, and in yours telephone . This is a common thing, but if they are present, the computer will not see the smartphone. You should know that virus programs, which can be caught on the phone, come in several types. To determine which one you have, install special program and run the scan. Based on its outcome, delete it malicious file. Reboot the device and check the connection again.

If the connection is successful, it is worth running a virus scan again, but using the antivirus that is installed on the computer.

It will scan much more thoroughly and, accordingly, help identify more garbage.

• Phone memory is full. With this option, difficulties will certainly arise when connecting to a PC. Clean your phone and restart it. You can also change the memory card or format the existing one.

Be sure to disconnect it from your PC, run necessary actions and then reconnect. If this was the problem, it will be solved.

• You need to turn off modem mode. Not all, but some of the modifications of smartphones require you to deactivate the modem mode before working with a PC.

It is possible to perform such actions using configurations that are responsible for converting a computer and a phone.

• Storage mode deactivated. When connecting to a computer via USB, in the window that opens on Android, you should enable the configuration that is responsible for operating the phone in removable disk mode. With this option, the PC detects your phone, but does not display information on the screen. To solve the problem, you need to go to the toolbar on your mobile phone. Open the tab responsible for pairing with third party devices, then point « Using USB» and activate the section responsible for file transfer. After some short time, a window will pop up on the PC with the folders located on the smartphone.

Modern smartphones no longer require a connection to a PC. In the first half of the 2000s, it was possible to install something new on a communicator or smartphone only using a PC. And in those days, a computer was also required for serious settings of a mobile device. Now you can connect Android to your computer without much difficulty, but this action has become required extremely rarely. Still, we will tell you how to connect your phone to a PC.

There is one wire and ground wireless methods connections. The first one is the easiest, but there are a lot of problems with it. Sometimes the computer does not see the device, which causes natural hysterics in the user. In this material we will try to help in just such a case.

If you have connected your smartphone to your computer using a wire, but the desktop operating system does not react to this in any way, then you need to take a few simple steps:

• Replace the USB cable. The fact is that some wires serve only to transmit energy - work with information flow they simply are not capable. This is especially true for cables purchased from Chinese online stores.
• Try plugging the wire into a different USB port. It has been noted that high-speed USB 3.0 connectors sometimes do not recognize some devices connected to them. Therefore, try connecting the device to an old USB 2.0 port.
• Try connecting the gadget to another computer. It is advisable that it work using a different version of the operating system. If such a problem is observed there, then something happened to your microUSB connector or some other components. Unfortunately, we cannot help in this matter - you will need to have your smartphone repaired.

Other wired connection problems

Not everyone suspects this, but an unlocked device cannot be synchronized with a PC. If you decide to connect Android to your computer via USB, then first enter the code, draw a pattern or provide your fingerprint. Of course, this does not apply to those devices that do not have a secure lock.

Connecting via USB to a computer running Windows XP also causes certain problems. At the time of her popularity, no touchscreen smartphones did not exist, and therefore the corresponding drivers are not built into it by default. You can correct the situation by downloading the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP)

On any other computer you may also need to install a driver. It is usually installed automatically the first time you connect via USB. But there are exceptions when something interferes with the system. If this is the case for you, then go to “ device Manager" In the list you will see your device, currently unnamed, marked with a yellow exclamation mark. Right-click on it and select " Update" Next, follow the advice in the pop-up menu. So you can produce automatic search drivers in the appropriate Microsoft database or install the driver stored on the PC (then you first need to download it from the manufacturer’s official website).

It may also make it difficult to connect to a computer. activated mode « USB modem" Disabled along the way " Settings» - « Wireless networks » - « More» - « Modem mode».

It should be noted that smartphones have several modes wired connection to PC. It is possible that you accidentally selected one that is not supported by your computer. You can change the mode by clicking on the corresponding notification (it is always displayed when the device is connected to the PC). You need to enable MTP (Media Device) mode.

Finally, enabling USB debugging can help in some cases. To do this, do the following:

Step 1. Open the section " Settings" and find the item " For developers».

Step 2. In this subsection, activate the checkbox of the item “ USB Debugging».

Connecting to a computer via Wi-Fi

There are several ways to connect Android to a PC without using a cable. The easiest way to use for these purposes is Wi-Fi technology. Of course, your apartment should have a router, because the connection will be made with its help.

Theoretically, you can synchronize using built-in tools, but this path is too long and complicated. Therefore we recommend that you use Airdroid or some other similar application. Let's use his example to figure out how to connect to a PC over the air:

1. Install and launch Airdroid.

2. When you first start, you can register an account or press the inconspicuous button “ Login later».

3. Next, the program will offer to transfer all incoming notifications to the computer. Click the button Accept" In some cases, you will be additionally transferred to the corresponding section of the settings, where you need to check the box next to the Airdroid notification mirroring service.

4. Next, you can transfer files to your computer, record the screen, take screenshots and perform other actions. On a PC, to do this, you need to open a browser and go to the address displayed in top line applications.

5. If you register an account, you can sync by going to a simpler URL: web.airdroid.com.

6. If you want to end the connection, go to the application and click on the " Disconnect" You can also click on the " Log out", then confirming his actions.

Everyone faces this problem at least once: you connect a smartphone or tablet to a computer via USB cable, but nothing happens other than charging. The computer does not see the phone or detects it as 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:

• Absence in operating system PC device driver.
• The driver does not match the device model.
• There is no USB driver in the system or it is malfunctioning.
• 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.
• Failure of any of the computer equipment, blocking by static electricity.
• Error in phone system settings.
• Blocking access to the phone using security programs running on a PC (including when viral infection gadget).
• The application used to synchronize your phone and PC (if you are using) has crashed.

In case 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 occurs due to 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 (operating system malfunction mobile device).
• 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 transfer.
• 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 is likely 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 settings Android (in older versions - “Settings”). Go to the "Wireless Networks" section. 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 does not work in specific application To synchronize, 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 of a mobile device through the port does not mean that the second one is working properly.
• 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 hardware list (indicated by an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle), one of them may be the phone. 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 exclamation marks will be in the “USB Controllers” section.
• Reinstalling drivers didn't help? Scan your computer drives with an antivirus and then temporarily disable it protective programs. By the way, the latter can block access to a mobile device as a carrier if it contains a suspicious or clearly malicious software. So it’s worth checking your phone for viruses too.

• Uninstall the programs that caused the problem after installing them, or perform a system restore to control point, created on a day when there was no problem yet.
• 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 address bar any folder and click the go button). It contains 2 files (out of four) with the .inf extension - usbaapl.inf and usbaapl64.inf.

• Open context menu each of these files and execute the “Install” command.
• After installation, restart your computer.

Android

Android smartphones and tablets, 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 for 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 the “Compatible Only” box. 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 found on the websites of laptop manufacturers or motherboards desktop PCs. 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 fastboot mode, indicates the “Waiting for device” message that 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 with the shortest and known-good cable to the rear USB socket without using any adapters or hubs.
• Your phone may not support USB standard 3 (blue jack), so only connect it to USB 2.0 (black jacks).
• 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

Faulty physical interfaces, especially on mobile gadget, it is advisable not to use it at all (do not load it with current to avoid aggravating 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 via cloud services, which 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 are 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 on them (consists of 2 parts - for the phone and for the PC), which supports both wired and wireless connection devices without requiring driver installation. Very convenient.

In short, there is always a way out and it is often much simpler than it seems at first glance.

If you are faced with the fact that the phone does not connect via USB, that is, the computer does not see it, in this guide you will find all the options known to the author for the reasons for what is happening, as well as ways to fix the problem.

The steps below apply to Android phones, which are the most common among us. However, they can be used to the same extent for Android tablets, and individual points can help you understand devices on other OSes.

Why is my Android phone not visible via USB?

I think it’s worth starting by answering the question: did the computer always not see your phone or did everything work fine before? The phone stopped connecting after actions with it, with the computer, or without any actions at all - the answers to these questions will help you quickly figure out what exactly is the matter.

First of all, I would like to note that if you recently purchased a new Android device and it is not seen by a computer running Windows XP (at the same time old phone on Android can easily be connected as a USB flash drive), then you should either update the operating system to one of the currently supported ones, or install the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) protocol for Windows XP. You can download MTP for XP from the official Microsoft website here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=19153. After installation and restarting the computer, your phone or tablet should be detected.

Now let's move on to the situation where the phone is not visible via USB in Windows 7, 8.1 and Windows 10. I will describe the steps for Android 5, but they are similar for Android 4.4.

Note: For devices that are locked with a pattern or password, you need to unlock the phone or tablet connected to the computer in order to see files and folders on it.

Make sure that the phone itself, when connected via USB, reports that it is connected, and not just for charging. You can see this by the USB icon in the notification area, or by opening the notification area in Android, where it should be written what device the phone is connected to.

Typically this is a storage device, but may be a Camera (PTP) or a USB modem. In the latter case, you will not see your phone in Explorer and you should click on the notification about using a USB modem and turn it off (you can also do this in Settings - Wireless networks - More).

If your phone is connected as a camera, then by clicking on the corresponding notification, you can enable MTP mode for file transfer.

On older versions of Android, there are more USB connection modes and the optimal one for most use cases will be USB Mass Storage. You can also switch to this mode by clicking on the message about USB connection in the notification area.

The phone does not connect via USB to the computer, but only charges

If no notifications about connecting via USB to the computer appear, then step by step description possible actions:

1. Try connecting to another USB port. It's better if it's USB 2.0 (those that aren't blue) on the rear panel. On a laptop, accordingly, just USB 2.0, if available.
2. If you have compatible USB cables from other devices in your home, try connecting using them. A problem with the cable may also be the cause of the situation described.
3. Are there any problems with the jack on the phone itself? Did it change and did he fall into the water? This could also be the reason and the solution here is replacement ( alternative options I’ll state it at the end of the article).
4. Check if your phone connects via USB to another computer. If not either, then the problem is in the phone or cable (or you checked it poorly Android settings). If yes, the problem is on your computer. Do flash drives connect to it at all? If not, try going to first Control Panel - Troubleshooting - Device setup(to try to fix the problem automatically). At the same time, you should try disabling power saving in the device manager for Generic USB Hub.

If nothing from the list helps solve the problem, then describe the situation, what was done and how your Android device for USB connection in the comments, I will try to help.

Attention: latest Android versions By default, they are connected via USB to the computer in charging only mode. Check the availability of mode selection in notifications USB operation, if you encounter this (click on the item Charging via USB, select another option).

If your computer does not see your mobile device because it is not connected via USB, there may be several reasons for this, as well as solutions. We will try to name all the reasons and give detailed instructions to fix the problem.
Everything that we describe below is applicable to smartphones on the Android operating system, but can be used for other devices, and even for devices with other software.

Why is my Android phone not visible via USB?

If your old mobile device connected without problems to a PC on the operating Windows system XP, then the problem is in the new smartphone. In this case, you can solve the problem by updating software or by installing a hardware-independent protocol from Microsoft on Win XP. It is this MTP protocol that is responsible for data transfer via USB.

To download the Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit to your computer, visit official page companies: . Installing the protocol will take a little time, and after the process is completed, the PC must be restarted. If this was the problem, the mobile device will be detected on the computer.

If your smartphone/tablet is locked with a password or graphic key, it must be unlocked, otherwise you will not be able to see the contents of the memory from your PC.

If you connect your mobile device via USB, you should see a corresponding message on it. There should also be a USB icon on the Windows OS toolbar.

The phone does not connect via USB to the computer, but only charges

The latest versions of Android OS connect to the PC via USB in battery charging mode by default. To change the mode, use the option to select a different option.

Additional information

• Synchronize via any cloud.
• Use one of best apps, allowing you to easily and quickly connect your computer and Android devices. You can install the Windows version of the program and use all its functions. For example, with this tool you can not only synchronize data, but also have access to contacts, receive messages on the Desktop, view and work with the phone display by controlling it with the mouse. The program is so simple and intuitive that even the most untrained user can quickly master it.
• Create an FTP server on your smartphone.