(Solved) Computer Doesn’t Recognize Android Phone When Plugged In – Solution

Computer Doesn’t Recognize Android Phone When Plugged In – Solution

Introduction

A lot of tasks are accomplished by connecting the PC to the Android smartphone through a USB port. These are data transfer, phone swap, file recovery or data backup. However, sometimes we face issues in connecting PC to the Android device via a USB storage device. You can find that your Android phone connects and disconnects repetitively to your PC. This causes a lot of trouble in performing the task. We have discussed a few easy solutions that will help in fixing the issue.

Check USB computer connection settings

To transfer files from the computer, it is required that you connect the Android phone as a “media device”. Follow the below steps:

• On the Android phone, open Settings-> Storage-> USB connection.
• You will see a list of options. Select “Media device”.
• Now try to connect the Android device to the computer. It should recognize your Android device as a media device.

Install MTP USB Device driver

If the above problem doesn’t resolve, then there could be some problem with the device driver. You need to update your drivers. Perform these steps:

• Press “Windows Key + X” and select device manager from this menu.
• Find the location of the Android Phone device. Right-click on the device and then select to update the driver software.
• Click “Browse my PC for driver software”
• Click on the option “Let me choose from the list of device drivers present on my PC”
• From the list, select MTP USB Device. Click Next.
• Once the driver gets successfully installed, your Android phone should be identified.

Use a different type of USB cable

There can be two reasons to replace your USB wire to solve the issue. The first one is that the USB wire has got worn out or damaged and has failed to function. The second reason is that your USB wire is only meant to be used for charging the connected device and not suitable for carrying out functions like data transfer etc. The best solution would be to use a new USB wire to prevent any connectivity problems.

Uninstall Android drivers

Sometimes unavailability of the latest version of drivers, or improper installation of drivers can be the reason behind the inability to recognize your Android phone by the PC. To fix this problem, you should uninstall your existing Android drivers.

• Connect your Android phone to the PC and open Device Manager.
• Now find your Android phone. Mostly, it is seen in “Other Devices” or in “Portable devices” section. It can have other location on the PC as well.
• Right-click your device and select Uninstall.
• Once the drivers are uninstalled, you must disconnect the Android device.
• Reconnect them again. Now, wait for the operating system to install the drivers again.
• Check if your Android phone is now recognized.

Connect Android phone as a “USB Mass Storage device”

Follow the below steps to connect the Android device as a USB Mass Storage device:

• Go to the settings menu on your Android phone -> More Settings.
• Select USB utilities. Tap on the option “Connect Storage to the computer”.
• Unplug and plug your phone to install required drivers. You may even need to switch off USB debugging.
• Once all the steps are completed, check whether your Android device is now identified by your computer.

Enable USB debugging

A few users can fix this problem by enabling USB debugging. Let us understand the procedure to enable USB debugging on the Android phone:

• Go to Settings on the phone.
• Click on Developer Options. A dialog box will appear. Click on “Ok”.
• Enable Developer Options. Check USB debugging. A dialog box will appear. Click on “Ok”.

If you use Android 4.2 version or higher, then you not able to see USB Debugging option on your device. Follow these steps to enable USB Debugging:

• Go to Settings. Click on About phone.
• Scroll to “Build Number”. Click it seven times.
• Once you do this, USB Debugging will enable and hopefully, your Android phone will also get recognized.

Switch on Airplane mode

If all the troubleshooting methods fail, then the last option is to switch on Airplane mode. Many users have reported that when they switch on the Airplane mode, their Android phone gets recognized by the computer. This helps them transfer files and execute other operations easily. Once you do these operations, disable the Airplane mode and resume the normal mode.

Conclusion

You need to do some troubleshooting to find why your Android phone is failing to recognize your computer. Hope the above solutions help in fixing the problem and establishing a stable connection between both the devices. However, if you find that you are unable to solve the problem even after performing these tasks, then you need to reach out to an authorized service repair professionals.