Windows Doesn’t Recognise Android Phone? 16 Best Fixes

You must have tried connecting your Android Device with your computer or PC for transferring files or other purposes. But sometimes, you might face an issue, i.e., Windows doesn’t recognise Android phone. 

Although there can be various reasons for this issue, the most common ones are an incompatible USB, outdated Android drivers/lack of necessary drivers, incorrect connection mode, and so on. 

But whatever the reason may be, there are suitable fixes you can do to fix this issue quickly. And this is exactly what we’ll discuss going forward. 

So, let’s get started with the matter at hand without any due.

What To Do If Windows doesn’t recognise Android phone? 

The best fixes you can try are if Windows doesn’t recognize your Android phone.  

1. Restart/Reboot Your Android Device
2. Restart Your PC
3. Update Your PC’s Windows Version
4. Connect Your Android Phone Directly To Your Computer
5. Delete Cache And Data For The External Storage And Media Storage App
6. Check The USB Cable
7. Check USB Computer Connection Settings Or Connect Your Phone To The Computer As File Transfer/ MTP
8. Enable USB Debugging On Your Phone
9. Update Your Android Phone’s Drivers
10. Connect Your Android Phone As A USB Mass Storage Device
11. Turn On The Airplane Mode
12. Reboot Your Phone Into ODIN Mode
13. Install KIES software / Use USB 2.0 Ports
14. Reinstall Composite ADB Interface
15. Run Windows Device Troubleshooter
16. Try Another Computer 

Let’s discuss each of these solutions below. 

1. Restart/Reboot Your Android Device

If your Windows doesn’t recognize your Android device, there might be some software glitches causing the corruption error. You need to restart/reboot the phone to eradicate it. 

Follow these steps to restart your Android phone.  

• Press the Power menu for a few seconds.
• Tap on the Restart/Reboot option on the power menu.

2. Restart Your PC

There are multiple ways to restart your PC. You can select the one more suitable for your PC as there is no guarantee that each one will work. 

Most common ways to restart your PC are:

1. With The On-Screen Start Button

This is a standard way of restarting the PC with you shutting down your computer and turning it on again. You’ll also close all the running files with this method. Follow the steps below. 

• In the bottom-left corner of the screen, click on the Start button. Or press the Windows key to open the Start Menu.
• Click on the Power button.
• Once you click the button, there will be options, put your computer to sleep, power it down, and restart it.
• Click on Restart. 

2. With Ctrl + Alt + Delete

This is the best method if your computer is frozen on an application or the speed of the computer is slow. This method is convenient as you need a keyboard to complete the restart process. Follow these steps. 

• Press the Control (ctrl), Alternate (Alt), and Delete (Del) keys together. 
• Wait for a few seconds for the menu to appear on the screen. 
• Click on the power button at the bottom of the screen. 
• Click on either the shutdown or restart option.

3. With The Power Button

This method is best when the PC is frozen and nothing works on the screen. This is not always considered the best way to restart, but if the above methods don’t work, this will surely do. To restart your PC using the Power button, follow these steps. 

• Search for the Power Button on your PC.
• Press the power button on the PC and hold it until the computer shuts down. 
• You must wait until the screen goes black or the system fan stops working.
• Once this is done, please wait a few seconds before turning it ON.

3. Update Your PC’s Windows Version

If you are using an outdated version of Windows on your PC, it will open the door to bugs and errors. This might be the reason behind Windows doesn’t recognize Android phone errors. 

Therefore, try updating the Windows version and check if the issue is fixed. For this, follow these steps to do so. 

• Click on the Start button on the bottom-left corner of the screen.
• Select the Settings option.
• Click on the Update & Security option.

• Click on the Windows Update tab on the left side of the screen.

• Click on the Check for Updates button. Any available updates will start downloading afterward. 

• After the update is finished, you need to restart your PC.

You can also schedule the update. For this, follow the steps below. 

• Click on the start button on the bottom-left corner of the screen.
• Select the Settings Option.
• Click on the Update & Security button.
• Click on the Windows Update tab on the left side of the screen.
• Click on the Schedule the Restart option, and it will be next to the Restart Now button.
• Turn ON the Schedule a Time.
• You can choose the time and date of when you want to restart the PC.

4. Connect Your Android Phone Directly To Your Computer

One of the most frequent issues with connecting your phone to a computer using a USB is the USB hub. 

The users have observed that when they connect their phone using USB Hub, Windows doesn’t recognize Android phones. 

This might be the issue; disconnect the phone with a USB hub and connect your Android phone directly to your computer. 

5. Delete Cache And Data For The External Storage And Media Storage App

A problematic cache can cause several issues and errors on your PC and Android phone. Therefore, check if there is any cache presence in the device. 

And if yes, delete it. You can also clear up some space by deleting data so your Android phone can connect easily. 

Follow these steps. 

• Open your phone’s Settings.

• Tap on the Apps option.

• Tap on the three vertical dots on the top of the screen.
• Tap on Show System Apps.
• Tap on the External Storage and Media Storage app.
• Delete the Cache and data.

Restart your phone and connect it again. Check if Windows doesn’t recognise Android phone issue is resolved or not. 

6. Check The USB Cable

This is another fix in case you constantly receive the error that Windows doesn’t recognise Android phone. Always check the USB cable you are using for making the connection. 

Several USB cables are solely developed for charging purposes; hence, you cannot transfer files using these cables. You can check whether the one you are using supports the transfer of files or not. This can be checked by connecting the USB to a different port on the computer. 

If it is not working, try using a different USB cable for connecting the phone to the PC. 

7. Check USB Computer Connection Settings Or Connect Your Phone To The Computer As File Transfer/ MTP

The PC won’t recognize your phone if you set your USB configuration on anything other than Media Transfer Protocol or MTP. This setting can be changed with the following steps. 

• Open the Settings of your device.

• Tap on Developer options.

• Tap on Default USB configuration by scrolling down.

• Select the Media Transfer Protocol option.
• Close the settings and check again if Windows now recognizes the phone.

8. Enable USB Debugging On Your Phone

Sometimes, you have to enable USB Debugging on your phone to share media between your PC and phone. However, the primary use of USB debugging is the execution of commands, communication of developers, and executing likes from the PC to your phone. 

But still, it has been observed that enabling USB Debugging has helped them make a connection between phone and computer. And this also might work for you. The first thing you need to do is to enable developers. After that, follow these steps. 

• Open the Settings of your device. 

• Select the Developer options. 

• Find the USB Debugging by scrolling down.

• Enable the USB Debugging option.

• Try again connecting the phone with the PC.

9. Update Your Android Phone’s Drivers

A missing driver might be why Windows doesn’t recognise Android phone errors. This can be solved by either reinstalling or updating the phone’s drivers. For that, follow these steps. 

• Using a compatible USB, connect your phone with a PC.
• Press Windows + X key on your computer.
• Click on the Device Manager.
• Select the Portable Device,
• Right-click on the phone.
• Click on Update Driver Software. 
• Select Browse my computer for driver software. 
• Click on the Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
• Select the MTP USB device option. 

Windows should recognize Android phones after this. 

10. Connect Your Android Phone As A USB Mass Storage Device 

You can try connecting your phone to a USB Mass Storage device to solve this issue. For this, follow these steps. 

• Open the Settings on the phone.

• Tap on the More Settings option.
• Tap on USB Utilities.
• Select Connect Storage to PC.
• You might need to replug your phone to complete the installation of drivers. Or you might have to turn off USB Debugging. The system will ask you to do whatever is necessary. 

After completing the steps, check if your error is solved. If not, the next solutions are recommended. 

11. Turn On The Airplane Mode

Users have observed that turning Airplane mode ON has worked for them when they face the issue of Windows not recognizing the Android phone. 

They can easily connect their phone to their PC once they turn ON the Airplane mode. 

You can also try this fix and check if it works for you. After finishing the work on your phone and PC, you can turn OFF the Airplane mode. And as no difficult steps are involved, you can easily do this.

12. Reboot Your Phone Into ODIN Mode

You can only access ODIN mode if you have a Samsung device. Hence this fix comes with a limitation. But for Samsung users, this can work pretty well to solve the issue at hand.

Follow these steps to reboot your phone into ODIN mode. 

• Hold home + volume down + power button to turn your phone ON.
• Press the Volume Up button.
• Then connect the phone to the PC to download the drivers.
• Remove the battery from your phone.
• Start your phone.
• Check the windows recognize it.

But while trying this fix, you should be extra careful, and a little mistake can permanently damage your phone.

13. Install KIES software / Use USB 2.0 Ports

Try installing the KIES software on your device, as this software can solve the issue of Windows not recognizing your Android phone. But again, this option is only available for Samsung devices. 

Also, you can try using the 2.0 USB port instead of the USB 3.0 port. It has been observed that doing this has worked for many users. There are chances of the USB 3.0 port being slow or causing this error on your PC.

14. Reinstall Composite ADB Interface

Issues with Android Composite ADB Interface might be responsible for the error of Windows not recognizing your phone. Therefore, you need to reinstall it. For this, follow these steps:

• Open Device Manager.
• Find Android Composite ADB Interface or ACER Composite ADB Interface. 
• Right-click on it and select the Uninstall option.
• Restart your PC and check if the error is fixed. If not, move forward to the next step.
• Extract the USB driver to your computer after installing it from Google.
• Remember the extract location. 
• Open Device Manager.
• Click on the Scan for hardware changes option.
• Right-click on the Composite ADB Interface option.
• Click on the Update Driver option.
• Click on Browse my computer for driver software option
• Find the location from where you have extracted the Google USB Driver. 
• Click on the Include subfolder option to check it.
• Click on the Next Button.
• Open the Command Prompt as Administrator. Search cmd and select the Run as Administrator option in the Command prompt.
• Type the following lines once the command prompt opens. Press enter after each line. 
  • ADB kill-server
  • ADB start-server
  • ADB devices

This works with almost all the Android versions, whether newer or older. Also, you might not need to download the USB driver from Google at all. As in most cases, this issue is fixed after previous steps.

15. Run Windows Device Troubleshooter

Several troubleshooters are in your windows device to help you in this difficult situation. Among these is the one that works for troubleshooting the Android phone.

Follow the steps below to run the windows device troubleshooter:

• Press Windows + X keys together.
• Select Windows PowerShell admin or Command Prompt (Admin) from the options.
• Enter the command, i.e., msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic
• There’ll be the Hardware and Device troubleshooter on the screen. 
• Click on Next.

It will then take a few minutes to check the issue and offer methods to fix those issues. 

If you have an older version of windows, follow the steps below. 

• Open the Settings on your PC.
• Click on Update & Security.

• In the left sidebar, click on the Troubleshoot option.

• Click on the Hardware and Devices from the list. 

The steps for a newer and older version of windows are different. Microsoft has removed the Hardware and Device option from the latest version. Also, there is no guarantee that this method will always work, but there is no harm in trying. 

16. Try Another Computer

This is the last fix you can try after going through all the above fixes. It would help if you tried another computer. This will help you recognize the problematic device here. 

Connect your Android phone to another computer and select the File Transfer mode. If the new Windows PC recognizes the phone, then the issue was with your previous computer. And you need to take it for repair. 

And in the opposite case, if this window doesn’t recognize the Android phone, then your phone has some issues that need to be taken care of. 

Conclusion

So, here you go. These are all possible fixes you can try to solve the Windows that doesn’t recognize Android phone problem. And from out of the above fixes, at least one should work for you. 

But if not, then there is nothing you can do at home. You have to take it to the professionals. And get it checked if there is some serious technical issue. Because of the technical issue or if your device is broken, it cannot be fixed at home.

We hope we have successfully solved the issue of Windows not recognizing Android phones on your computer or PC.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)