You plug a USB pen drive or external hard drive into your computer and an error message appears in the taskbar notification area saying ‘USB device not recognized’. What causes this error? Why does your Windows PC not recognize the USB storage device? And what can you do to fix this? In this guide, we answer any questions you might have. Continue reading.
There are several reasons why your computer may not recognize a USB drive. First, the USB device may be damaged or corrupted. This error can also be caused by some temporary glitches in your PC’s USB ports. You may also encounter this error message if your PC’s USB port(s) are dirty, damaged, inactive, or turned off by Windows. Using a fake or damaged USB cable is another contributing factor.
Interestingly, this problem can be easily fixed. Sometimes, removing the USB drive and plugging it back into the PC may work. You can also try using another USB port on the computer. Additionally, we recommend cleaning your computer’s USB ports. This can help eliminate dust and dirt by preventing the ports from recognizing USB devices.
If you still get the ‘USB device not recognized’ error after following all the suggested solutions mentioned above, continue to the section below.
1. Update USB Drivers
If your computer’s USB drivers are out of date, there is a high probability that you will encounter this error. Remove the USB drive from your computer and check for any updates for the drivers that power your computer’s USB ports.
Stage 1: Right-click the Start Menu icon (Windows logo) at the bottom left of your PC’s screen and select Device Manager from the Quick Access menu.
Step 2: Expand the ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ group, right-click any of the drivers labeled ‘USB Root Hub’ and select Update driver.
Note: You can find multiple ‘USB Root Hub’ drivers in Device Manager. Each powers a separate USB port on your PC. For context, if your computer has five USB ports, you will find five (5) ‘USB Root Hub’ drivers in Device Manager.
Stage 3: Next, select ‘Search automatically for updated driver software’.
Make sure your computer is connected to the internet.
Repeat step #2 — #3 for all ‘USB Root Hub’ drivers on your device.
If your computer determines that you already have the best/current driver version installed on your device, continue to the next solution.
2. Change USB Drive Power Management Settings
As mentioned earlier, Windows can sometimes disable drivers that power your computer’s USB ports. Although this is done to conserve battery life, it can eventually cause USB ports to become inactive and unusable.
Follow the steps below to keep USB ports active on your Windows 10 computer.
Stage 1: Right-click the Start Menu icon (Windows logo) at the bottom left of your PC’s screen and select Device Manager from the Quick Access menu.
Step 2: Expand the ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers’ group and double-click any of the drives labeled ‘USB Root Hub’.
Stage 3: Go to the power management tab and disable the ‘Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power’ option.
Step 4: Click OK to continue.
Step 5: Repeat steps #2 – #4 for all ‘USB Root Hub’ drivers in your PC’s Device Manager.
3. Disable USB Selective Suspend Settings
USB Selective Suspend is another power management feature that disables USB ports on your PC to save battery power. This is especially true with laptops and other portable battery powered Windows computers.
This feature, which is enabled by default on most Windows laptops, may be the reason why you are getting the ‘USB device not recognized’ error. Turn it off and see if it fixes the problem.
Stage 1: Right-click the Start Menu icon (i.e. the Windows logo) at the bottom left of your PC’s screen and select Power Options from the Quick Access menu.
Step 2: Go to the relevant settings section and click ‘Additional power settings’.
This will take you to the Power Options section of your PC’s Control Panel.
Stage 3: Then click ‘Change plan settings’ next to your computer’s current power plan.
In the screenshot above we will be clicking on the ‘Change plan settings’ option to save power because this is the power plan of the test PC we are using for this tutorial.
Step 4: Click on ‘Change advanced power settings’.
Step 5: Double click on USB Settings.
Step 6: Double click on ‘USB selective suspend setting’.
Step 7: Click the option next to On Battery and select Disabled from the drop-down menu.
Step 8: You should also disable the ‘USB selective suspend setting’ for the Plugged in option.
Step 9: Click Apply and then OK to save the changes.
Other Things to Try
When multiple USB devices are connected to your PC, they sometimes interfere with each other. If other USB devices are connected to your computer, when you get the ‘USB device not recognized’ error, disconnect them and reconnect the unrecognized device. If that doesn’t work, restart your computer and make sure you have the latest Windows 10 build/version installed on your device.
If the error persists, plug the device into another computer. If the USB device remains unrecognizable, it is most likely damaged or faulty.
Next: Can’t mirror or mirror content from your PC because Windows isn’t detecting your external monitor or TV? Read the post linked below to fix the issue.