ADB not recognising Nexus 4 under Windows 7

Question

I'm running on Windows 7, and I've updated all the drivers as it says on the Android developer website regarding using hardware devices. However, Eclipse is still not recognising my Nexus 4 when I try to run the application. The Android device chooser pops up, but it doesn't show anything on the hardware section. I've turned debugging, third-party apps, and mock locations all on on my phone as well.

Is this because the phone is still new? Is there a way of making my Nexus work with Eclipse?

Nothing is showing up under ADB devices in the command prompt.

Tessler

does doing adb devices in the command prompt show anything? – Marrymars

Have you installed Google USB drivers from Android software manager? – Huskamp

I have read some reports for the Nexus 7 with the same problem. The workaround for Nexus 7 is to switch it into PTP mode (under Settings -> Storage -> USB Computer Connection.). Maybe this helps for Nexus 4 as well? – Titer

You should retag your question, it has nothing to do with eclipse. It s a nexus 4 or adt or windows problem. – Ferbam

Open device manager > Search for ADB device If it's not there, search for an unrecognized. Tell us afterwards what you have found. – Benita

@Titer Thank you ! Your trick solved the problem for me. – Borszcz

Answer 1

I had a similar sounding situation with my Nexus 4. For me it was an issue with the drivers Windows was installing automatically. I followed the instructions in [Q]Computer won't recognize phone? - Post #8. I had some slight differences on Windows 7.

For me I,

1. Uninstalled the driver from Device Manager
2. Let it automatically install the generic 'MTP device driver'
3. Right clicked on the new device and selected 'Update Driver'
4. Selected 'Have Disk' and pointed it to [android-sdk-dir]\extras\google
5. Watched an 'ADB' driver install.
6. Opened Eclipse to successfully run on my Nexus 4.

Exsert

This works great on Windows 8 too. In Device Manager I initially saw a Nexus 4 device with no driver under it, I installed the driver as above, then the device name changed to Android Device with the Android Composite ADB Interface as it's driver. – Woodshed

I got the Android SDK from developer.android.com/sdk/index.html, but it doesn't have an extras\google directory, just an extras\android. Do you know what I'm doing wrong? – Thirddegree

Once I had switched the phone into PTP mode (see comment to original question), I could just point Windows at the SDK directory and it found the driver. – Thirddegree

I was able to do this without uninstalling the Windows-8 provided Nexus 4 driver from device manager (in Windows 8); I only had to do steps 3-6. After doing this, the "Nexus 4" entry disappeared from Other Devices and a new "Android Device" was added at the top of Device Manager. Thanks a lot for your answer! – Legendary

@TimBellis, I got the USB driver via SDK Manager.exe. In order to get that to run I had to set JAVA_HOME to the location of my JDK. – Serious

Worked for me on Windows 8 after following this answer and then switching to PTP. Remember to enable developer settings as well (Will's answer) – Wolter

The key is to switch USB mode to Camera mode (PTP) on phone. – Factorial

After enabling USB debugging on my Nexus 4 (4.2.2) (2 ways, 7 clicks + checkbox) and keeping MTP (not PTP) I then followed only step 3 & 4 and updated the drivers on my win8 pro - now eclipse has found it and am able to work. – Raucous

developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top for the drivers, or use the SDK_Manager.exe to download them. – Glossographer

For me the steps worked only after moving from USB3 to USB2 port. – Nianiabi

For me it was on android-sdk-windows\google-usb_driver. And the driver was Samsung. But it works. And don't forget to update your Google USB Driver to rev 8 from Eclipse->Window->Android SDK Manager. – Volding

Can anyone tell me why it is showing offline despite my device being in debugging mode...! and it is showing as Android Composite ADB Interface – Askari

Google USB driver -> SDK Manager \ USB Driver – Hatchway

Just one not that help us. Do not install generic MTP driver that Windows want to install. Install driver from Google... – Weitzel

This worked for me on Nexus 4 and Windows 10. Thanks a lot! – Acatalectic

Answer 2

Just to confirm a previous comment. I needed to switch my connection to Camera (PTP) mode in addition to enabling Developer options and then selecting USB Debugging from the newly appeared Developer Options.

Montagna

The key for me was to switch to Camera (PTP) mode. Suddenly everything worked correctly. I had previously set the appropriate driver in Driver Manager, I had already enabled USB Debugging. – Stimulative

This worked for me, I did so by going Settings-> Storage and pushing the top right button and choosing the command USB Computer Connection, then selecting PTP. All of a sudden the device became available for debug. – Forgo

This is very weired! I have 2 Nexus devices. One is connecting to ADB without any problems in MTP mode. The other has to be switched to PTP mode to connect it. It took me hours to find this tip and to make the second one connect. I still don't know what makes the difference between the two Nexus 4 phones. They were both bought on the same day and are fully identical (in hardware at least - the installed apps differ largely). – Wisner

Answer 3

To enable USB debugging, go to settings, about phone and then at the bottom tap build number seven times. This will enable the developer settings where you can enable USB debugging.

Histone

Answer 4

To fix/install Android USB driver on Windows 7/8 32bit/64bit:

1. Connect your Android-powered device to your computer's USB port.
2. Right-click on Computer from your desktop or Windows Explorer, and select Manage.
3. Select Devices in the left pane.
4. Locate and expand Other device in the right pane.
5. Right-click the device name (Nexus 7 / Nexus 5 / Nexus 4) and select Update Driver Software. This will launch the Hardware Update Wizard.
6. Select Browse my computer for driver software and click Next.
7. Click Browse and locate the USB driver folder. (The Google USB Driver is located in <sdk>\extras\google\usb_driver\.)
8. Click Next to install the driver.

If it still doesn't work try changing from MTP to PTP.

Woofer

This solved mine as well. I guess one should use PTP mode to enable ADB interface on Nexus 4. – Plangent

Answer 5

I had the same problem, but I didn't want to change to PTP mode. This is how I fixed it with MTP still enabled.

1. Uninstalled Google USB Driver from Eclipse in the Android SDK Manager.
2. Uninstalled the driver from Device Manager - click box for "delete driver from my computer"
3. Unplugged and re-plugged my phone into the computer.
4. Windows "improperly" installed drivers for the Nexus 4.
5. The Nexus 4 was now showing up in My Computer like a drive.
6. Reinstall Google USB Driver in SDK Manager.
7. Update Nexus 4 driver in Device Manager.
8. Everything works.

Plasticine

This worked for me, allowing me to have both MTP and adb access at the same time. Thanks – Pernell

This whole sequence worked for me, but with PTP mode enabled. What's really weird for me though is that the phone is registered as "SAMSUNG Android Phone" on the WIN7 device manager. But in Eclipse I have lge-nexus_4. Weird :| Good luck anyway. – Bechtold

Same with me. It was Samsung Driver. But anyway it works. And don't forget to update your Google USB Driver to rev 8 from Eclipse->Window->Android SDK Manager. – Volding

You are genius! I have Windows 7 and Nexus 4, and this list of steps helped! – Sammer

Answer 6

I had the same problem and none of the above worked, but the following solution worked for me:

On my Nexus 4:

• Go to Settings

• Choose Developer options (from the end of the list after pressing seven times on "About phone")

• Check the "USB debugging" and press OK.

Studdard

Unfortunately, no one mentions about this. People start talking about windows drivers, downloads and bunch of other stuff. But they forget about the fact that Developers mode (particulary, USB debugging) is disabled by default on Nexus devices and should be enabled by some 'weird shaman jumps'. – Epidemiology

well it's assumed by most in this question that people enabled USB debugging first and that it didn't work – Chorizo

Answer 7

For what it's worth, in my case I was able to fix the problem simply by changing my USB connection mode from Media device (MTP) to Camera (PTP).

Stacee

Answer 8

I had to resort to a clean install of Windows 7 x64 to fix this issue.

I tried all steps/variants in the other answers. No luck. Device Manager would show my 'Android Device / Android Composite ADB Interface' working properly with the 7.0.0.1 driver from Google, but nothing could get 'adb devices' to show my Nexus 4.

I used USBDeview to uninstall every USB device that had connected to my computer except my keyboard and mouse. No luck.

I enabled 'Show hidden devices' in Device Manager and uninstalled anything related to USB. No luck.

I added Google's vendor ID to adb_usb.ini. No luck. I deleted adb_usb.ini and ran 'android update adb'. No luck.

I brought my Nexus 4 to my brother's apartment to confirm it wasn't faulty. Worked on his machine without a hiccup.

I'm glad the clean install worked, because further troubleshooting was going to require swapping motherboards or buying a MacBook.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Antihero

Answer 9

Changing USB mode from MTP to PTP worked for me.

Aftertaste

Answer 10

How to do it on Windows 8 (I think, it will work for Windows 7 too)

1. Open Android SDK Manager and delete Google Usb Driver
2. Open Control Panel -> Devices Manager -> Find your Nexus -> right click -> delete device
3. Unplug your device
4. Open Android SDK Manager and install Google Usb Driver
5. Connect your device
6. Open Control Panel -> Devices Manager -> Find your Nexus -> right click -> update drivers -> Manual update -> open android-sdk folder (enable checkbox for subfolders) -> install driver from Google Inc
7. adb kill-server; adb start-server; adb devices should show your nexus

Do not forget, that Android 4.2 now want you to submit RSA key from your computer, look at your device screen.

To enable developers options on Android 4.2: Open Settings -> About phone -> Tap on Build Number 7 times.

Shulock

Answer 11

Just to add to the above posts for anybody struggling to get their Nexus 4 recognized by Eclipse - ADT. In the past the device was recognized by Eclipse ADT without any issues!

I ran into the same problems as the original question. Every approach I tried wouldn't work...

• Toggling "USB debug" selection
• Toggling "Allow 3rd party" apps selection
• Allowing Mock locations
• Reinstalling driver
• Restarting adb.exe

Simple solution in the end

• Go to Settings -> Storage -> USB Computer Condition (Menu option from Storage Screen)

• Change from Media Device (MTP) to Camera (PTP)

Halting

You made my day... Just need go to Settings > Storage > USB Computer Condition -> select one – Rejoinder

Answer 12

Follow Google's instructions for this, OEM USB Drivers.

Burthen

Answer 13

In case none of the answers work perhaps the following clarifications will help. I followed the top answer and tried to load the program with ADB from the command line to reduce the possible complications and this did not work.

Once enabling PTP mode the ADB devices command would find my Nexus 4, but I could not push to it. I had to use Eclipse and in order for the dialog to display to accept the RSA key described below.

Note: When you connect a device running Android 4.2.2 or higher to your computer, the system shows a dialog asking whether to accept an RSA key.

Quash

Answer 14

On Windows 7, with Samsung Nexus S, it showed nothing in Device Manager, the adb devices command showed no devices, but when plugged in device said USB debugging was on and connected.

I used Andrea's Feb 2 answer to install the Google USB driver, which created the /gooogle/usb_driver directory and used RobertNovelo's Mar 7 answer to go to the link and follow the instructions. The device showed up in Device Manager under 'other'. I right clicked on it and selected update driver, and now it shows up in Device Manager under 'Android device', and now command line adb devices lists it.

Cesar

Answer 15

You need to install USB drivers only if you use Windows (If you're using MAC/Linux, most likely it will work fine without any driver installations)

in the following link they describe how to do it:

http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html

In short:

1. Connect your Android-powered device to your computer's USB port.
2. Right-click on Computer from your desktop or Windows Explorer, and select Manage.
3. Select Devices in the left pane.
4. Locate and expand Other device in the right pane.
5. Right-click the device name (such as Nexus S) and select Update Driver Software. This will launch 6. the Hardware Update Wizard.
6. Select Browse my computer for driver software and click Next. Click Browse and locate the USB driver folder. (The Google USB Driver is located in \extras\google\usb_driver.)
7. Click Next to install the driver.

Hebel

Answer 16

My symptoms were the composite device (this contains all of the actual USB devices such as the ADB interface, camera, etc) was not being installed. This has a hardware id of:

USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE6&REV_0228
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE6

The composite device's children will have &MI_## after them. If you see those, then this is not the same issue.

I resolved this by coping usb.inf to %windir%\inf from a virtual machine of Windows 7. The hardware detected and installed fine after.

Trichite

Answer 17

I have 2 Nexus 4 devices. One was connecting to ADB without any problems, the second one never showed up when I used the adb devices command. An additional symptom was, that the second phone did not show up as a portable device in Windows Explorer when the phone was set to Media mode.

At some point I found that a temporary solution for the second Nexus was to switch it to PTP mode. Then it was found by the adb devices command. The weired thing was that the first phone worked in both modes all the time!

Finally I found this solution that now allows me to connect both phones in both modes:

• set USB mode of the phone to MTP (Media)
  Using PC device manager uninstall the device ->Android Device ->Android ADB Interface
  Make sure to check the box "Delete the driver software"!

• then set the USB mode of the phone to PTP (Camera)
  Using PC device manager uninstall the device ->Portable Devies ->Nexus 4

• Then unplug the USB and plug it back in (ensuring that its set to MTP (Media) and I found that the device was correctly registered in Device manager as a ->Portable Devies ->Nexus 4

Solution found at: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=34910298#post34910298

If you have a similar problem to connect your Nexus to ADB then I recommend to first switch it to PTP mode. If your problem vanishes with that step, I recommend to go through the additional steps listed above as MTP will probably be the mode you will want to set your phone to most of the time.

Wisner

Answer 18

I had a similar problem, and none of the previous solutions worked for me, and I've just solved it by myself (after a few hours of frustration), so I'm going to share my solution.

My computer suddenly stopped recognizing any Android device I've plugged in after it installed Android Composite ADB Interface for my Nexus 4. I was not able to uninstall the driver, because any attempt to do so by Device Manager was unsuccessful (Device Manager stopped responding every time).

So I've solved it this way:

1. Switch Windows into safe mode
2. Uninstall Android Composite ADB Interface
3. Install old SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface
4. Switch Windows into normal mode
5. Plug-in Android device (Nexus 4 in my case)
6. Windows recognized the device as Nexus 4
7. Install driver from android-sdk/extras/google folder
8. Everything works again! :)

Corded

Answer 19

I have a way to fix your problem:

1. Download Nexus Root Toolkit v2.0.4: http://www.wugfresh.com/nrt/
2. Install and select your diver and choose the Google API. For example, I chose Nexus 4 and selected Google API 4.4.4
3. Click "full driver installation guide..." and click step 3 tab. Choose the Google drivers.

Episcopalism

Answer 20

My Windows 7 installation was not finding a driver at all. The xda-forums post has the right folder to tell Windows where the drivers are -- {SDK directory}/extras/google/usb-driver.

If you don't have the extras/Google folder + Tim Bellis, go to the SDK Manager in your IDE and look for the Google USB driver in the Extras category, and install it. I cannot tell you how to do this in Eclipse, but if you have IntelliJ IDEA, it's near the bottom of the list, checkmark it and click "Install packages".

Higginbotham

Answer 21

(Windows 7) My solution to this was to find the device in Device Manager, uninstall the existing driver and install a new one from the android folder in your user account using the include subdirectories option.

All the best.

Ku

Answer 22

Some of you may have experienced this issue. If you don't find the USB driver (like me, I downloaded a bundle of Eclipse and the Android SDK), go to <sdk>/SDK Manager. Open it and select USB Driver from the options to install and you are ready. I had to do the PTP mode too.

Tsarina

Answer 23

For me, it was Nexus 4 and Windows 7. I reinstalled the drivers, changed to PTP - basically went through everything.

Clicking the tab that said MainActivity.java rather than activity_main.xml in Eclipse fixed it for me.

Nw

Answer 24

My solution is very silly. I had tried all the solutions above and wasted so many hours. Then I found out the solution when I browsed developer options. I didn't check mark the "USB debugging" option. The silly me assumed turns on developer options mean turns on USB debugging, but I was wrong.

Adorn

Answer 25

If you have problems to install the ADB driver under Windows 8.1, try this solution: ADB Driver and Windows 8.1

Freeloader

Answer 26

It was a driver missing problem with me. I had enabled the USB debugging, tried changing the USB cable, tried reinstalling the Google USB drivers, but nothing came to my rescue.

Then ultimately I downloaded the device drivers as suggested here.

To make sure whether you have a device driver problem, go to:

1. Computer->right click
2. Manage
3. Device Manager

And see if you have your Nexus shown as an "Android device" or as a device in "Others".

If it shows in "Others", your problem should be resolved by downloading & extracting this and then following these steps:

1. Right click on your device after finding it in Device Manager as per the above mentioned three steps.
2. Say Update driver software.
3. Say Browse My computer for driver software
4. Pinpoint it to the location where you had downloaded the drivers from the above link.

Finally, your device will show up as follows:

As soon as you do this, a popup will show up on your device asking for permission to debug. Once you accept, you are ready!

Gillen