Is USB Not Working? Here Are Solutions!

My USB doesn’t work? USB not working is a big problem since you cannot use it. What should you do if your USB drive isn’t working? This post will teach you how to fix the USB not working issue.

1. USB Port Is Not Working

According to users, sometimes USB port on your PC won’t work, and then your USB drive will not work. If your USB port stops working after you remove or insert a USB device, you can try the following three ways to fix this issue.

Solution 1: Scan for hardware changes by using Device Manager

  • Click Start, and then click Run.
  • Type devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Device Manager.
  • In Device Manager, click your computer.
  • Click Action, and then click Scan for hardware changes.
  • Check the USB device to see whether it is working.

 

Solution 2: Restart Windows

If scanning for hardware changes doesn’t work, you can try restarting Windows to fix the USB port not working issue. If this solution still cannot help you, try the following method.

Solution 3: Disable and re-enable USB controller

 

  • Click Start, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter button to open Device Manager.
  • Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
  • Right-click the first USB controller, and then click Uninstall to remove it. Do this for all each USB controller that is listed under Universal Serial Bus controllers.
  • Restart computer.
  • Connect your USB drive to PC and check if this issue has been solved.

 

2. USB Is Not Recognized

“The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.” Have you ever encountered this error message? What should you do if your connected USB device is not recognized? How to fix the USB drive not recognized the error in Windows?
Here, you can try the following solutions when you receive the USB device not recognized error message.

Solution 1: Fix USB Root Hub

  • Right-click My Computer or This PC, choose Manage and then click on Device Manager.
  • Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
  • Right-click USB Root Hub option and click Properties.
  • Click on Power Management tab, then uncheck the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power, and click on OK button.
    Tip: you need to repeat this operation a couple of times if you have more USB Root Hubs.
  • Plug your USB back to see whether your PC can recognize it.

Solution 2: Update Driver

If your UBS device is not recognized by Windows, you may also see it in Device Manager but it shows up as an “Unknown Device”. Now, you should open Device Manager, right-click Unknown Device, click on Properties, then choose the Driver tab and then click Update Driver.

3. USB Is Detected But Not Showing in My Computer

As we know, USB should automatically appear in Windows Explorer after connecting it to PC. However, according to a survey, sometimes, Windows doesn’t show connected USB drive.

Case 1: Other PCs can see it but you cannot see it

If you cannot see your USB drive in My Computer or This PC, you can try connecting it to other PCs. If other PCs can detect it, there’s a driver problem in Windows. Now, you should update your drive.

Case 2: Windows asks to format it

If you can see it but you cannot read, it’s possible that your drive has unsupported file systems. And, sometimes, Windows will ask you to format it before using.

In this situation, you should format your USB drive to NTFS, FAT or other file systems to use it. However, formatting will delete all original data on this drive. Therefore, you had better transfer all data from this drive out before formatting by using professional data recovery tool like MiniTool Power Data Recovery. Otherwise, the original data could be overwritten and there is no way to recover them.

Case 3: You can see it on Disk Management and it has a partition

If your USB drive letter is missing, you can see your USB drive in Disk Management but you cannot see this drive in Windows Explorer.

Now, open Disk Management, right-click the USB drive, and then choose Change Drive Letters and Paths, and click Add and OK button.

Case 4: You can see it on Disk Management but it is empty

Some users report that they can see their USB drive in Disk Manage but it shows unallocated. Now, if you don’t care about the original data on the USB drive, you can directly create a new volume on this unallocated space to use it again. If you care about the data, you had better recover lost data from this unallocated space by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery or other tools and then create a new partition on it.

Hope these solutions can help you perfectly solve your USB not working issue.

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