When connecting an Android smartphone to the PC via USB cable, it should be recognized immediately and be usable as if it were a USB stick or a disk drive to transfer files . Sometimes, however, this does not work and even if the USB connection puts the mobile phone in charge (which happens with any USB connection, even on a TV), however, the mobile phone is not really seen by the PC.
If the Android device (smartphone or tablet) is not recognized by the Windows computer, the problem can depend on at least 5 causes, which we will examine starting from the most frequent to the least likely.
If connecting an Android smartphone to the PC (be it a Samsung Galaxy, an HTC, a Nexus, a Huawei etc.) with a USB cable and this is not recognized as a disk drive and therefore it is not possible to transfer files between PC and smartphone, proceed, in sequence, through the following interventions.
1) Change USB cable
It may seem strange, but in my experience it has happened several times that some USB cables did not lead to the recognition of the Android mobile phone on the PC, even if these worked very well for charging.
In fact, that cable may not have been designed for data transfer.
Then try to change the cable and see if the word "USB for charging" appears in the notifications with another and if the PC recognizes that a connected device exists.
2) Uninstall and reinstall the Android drivers
If your Android phone is detected by your PC even if it is not recognized as a disk drive to transfer files, try reinstalling the driver.
Then go to "Device Manager" from the Control Panel, find the Android device driver then right-click on it to uninstall it.
The Android driver should have an unrecognized device name, marked with a yellow exclamation mark, under " USB controller ".
If the list of drivers does not indicate any problems, avoid going random because this is not where the problem is solved.
Once the driver is uninstalled, disconnect the mobile phone from the PC, make sure that the computer is connected to the internet and reconnect the Android smartphone or tablet letting Windows search for the driver and install it.
In another article on how to connect the Samsung Galaxy to the PC there are also links to download drivers and management program for Samsung.
Although it should not be necessary, generic Android drivers can instead be downloaded from the Google site by clicking on the download link the Google USB Driver ZIP file .
3) Make sure Android is set up as a 'Media Device' (MTP)
Once connected to the computer, the Android smartphone or tablet must be configured for data transfer.
Expand the notification bar and touch the one with "USB for charging" to select the File transfer (MTP) item .
Once touched, open a Windows Explorer folder on Windows, go to " This PC " and find the phone among the connected disks.
Opening it, this time, you should see the folders of the internal memory that you can use to transfer files by dragging them in or out.
If the notification does not appear, open Settings -> Storage, press on the USB connection of the computer and select the MPT file transfer or deactivate it and reactivate it.
This option may be in a different place on the menu depending on the mobile phone model used.
For example it could be under Settings> Wifi and network> Other and call itself " Enable USB storage "
You may also be asked to disable USB debugging if it had been enabled (found in Settings> Developer options ).
Also try to restart the phone by keeping it connected to the PC.
4) Activate USB debugging
To activate USB debugging go to Phone settings and find "Developer options".
If the developer options are not found, open Settings, go to Info on the phone, scroll down to find the build number and touch it seven times quickly until the message appears that the developer options are activated.
If still nothing worked, there may be a hardware problem on the Android device.
However, you can continue to try solutions if no USB sticks or external drives, more general, are detected, but which also apply to the connection with the smartphone or tablet.
