One of the best free methods that we have at our disposal to free up space on our smartphone is to copy each and every one of the photos and videos that we have captured with the smartphone to a PC, to later copy them to an external hard drive and always have them at hand and safe.
However, sometimes we encounter a problem that prevents us from doing this work. What do I do if my PC does not recognize my Samsung mobile? Or my smartphone Xiaomi ,, Sony, LG, Huawei ... In the end, the solution to the problem is usually the same in all cases.
My computer does not recognize my mobile
One of the problems faced by a large number of users when they need to connect their smartphone to a PC to copy content, is that their Windows-managed computer does not recognize the device.
Although the new hardware recognition system that Microsoft included in Windows 10 works 100 wonders, we can always find that our mobile does not recognize it.
Every time we connect a new device to a computer, Windows and the device tthey have to speak the same language to understand each other.
For us to understand: If we only know how to speak Spanish and we travel to China, France or Germany (to name countries where Spanish is not spoken), communicating will be mission impossible (although Google Translate works miracles).
The same thing happens in computing. If the device that we connect to our PC does not speak the same language, they will never be able to maintain a lasting relationship. The solution goes through the drivers.
If we talk about telephony, most smartphone manufacturers allow users to download an application with which to manage the content stored on the smartphone. This application, includes the necessary drivers so that the PC and the smartphone speak the same language.
Solution
If once the drivers have been downloaded and installed, I will show you in the next section, if the equipment still does not detect our smartphone, then we will show you different methods for your device to recognize your phone.
Use the official cable
El lump or cylinder that some smartphones include in the cable, it is not a whim, it is an electromagnetic interference filter to avoid any type of interference and energy loss during the charging process.
If we use a calble that is not official, and it passes through different electronic devices, it is most likely that it is receiving some interference that does not allow it to work with it should.
If you do not have the official cable at hand, you just have to be a little careful and route the cable where it cannot suffer any type of electromagnetic interference.
Restart phone and PC
Over time, all, absolutely all operating systems need a reboot to get things back in place. If our computer does not recognize our equipment, the first thing we must do is restart both our smartphone and our computer.
Change the connection method
When we connect our smartphone to a PC, a menu will be displayed with different options, options that allow us to access the content of the smartphone through the manufacturer's application, access it as if it were a USB drive or hard disk, activate the debug mode ...
To change the connection method, the quickest and easiest thing to do is disconnect our smartphone from the cable and reconnect it. At that moment, the type of connection we want to establish between the PC and the phone will be displayed on the screen.
Warning triangle is displayed in device manager
Device manager is one of the best methods available in Windows to quickly check if our team recognizes the smartphone or not.
If a yellow triangle is displayed, it means that it can't be used until we install the drivers (in the next section we will show you how to download them). To access the device manager we must perform the steps that I show you below:
- In the Windows search box we write Control panel and we select in the first result that is shown.
- Next, click on Security system
- Next, click on Security.
- In the left column, click on Device administrator.
Connect your Android mobile to a PC
If we are having problems for our PC to recognize our smartphone, until we solve that problem, we will never be able to extract the content that is inside.
The simplest and fastest solution is to visit the manufacturer's website and download the official application, an application that includes the drivers.
To avoid wasting time looking for the application for each manufacturer (we have wasted time for you), then we leave you the links of download to smartphone drivers and applications Best sellers.
Download drivers and software for Samsung phones
Samsung's application for smartphones is called SydeSync and is available for Windows and Mac via this link.
Download drivers and software for Huawei phones
HiSuite is the name of Huawei's application to connect mobile devices to a PC and Mac without problems. You can download it from this link.
Download drivers and software for Xiaomi phones
The official Xiaomi application to connect a smartphone from this manufacturer to a PC (there is no version for Mac) is called PC Suite and can be downloaded from this link.
Download drivers and software for LG phones
Despite the fact that LG has left the world of telephony in early 2021, at the time of publishing this article it continues to offer its application for mobile devices called LG PC Suite that you can download from this link. This version is only available for PC.
Download drivers and software for Sony phones
Xperia Companions is the application that Sony makes available to all its customers to connect their smartphone to a Windows PC or a Mac, an application that you can download here.
Download drivers and software for Asus phones
The name of the Asus application to connect a smartphone to a PC is ASUS PCLink, application that we can download through this link. The .exe application will download automatically when you click on the link.
Download drivers and software for Vivo phones
Through this link, you can download Live PC Suite, the application of this manufacturer for Windows, 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Download drivers and software for Oppo phones
oppo nor offers us an application to manage the smartphone but if the possibility of download drivers of all your smartphones so that, when connected to a Windows computer, you do not have any recognition problems.
Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus They belong to the same manufacturer, BBK Electronics, so it is more than likely that the Vivo PC Suite application is compatible with the smartphones of these three manufacturers.
Download drivers and software for OnePlus phones
OnePlus, the same as Oppo, tampoco offers us its own application to manage the smartphone, but if you can download these drivers so that your version of Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 recognizes it without problems.
As I have commented in the previous section, Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus belong to the same manufacturer, BBK Electronics, so it is more than likely that the Vivo PC Suite application is compatible with the smartphones of these three manufacturers.
I cannot establish ADB connection with my smartphone
If you are trying to access your device through ADB to make changes that may ruin the integrity of the device, the first thing to do is turn on USB debugging.
If you don't enable USB debugging You will never be able to create an ADB connection with the device. This menu is designed for developers and advanced users and you can activate it by following the steps below:
- The first thing we must do is to activate the developer menu.
- To do this, we must go to the System menu and tap on Android version repeatedly (7 times) until a message is displayed informing us that the Developer Options / Developer Options menu has been activated.
- This menu is in the same section where you are. By clicking on it, you must find the option USB debugging and turn on the switch. Once activated, you can now reconnect your smartphone to the PC and select the USB debugging mode.
USB options when connecting an Android to a PC
Each time we connect our smartphone to a PC, depending on the manufacturer, we are offered different options, options that although some of them have different names, in the end they offer us the same functions:
MTP
MTP comes from Media Transfer Protocol. This option is designed to transfer multimedia content between the device and the PC through the manufacturer's application.
PTP
Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) allows us to transfer images between the computer and the smartphone. In this case, when you connect the equipment to the PC, instead of displaying the icon of a hard disk or storage unit, the image of a camera is displayed.
When clicking on that image, a Windows wizard will be displayed to import all the images and videos that we select.
File Transfer
This option turns our smartphone into a hard drive for use and allows us to access all its content.
Transfer images
It is the same as PTP, it turns our smartphone into a camera, from which we can extract the images through the Windows assistant.
Share connection via USB / USB Modem
The USB Modem / Share USB connection option turns our smartphone into a USB modem that we connect using a USB cable. We could say that it is the same option to share our mobile internet connection, but via cable.
MIDI
This option allows us to connect our smartphone to a musical equipment compatible with MIDI and we only have to select it when we connect it to a music equipment, not to a computer.
Just charge
As its name describes well, this option is designed to charge only the smartphone, without accessing its interior.