Nexus 4 not showing up in Windows Explorer

Question moved to forum where phone is discussed.

... Thom

More information is needed. Which version of Windows are you using?

If you use Windows 7 or newer it should "just work", but earlier versions (like XP, say) require a recent version of Windows Media Player (v.11?) to give MTP support.

Rooting doesn't break MTP - mine works fine on Win 7.

I imagine you modified/changed Windows drivers when you rooted, perhaps you broke something on the PC side in the process. Sorry I can't be more helpful, its just that there are a near infinite number of permutations of the changes made that may be responsible. It's possible that the problem lies with the phone but I strongly suspect it's something amiss with the PC driver configuration.

Is usb debugging enabled? Sometimes tripping that on or off can help.

PistolSlap said:

I have tried USB Debugging ON and OFF and no difference. I have tried reinstalling my ADB driver, no luck.

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Try uninstalling the ADB Drivers than reboot. Leave Debugging Off. Plug in the USB with your phone connected & it will install the Windows USB Drivers.

Yes, that's what I'd suggest too.

But as a sideways suggestion if you get fed up with trying to make Windows behave itself and want Explorer integration without MTP you could do worse than install ES File Explorer on the phone. Apart from being the best Android file manager around it also offers a wireless FTP connection which allows even Windows Explorer to seamlessly connect to the Android filesystem. I use it with any machine I'm using, whatever its OS; the only requirement is that they share the same LAN and have the ability to "explore" FTP network connections - which almost all do.

John Bean said:

Yes, that's what I'd suggest too.

But as a sideways suggestion if you get fed up with trying to make Windows behave itself and want Explorer integration without MTP you could do worse than install ES File Explorer on the phone. Apart from being the best Android file manager around it also offers a wireless FTP connection which allows even Windows Explorer to seamlessly connect to the Android filesystem. I use it with any machine I'm using, whatever its OS; the only requirement is that they share the same LAN and have the ability to "explore" FTP network connections - which almost all do.

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I second this. I can't remember when I last used a USB cable. These days I just fire up ES File Explorer and use it to copy files to/from my PC over the wireless network.

disable USB Fast Charge

i went thru this last week for like half hr before i figured out i had it on

No, you're in the wrong place. That's to connect to a remote SMB server - you want the option called "Remote Manager" which is on the Tools menu.

Turn it on and then on your PC open a FTP connection to the address shown on the Android screen. The address in in generic URL form that works directly in a browser, but to connect from Windows Explorer just use the "Add Network Location" wizard and specify an anonymous FTP connection at the IP address shown on the phone.

Later: I was not on a Windows PC when I originally replied so was working from memory. I thought I'd better check...

I'm now on my Win 7 PC and after checking it all works fine. I opened "My Computer" and right-clicked to select "Add Network Location". The wizard accepts the URL exactly as displayed on the Nexus and creates a named shortcut for subsequent use. The shortcut opens the Nexus filesystem and looks pretty much like everything else does in Windows Explorer

There is one caveat: if you use Chrome on Windows (as I do) you'll discover that Chrome breaks the native FTP capability of Explorer which needs to be fixed again with a registry patch. The symptom is that the "Add Network Location" wizard will claim that the FTP URL you entered is invalid, no matter what you type in.

If this happens look at this thread, which tells you all you need to know. If you don't use and have never installed Chrome you shouldn't need the fix, everything should "just work", but if Chrome has ever been installed then Explorer's FTP functionality will be and will remain broken - even if you uninstall it. Terrible coding practices from Google :-(

Here's the end result on my PC:


As a final note you can also type the same URL into the address bar of Explorer for an "instant" connection instead of using the wizard, but the "Add Network Location" wizard has the advantage of also saving a shortcut in "My Computer" for future use.

I use AirDroid to connect to my computer.

Glad you like it. Click on that "settings" icon you can see on the pic above and you'll find (amongst other things) an item called "Set root directory"...

You need to give ES Explorer root privileges for this to work of course - turn "Root explorer" to "ON" in the ES settings. The "root" of the FTP can then be made to match the real root of the phone, or any other place you want for that matter; "sdcard" is just a sensible default.

Too many unknowns to dive a definitive answer.

My best guess is you're trying to write to some location you are not allowed to write; it doesn't matter what software you try to use, the problems lies in the permissions set at for the location on the device.

If you're trying to write to a system location you need to remount it r/w first (on the device) before attempting remote access. Generally I don't do this, instead I copy anything I need from the PC to a normal user place on the device - I create a folder for the purpose - then move the files to their intended location on the device using ES Explorer, or sometimes Root Explorer for its ease of remounting r/o locations as r/w "on the fly".

There may be a way to do this over FTP but I have neither the need nor inclination to experiment. The method I already use works well and has the advantage of transparency of action when working with the system partitions.

Dell 6440 laptop, Windows 8.1, LG Nexus 5 phone with Android 4.4.x. When I connected the phone via USB to the laptop, I also got a chime to indicate a connection had occurred; however, when I opened File Explorer in Windows, I didn't see any USB devices attached. The default setting on the phone that displayed when I logged into the phone was "Media device (MTP)". As suggested by another poster, I switched the setting to "Camera (PTP)". As soon as I made this change, I was able to see the phone in File Explorer as a connected USB device (but with a camera icon) and "Nexus 5" next to it. I was able to navigate the file hierarchy on the phone within Explorer and view, copy, and then paste the files to my laptop hard drive.

Same issue for me out of the blue. No problem connecting my N4 to my desktop at work for an entire year, than all of a sudden yesterday was unable to see my N4 in file explorer. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it, rebooted my PC, rebooted my N4, to no avail. I also tried another cable. I have turned debugging on and off many times. At home I tried connecting to my desktop at home and was able to view my N4 in file explorer at home, therefore proving my issue isn't hardware degradation.

FYI:
N4 running stock 4.4.4
Work desktop: Win 8.1
Home desktop: Win 7

Hope to resolve this quickly. I tried ES File Explorer and I didn't like using this.

An obvious thing to check...make sure phone isn't locked eg with a pattern or keys.

dosei said:

Same issue for me out of the blue. No problem connecting my N4 to my desktop at work for an entire year, than all of a sudden yesterday was unable to see my N4 in file explorer. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it, rebooted my PC, rebooted my N4, to no avail. I also tried another cable. I have turned debugging on and off many times. At home I tried connecting to my desktop at home and was able to view my N4 in file explorer at home, therefore proving my issue isn't hardware degradation.

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My advice is to install the Wugs root kit and follow its driver diagnostics/installation to the letter - don't skip any step even if you think it is unnecessary. No need to actually root unless you really want to

My (bad) experiences with Windows and Android drivers led me to these conclusions:

• If the driver stops working a simple reinstall usually does nothing.
• If debugging is enabled when the MTP driver is installed then MTP will not work.

If you don't want to use Wugs to guide you then ensure you purge all Android drivers from the Windows system and ensure debugging is off on the Android device before attempting to reinstall the MTP driver, otherwise it will almost certainly not work.

Once the MTP driver is working you can enable debug and let Windows install the ADB driver - which should not effect the function of the MTP driver at this stage. Doing things in any other order usually results in no MTP connectivity.

I have no idea why it sometimes stops working ("it's Windows - it does that") but following the Wugs installation guide fixes it every time for me on Windows 7 - I have yet to use it on Windows 8 but I have no reason to think it won't work.

HTH