Question Why Cant My Laptop Recognize My Phone Anymore

[Keithngan162]

I want to connect my Phone (Motorolla Moto Z Play) to my Laptop (Lenovo Legion Y720) using my Anker USB C cable. Before, I was able to do it without any problems, I just plug everything in and my PC would see my phone's storage. When I plug in my phone to my laptop, my phone asks me first what I want to do, I tell it to transfer files, because if not, the laptop wont be able to access the storage of my phone.

But now, its just charging and it doesnt give me the option to transfer files anymore (its not asking me what to do) it just charges.

Why is this happening? Could this be caused by a bad cable? My USB C cable is plugged into a charger 24/7 the only time it isnt plugged into a charger is when I plug it into my Laptop to transfer files.

Unfortunately I dont have another USB C cable around to test it myself

 

[Sagar_20]

May be the usb cable or the usb port is faulty.

You must have usb debugging turned on to be able to get those options, and when connected for the first time, you will have to allow access to the PC from the phone.

If you get a message "Turbopower connected" when plugged in to the charger, then USB cable must be fine, though there could be some dust built up inside which can possibly prevent fast charging and connecting to computers.

 

[Keithngan162]

May be the usb cable or the usb port is faulty.

You must have usb debugging turned on to be able to get those options, and when connected for the first time, you will have to allow access to the PC from the phone.

If you get a message "Turbopower connected" when plugged in to the charger, then USB cable must be fine, though there could be some dust built up inside which can possibly prevent fast charging and connecting to computers.

Ive tried it on 2 different USB ports on my laptop, the usb port that i usually plug it into and the usb port that always has the usb dongle for my wireless mouse. I dont think my phone will display "turbopwer" because im using a 3rd party cable from Anker, its not the one that came with the phone because i lost it

 

[Sagar_20]

You already know what the problem is. That phone is designed to charge at higher speeds, around 2500 mA i think and normal cables will struggle to even provide 1000 mA or 1 A.

You can check current speed using apps like accubattery or ampere.

"Check for that message while charging from the turbopower adapter, and not PC." Lock the screen and then connect and see if you get that message. It will ensure cable is ok.

There is also a possibility that the charging jack of your phone has shorted. In that case, the phone will forever charge very slow and in no case, connect with any PC. I've faced this, and because of that i eventually upgraded to a water resistant smartphone.

 

[Keithngan162]

It doesnt make sense to me for the capability of the cable to be the problem though because it has been charging my phone for almost a year without any problems, and i have been connecting my phone to my laptop via this very usb cable ever since I bought it.

I cant test my phone with turbo power because both my cable and charger are 3rd party. The cable is anker and the head thing is the charger from my old lenovo tablet.

What I was able to do was try it on a different Laptop and try it using a USB hub.
On my other laptop, It worked on one of the USB ports but not the other one ( only 2 ports on other laptop).
I tried it with a USB hub i had laying around and it worked fine with ALL of the ports on my laptop.

But now A new problem occurs, My laptop only has 3 USB ports. all 3 are in use ( USB headset, USB dongle for wireless mouse, USB Hub) I always keep an external 2TB Hard Drive connected to my laptop. But now that I have the USB HUB, I've connected the 2TB external Hard Drive there AND I want to connect my phone to my USB HUB so I dont have to disconnect the other USB ports on my laptop. The problem is my laptop wont recognize my phone if the external hard drive is connected to the USB hub. Is this because The External Hard Drive uses up too much power?

 

[Sagar_20]

Even if 3rd party, connecting to pc shouldn't be a problem as long as the USB port works, because transfer doesn't take a lot of power but connecting to the adapter will ensure that the cable works perfectly.

USB debugging has to be enabled, obviously.

If you've recently updated your smartphone, clean the cache.

Restart and then try.

Allow permission if asked.

 

[Keithngan162]

still no luck after cleaning the cache. its the same from before, it gives me the option to tell it to transfer files for only a split second, and Windows plays the "connected" sound over and over

I think its my USB ports problem because the cable works with the one USB port (this usb port is almost never used) from my other laptop

 

[Keithngan162]

My phone when charging from the wall gets around 1100 mA (Ampere app) and when plugged into my laptop t gets around 220 mA but gets around 900 mA as well when plugged into USB hub.

Also, I noticed that when the phone was connected directly to my laptop, it seemed like the my mouse was being disconnected sometimes, almost like the usb ports were turning off and on? im not entirely sure.