cannot see my note8 when connected to my windows pc

Question

For years I have connected my phone to my desktop windows PC to transfer various files between the phone and PC. I've had my Note8 since it was released and connecting to my PC has always work until tonight. I connected it to my Win10 PC and was able to see the phone and contents. As I worked on the process of transferring files I lost the connection. Now, no matter what I do I cannot see the phone in the windows file manager. I've rebooted the PC and phone, tried a different cable, different port. If I connect the phone to my laptop I do see the phone and can transfer files.

Any suggestions to get it working on my desktop again?

Pat · Accepted Answer

I have a Note 9, so it may be a little different than the Note 8, but you don't have to turn off Developer options unless you want to. Developer options allows you to do things you couldn't do otherwise, like viewing and controlling your running services and I also turn on "Mobile data always active" for fast network switching. My old Note 4 always defaulted to Charging and I had to go in to Developer options and manually switch it to MTP every time I plugged my phone into my computer to move files, but now thanks to Developer options I can set my preferred USB configuration to be the default so that my phone will start up in that mode whenever I plug it into my computer. There are a lot of settings you can play with like the animation settings and it can be interesting to see what happens when you change something, but just remember what the original settings were so you can change it back if you need to.

James Watson · Answer

Go to Device Manager of your Windows PC, then check the item for your note 8.

If there is a yellow exclamation mark for your note 8, 

1. Disconnect the usb cable.
2. Right-click the device, and click Uninstall.
3. Reboot your PC.
4. Connect your note 8 with the Windows PC via usb cable again.

chigandahoo · Answer

Did you allow USB debugging on your note8?

John Terdik · Answer

USB Debugging was not turned on but it is now. Should I have it on or off?

John Terdik · Answer

There are no yellow exclamation marks in the device manager on my desktop

when I plug the phone into my laptop I hear the confirmation beeps confirming I have connected a USB device. I don't hear this when I plug the phone into my desktop. I just checked and if I plug a USB hard drive into the desktop I do hear the confirmation beeps and I see the HD in my file manager.

I just removed the USB HD from my desktop, connected the phone to the same port, I did hear the confirmation beeps, WHAAAAT the heck, now I see the phone. 

I'm going out on a limb and just guessing that plugging in the HD forced win10 to do something with the USB code in Windows and something got reset thus allowing the phone to be seen. I think I did see a computer grimlin running out of the tower. Who knows..... the darn thing now works and I'm happy. Thanks to all for suggestions. 

I just turned off the USB debugging but I don't know how to turn off the developer mode or if it is necessary to turn it off.

ani100 · Answer

I am having this similar issue!

John Terdik · Answer

I have no idea what changed but now I can see my Note 8 in my file manager app (xplorer2). However I do have a new issue, I can no longer delete/move/copy images from the Galaxy Note8\Card\DCIM\Camera folder which is on the SD card in my phone. In the past, I could do so.

I also store my audiobooks on the SD card and I can delete/move/copy files from the audiobook folder (Galaxy Note8\Card\Audiobooks\_Books) without any issues.