Nexus 5 not detected by ADB

Question

When trying to connect to my Nexus 5 (5.1.1) in Android Studio (1.0.1) my device is not found. I am running Windows 8.1 Pro.

In the [SDK]/platform-tools directory I ran the command:

adb devices

which returned:

List of devices attached

(Empty list)

I have tried several ways:

• Uninstalling/reinstalling Nexus driver (android_winusb.inf)
• Editing driver file with different hardware id's + Uninstalling/reinstalling
• Update driver and choose the same driver file as earlier.
• 4 Different usb ports
• Tried switching between MTP and PTP
• Restarting after all the previous steps

I have no problems with accessing files on my Nexus through my computer. The nexus also is shown as "Nexus 5" in Device manager and not some other driver.

But I am still not able to connect to the phone with Android Studio and ADB command won't list the device.

How can I get it listed?

Related links:

• Android studio doesn't list my phone under “Choose Device”

• How do I get my Nexus 7 to show up in the adb devices list?

Answer 1

One thing I noticed not mentioned in what you have tried that will make your device invisible. Have you enabled USB debugging on your Nexus 5. USB debugging helps operating systems communicate with each other and without it things get lost in translation. To enable USB debugging

1. Go into Android settings menu and scroll down to the about phone menu next go towards the bottom and hit the build number 7 times. settings/about phone/build number

2. This will reveal a new menu within the main Android settings called developers options and scrolled to USB debugging and enable it.

That should get you up and running but if not then scrap the the driver you modified. Go to SDK redownload Google drivers and install them. That issue was reported in 2013 and the drivers in SDK have been updated since.