[android] Nexus 5 USB driver

I want to develop and debug Nexus 5 with ADT (based on Eclipse) in Windows 7 x64.

As I connect Nexus 5, it appears in Windows in Explorer, so I can transfer files to/from Nexus. Next step I enable USB debugging in Developer options on the phone; the phone shows notification "USB debugging connected", device disappears from Explorer and Windows tries to install a driver and fails. In Device Manager I see Nexus 5 with exclamation mark icon in "Other devices". Then I select Update Driver Software in Device Manager for Nexus 5 > Browse My computer for driver software > provide path to the driver I downloaded from here http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html: C:\Program Files\Android\usb_driver, check "Include subfolders" and click Next.

I get the message "Windows could not find driver software for your device". I tried all kinds of tricks suggested on Internet including this topic: What USB driver should we use for the Nexus 5?

Nothing helps. Any idea how to force Nexus 5 to work on Windows?

Looks like Google released Nexus 5 without providing an updated driver (the last version is dated 07/09/2013, version 8.0 making it useless for developer on Windows platform.

This question is related to android eclipse

The answer is


You should install Google Drivers from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top That works for me every time


Is it your first android connected to your computer? Sometimes windows drivers need to be erased. Refer http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2512549


Nexus 5 with Win7 x64

-USB computer connection : Uncheck MTP and PTP

-Use a 2.0 USB port.

-Try to use the original USB cable.

Now device manager will detect nexus 5 as an androide device with ADB driver.


I just wanted to bring a small contribution, because I have been able to debug on my Nexus 5 device on Windows 8, without doing all of this.

When I plugged it, there was no yellow exclamation mark within the device manager. So for me, the drivers was OK. But the device was not listed within my eclipse ddms. After a little bit of searching, It was just an option to change in the device settings. By default, the Nexus 5 usb computer connection is in MTP mode (Media Device).

What you have to do is:

  1. Unplug the device from the computer
  2. Go to Settings -> Storage.
  3. In the ActionBar, click the option menu and choose "USB computer connection".
  4. Check "Camera (PTP)" connection.
  5. Plug the device and you should have a popup on the device allowing you to accept the computer's incoming connection, or something like that.
  6. Finally you should see it now in the ddms and voilĂ .

I hope this will help!


Windows 7 x32 I found that no matter what I did, the driver being used dated back to 2006. It would not update, in fact Windows appears to be preferring the old driver to the new. I eventually found a way to sort it.

The Device Manager contains 'ghost' drivers that need to be deleted (if you have the same problem as I). To see them requires setting a variable in the registry, restarting and then deleting the likely redundant drivers.

Open the Device Manager from the command line use devmgmt.msc There are other ways, but this is easiest to describe. Currently it shows only 'current' drivers.

Open the System Properties box. Via Command line use sysdm.cpl

** Be aware that playing with area of your computer can break it. Back away if you are at all unsure of this. **

  1. Open the Advanced tab, click Environmental Variables.
  2. Under System Variables, click New.
  3. Enter variable name devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices, under value enter 1.
  4. Restart your computer.

Re-open the Device Manager, under view click Show Hidden Devices.

From here delete what you think are the problems then follow the advise you will have read elsewhere. On two seperate computers I have done this and found all I needed to do following this was download and install the standard google drivers as per user3079537's answer above. Good luck.

ref: http://www.petri.co.il/removing-old-drivers-from-vista-and-windows7.htm#


Well @sonida's answer helped me but Here I am posting complete step How I did it.

Change Mobile Device Settings:

  1. Unplug the device from the computer
  2. Go to Mobile Settings -> Storage.
  3. In the ActionBar, click the option menu and choose "USB computer connection".
  4. Check "Camera (PTP)" connection.

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Download Google USB Driver:

5 .Now go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#top and download USB Drivers --> unzip folder.

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Install USB Drivers and Get Connected Device:

6.Then Right click on My computer -->Manage --> Device Manager.

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7.You should seed Nexus 5 in the list.

8.Right click on Nexus 5 --> Update Driver Software... --> Browse my computer for driver software

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9.select the folder we downloaded/unzipped "latest_usb_driver_windows" and Next ...Ok.

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10.Now you will see pop-up dialogue asking for Allow device --> Ok.

11 .That's it!! device is connected now, you can see in DDMS.

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Hope this will help someone.