USB drives are the most important component, as they are often used to transfer files between PCs. Lately, several Windows 11 users reported that when they plug their USB drives into the system, they end up with an error message which states-
There are several reasons for the same issue, such as outdated or damaged drivers, settings in the power management and many more. If you are also suffering from the same issue, then you can follow this article to the end to get all the reliable solutions to tackle the same error. Let’s have a look.
Fix 1: Disable USB Selective Suspend Settings:
As a first resort to overcome the “USB Device Not Recognized Error on Windows 11” is disabling the USB selective suspend settings as soon as possible. To do so,
- Firstly, click on the Search button in the taskbar and type edit power plan and press Enter.
- Then select Edit Power Plan Control Panel window from the search result and click on Change advanced power settings link.
- Inside the Power Options window, expand the option USB settings.
- Now double-click on the USB selective suspend settings and select the option Disabled from the drop-down menu.
- Once done, click on Apply and OK button. Now check for improvement.
Fix 2: Plug the Drive into Different USB Ports:
You can connect your USB drive to different Ports, which means to the USB 2.0, in case there is any compatibility issue with the USB 3.0 ports. Also, it would be best if you use authorized USB cables. Otherwise, it may affect your connection badly.
Fix 3: Update Device Drivers:
If your driver gets corrupted or outdated, then it is bound to cause a few issues. Here the best solution is to update the drivers. To do so,
- Firstly, go to the Start menu and type Task Manager and open the relevant search result.
- Then inside the Task Manager window, select and expand the Disk drives option.
- Now right-click on your device and select Update driver from the drop-down menu.
- Inside the new window, select Search automatically for drivers option.
- There your Windows will scan and download available updates.
- Once done, restart the system and check for improvement.
Note: If updating the driver does not help you, you need to reinstall or disable the driver by following the same above steps. However, instead of selecting the Update driver option, you can select Disable or Uninstall driver.
Fix 4: Change Power Management of USB Root Hub:
Another solution to tackle the “USB Device Not Recognized Error on Windows 11” is changing the power management of the USB Root Hub. To do so,
- Firstly, press Windows + R simultaneously to launch the RUN dialog box, then type devmgmt.msc to open Device Manager.
- Then select and expand the option Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Now right-click over the USB Root Hub and select its Properties.
- In the Properties window, go to the Power Management tab from the top horizontal menu.
- And untick the option beside the option Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
- Then click on OK and exit from the window. Now check the said issue gets resolved or not.
Fix 5: Disable Fast Startup:
The Fast Startup feature is used on PC to speed up the booting time of your PC. However, sometimes this Fast Startup feature in Windows will conflict with the USB drive and result in USB Device Not Recognized Error on Windows 11. In this scenario, you need to disable the Fast Startup feature to get rid of the same issue.
- Firstly type the Control panel in the search box and open the relevant search result.
- Then inside the Control Panel, go to the Power Options screen and click on Choose what the power button does link.
- In the newly opened window, click on the Change settings that are currently unavailable option.
- Now under the Shutdown settings section, untick the option Turn on fast startup and click on the Save changes tab.
- Once done, restart the system and check for improvement.
Fix 6: Assign Drive Letter to the Device:
Some suffered users managed to escape from the USB Device Not Recognized Error prompt by assigning a drive letter to the device. To assign a drive letter, you can follow these steps,
- Firstly, insert the removable USB drive into the system.
- Then in the search box, type Disk Management and open the first search result.
- Now right-click over the USB drive inside the Disk Management window and click on Change Drive Letter and Paths option.
- Then click on the Add button in the new prompt. There Windows will assign the available drive letter. If it is good, then click on OK button.
- If you need to change the letter, go to Assign the following drive letter option and select the desired letter from the drop-down list.
- Once done, restart the system and check the said issue is resolved or not.
Fix 7: Format Device Via Command Prompt:
If any of the above solutions do not work for you, then you should format the device through Command Prompt. To do so, you can follow these below steps,
- Firstly, type cmd in the taskbar search box and open the Command Prompt window with administrative access.
- Then type the following command to launch the Diskpart tool,
diskpart
- Again type the following command to get all the available drives,
list disk
- Now type the following command to choose the device currently fell in issue
select disk *
- Here replace the “*” with the disk number.
- Further type the following commands and press Enter after each command to format, re-create, activate partition and convert the device to the NTFS format,
clean
create part pri
active
format fs=NTFS
- Once you have executed the above comments, restart the system and check the said issue is resolved or not.
So, these are all about getting rid of USB Device Not Recognized Error on Windows 11 and its sure fixes. If you have any queries or doubts after reading this article, please leave a comment in the below comment box.