I’m new to Android, so I might have just missed something. However I’ve been reading through several related threads which unfortunately didn’t help.
My plan was to install an alternate OS on my freshly bought second-hand FP3 (Android 10), so I went through part 1 of the official guide to manage the boot loader.
My PC (Windows 10) does not recognize the FP3. When connected via USB, the FP3 is charging, but nothing else happens. USB preferences are greyed-out. No entry in the Windows Device Manager (not invisible either). No optional Windows Driver Updates found.
I’ve tried all USB slots on my computer as well as two different cables. To make sure both cables work for data transfer, I tried them on my friend’s Shift5me - my PC can access that without problem. Same situation on a different Windows 10 laptop. I also removed quite a lot of debris out of the FP3’s USB port.
Do you have an SD card that is formatted as portable, which is therefore unencrypted and may be read via USB or are you trying to access the encrypted SSD storage?
Also have you downloaded ADB (Android Debug Bridge) to your pc?
@DeepSea I did reboot the phone, but it made no difference. @anon9989719 There is no SD card either. The phone is in factory state, and I was just trying to establish a connection with my PC so I can follow part 2 of unlocking the boot loader.
Therefore, I downloaded SDK Platform Tools (apparently including “adb”) to my computer but am not sure if they are properly installed as I couldn’t find instructions.
As this is a used FP3, you may want to disassemble and see whether the ribbon cable of the bottom module is not damaged and firmly connected to the main PCB or not…
@DeepSea Good idea, I just opened it up, dis- and reconnected the bottom module. The ribbon cable looks fine.
@anon9989719 I was using a thin metal needle to carefully clean the USB port. Do you think that could have produced damage? (I’ve done that on my old iPhone many times without problems).
I’ll check out the ADB thing tomorrow…
ADB will work only when the device is recognized by the OS, which obviously is not the case here because you have mentioned that no such hardware (“Android device”) is listed in Windows Device Manager. Still I suspect a physical issue with the bottom module, maybe a broken USB data pin…
Not having a gui output of the connected device on my desktop once adb was installed, without unlocking the bootloader I can access the phone via the command
adb devices
this shows there is a connection and the device ID/number
I just powered the FP3 off, then entered fastboot mode while connected to my PC. Windows now detects a device called ‘Android’, listed in the Device Manager under ‘Other Devices’ and with a yellow exclamation mark. It says that drivers are not installed yet and not available.
In the FP3 fastboot screen it says DEVICE STATE - locked. (Not sure if that could be relevant).
As soon as I start Android however, the connection drops and ‘Android’ becomes grey in the Device Manager.
Unfortunately, Windows Update still won’t show me any available Google drivers.
I was trying to install the Google USB Driver but it didn’t work. I tried to install the file android_winusb.inf via the Device Manager > Other Devices > Android [right click >] update driver > search my Computer > [update folder location].
With the FP3 on fastboot, I just searched for Windows Updates again. Finally it offered me “Google, Inc. - Other hardware - Android Bootloader Interface” which I successfully installed.
Now, while on fastboot mode, a new device is listed in the Device Manager called “Kedacom USB Device > Android Boot Loader Interface”.
However, once I proceed to start up the Android OS, Windows remains unable to detect the FP3.
I downloaded SDK Platform tools including ADB, then ran a command prompt from the containing folder:
the Kedacom device indicates that you installed the correct fastboot driver…as long as the FP is in fastboot mode adb devices should not work, but fastboot devices should work… if not reboot the phone and try again…
Awesome, fastboot devices did work, while FP is in fastboot mode - the FP serial number is shown in the command prompt. Thanks @yvmuell
Okay… now I kind of want to go ahead and unlock the bootloader in order to install LineageOS.
But… shouldn’t I wait and try to fix the Windows drivers first? Any thoughts?
Not sure…did it ever work and stopped at one point or is it the first time you are trying? Now that you could install the fastboot driver did you try to find “normal” driver updates through Windows updates? Still all USB functions instead of charging are greyed out?
