When your smartphone is not recognized by computer, it denotes a problem on either the phone or the computer. Something on your phone is preventing it from establishing connection with the computer system or the other way around. That said, you will need to consider troubleshooting both devices. Highlighted in this post are some suggested workarounds and generic solutions to a pertinent issue on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone that is not recognized by a Windows PC. Read on to find out what to do in case you will bump into the same issue when attempting to sync your Xperia device to a Windows computer for file transfer or other file management purposes.
Before we proceed, if you’re looking for a solution to a problem with your phone, try to browse through our troubleshooting pages to see if we support your device. If your phone is in the list of our supported devices, then go to the troubleshooting page and look for similar problems. Feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. Don’t worry it’s free. But if you still need our help, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.
How to troubleshoot Xperia XZ Premium that’s not recognized by PC
Before you begin troubleshooting, check and ensure that your USB cable is working. If you have some spare and similar USB connector or data cable, then you can try to use the other cable to see if it works. Sometimes, a faulty cable is to blame. After ensuring that the USB cable is working and yet your computer still won’t read your smartphone, you can go ahead and troubleshoot your devices.
To rule software problems on your phone from the underlying causes, try these subsequent methods to see which from them offers the ultimate solution.
First method: Soft reset/restart.
Restarting the phone is likely what’s needed if your phone is glitching and thereby results to a problem with USB data syncing. A soft reset or device restart also clears minor bugs that might have caused the same errors to occur. This won’t affect any critical data and information you saved on the internal memory of your phone, so you don’t need to create backups beforehand. Here’s how it’s done:
- Press and hold the Power button for a few seconds.
- Release the button when the menu options appear.
- Tap Power off and then tap OK. Your phone will then shut down.
- After 30 seconds, press and hold the Power button again until the phone reboots.
When your phone has finished restarting, try to connect it to your computer again and see if it’s already recognized this time. If not, then try the next workaround.
Second method: Update software to the latest version.
Software updates also contain bug fixes for security enhancements. Assuming that the problem is inflicted by some tough bugs, then installing new updates might be the key to fixing it. This is why updating the software on your device is recommended.
You will know when a software update is available if you see the New Update icon (refresh icon) in the status bar. Or you can check for new software update manually with these steps:
- Go to Settings.
- Tap System.
- Tap Software update.
If a system update is available and you want to install, verify and ensure that your iPhone has sufficient memory space and battery life. A Wi-Fi Internet connection is also a must. Once you’ve met all the requirements, tap the option to Continue, then tap Install Now to instigate installation of the update file.
After updating your phone, perform a soft reset to ensure that the new system changes are properly implemented. Doing so will also clear any minor app glitches, thus preventing the device from going rogue. Try and see if that’ll fix the problem.
Third method: Enable USB debugging mode.
You can try to enable USB debugging mode to debug your Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone. USB debugging mode works by facilitating the connection between your phone and the computer through Android Software Development Kit (SDK), to enable it after connecting your phone directly to a computer via USB. Enabling this mode grants you a level of access to your phone, so you can have more control over it. If you wish to try your luck in this method, then follow these steps to debug your Xperia XZ Premium device:
- Tap the Apps menu icon from the Home screen.
- Go to Settings.
- Scroll down and tap About phone.
- Find Build Number and tap on it several times. Doing so will prompt you with a message on your screen saying that “You are now a developer.” If you see that message, it means you have successfully enabled the Developer options including USB debugging mode on your phone.
- At this point, go back to Settings and you should see the Developer options menu.
- Tap to select Developer options to continue.
- Drag the slider next to USB debugging to turn it on.
- Tap USB debugging to continue.
- When prompted with the Allow USB Debugging message, tap OK to confirm.
After that, you can connect your phone to your computer again and see if it’s already recognized.
How to troubleshoot your PC that can’t recognize your Xperia XZ Premium
Before you troubleshoot your computer, check and ensure that the USB port you’re using is working or not damaged. You can try to switch to a different port to figure that out. Also remove any other USB paraphernalia or external devices attached via USB on your computer including USB speakers, external hard drive, or memory card. Some computers won’t be able to read the smartphone with other USB devices attached. Make sure that’s not what’s causing you this trouble.
First method: Reboot your computer.
Computers also experience random glitches, resulting to minor software errors or system failures. And in that case, the first recommended solution to try on is a reboot. Just like what’s recommended when smartphones are acting up. It helps clear any errors and minor bugs that’s affecting the computer’s normal operations.
You can do the usual reboot on your Windows PC by clicking the Start icon and then select Restart from the given options. Allow your computer to complete the reboot process and loads up Home screen.
By then you can try to connect your phone via USB or data cable to your computer again and see if your computer already recognized it. If that still failed, then move on and try the next workaround.
Second method: Disable firewall or security software (temporarily).
Some security software and firewall may tend to block certain external devices especially if a threat to security is perceived. When you connect your phone to your computer, the latter device will read it among other external (USB) paraphernalia. Depending on the settings configuration of your security software and/or firewall, it may not grant system access to your phone.
In that case, you can either configure your security software or antivirus and firewall to set exceptions and grant access to your Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone. If you are not sure how it’s done, then you can ask further assistance from the security software developer or Microsoft Support. There might be some advanced settings that only they can walk you through configuring the software accordingly.
Third method: Manage USB drivers on your computer.
Navigate to the Device Manager section on your computer to view the current status of your device drivers. There might be some drivers that need to be updated, uninstall or reinstall on your computer. Just go to the expand the USB drivers menu to see which drivers require necessary actions, usually the ones with X, question marks and exclamation marks on or next to them.
If you are not sure of what drivers to update, delete, or reinstall, then contact the manufacturer of your computer or Microsoft Support for further assistance and recommendations. They’ll be able to walk you through on how to install what drivers to make your computer able to read and recognize your Sony Xperia XZ Premium device the moment it’s attached via USB/data cable.
Also make sure that your computer is running on an operating system version that is compatible with the current software of your phone.
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