What To Do When Samsung KIES Cannot Detect Samsung Galaxy S4

There could be a lot of things that may result to Samsung KIES not being able to detect Galaxy S4 when connected to a computer. While the problem is common and easy to fix, it is very annoying especially when you need to backup or restore your data to or from your computer.

Samsung KIES cannot detect the Galaxy S4 if one of the following happens:

  1. The USB drivers became corrupt.
  2. KIES installation had an error.
  3. The USB/data cable is broken.
  4. The phone is defective.
  5. The computer has issues with its hardware.
  6. The owner recently updated the phone.

Software-related problems (numbers 1, 2 and 6) can easily be fixed but problems that directly concern the hardware (numbers 3, 4 and 5) may need more in-depth knowledge to fix or may require the intervention of an expert or a technician.

Fixing Software-Related KIES Problems

The installation of Samsung KIES is easy to do, many would say. However, for some reason, there are times when the process fails. If this happens, it’s either KIES won’t launch or result to errors whenever a Samsung smartphone (in this case, the Galaxy S4) is connected to the computer. More often than not, it’s the drivers that are compromised that’s why even if the hardware is working and properly connected to the computer, they just wouldn’t be bridged because it’s either the driver, which serves as the bridge, does  not exist or was corrupted during the installation.

How would you know if the problem is with the drivers? 

Connect your Galaxy S4 to your computer using the original USB data cable. If it says that the device or USB is not recognized, then you need to reinstall the drivers. You could try to automatically search for the drivers online by going into the Device Manager and update the drivers from there. You could also install Samsung KIES if you haven’t already. The application offers a connection troubleshooter so you should try that first before going further. Here’s how…

  1. Disconnect the device from your computer.
  2. Close KIES and reboot both your computer and phone. (Yeah, I know it sounds dumb but rebooting your devices, oftentimes, solve a lot of problems.)
  3. Once the computer and the Galaxy S4 are up, launch KIES and connect the phone to see if the connection is made. Otherwise, disconnect the S4 before doing the following step.
  4. Click Tools, and then choose Troubleshoot connection error.
  5. Click Start. The entire process would include installation of the drivers if the computer detects they’re not in the system and/or reinstallation if they are corrupt.
  6. Choose Yes on any installation warning messages.
  7. Once the troubleshooting process is finished, reconnect the phone to your computer and see if it works.

This procedure has been proven effective by many users already as far as failed KIES installation and corrupt drivers are concerned.

In case you recently updated your phone and this problem occurred, neither the reinstallation of the drivers nor the KIES connection troubleshooter can fix the problem. The only option left for you to do is to uninstall KIES from your computer completely and reinstall it.

Going About Hardware-Related Problems

Broken USB Cable. When you connect your device to your computer and the machine failed to detect that a new hardware was just plugged in, it’s a sign of a broken USB cord. But in order to confirm that you should connect the phone to another computer to see if it would also fail to detect the new hardware.

As a user trying to troubleshoot the problem, make sure the other end of the cable is attached firmly to your phone while the other to the computer. It is only then that you could confirm a connection couldn’t be established using the USB cable you have in your possession.

The next thing you should do is find another USB cable you could use to bridge a connection between the phone and the computer. You can borrow from your friends who have the same phone as you or you could buy one. So far, this is the most sensible solution you can do for your device.

Defective Phone. It would take a lot of troubleshooting and diagnosing before you can actually say your phone has a defect. Perhaps, the only person who could declare whether the device is in good condition or not is an authorized technician. If none of the procedures mentioned above works for you, then you should bring your phone to a tech so it would be diagnosed properly. If the tech says the phone is defective, you should be provided a replacement, which would solve all the problems you’re currently experiencing, of course.

Defective Computer. There is also a possibility that a computer is defective, or at least, its USB ports. But then again, it would take a lot of troubleshooting procedures to be able to say so. But more often, a fresh copy of the operating system would solve issues like this.

Tell Us Your Problems

For our readers who may have problems with their phones, we are open to your questions and suggestions. Email us at [email protected] and be as detailed as you can when you tell us your tech problems so we may be able to help you better.

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2 thoughts on “What To Do When Samsung KIES Cannot Detect Samsung Galaxy S4”

  1. I recently tried to do a firmware upgrade on a Galaxy SII Skyrocket model SGH-I727. I got an error message on the phone reading “Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again.” Kies would then not connect to allow me to go in to emergency recovery mode.
    The device drivers are installed but it simply will not connect.

  2. After downloading and installing this Samsung keis, it refuse to connect with my Note3 it instead refer me to Switch to this (Smart Switch) now after downloading installing this Smart Switch, when i try to connect it again refuse to connect as-well, this is the error message i always get from Smart Switch:(FAILED TO CONNECT THE DEVICE.
    PLEASE DISCONNECT THE CABLE AND TRY CONNECTING AGAIN.

    IF AN ERROR OCCURS DURING THE SOFTWARE UPDATE, IT CAN BE RESOLVED USING THE EMERGENCY SOFTWARE RECOVERY FEATURE )
    i have tried this several time and always getting this error message from both aplications i mean Smart Switch and Samsung keis.. Any help to this?

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