What USB driver should we use for the Nexus 5?

Question

As of the time of this writing, Google does not provide a USB driver (for Windows) for the Nexus 5. The usual link (http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html) shows Windows USB drivers for several of the Nexus's line. However, the "Nexus 5" is not included. Note that the Nexus "S" (letter-S, not number-5) IS supported.

Also, from this site, the latest version of the current download is version-8, July-17-2013. When I compare this with its predecessor, version-7, the files are the same.

Until Google fixes this, what are we to do? How can we debug and develop for the Nexus 5?

Answer 1

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 wasn't any yellow exclamation mark within Device Manager. So for me, the drivers were 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:

• Unplug the device from the computer
• Go to Settings -> Storage.
• In the ActionBar, click the option menu and choose "USB computer connection".
• Check "Camera (PTP)" connection.
• 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.
• Finally, you should see it now in the DDMS and voilà.

I hope this will help!

Answer 2

After trying the other solutions I was able to send ADB commands to the phone as long as it was booted into Android. However, when the phone was in recovery mode I encountered a new problem, and I would like to contribute my experience here.

While booted into Android the phone installed in Windows as a device named "Nexus 5". After the phone was powered down and booted into recovery mode, the phone was still installed as "Nexus 5", but ADB could not detect the device. I had to manually force the driver from "Nexus 5" to the Google USB driver provided with the SDK or available from Google USB Driver.

The .inf file has three devices available. I used "Android Composite ADB Interface" and everything seems to be working.

Answer 3

Are you sure it's a driver problem? A device that isn't detected probably has a hardware or firmware problem. If it isn't detected, you won't hear the USB device detected chime. It might not be serious, e.g. some "USB" cables are really only charging cables. Try a USB cable that you know works for data, e.g. the one that came with the phone or one you use for connecting an external hard drive.

Answer 4

This worked for me:

1. Download the Nexus 5 Drivers from Google USB Driver
2. Extract the ZIP contents and place all files in a single folder on your desktop.
3. Connect your device to your computer.
4. Launch the Device Manager on your PC.
5. Now you should see the Nexus 5 listed in the hardware list.
6. Right-click the ‘Nexus 5′ line and then click on Update Driver Software.
7. Next, click the ‘browse my computer’ option.
8. In the new window, click on ‘Browse…’ button.
9. Go to folder unzipped at step 2. Select the folder where you extract the USB drivers. Click Next.
   • Make sure to tick the subfolder box too.
10. Now, the Windows installer will search for Nexus 5 drivers. Click Install when asked for permission.
11. Wait for the process to complete and then check the Device Manager list to confirm that the installation was successful.

Source: Download and Install Google Nexus 5 USB Drivers (ADB / Fastboot)

Answer 5

I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate N version and my Nexus 5 showed up with a yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager and none of the solutions here worked.

I verified that the phone reported itself as:

USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE1

Which doesn't work with the current (v11) of the Google USB driver.

But after enabling Developer Options and USB debugging on the phone it identified itself as:

USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2&MI_01
USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE2&REV_0232&MI_01

Which installs just fine.

So just enable Developer Options on your phone and retry the device install.

Answer 6

My Nexus 5 is identyfied by the id = USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001.

Use the Google USB drivers, and modify file android_winusb.inf. Find the lines:

;Google Nexus (generic)
%SingleBootLoaderInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4EE0

And add below:

%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001

Repeat it, because there are two sections to modify, [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64].

If you continue with problems, try this:

Connect your Nexus 5, go to Device Manager, find the Nexus 5 on "other" and right click. Select properties, details, and in selection list, and select hardware id. Write down the short ID, and modify the line with:

%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, YOUR_SHORT_ID