Connecting Google Nexus 7 to Windows XP Laptop : Solved

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I just got my hands on the new Google Nexus 7 16 gb tab. My work laptop has Windows XP on it and I was expecting that XP will just detect Nexus 7 like any other USB device. Well that didn’t happen :(. Windows deteced that Nexus was plugged in but couldn’t install any drivers for it. At this point ASUS or Google do not have any drivers posted for Nexus 7 on the website. To get your Nexus 7 connected to an XP laptop / PC, try the following things (it worked for me atleast..)

1. Ensure that you have Windows Media Player 11 as MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is not available in WMP 9 Series. You may also download and install MTP Porting Kit (Click here to download) if you don’t want to install WMP 11.
*Note: Some users found that upgrading to WMP11 solved the problem when just installing MTP didn’t work. If standalone MTP Porting Kit doesn’t help try upgrading to WMP11. 

2. Download Android USB Drivers and extract the files.
Download Mirror 1 (box.com) – Click here to download
Download Mirror 2 (dropbox.com) – Click here to download

3. Goto Device Manager. Right click on Nexus 7 and choose update driver. Choose install from a list or specific location. Uncheck “Search Removable Media” and Check “Include this location in the search”. Click on the browse button next to it and select the folder where you extracted the android usb drivers.

4. Click ok to begin installation. Windows XP should now be able to install the Drivers for Nexus 7 without any issues.

If you found other methods to connect Nexus 7 to windows XP, please post your finding in the comments.

70 thoughts on “Connecting Google Nexus 7 to Windows XP Laptop : Solved”

  3. Than you for the post, great help. I was successful in installing the driver but my machine still does not recognize it as a valid device.

    Reply

  4. I’ve tried this with no luck. When I plug in my nexus 7, I keep getting “new hardware detected” and it tried to install something for MTP. Once that fails, it says “new hardware detected” and sees the nexus, I installed the ASUS software and it seemed to work (at least it says it installed properly). WMP11 still doesn’t see the device. Any reason it thinks it needs both the Nexus 7 drivers and MTP?

    Reply

  5. I agree with Prabesh’s comment. Was able to install the driver successfully, but the Nexus 7 device is still not recognized by Windows Explorer.

    Reply

  6. Prabesh / Gunter/ Bob, do you have USB debugging enabled in developer options? If yes, try disabling this option. I found that certain drivers did not install correctly if this option was left enabled.
    This option is located under Settings->{}Developer Options->USB Debugging.

    Reply

  7. Hi Alok!

    I thought I finally found a comprehensive solution, but nope. When I first plugged in my nexus 7 with the usb to my laptop it saw new hardwere but was unable to install driver/not MTP on laptop (the usual). So then I did everything you recommended (including making sure that USB debugging is disabled), but when I finally went to Device Manager -> Nexus (‘unknown USB device’ in my case) -> update driver -> folder where I extracted the android usb drivers, and unfortunately the wizard says ‘the hardware was not installed because the wizard cannot locate the necessary software’ 🙁
    I’m totally stuck. HELP!

    Reply

  8. my google nexus is recognised thru windows xp, but when i try to put a movie in the movie folder, or any files except mp3, i get a message saying file type not supported, but i know they work,

    Reply

  9. It connects on the XP station at my work that I had the USB driver for my droid 2 installed on, but not on the one I didn’t.

    Reply

  12. Oooops: Media Transfer Protocol no longer available with WMP 11, and not downloadable from MS website (message: We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found.).

    I can’t connect my new-bought Nexus to my PC XP.
    Maybe through a USB stick. Ah… no. ASUS has decided it was superfluous.

    Is there anyone who want to buy a second-hand 1 day old Nexus 7?

    Reply

  13. Problem solved.
    When I bought my Nexus 7, USB Debugging was enabled.
    After searching for about 3 days I found a similar problem with a Motorola Xoom 2 had been solved disabling USB Debugging.
    I managed to find that option on my Nexus 7, I disabled it and, magically, now I can connect my XP to my Nexus 7.

    Reply

  14. Antonio has it right, Microsoft took the MTP driver down. Can someone upload it. I think Google is fighting to keep people from rooting their Nexus 7 so a USB stick can be recognized using the mini USB port. Don’t be evil … Google.

    “Antonio
    on August 17, 2012 at 3:32 pm said:
    Oooops: Media Transfer Protocol no longer available with WMP 11, and not downloadable from MS website (message: We are sorry, the page you requested cannot be found.).

    I can’t connect my new-bought Nexus to my PC XP.
    Maybe through a USB stick. Ah… no. ASUS has decided it was superfluous.

    Is there anyone who want to buy a second-hand 1 day old Nexus 7?”

    Reply

  17. Hey I did everything u sad and the drivers installed fine.But now what? The computer says software is ready to be used but it is STILL not recognizing the nexus as a device. Can u help? I’m so frustrated right now….

    Reply
  22. Pingback: How do I transfer files to my Nexus 7 ?? - Page 3

  23. I did this and it worked. Firstly I ensured all xp updates were in place, including service pack 3. Then downloaded and installed windows media player 11. Connect to pc using usb cable. This should put an indicator on the notifications section of your nexus (in the form of a down arrow at the top of the screen). Slide down and touch ‘USB Connection’. Then ensure it is set on MTP option and not camera option. Then, on your pc go to device manager (right click on my computer icon, click manage, then device manager). The nexus (in my case any way)was present but as a yellow question mark – which suggests missing drivers. Now right click on the yellow nexus (still in device manager) and select option to install/update drivers. Allow windows to use web search (i did anyway). Windows then very quickly installed the MTP (media transfer protocol) driver, and suddenly there it is. Shows up as a drive in my computer and able to use as expected.

    Reply

  25. Hi,
    I axactly followed the steps, installed the MTP-package, installed mediaplayer 11, did a reboot of the PC, checked settign on the Nexus, but no success. Finally, I entered the device manager anagain and selected update driver and this finally brought up the tablet as a drive on the PC.
    Thnaks for the instructions which finally brought me to the solution.

    Reply

  28. The process worked for me. Thanks for the help. It didn’t work the first day when I went through the process as suggested by you, but the next day when I connected the device to my laptop, boom, it worked. Most of the replies said that it didn’t work for them, but I think they should try it now one more time. Thank you so much for sharing this technique.

    Reply

  29. Followed your instructions to the letter using the ‘MTP Porting Kit’ option. Worked beautifully Nexus 7 came up in windows explorer and file transfer worked. Safely removed hardware and shut down, came back the next day plugged in the tablet, and nothing on windows explorer, checked device manager and yes at top of device tree ‘android phone’ which when expanded showed ‘ADB interface’ but other than that the only other place it seems to be recognized is the safely remove hardware icon, again shown as ‘ADB interface’. I’ve tried unistall, reinstall, and update driver with no result I’m lost HELP!!!! p.s. have since downloaded WMP11 and tried to sync, no joy there either.

    Reply

  30. XPSP3 on Thinkpad T60:
    Installed MTP kit and Nexus 7 USB driver.
    XP shows Nexus as ‘Android Phone / Android ADB Interface’ in Device Manager. No drive in Filemanager, though. Restarted Nexus in FastBoot mode (+- volume + start), no difference.
    Any suggestions what to try next ?

    Reply

  31. I have tri8ed to download the driver requested for Nexus 7 on Windows XP but when the “Box” page pops-up, I get this message :
    “The user hosting this
    content is out of bandwidth.
    If this is your file please upgrade to add more bandwidth credits to your account. Call Sales at 1-877-729-4269 for more information.”
    Is this permanent or should I come back later?
    Thanks

    Reply

  36. WMP was already 11 for me, i’ve applied the MTP porting Kit and after a restart of winxp (sp3) : all ok : a Nexus 7 node in my file explorer from where i can browse the sdcard.

    Thk u!

    Yobo.

    Reply

  37. If you are running JellyBean 4.2, you have to first enable Developer Options by going to the Build number in About Tablet and pressing it 7 times (bizarre!). Then I went into Developer Options, disabled USB Debugging, and voila! now I can see my Nexus 7 in Explorer.

    Reply

  38. Hi, I need to which cord to pucrchase for google nexus 10 .WIll the USB cable for nexus 7 work for nexus 10.Any advise on which cables you’ll are using to first of all connect your laptop to the tablet.

    Reply

  42. hmmm i have developer options all turned on i did it this way a few days ago i installed just the MTP stuff and nothing. this morning i followed this and installed wmp11 and then the usb drivers for GalaxyNexus & Nexus 7 in the device manager while each was plugged in now they work flawlessly with MTP.

    Reply
  43. Pingback: Cannot Connect to PC

  48. OMG! This works.
    I was able to transfer files back and forth from my pc(XP) and the Nexus 7 32g straight out of the box. Then all of the sudden, Nexus 7 was no longer seen by my pc. I searched all over the internet for a fix to no avail. 100’s of other nexus owners seem to have the same problem. This was my last resort before just retuning the tablet and down grading to something with removable storage.
    I just did what was instructed and my pc detected the Nexus again. Hope it still works for the long run.
    Thank you.

    Reply

  50. I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I have tried everything suggested on this blog and several others, none worked. But this DID:
    I connected my tablet to a windows 7 laptop and it connected to USB perfectly, but wouldnt do so with my xp machine. neither would my phone. So go plug it into a windows 7 machine, go into device manager, right click on the device and go to properties, then go to driver details. it will list all of the drivers used and their locations. there are about 5 or 6 of them. copy them onto a usb drive. plug the usb drive into your xp machine and copy them (overwrite) them into where they belong (where they were on the windows 7/8 machine). I backed up my old files but did not need them. when you have done copying over the files, restart your machine, plug in whichever device that did not work before, make sure you set it to MTP in the device and enable USB in the device aswell, and voila, it is now listed in my computer! full file access! I only did this once and both my tablet and my phone are now visible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    I always use blogs to find problems and this is the first time I have found a solution on my own, so i had to share it with all of you :))

    Reply

  52. Awesome … Have been looking for this info from a long time .. This is Consolidation of all options on this problem ….. gr8 blog

    Reply

  53. “If you are running JellyBean 4.2, you have to first enable Developer Options by going to the Build number in About Tablet and pressing it 7 times (bizarre!). Then I went into Developer Options, disabled USB Debugging, and voila! now I can see my Nexus 7 in Explorer.” USB Debugging already disabled on 32 gig, 16 gig you have to turn off???? Thanks for the help!

    Reply

  54. Perfect!
    I’ve installed MP11 and the USB driver (was able to get it from the dropbox since the box was out of bandwith or so), and everything run perfectly now.
    Thanks a lot!

    Reply

  55. Thanks…
    Its Working.

    I Just Installed WMP11
    Uninstalled Previous And. driver from device manager.
    plunged NX7
    and everything is OK.

    Reply

  56. After I updated the drivers in device manager, it has stopped showing my Nexus7 in portable devices, now I am unable even to roll back to old drivers or see Nexus7 under my computer. what do I do? Please Help

    Reply

  63. very difficult for search MTP media transfer protocol from micro soft .
    it goes validate windows XP file
    it says it is old version file 1.5 mb file
    why not kept all source in one folder ie dropbox

    Reply

  67. As many others, I had problems hooking up my Nexux 7 to my WinXP laptop.
    I stumbled across this fix and the problem was resolved IMMEDIATELY. I’m copying and pasting the post in its entirety with only one minor edit… the instructions tell you to go to “notepad C:\Windows\inf\wpdmtp.inf” when in actuallity in Win NT it should read: “notepad C:\WINNT\inf\wpdmtp.inf”.
    I might note I tried all the Media Player 11, etc driver suggestions and none of them worked properly. I also spent considerable time on the phone with support with no good results except that I could then sync my old Palm data files properly to DejaOffice.

    So here it is:
    Thanks Iwan – I’ve tried every other solution on google and this is the only one that worked for my nexus 7 on XP.

    So I ran “notepad C:\WINNT\inf\wpdmtp.inf” (in hardware manager when my nexus 7 was connected I had a yellow MTP icon) – I’ve copied/pasted below the whole section that I ended up with – save the file.

    Connect your Nexus 7 and in device manager, right click the yellow mtp icon, select update driver, then in the wizard select authomatic (the top default option), let the driver install, all done!

    FINAL wpdmtp.inf that work for me:
    ;
    ;Device is identified by Microsoft OS descriptor
    ;If your device does not support it, use specific VID & PID for identification
    ;
    [Generic.NTx86]
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP
    ; Nexus 7
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42&MI_00

    [Generic.NTamd64]
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP
    ; Nexus 7
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTP
    %GenericMTP.DeviceDesc%=MTP, USB\VID_18D1&PID_4E42&MI_00

    Reply

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