Android Fastboot devices not returning device

Solution 1:

For Windows:

  • Open device manager
  • Find Unknown "Android" device (likely listed under Other devices with an exclamation mark)
  • Update driver
  • Browse my computer for driver software
  • Let me pick from a list of devices, select List All Devices
  • Under "Android device" or "Google Inc", you will find "Android Bootloader Interface"
  • Choose "Android Bootloader Interface"
  • Click "yes" when it says that driver might not be compatible

Solution 2:

Are you rebooting the device into the bootloader and entering fastboot USB on the bootloader menu?

Try

adb reboot bootloader

then look for on screen instructions to enter fastboot mode.

Solution 3:

I had the same issue, but I was running Ubuntu 12.04 through a VM. I am using a Nexus 10. I had added the usb device as a filter for the VM (using virtual box in the virtual machine's settings).

The device I had added was "samsung Nexus 10".

The problem is that once the device is in fastboot mode, it shows up as a different device: "Google, Inc Android 1.0." So doing "lsusb" in the VM showed no device connected, and obviously "fastboot devices" returned nothing until I added the "second" device as a filter for the VM as well.

Hope this helps someone.

Solution 4:

TLDR - In addition to the previous responses. There might be a problem with the version of the fastboot command. Try to download the newest one via Android SDK Manager instead of default one available in the OS repository.

There is one more thing you can do to fix this issue. I had the similar problem when trying to flash Nexus Player. All the adb commands we working fine while in normal boot mode. However, after switching to fastboot mode I wasn't able to execute fastboot commands. My device was not visible in the output of the fastboot devices command. I've set the right rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/11-android.rules file. The lsusb command showed that the device has been pluged in.

The soultion was quite simple. I've downloaded the the fastboot via Android Studio's SDK Manager instead of using the default one available in Ubuntu packages.

All you need is sdkmanager. Download the Android SDK Platform Tools and replace the default /usr/bin/fastboot with the new one.