Install Motorola ADB Drivers for Windows

Overview

To connect your Motorola Android phone with your computer you need to install the Motorola drivers. These drivers are used in a development environment and by software like Droid Explorer.

Your computer cooperates

If your computer cooperates you simply need to go to the Motorola driver page for your phone, download the installation file and run it. When you plug in your phone the drivers will be installed.

Driver Install Error

There are two options listed here. You may have to do both or only one. I suggest that you check to make sure that the device name is correct first (Option two). I also suggest that you read the entire article and the related discussion links before you start.

Option One

If you get an error when you plug your phone in you will have to do some work to get the drivers installed.

I used this method on an ancient WinXP pro computer and so far no ill effects from this process. I also used a registry cleaner application to clear the registry of dead entries related to the drivers before reinstalling.

Download the correct driver file for your computer from Motorola.

Uninstall everything (Motorola Media Link, Droid Explorer, previous installs of the driver program, etc.) that relates to connecting to your phone.

Try installing the driver program again (make sure that you have admin privileges) and connect your phone. If you don’t get the driver install error you are done.

Step Two

If you got a driver install error go into the start menu (or whatever they call it on Windows 7 or vista, etc.) and run the program Motorola Driver Installer.exe. It will open and run and there will be window that has a log of what happens.

Delete every file mentioned in that list. I copied the output into a text editor to make it easier to read.

Uninstall the moto driver install program.

Reboot

Reinstall the Moto drivers, reboot and plug your phone in. Make sure that you have administrator’s rights when you do the install!

Plug your phone in. If you don;t get the driver install error you are done

Step Three

It appears that in some case the device name in the Motorola driver file is incorrect

This thread at xda-developers.com advises these steps:

• Plug in phone to PC. Set to charge only. Make sure USB Debugging is turned on. (Need help with these steps? Ask.)
• Right click on My Computer and go to Manage.
• Click on Device Manager.
• Right click on Motorola ADB Interface and go to Properties.
• Go to the details tab and make sure hardware IDs is selected in the dropdown.
• Download the ADBDriver_v3_Google.zip from here
• Extract the zip file somewhere easily found.
• Go to the usb_driver directory extracted from the zip and open android_winusb.inf with a text editor
• Under the Moto Sholes edit the driver hardware ID after USB\ to match that of what your hardware ID is from step 5.
• Save and close the .inf
• Update the driver specifying the new .inf you created. (Need help? Ask.)
• Repeat steps as necessary to install ADB drivers for Storage Card mode.

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Disclaimer

I am not responsible for the consequences if you are attempt any of the steps outlined above.

Further reading

• ADB Interface Drivers Won’t Install
• ADB Drivers for XP

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