After connecting or trying to disconnect your phone to PC, you may encounter the The device either stopped responding or has been disconnected error. This error can also occur if you removed the USB cable connected to your phone without ejecting the device first or moving files from your phone to PC.

This is a common problem and can occur due to several reasons but all associated with the USB connection.

In this article, we have listed a couple of troubleshooting tips to help you resolve the error with your phone and computer.

Steps to resolve The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected

1. Disconnect and reconnect the device

The error is most likely to be triggered by a background process that is using the device. The quickest way to fix this issue is to disconnect the device and reconnect it.

Make sure you pull down the notification panel on your smartphone, tap on USB connection and select Charging only.

Disconnect the USB cable from the device. Close all the apps that are using the device and then reconnect it. You may also want to restart your PC and then try again.

2. Run hardware and device troubleshooter

The built-in hardware and device troubleshooter can find and fix any driver related issues with the connected hardware devices. Here’s how to do it.

1. Press Windows Key + I to open Settings.
2. Go to Update and Security.
3. Click the Troubleshoot tab from the left pane.
4. Scroll down and click on Hardware and Devices.
5. Click on Run the troubleshooter button.
6. Follow on-screen instructions and apply the recommended fixes.

What if Hardware and Device troubleshooter is missing?

On the newer version of Windows 10, you may find that the hardware and device troubleshooter is missing. If you can’t find the hardware and device troubleshooter here is what to do.

1. Press Windows Key + R to open Run.
2. Type cmd and click OK to open Command Prompt.
3. In Command Prompt, type the following command and hit Enter to execute:
   msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic
4. This command will successfully open the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter.

If the hardware and device troubleshooter did not help you resolve the The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected error, try reinstalling the affected USB controllers from Device Manager.

3. Reinstall USB controllers

Before proceeding with the below steps, create a restore point. This will help you to restore the system to normal if anything goes wrong during the process.

1. Press Windows Key + R to open run.
2. Type devmgmt.msc and click OK. This will open Device Manager.
3. In Device Manager, expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers category.
4. Right-click on the USB device/port that is creating the issue and select Uninstall Device.
5. Click Uninstall one again to confirm the action.
6. Unplug the device and restart the computer.
7. After the restart, plug in the device and proceed with the installation.

You can also reinstall the device from Device Manager. Open Device Manager, click Action and select Scan for hardware changes. That should reinstall any connected by missing device successfully.

4. Try connecting to another PC

This may sound like an overreach as everyone does not have access to multiple PCs. However, try connecting your device to another PC and check if the PC detects the device without the error.

If you are able to connect and transfer files on your secondary computer, the issue can be with the USB port of your primary computer or other driver related issues.

Varify USB cable and port

If connecting to another computer allows for the transfer of files, check if the USB port on your computer is defective. Try connecting the device to another port on the computer and that should help you diagnose the issues.

If the diagnose finds the USB port to be not working, here is how to diagnose and fix dead USB port.