Google Android USB Drivers for Windows: Download and Installation

Dhananjay Bhardwaj•Updated Nov 2, 2022

Download Google USB Drivers

Now, there are two different ways/methods to download the USB driver on Windows. You can either download the Google USB Driver ZIP file manually. Or, you can use the SDK Manager in the Android Studio to download it.

The latter gives an added benefit, that is the SDK Manager will automatically notify you when a newer version is available. The former method, on the contrary, will require you to manually check if a newer driver version is available and download it again.

In our personal experience, downloading the ZIP package directly is easier than using the Android Studio. But the choice is solely up to you. We have covered both the methods below.

Note: If you’re using macOS or Linux, you would not need these drivers.

Direct Download

Just click on the link below to download the Google USB Driver ZIP file to your PC.

Latest version: usb_driver_r13-windows.zip
Previous versions:

Once downloaded, extract the ZIP file to a suitable location on your computer. The extracted ‘usb_drivers’ folder should contain the required ‘android_winusb.inf’ driver file.

Download via Android Studio

First of all, make sure that you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Android Studio on your Windows PC. Once you have it installed, follow the instructions below:

Launch ‘Android Studio’ on your PC.
Click on ‘Tools’ and select ‘SDK Manager’.
Go to the ‘SDK Tools’ tab.
Select ‘Google USB Driver’ and click on ‘Ok’.
Finally, click on ‘Ok’ when prompted with the ‘Confirm change’ message.
You should see a ‘License Agreement’ message on the screen. Simply select ‘Accept’ and click on ‘Next’.

Android Studio will now download the Google USB drivers to ‘android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\‘ on your PC. Here ‘android_sdk‘ is the folder where the Android SDK is installed on your PC.

How to Install Google USB Drivers

The Google USB Drivers come in the form of an ‘android_winusb.inf‘ setup information file, rather than a Windows executable. So, you will need to manually install it on your Windows PC. The same steps can also be used to upgrade the existing drivers installed on your PC to the latest version available.

Now follow the installation guide below according to the Windows OS version you’re using. It’s quite easy and wouldn’t take more than a minute to install them.

On Windows 11 and Windows 10

To install Google Android USB Drivers on Windows 10, follow the instructions below.

First, connect your Android device to the PC’s USB port.
Go to the ‘Control Panel‘ and click on ‘Device Manager‘.
Double-click on your device category to expand the list of connected devices.
Right-click on your Android device’s name and click on ‘Update driver‘.
Click on ‘Browse my computer for driver software‘ in the Hardware Update wizard.
Click ‘Browse‘ and select the ‘usb_driver‘ folder.
- For example: If you downloaded the drivers using Android Studio, the folder should be located in ‘android_sdk\extras\google\’ on the PC. Or, if you downloaded the ZIP file, then just locate the extracted ‘usb_driver’ folder.
Finally, click ‘Next‘ to install the drivers.

On Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1

To install Google Android USB drivers on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 PC, follow the instructions below.

First, connect your Android device to the Windows PC’s USB port.
Then right-click on ‘Computer‘ and select ‘Manage‘.
Select Devices in the left pane.
Double-click on ‘Other device‘ in the right pane to expand it.
Right-click on the device name (e.g. Google Pixel) and select the ‘Update Driver‘ option.
Click on ‘Browse my computer for driver software‘ in the Hardware Update wizard.
Click ‘Browse‘ and locate the ‘usb_driver’ folder.
Finally, click on ‘Next‘ to install the USB drivers.

You should now have the Google USB Drivers installed. Your Windows PC should now detect and recognize your Android device over the USB connection.

Important Note

If the drivers fail to install even after following the steps, OR the ADB/Fastboot commands do no work even if the drivers are installed, then it could be because you’re using a USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 port or an AMD based PC. This is an issue faced by a lot of users recently.

To fix it, simply try using a USB 2.0 port (If it’s not available, you can also use a USB 2.0 hub) on your PC. Also, try using an Intel-based PC for especially when using ADB/Fastboot tools.

How to Modify Google USB Drivers to Support Other Android Devices

Like we mentioned above, Google USB Drivers also work as ‘ADB Drivers’. But by default, they only support the Google Pixel and Nexus devices.

While Android OEMs do provide their own drivers, but it’s more often than they miss to include the required ADB USB drivers in them. In such cases, you can easily modify the ‘android_winusb.inf’ file in Google USB Drivers to support any other Android device to use the ADB and Fastboot tools.

In order for the drivers to support your non-Pixel/Nexus device, you will first need to acquire the Vendor ID (VID) and Product ID (PID) of your device. Once you have them, the second step is to edit the ‘android_winusb.inf’ file and add a new device section with the VID and PID of your own device. And finally, the third and last step is to install the modified drivers.

Sounds confusing? It’s quite simple actually. Just follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Get the VID and PID of your Android Device

First, connect your Android device to the PC using the USB cable.
Go to ‘Control Panel‘ > ‘Device Manager‘ on the PC.
Locate your unrecognized Android device. An unrecognized device can normally be located under the ‘Universal Serial Bus controllers‘ OR ‘Other devices‘ sections in Device Manager. You would see a yellow-colored triangle warning icon beside the connected device.
Right-click on the device name and click on ‘Properties‘.
Go to the ‘Details‘ tab and select ‘Hardware Ids‘ from the dropdown menu.
You should now see the Vendor and Product IDs of your Android device.

Step 2: Modify ‘android_winusb.inf’ file

Now that you have the required IDs, you can modify/edit the ‘android_winusb.inf’ file to add your device to the supported list.

First, locate the ‘usb_driver‘ folder on your PC. Inside the folder, you should have the ‘android_winusb.inf‘ file.
Open the file using a text editor and locate the ‘[Google.NTx86]‘ section if your Windows PC is 32-bit (x86) or the ‘[Google.NTamd64]‘ section if your Windows PC is 64-bit (x64).

In the said section, you will see a number of items with the following format:

;[device name]
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx&MI_xx

You can copy the above lines into the respective section and edit it accordingly.
The first thing to do is to replace the ‘[device name]‘ item with your actual device name (Nothing specific, it could be anything).
Next, you have to add your device’s VID and PID values to the %SingleAdbInterface% and %CompositeAdbInterface% items.
1. In case your device also has a REV_xxxx ID, you will need to add two lines for the %SingleAdbInterface% item. One without and another with the REV ID. The line with the REV ID should look like:
```
USB\VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx&REV_xxxx
```
2. For the %CompositeAdbInterface% item, you will further need to add ‘MI_01‘ ID towards the end. With the MI_01 ID, the line should look like:
```
USB\VID_xxxx&PID_xxxx&MI_01
```

For example, my Xiaomi Mi A3 has a VID and PID as ‘USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D’ & ‘USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D&REV_0100’. In that case, the lines should look like the following:

;Xiaomi Mi A3
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D
%SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D&REV_0100
%CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D00D&MI_01

Once you have added the lines under the proper section (depending on your PC’s architecture), save the file and exit.

Step 3: Install the Modified USB Drivers

You have now successfully modified the Google USB Drivers to support your Android device. The last step is to install these modified drivers for your device.

Important information:

The android_winusb.inf file is signed by Google and making changes to it (although intentional, such as we did here) will directly affects its digital signature. Once the file has been modified, the “Driver Signature Enforcement” feature of Windows (11/10/8.1/8) will prevent you from installing the modified USB driver.

To bypass this, you will need to temporarily disable Driver Signature Verification by enabling Test Mode. How-to-Geek has a pretty good explanatory piece on how to do it using two different methods.

Thanks Hamid for pointing it out!

Now, to install the modified Google USB drivers: go to ‘Control Panel’ > ‘Device Manager’ and right-click on your device’s name. Then select ‘Update drivers’ to launch the Hardware Update wizard. Click on ‘Browse my computer for driver software’ and select ‘Browse’. Now locate the ‘usb_driver’ folder that contains the modified android_winusb.inf file and select it.

Finally, click ‘Next’ to install the modified drivers for your device. That’s it! Reboot your Windows computer and it should now recognize your Android device over ADB or Fastboot.

Installing the Google USB Drivers is the easiest solution to make your Windows PC successfully recognize your Android device. And while it should work for most other Android devices too, it’s not a hundred percent guaranteed. And if this happens, you may want to install your device’s OEM specific drivers from this page or by clicking your device manufacturer link below.

For low-level firmware flashing, you could also use MediaTek or Qualcomm USB drivers.

If you face any issues installing the drivers on your PC, feel free to ask us through the comments.

Drivers source: Google