Wemos D1 Mini not recognised by Windows with no COM port
This blog post describes what you can do if Windows doesn’t recognise the Wemos D1 Mini and there is no COM port to use it.
Do this first: Check your Cable!
Your Wemos might not be found due to a faulty cable. Some cables will only transmit power and will not work.
Try using another cable, any one from an android phone should work with the Wemos. If this doesn’t work then try the next steps. Lots of readers of this post found that simply changing the cable worked!
Why is there no COM port for my Wemos D1 Mini
The standard USB-to-serial drivers installed on Windows does not currently support the USB-to-serial chip used in the Wemos D1 Mini.
The Wemos D1 Mini won’t show in the Arduino IDE until this issue is resolved. If you are using another program to program the D1 Mini you won’t have the emulated COM port needed to program it.
However it is relatively easy to fix this by installing the correct driver for the USB-to-serial chip.
Installing the required driver
The Wemos website has the correct driver to use for the USB-to-serial chips in their Wemos range. This includes the Wemos D1 mini which I am having trouble with.
You can download the driver from their downloads website.
The download is CH341SER_WIN_3.5.ZIP and the MD5 hash is: b9038b9be77a70dd411f1c9879851144
Once the driver was installed Windows reloaded the Wemos D1 mini and correctly found the driver. The COM port then appeared in the Arduino IDE and I could successfully load programs onto it.
If you have any questions about getting the Wemos D1 Mini to work feel free to ask below.
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I am having a massive amount of trouble with this.
Driver installation fails when I try to install the driver, and I can’t seem to find a way around that.
Any assistance will be appreciated
Hi Savvas, what error are you seeing with the driver install?
This is getting really frustrating for me. I’ve installed the driver multiple times as admin yet Windows still doesn’t recognize my D1 esp8266 board. I’m using Win 10 x64, any suggestions? Thanks
Hi Jeremy,
Are you able to try this on another computer? After installing the driver have you rebooted the PC?
When you plug in the WeMos D1 does the blue light appear?
I’m having the same sort of problem I have now bout 4 d1 minis have installed the drivers and all it says is drivers installed in advance. I have tried about 4 cables. But every time I plug it in my pc isn’t even phased no noise, no unrecognized device in devmngr nothing. As if it’s not even there. And the lights blink when I plug it in
I have the same problem with my d1 mini, it just blinks when i plug it in, after that the led just shuts down. In the Arduino programm is not Port to connect to. Please help
I recently bought a few more of these and one of them is doing what you suggest, I tried it in a couple PC’s but it all did the same. After returning it and getting a new one the new one worked as expected. You might have just gotten a bad one?
Yo tambien tengo el mismo problema, tengo 3 d1 mini, he probado varios cables y varios pc’s y no funciona ninguno, no aparece en administrador de dispositivos, cuando lo conecto con el USB, parpadea 1 vez y luego se apaga, Windows no lo reconoce, no hace ni sonido ni nada, y con Linux tambien lo he progbado y tampoco funciona. Es muy desesperante. Tienen alguna sugerencia
Can you try a different PC? It might be an issue with the one you are using
Hi. I can’t seem to find the my WeMos in the list of Boards. I’ve installed all the necessary drivers and it was working fine up until recently. Can you help?
p.s. the blue light appears when I plug it in
I’m having sort of the same problem I plug it in lights blink but no noise from pc nothing not even a unrecognized device in devmngr. I have tried to different pc and about four different cables and nothing. And every time I install the driver it just says driver installed in advance. When I plug it in it’s like it’s not even there.
Same issue. Ever find a solution?
I had the a same issue a then tried a new usb cable and wow works
I am having a similar issue with my WeMos D1 Arduino UNO-R3. I downloaded the ch340 driver and ran but it is still not showing as a com port. I have tried with hours with no luck. Any advice would be appreciated.
I am having the same issue. I tried so many times installing the ch340 driver and got various result from install fail to install in advance. But then when I plugin my programmer for ESP01, it recognizes the ch340 for com6. So I think my driver is ok unless there is a diff driver specially for ESP12. I have 1/2 dozen of these they all seem to behave the same (NodeMcu V3 to ESP12 WeMos). And I was sure I tested one working before with Arduino sketch. This is very frustrating.
i as well have the same issue on win 10…my esp-1 adapter recognizes the ch340 for a com port assignment, but nothing for the d1 mini (have a couple of them nor my esp8266-12)
Same issue here. This is really, really frustrating. Two different computers, a laptop and a desktop. Both light up the blue LED (it’s constant if that means anything), but no COM ports in the arduino IDE. I’ve installed the ESP8266 library of course.
CHANGE MICRO USB CABLE
THANK YOU. I cannot express how greatful for this comment and this thread. Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times. I have been struggling with this problem for hours and hours, just to find it was my cable. Thank you once again.
Sincerely,
George
f*ck. all the trouble i went thru. changed usb cable and it works, lol smh
Oops! I will update the thread to make it super clear that EVERYONE should try a new cable first! Thanks for the update.
I love you!!! haha. So simple and so clear. Thanks
This worked for me.
If you’re still having issues, change your micro usb cable. Some cables are built for power only and others can handle both power and data transfer. A safe pick would be one from an android charger.
You nailed it! I had tried two. One that comes with the Chromecast and one that comes with a power brick, and sure enough, both seem to be just to provide power. I had seen folks saying try another cable but I ruled it out because I had already tried two and I knew those cables work *for the other stuff*. DARN! THANK YOU!
I had the same problem, it was the cable! Tried with a different one and it suddenly appeared!
Oooh good idea, Glad to hear a new cable worked!
New cable worked for me too. Even though I thought it rediculous as it looked like a Samsung cable. Only if I tried earlier
Worked voor me too!
I just went and bought a brand spanking new data cable and it still doesn’t work for me. I have installed all the drivers I can find in all the threads I can find. When I plug in the board the blue lights come on and stay on, however my laptop doesn’t make that noise stating that it has found a new bit of hardware plugged in.
Can the length of the wire be a problem? Mine is 2m
No a 2m cable should be fine.
I have the same issue. Already try several cables and nothing. I bought a new data cable and sitll doesn´t appears the port.
Any help?
Thanks
I had to downgrade my arduino to 1.6.3 I believe and it worked right away. It does suck using the older arduino code . I may go back to a newer version but for now it is working. I was able to connect it to alexa.
try install VCP Drivers https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers/ to Wemos. It solved my problem.
I searched for this bug for about 3 hours
I really appreciate your comment.
After two days struggling, I succeeded to install my wemos driver. I changed the cables and computers but nothing worked. The VCP driver is the only solution to my board.
Thank you!!!!
i was dealing with it almost 2 weeks , and yeah problem was cable :)) thanks