All USB stop working after the latest update
As of 2025-02-20 the latest Bitdefender Total Security update cause all USB ports stop working (Windows 10 22H2).
I spent almost a whole day for trying reinstall USB drivers and cleaning up Windows. None of these steps working. However, when I uninstalled Bitdefender, all was fine again!!!
To clarify problem: USB can't see any external device and gets stuck.
Please fix this ASAP. Can't use Bitdefender Total Security for now.
P. S. Can't open a ticket because there is no such feature anymore, so I'm writing here.
Comments
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Hello @Qwuik,
Since you mentioned that if you uninstall Bitdefender the issue went away, reinstall the antivirus and then disable its security modules one by one, to find out which one interferes with USB driver processes in this case. You'll find the procedure here:
Test your your USB ports after each deactivation and don't forget to re-enable your defenses once you're done troubleshooting. I suspect that either the Advanced Threat Defense module, or the Firewall could have something to do with it. ATD continuously monitors the applications and processes running on your computer. It monitors suspicious activities such as copying files to important Windows operating system folders, executing or injecting code into other processes, multiplying them, changing the Windows registry, or installing drivers, and may interfere with USB driver processes if they are mistakenly flagged as suspicious.
Furthermore, if your USB devices require network communication (such as tethering or external network adapters), Bitdefender’s firewall might be blocking them.Let us know how it goes.
Regards.
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Thank you for reply. Yes, it seems to be something interfering w/ drivers.
I tried all these methods:
1. Completely disabled all features. Disabled some of them, including Advanced Threat Defense.
2. Reinstall BD.
3. Reinstall Windows.
4. Reinstall drivers, update them all, incl. chipset, USB controllers, etc.
None of these approaches worked, regretfully. During searching on the web, I occasionally saw post which mentioned Bitdefender, so it was surprise for me, cause I have no thoughts BD might be a reason previously.
In meanwhile, once I reinstalled Windows, I tried USB ports, and all was fine as usual. However, when I installed BD again, the issue came back with ease.
Hence, definitely the problem is contained w/ BD. What else I can do? I have no untried options now:)
UPD:
Please note: the issue occurs only after the latest BD update several days ago. It might be related somehow, I guess.
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Hello.
My specs:
OS Windows 10 Pro 22H2 x64 With Latest Windows Updates Installed
OS Build 19045.5487
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19061.1000.0
A few minutes ago, i got the latest update 27.0.47.239 and then i restarted my laptop.
After restarting the laptop, i did a test and inserted a USB drive.
And i had no problems with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, as on both ports i could open the USB drive, read some documents already stored on it, store documents from my laptopt to the USB drive etc.
Regards.
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It's weird…
I have the same specs, despite Win Home, not Pro.
OS Build 19045.5487
Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19061.1000.0
BD Build 27.0.47.239
Can't figure out, what's wrong.
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That's very curious. Never saw this behavior before, really. If it's not too much trouble, can I suggest contacting Bitdefender Support? They can have a closer look and also collect some logs from the affected device, and hopefully find out what's causing this. Since you already went to great lengths to try and solve this, I think it's worth a try.
Here's the link you can use to contact the Support engineers:
State your contact reason / choose request category, then choose from the available contact channels, chat, phone and email/ticket. Chat would be the fastest way to reach them.
And if logs are required, this article shows how to create a debug log on your PC using Bitdefender Support Tool:
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Alex
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Okay, maybe support will help.
Many thanks to you all for participation.
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You're welcome and I'm sorry we couldn't do more here. It's just one of those cases where you need to dig deeper, I guess..
Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user
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Has anyone found a fix for this? This ****** is driving me crazy, I can't believe an Antivirus can cause this effect, I have uninstall and reinstall this piece of ****** of a software to see if I can make my USB ports useful again with no success.
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Hello.
So, I lived w/o all USB for several days. A couple of days ago, that marvelous thing BD notified I need to install critical update of a high priority: .NET 2025-01. In Windows Update Center there were no suggestions about it and all was up to date, however. Despite that, I installed that update from within BD and did a reboot.
A very, very unusual thing, but USB started working again. Can't understand what's going on, USB are good for now.
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Bitdefender Total Sec STOPS when insert in USB port mempry stick or HDD.
The widget makes RED…
Install all from 0…scanned with Windows Maware etc etc… Impossible to use Bitdefender…
(I am using Bitdef Total sec more than 8 years…)
Windows 11,
Amd Threadripper Pro 5975, Asus SWRX80 mothetboard…
It works perfect until november 2024…..
*100% software with Licenses
*NO ******, NO untrusted sites,
Business/Work computer………1 -
Was working regularly with 3 usb drives until ~7th March 2025 where suddenly every time I plugged in a USB it would not be recognised by Windows 10. It would appear in Explorer, but no drive letter / name and could not access contents. If i tried to refresh explorer it would basically crash my whole system since it locked up explorer, and so much of windows seems to use it.
The only time they worked was when booting into Safe Mode.
Tried to fix via:
Dedicating drive paths
Reinstalling USB drivers
Reinstalling external HD (WD) drivers
Pretty much everything suggested in : https://thegeekpage.com/fix-usb-ports-not-working-in-windows-10-solved/
Prior to crashes there would always be a good 10-20 second delay plugging in a USB while Bitdefender wanted to scan it (even though setting was set to ask) - so uninstalled BitDefender completely → rebooted → all USB working correctly again.
Not sure what BD has done but yeah it's a definite problem.
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Hello,
I had exactly the same issues. i.e. not responding Windows Explorer and not displaying external drive letter. Also, Windows Explorer tried to read external drive indefinitely. So I was forced to stop its task in Task Manager or reboot or exit/enter system.
Seems to be like a kind of looping, though I'm not an expert here.
Additionally, I wonder for what reason it was gone with the absence of any actions on my side except installing .NET update from within BD.
Very unusual behavior so far.
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It would be helpful if everyone who has encountered this issue mentioned their computer specifications, such as the motherboard, CPU, GPU, and whether it’s a desktop or laptop.
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Also, please open a support ticket here: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/
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