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.

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Comments

Alexandru_BD

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:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/28557/

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.

Qwuik

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.

Gjoksi

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.

@dvsls @camarie @Alexandru_BD

Qwuik

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.

Alexandru_BD

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:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

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:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1733/

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Alex

Qwuik

Okay, maybe support will help.

Many thanks to you all for participation.

Alexandru_BD

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..

aalfonso82

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.

Qwuik

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.

Mihai N

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………

internet_rando

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.

Qwuik

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/351021#Comment_351021

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.

dvsls

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.

dvsls

Also, please open a support ticket here: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/

Squidle34

I thought I’d just tack on a message onto the end of this thread before perhaps starting a separate thread in order to get an update on this matter. I’m not able to give all the detail as I’m not at my PC but I’m experiencing problems with connecting all my usb sticks and external hard drives. I have Windows 11 Pro fully up to date on both my PC’s, one of which has just had a new install. The Bitdefender version is the latest as of the 19th of April 2025.

I pretty sure I had no issues until the most recent update it would seem, now when I connect my drives, They show up in explorer, showing a drive letter and Icon, but not the volume name. When you click on the drive it makes explorer freeze. Usually requires a hard reset.

Oddly, when I reboot with the drives connected that were not initially not accessible, I find that they are now working just fine. It appears the issue is caused when you boot into windows and then connect a drive or usb stick.

I tried many things from checking the drives with chdsk, to seeing if maybe some system files were corrupted via the cmd prompt. I then came across this thread. I’ve yet to properly troubleshoot Bitdefender Total Security but I have Disabled scanning of connected drives and changed it to ask. Still having issues

Question… Disabling scanning of my usb drives and setting it to ask gives you an option to immunise your connected devices once plugged in? Correct?

So I’m curious if people are still having issues at present and what other things they have tried. I’ll probably try reinstalling Bitdefender tomorrow although I don’t hold much hope of it rectifying the issues because as I said I’ve done a fresh install on one of my PC’s and it’s exhibiting the same behaviour.

I hope there is a fix soon because having to restart every time I connect a usb stick or drive is a pain

I’d be interested to hear anyone’s experiences!

internet_rando

I just uninstalled Bitdefender and now all my drives work perfectly.

Squidle34

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/352783#Comment_352783

I appreciate the reply but having spent money on this, that’s not really an option. I’ve used Bitdefender for ages and this is the first time I’ve had an issue. If I was to uninstall it I’d need some form of replacement. I don’t like Kaspersky and a lot of the other options aren’t great.

I’ll be troubleshooting shooting tonight, I’m still interested in anyone that had the same thing happen and if it’s still an issue for them now

Nobody2025

I just registered to mention that I've also had this problem since mid-April. Decided to uninstall Bitdefender a few weeks ago until a solution was developed. It looks like the problem is still there.

I’m still interested in anyone that had the same thing happen and if it’s still an issue for them now

What I'm wondering, are there any installations where the bug does not occur? I have 3 different PCs/notebooks affected... Surely this must affect such a large number so Bitdefender is losing users here every day?

Squidle34

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353076#Comment_353076

I tried a lot of windows based things and nothing seemed to fix the issue. Hot swapping usb sticks or drives didn’t work. Even after toggling off the usb scanning. One usb stick did work which was a Windows 10 installation usb. This was strange, but everything else wasn’t working. Then I thought to myself self maybe there is a conflict between some of the programs I have installed. In fact the first thing I looked at was my NordVPN app which has various security options within the umbrella of their Threat Protection Pro. I immediately toggled off their malware scanning feature and found that everything now functions as normal. I guess the usb scanning function in Bitdefender and the malware scanner in Nord we’re fighting with each other and freezing explorer and blocking access to the drives and USB sticks.

Your problem may be different but for me I guess it makes sense there was a conflict between the two apps trying to do the same thing at the same time??

I hope this helps, if not good luck in finding a solution. BTW start a support ticket as they were really helpful with trying to figure out what the issue might be

Nobody2025

Wow...
I had invested over 8 hours in troubleshooting “back then” and also found that only USB devices that use the USBSTOR driver are affected. Your Windows 10 installation stick probably uses a different driver due to the boot option.
I was 100% sure that it must be a bug in Bitdefender as it suddenly started with the update.
But after you mentioned NordVPN I have now tested this again, because I also use NordVPN...

-> Bitdefender Security installed again, USB problem is back. -> NordVPN settings opened -> Anti-Malware -> "Malware scanner" deactivated -> problem solved.
Awesome!
Thank you... I probably don't need the NordVPN malware scanner anyway, but the respective development teams should get together anyway!

Great, then I'm optimally protected again :)

Squidle34

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/353096#Comment_353096

I hear you! I was pulling my hair out over the matter 😀 Glad you are sorted and I agree the development teams should talk. Just for your information, here is what Bitdefender support said regarding the issue , the resolution and conflicts

“I am glad to hear that you have found the culprit for the situation that you encountered with your drives.

Bitdefender has some of the features you mentioned NordVPN's Threat Protection Pro includes, such as the Malware Scanner. Running multiple security solutions with overlapping features can cause conflicts. Disabling NordVPN’s malware scanner has resolved your USB issue, and it’s a good idea to turn off features that overlap with each other’s functionality, such as vulnerability scanning and malicious website blocking, to avoid further conflicts.”

Just to add I have all other Nord Threat Protection features enabled within no apparent conflicts

Mihai N

SOLVED !!
Virus problem, rootkit or bootkit, found it in the usb stick firmware !
Diskpart cleann all.
Reinstall ssds firmware, bios and motherboard firmware….

Ok, solved by me, but Bitdefender total security or Windows defender does not find it…..

Mihai N

All the problems with Bitdefender Snoozed when insert sticks in USB, comes from a virus ! rootkit or bootkit, or firmware virus…
Solution: (my solution after reistall windows several times without result):
Save data in cloud.
diskpart clean all ALL DRIVERS and external ssds and all usb sticks
Erase/reinstall/flush firmware
Reinstall bios !
reinstall when possible firmware (ssd, motheboard, etc).
Now Bitdefender works perfect !