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Writer's pictureDaniel Van Nattan

Getting Started With Arduino: My board isn't showing up!

Oh no! You've successfully installed and configured the IDE, but you can't find your board under "Ports"! Now what?


Thankfully, there are a number of ways to fix this.


If you are operating a Windows system, and you are not using a genuine Arduino board, or an Arduino Nano, one of the most common reasons that the port may not be showing up is because the drivers may be outdated or not installed. If this is the case, you can update them by following the steps below.

  1. Go to the Start Menu, and type "Device Manager" on the search bar.

  2. Click the Device Manager icon.

  3. Scroll down to and click on "Other Devices".

  4. Double click the unknown device to open the "properties" window.

  5. Select the "Driver" tab, and click "Update Driver".

  6. Choose the "search automatically for updated driver software" option.

  7. Windows will begin to update.

  8. After the update is done, try to select a port in the Arduino IDE again.


If this did not fix the issue, you may have to reinstall the Arduino driver to fix the issue. The next section will show you the correct way to reinstall the driver.


When an Arduino board is plugged into a Windows computer, the driver will be installed automatically. The Arduino will be configured as a virtual COM port by the driver, and this can be found in the Device Manager.

  1. Go to the Start Menu, and type "Device Manager" on the search bar.

  2. Click the Device Manager icon.

  3. Scroll down to and click on "Ports (COM & LPT)". You should see an open port labeled "Arduino UNO COMxx".

  4. Right click on the "Arduino UNO COMxx".

  5. Next, select "Update Driver Software" option.

  6. Click the "Browse my computer for driver software" option.

  7. Navigate to the driver folder of the Arduino software, and select the "Drivers" folder.

  8. Click "OK", then "Next".

  9. Windows will install the driver, and the port should now be displayed in the "Ports" menu in the Arduino IDE.


Hopefully, that has now solved the issue. If not, don't hesitate to post any questions on the forum, and someone will try to answer your question.

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