When all else fails, call Michael McCleer, better known to Villagers everywhere as "The Geek God." [352-638-6720] I have yet to see a computer problem he can't fix. The guy is a genius, (and a heck of a nice person too).

Many computers have multiple USB ports …. Have you tried using a different port ?

This is the kind of reason I switched to Linux. Updates are up to you (never forced on you). With a community of 10's of thousands people willing to help (on line), you can solve almost any problem.

Thank you for all of your suggestions.

Most I have tried by now, but will work through the rest while the storm rages outside.

I think a stand-alone "reader" may well end up being the solution.

This response won't help you much other than letting you know that you are not crazy! I have the exact problem with my Iphone 15 and Windows 11. I get a "ding" when connecting it to a USB port but I don't see the device in file explorer or anywhere on my PC so I can no longer download pics or update music. I found a lot info on this issue while researching, but none of it was helpful enough to work. Conjecture on my part after reading the research is that it has something to do with the device not being "trusted" yet I can't change the security properties on the device since it is not recognized beyond the initial "ding". Frustrating enough for me to give up for now.

For both of your issues that is why it’s best to just go to cloud based devices and beam them up there. I did this with my external HD (for pics) finally giving up the ghost of connecting to a laptop, etc. For the iPhone, I am not sure why they even suggest using a laptop for ITunes, etc. Not even needed for recovery, etc.

You could look over the Microsoft help forum - here's a thread that describes the same thing you're describing and one Advisor's series of responses:
Redirecting

Linux is great for knowledgeable users who have no need for Windows software. I'm going to guess that applies to less than 1% of the TOTV audience.

I'm pretty computer savvy, and I can't deal with Linux when SUDO anything.

I'm not familiar with iPhones, but with Android when you connect the phone via USB to a PC, the default is to charge the phone battery. You can enable file management by tapping the screen and changing the input option. Maybe similar on iPhone...or not.

Similar issue but with the printer
 

I did a windows upgrade to Windows 11 and both my printers were not recognized. I rebooted both of them, my computer, checked for diver updates, ran a system check, Checked bios on my computer, NOTHING Worked. Out of desperation I deleted the drivers for both and rebooted my computer. Plugged them back in, and BAM! They both started working again. I think you may have a corrupted driver. Windows thinks it's the most current but,,,,,, it can't make it work until you uninstall it and let windows reinstall it. Just my opinion.

The problem with most of the solutions on-line is that they refer to the built-in camera, rather than an external one that is connected via USB

Even when I manage to get this camera recognized, it does not appear under "Cameras" in the Device Manager so I don't know how to uninstall the driver to see if a reinstall fixes the problem

Any thoughts where it might be hiding, or where there is a list of installed drivers? I have seen "driverquery/v" and "driverquery /v" mentioned but I get the error message "Windows cannot find..." for both

Thank you

Is this a desktop computer or a laptop? If it's a desktop, is it an all in one, or is it a tower with separate monitor? If it's a separate monitor, does the monitor have a built-in camera? If it doesn't, do you have a webcam otherwise connected to the tower?

I'm wondering if your computer is looking for your webcam, and that's why it's not obeying your command to recognize your manual camera.

Also is it an SLR camera? It might simply be too "legacy" to work with Win11.

It is a laptop with built-in camera

The cameras I am trying to get recognized when connected via USB are a mixture of a digital compact (old, but works with W11 once it gets recognized), a newish SLR (which stopped being recognized even before the recent W update) and a new GoPro (which gets recognized immediately).

I have found a work-around which, while not ideal, gets the job done. I downloaded the "compact" driver from the Canon website. As before, when I plug the camera in, the computer pings but doesn't show the camera, but just clicking on the downloaded program immediately brings the camera on-board.

Will now have to find a way to trick the computer into recognizing the SLR :-)

That would explain things. DSLR and SLR cameras don't play nice with Win11. They're considered legacy. Glad you found a workaround. But your (D)SLR should have a micro SD card in it. My old one that stopped working 8 years ago had that. Any photos you took would automatically be saved to the SD card and I could take that card out and upload to any device that had an SD slot.

Agreed - I am currently accessing the SLR photos by putting its SD card into the other camera and plugging that in to the computer, but having an SD reader would be easier.