Why Can't I Connect my S23 to my PC?

[Jimmy the Toucan]

I decided to link my S23 to my PC via USB, and it looks like it's impossible. The web says to find a Settings area labeled "System" and change the USB setting. My phone has no "System" area. I looked through all the settings, and I can't find anything that relates to connecting via USB.

I saw a bunch of nonsense about going through Microsoft, logging in, blah blah blah. I have no interest in turning this into a huge project. I just want to connect so I can delete a bunch of old files from the phone.

Nothing shows up on the PC or phone when I connect the cable, and I installed Samsung's USB driver on the PC.

 

[AugieTN]

KDE Connect has never failed me KDE Connect

 

[svim]

Odd that there wasn't some kind of popup message on your phone or your PC asking for some kind of action on your part.
Regarding your WinPC, are you plugging your phone into a USB hub perhaps? Try plugging directly into a USB port instead. If that's not an issue, when you do have your phone plugged in, is there anything flagged in the Device Manager in the USB section towards the bottom? If so try reinstalling the Samsung driver, reboot, and try mounting it again.
It might make a difference to try using a different USB cable too.
Unfortunately when things don't just work right away when you plug something in, it might indeed require something of a project to get things straightened out. The benefit being a little extra work up front could result in making things a lot easier later, plus the more your learn about your phone's basic functionality makes it less of a challenge for future blips and problems. Or in other words, when you prefer to NOT do anything when you run into a problem like this, stop trying to service your phone and your PC. Take it to local shop and have them work out the problem for you.

If all you want to do is delete some files, you are adding a lot of unnecessary, extraneous effort. Samsung includes a basic file manager app to its devices, the My Files app. Just use the already existing My Files app to manage files and folders within your S23 -- using a local native Android app is a better file manager than doing so remotely using a foreign not-native file manager on a device running a different operating system. (Your phone runs Android and its native file system structure is based on ext4; your WinPC is presumably running Windows and its file system is NTFS.)

 

[Jimmy the Toucan]

Thanks for the help. It turned out the cable was bad! It charged but didn't move data.

As for using a phone app to delete files, no thanks. Using my thumbs on a tiny screen, selecting and deleting hundreds of tiny images, and pretending it's just as good as a real computer are not for me.

 

[The_Chief]

I'm glad you figured it out... and posted the solution so other members with a similar problem can search and find this thread! Yeah, I've never had a problem with connecting any phone to my desktop: so long as it's not a USB charging cable (and they exist).