Canon T3 Not Connecting to Surface

[Ski123]

I have a Cannon T3 that I plug into my Microsoft Surface (Windows 10) to transfer my photos onto, but it is not recognizing that anything is connected. I plugged it in last night and it worked fine. I just plugged in a flashdrive into my Surface it pulls up everything just fine. What do I need to do?

[Waddizzle]

There have been recent Windows Updates that seem to have adversely affected the EOS Utility automatically waking up when a camera is connected.  I've run into this issue with three difference cameras.  I plug the camera in, turn it on, and nothing happens, or I got an error message.

I eventually got it to work in one of three ways.  I shut down other applications and kept retrying the usual way, and suddenly it worked and has worked ever since.  For one camera, it didn't work until I turned the camera on before I plugged the USB into the camera.

For my last camera, nothing happened when I plugged in and turned the camera on.  I didn't even get the "bippity-boppity-boop" song that Windows 10 seems to make when apps are starting up or shutting down.  For this camera, I went into the Start menu and manually started the EOS Utility, and everything worked fine.

I'm not sure why it stopped working, and no idea what made it start working again.  Hope this helps.

[Ski123]

Thank you for your reply! I have actually just installed ESO Utility. Before I would just pull up my File Explorer after connecting my camera and then download my photos there and put them in each file that I wanted them to be in and then inport them to Lightroom to edit. I tried each of your suggestions and it still won't recognize my camera.

[Waddizzle]

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@Ski123 wrote:

Thank you for your reply! I have actually just installed ESO Utility. Before I would just pull up my File Explorer after connecting my camera and then download my photos there and put them in each file that I wanted them to be in and then inport them to Lightroom to edit. I tried each of your suggestions and it still won't recognize my camera.

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There is always the possibility that you have a bad cable or a bad USB port.  There any number of things to check.  Have you updated your EOS Utility to the latest version? 

If you can still connect your camera in File Explorer, then the EOS drivers are installed and working. You should see an EOS icon on the taskbar, just to the left of the clock display.  That icon can be used to enable or disable the EOS utility starting up when a camera is detected.  If all you do is download the image files, then a card reader should solve your issues.

You can always call Canon Support for assistance, too.