Arduino Studio COM Port grayed out in Windows - Resolved !
Arduino Studio “COM Port grayed out” problem is the most annoying problem of the IDE.
Comparing with other IDEs from other programming languages, Arduino Studio is not very user friendly.
The most annoying problem that I encountered is the “COM Port grayed out” problem which means that the COM port is grayed out and I can’t select anything.
Even if the device drivers are correctly loaded, and they show up in windows control panel, Arduino Studio cannot see them or it considers that ports are busy.
In the end, I had found a solution which is not the easiest, but is the only one that works.
2. When the Serial port menu is greyed out, it means there are no available ports.
– Connect only the FTDI board to a USB port.
– connect the FTDI board to Arduino.
– Go to Control Panel, under the Ports (COM&LPT) and look for your COM number.
3. Note down the number attached to COM. In my case it was 4.
– in the bottom of the menu, the path to the preferences.txt file is listed.
– Scroll down to – serial. port = COMx. Change the ‘x’ to the number of your port.
– Look at the bottom right corner of the IDE: your port should be listed there.
6. Now you can upload sketches to your Arduino only on that port!
– The next time you will reconnect the Arduino to PC your port number may change.
– if your port number changes, you will have to take all these steps from the beginning.
Don’t overlook the possibility of bad cables. Some USB cables have been made only for charging purposes and are missing the signal wires.
Bob, a big thank you! Was about to throw in the towel after an hour of frustration with the CH340 chipset. Cable type was the problem.