Why does my S8 not allow file transfer?

[Frisk7]

I have two S8 phones (that is, my wife has one and I have the other one), and they should be identical. They were bought at the same time and should be set up the same way - however, there is one very annoying difference.

I wanted to transfer some photos off the phones to my computer.

When I plug my wife's phone in, everything is fine. I get a pop-up asking me whether to allow this and then I can then navigate to the DCIM directory and fetch the files I wanted. No issues.

If I plug my own (supposedly identical) phone in (using the same cable, and same computer), it doesn't work. Sure, it starts charging, but it doesn't seem to recognize that there is a computer on the other end of the USB cable, and there is no pop-up message.

If I go to Settings/Connections/Mobile Hotspot and Tethering, I see that "USB tethering" is just greyed out.

I also tried activating Developer options and turned USB debugging on. No effect.

Any ideas/suggestions?

 

[Itsa_Me_Mario]

There should be a notification, possibly minimized, when you're plugged in that lists options such as "charge this device, transfer files, transfer photos" etc. I don't have my S8 anymore, so I may be wrong on the exact names, but that's the theme.

 

[captkronos]

You shouldn't need USB debugging on, but also it shouldn't hurt. In Developer options what setting do you have for "Select USB configuration"? MTP?