Fixing a hardware ESP32 Upload problem

How to solve failed uploading to an clone DOIT ESP32. Involves adding a simple capacitor.

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[joeladolfoflorezmolinares]

This fix worked perfectly for me with a 10uF cap. Thank you very much! THIS VIDEO IS GOLD!!!

[goldenhawktechnology]

Sir I can't express my gratitude to you
Extremely thank you for uploading such a beautiful vedio
I was sitting for 1 hour and got nothing

[justincastilloux]

Worked on the first attempt with a 1uF ceramic. Thank you!

[richardspann]

thanks this fix has saved me a lot of time. My finger no longer has a permanent indentation in it. This is a good thing!

[gsite]

Thanks.
Helped me a lot.

I used a 10uF cap.

[drfootleg]

Thank you. This solved my problem after several hours of internet searching and head scratching and trying completely unnecessary button pressing! Now I can actually start working on my project!

[justinl]

This fix worked like a charm for me with a 10uF cap. Thanks!

[edwardandrews]

EXCELLENT!!!! I was skeptical but 2, 2uf worked like a champ!! Thanks!

[nevergoingtoupload]

Just in case this helps someone else, the board you said didn't have the problem is a Dev Kit C v4 and it sadly does have the same issue (or mine did). The en pin is 1 pin further down but soldering a 10u to the ground on this version fixes it as well. Thanks again.

[tamhenry]

Thank you very much for this video. It saves me a lot of time in trouble shooting this cheap ESP32 board.

[Tigs]

Thanks. I used a 10uF electrolytic and it works every time now.

[kevintipcorn]

Great video that has probably helped a lot of frustrated people. I was almost sure I had this problem too. But, I found there were 2 different sets of drivers out there for the serial over usb my version (which looks like your short chinese version) was using, and only after follwoing two differnt tutorials and looking at another video about a camera did I think to check for driver conflicts in the devices manager. I also almost forgot that a ton of micro USB cables don't even carry data wires anymore. Just mentuioining this stuff here in the comments if anyone else is banging their head against the wall and may have overlooked these things.

[wagon]

I was about to buy a new one when all of the sudden i saw this vid and put a 10uf 50v cap on the esp32 and now it works fine. Thank you.

[garyallbee]

I was using the suggested 100nF cap on EN and performance was random from board to board. I had one failing 100% of the time and I put 10uF on it and now it is working 100% of the time. Great tip!! Thank you!!!

[zetaconvex]

Top man! Had the same problem with ESP32-WROOM under Linux. It does upload when holding down Boot, but I found that fiddly. Adding a 1-3uF obviated the need to hold down Boot. A 10uF actually worked better for me.

[randomname]

This is a problem with the cp2102 serial chip. It is toggling the boot button (pin 0) nearly the same time it releases enable. This is working sometimes.. but often not. The doit schematic has already a 100nf cap on the enable line if i remember right, but it’s too small.
On my esp32 projects i am not using the cp2102 series anymore. The cp2104 is smaller, cheaper and till now it never failed uploading.
By the way.. some doit style boards now have a cap between the enable button and a gnd via.. i think it’s done after main manufacturing. The problem is, that these are also not working better, maybe the cap is still too small.

[doubleHLabs]

Thanks, this fixed it for me. a 100uf 10v didn't work, but a 22uf 6.3v did work for me

[nattakiet]

Thank you, it's work, I use a small 4.7 uF capacitor.

[quaternion-pi]

Thanks! Intermittent problem with some of my esp32's. Solved!

[rodmanunderhilliii]

Very strange, thing with my ESP32 Wemos Lolin32. I was getting the problem described here, after re-soldering the headers on. I noticed some of my soldering welds where not acceptable, one pin was free to slide around, because it wasn't welded, but looked like it to my naked eye, and yes I had on my glasses. Anyhow, I re-soldered a 3rd time, just the loose pin, and a few others that looked like they needed it, and now my ESP32, uploads fine, no capacitor needed.