Serial ports are missing from IDE drop-down list

[RogerDavisWork]

I realized I posted this same question a few weeks ago, but I got *zero* replies for an important issue.

My serial ports for my targets are all visible in Device Manager.
They are also accessible via "idf.py -p COMx". As a result I can do things like "idf.py -p COM11 flash" and "idf.py -p COM11 monitor" from the command line. But I would like to use the IDE like I have been doing up until recently.

As of a few weeks ago, neither of my two Espressif-IDE applications, v2.12.0 and v3.0.0 can see ANY serial ports. When I want to run the programs that I build, it says that I need to select a serial port from the drop-down list and that list is always empty - blank - nada.

I should note that it has not always been this way. For months I was successfully running my programs from within the IDE since it could see the serial port that it needed to see. Then suddenly one day out of nowhere, the IDE decided it could no longer find the serial port which is perfectly visible to every other program on my system.

Please advice me on something I can look for to solve this problem. I expect that there is some hidden option down in some file that is now set wrong, but I will never find it without help. Thank you.

[aliarifat794]

Please check if the FTDI/CP210x driver is properly installed.

[Phillip]

If using Arduino IDE v2, the USB cable must be connected to your MCU. If not you may not see your port. IDE v1 does not care if USB is connected or not. That has been my experience. Perhaps this will help you.