How to Disable USB Selective Suspend in Windows 11

If your USB devices — such as external hard drives, flash drives, webcams, or even wireless mouse receivers — keep disconnecting or powering off randomly, there’s a good chance that USB Selective Suspend is to blame.

This power-saving feature is designed to reduce energy usage by turning off USB ports that aren’t in active use. However, it doesn’t always work perfectly. On some systems, it can cause USB dropouts, slow device wake-up, or unresponsive peripherals.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to disable USB Selective Suspend in Windows 11 to prevent unwanted USB disconnections.

What Is USB Selective Suspend?

USB Selective Suspend allows Windows to suspend (temporarily disable) individual USB ports or devices when they’re idle.

While this helps save battery power — especially on laptops — it can sometimes interfere with devices like:

• USB mice or keyboards
• External hard drives or SSDs
• Audio interfaces and DACs
• Game controllers or webcams

When disabled, Windows keeps all connected USB devices powered continuously.

When Should You Disable It?

You should disable USB Selective Suspend if you experience:

• Random USB disconnections or reconnections.
• External drives not showing up after waking from sleep.
• Webcams or microphones freezing during calls.
• Input lag or stutters from USB peripherals.

If you’re using a desktop PC, disabling this feature won’t significantly affect power consumption.

Step 1: Disable USB Selective Suspend via Power Options

This is the easiest and most direct method.

1. Press Windows + R, type: control and press Enter to open the Control Panel.
2. Go to Hardware and Sound → Power Options.
3. Click Change plan settings next to your active power plan.
4. Click Change advanced power settings.
5. In the Power Options dialog, scroll down and expand: USB settings → USB selective suspend setting
6. Set both options to Disabled:
   • On battery: Disabled
   • Plugged in: Disabled
7. Click Apply → OK.

Now restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

Step 2: Disable USB Selective Suspend via Command Prompt

If you prefer using commands, you can disable this setting quickly through Command Prompt.

1. Press Windows + S, type cmd, and select Run as administrator.
2. Type the following command and press Enter: powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_USB USBSELECTSUSPEND 0
3. Then disable it for battery mode too (for laptops): powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_USB USBSELECTSUSPEND 0
4. Apply the changes: powercfg /S SCHEME_CURRENT

This turns off USB selective suspend for your current power plan.

Step 3: Disable USB Selective Suspend via Registry Editor (Advanced Method)

If the Power Options menu is unavailable or the setting keeps resetting, you can disable it directly in the Windows Registry.

Warning: Editing the registry can affect system stability. Be sure to back it up first.

1. Press Windows + R, type: regedit and press Enter.
2. Navigate to this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USB
3. On the right side, look for a value named DisableSelectiveSuspend.
   • If it doesn’t exist, right-click the blank area → New → DWORD (32-bit) Value → name it DisableSelectiveSuspend.
4. Double-click it and set the Value data to 1.
5. Click OK and close the Registry Editor.
6. Restart your computer.

This will globally disable the USB Selective Suspend feature on your system.

Step 4: Prevent USB Devices from Sleeping via Device Manager

You can also disable USB power management on individual devices.

1. Press Windows + X → Device Manager.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Double-click each USB Root Hub or Generic USB Hub.
4. Go to the Power Management tab.
5. Uncheck the box: Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power
6. Click OK.

Repeat this for all USB Root Hubs and Generic USB Hubs listed.

Tip: This method is especially useful if only certain devices (like external drives or game controllers) keep disconnecting.

Step 5: Verify Your USB Devices Stay Active

After disabling USB Selective Suspend, test your devices:

• Plug in your USB peripherals (mouse, keyboard, webcam, etc.).
• Put your PC to sleep and wake it up.
• Check if everything reconnects immediately without lag or dropouts.

If your devices now stay connected, the issue was caused by the selective suspend feature.

Step 6: Re-enable (Optional)

If you’re on a laptop and want to save battery life, you can re-enable USB Selective Suspend anytime.

• Go back to Control Panel → Power Options → Advanced settings → USB settings.
• Set both On battery and Plugged in back to Enabled.

You can also reverse the command line or registry changes by setting the value back to 0.

Wrapping Up

The USB Selective Suspend feature helps conserve power, but it can also cause device disconnections, especially on desktops and gaming laptops with multiple peripherals.

To recap, the most effective ways to fix the issue are:

• Disable USB Selective Suspend under Power Options.
• Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device” in Device Manager.
• Apply registry or command-line fixes for full control.

Once disabled, your USB devices should stay stable, responsive, and powered — even during long gaming or creative sessions.