ST-Link stops detecting target after firmware upgrade
Everything was working normally until STM32CubeIDE prompted an ST-Link firmware upgrade. After performing the upgrade, ST-Link connectivity became unreliable and eventually stopped working entirely — both through CubeIDE's Run/Debug and through standalone STM32CubeProgrammer.
Timeline
1. Board was flashing/debugging normally the day before.
2. STM32CubeIDE displayed a prompt indicating a newer ST-Link firmware version was available.
3. Performed the ST-Link firmware upgrade (via the standalone STLinkUpgrade.jar tool bundled with STM32CubeProgrammer).
4. After the upgrade, started getting a mix of symptoms: board not detected at all, connecting and then immediately losing connection, and STM32CubeProgrammer intermittently responding/not responding.
Exact errors observed
From STM32CubeIDE's ST-Link GDB server (during a Run/Debug launch):
STMicroelectronics ST-LINK GDB server. Version 7.10.0
...
Target no device found
Error in initializing ST-LINK device.
Reason: No device found on target.
From standalone STM32CubeProgrammer CLI:
ST-LINK FW : V2J47M34
Board : B-L072Z-LRWAN1
Voltage : 3.26V
Error: Unable to get core ID
Error: No STM32 target found! If your product embeds Debug Authentication, please perform a discovery using Debug Authentication
Isolation performed
- Tested 3 different physical B-L072Z-LRWAN1 boards on my own Windows PC — all fail identically.
- Tested the same boards on my friend’s Windows PC — same failure.
- Tested one of the same boards on a colleague's Linux (Fedora) machine — works correctly.
Since the same physical hardware works under Linux but fails consistently across two separate Windows machines, this points away from a hardware fault on the boards themselves and toward a Windows-side ST-Link driver / STM32CubeProgrammer version compatibility issue following the firmware upgrade.
Troubleshooting already attempted
- Power-cycling the board/USB connection
- Using "Connect under reset" / Hardware reset mode in STM32CubeProgrammer (connects intermittently, but does not resolve the underlying issue)
- Reproduced on multiple boards and multiple Windows machines to rule out a single bad unit
Question: Is this a known compatibility issue between the latest ST-Link firmware and the STM32CubeProgrammer/driver versions currently available for Windows? Is there a recommended combination of ST-Link firmware + CubeProgrammer + Windows driver version to roll back to or update to that resolves this?
