I'm having trouble with setting up the pro micro
I plugged the usb cable in and the power led is turned on, I changed the board to Arduino Micro, but the port is not showing
to troubleshoot, I've tried it on another device and it still doesn't detect anything (it is able to detect an arduino uno), I've changed out usb cables, redownloaded the arduino ide, and tried redownloading drivers
any advice on what could be wrong?
I moved your topic to an appropriate forum category @makeusou.
In the future, please take some time to pick the forum category that best suits the subject of your topic. There is an "About the _____ category" topic at the top of each category that explains its purpose.
This is an important part of responsible forum usage, as explained in the "How to get the best out of this forum" guide. The guide contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
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Hi @makeusou. Which operating system are you using (e.g., "Windows")?
I ask because I would like to give you the appropriate instructions for your operating system.
Windows 10! Thank you so much, I feel so relieved getting some help, thought Id exhausted every option 
Please try this experiment and then report your results in a reply on this forum thread:
NOTE: These instructions will not solve the problem. They are only intended to gather more information about the problem.
- Open the Windows Device Manager.
- Select View > Devices by type from the Device Manager menus.
- Open the "View" menu.
- If there is a ✓ to the left of the "Show hidden devices" menu item, click on "Show hidden devices" to disable it.
- Momentarily connect and disconnect the RST pin to the GND pin on the Pro Micro board twice.
This can be done with a wire or metal tweezers. - Immediately select Action > Scan for hardware changes" from the Device Manager menus.
You must perform this step soon after the previous step because the effect of the reset may only last for a short time.
If you weren't able to perform it quickly, you can repeat the procedure. - Watch for a new device to appear under the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree.
Please reply here to let us know whether you saw a new device appear in the "Ports (COM & LPT)" section of the Device Manager tree soon after you performed those instructions.
You can repeat steps 5-6 multiple times if you are not sure.
the " Ports COM & LPT" wasn't showing in my device manager so I added it (Brady Support), and a communications port (COM4) was added without me connecting the pins. For good measure I did connect and disconnect a couple times but no other device popped up.
Clicking on the COM4 gives the device status as "Windows cannot determine the settings for this device. Consult the documentation that came with this device and use the Resource tab to set the configuration. (Code 34)".
I tried running a simple blink sketch and got "avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "\.\COM4": The system cannot find the file specified.
Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1".
OK, that's the information I needed.
It is possible that the bootloader on your board has somehow been erased or corrupted. This is one of the possible causes of the symptom of the board not producing a port after it is reset. If so, the board might be recoverable by a "Burn Bootloader" operation.
You will need an "ISP programmer" in order to perform a "Burn Bootloader" operation. An ISP programmer is a piece of hardware that allows your computer to write directly to the flash memory of the primary microcontroller on the Arduino board.
If you don't have an ISP programmer, you can use a spare Arduino board as a DIY programmer (known as an "Arduino as ISP"). I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:
Burning Bootloader with "Arduino as ISP" Programmer
A. Prepare "Arduino as ISP" programmer
Although the "Arduino as ISP" only works for programming targets of the AVR architecture, you can use some boards of other architectures (e.g., "AVR", "SAMD", "megaAVR") as an "Arduino as ISP" programmer.
I will refer to the board which will used as an "Arduino as ISP" as the "programmer board" from here on. The board you are burning the bootloader to will be referred to as the "target board".
- Disconnect the Arduino boards from your computer.
- Make the following connections between the "programmer board" and the "target board".
Programmer Target MISO MISO VCC 5V (VCC on 3.3 V boards) SCK SCK MOSI MOSI 10 RESET GND GND - Connect the "programmer board" to your computer with a USB cable.
- Select File > Examples > 11.ArduinoISP > Arduino ISP from the Arduino IDE menus.
- Select your "programmer board" from Arduino IDE's Tools > Board menu.
- Select the port of your "programmer board" from Arduino IDE's Tools > Port menu.
- Select Sketch > Upload from the Arduino IDE menus.
- Wait for the upload to finish.
You are now ready to burn the bootloader using your "Arduino as ISP" programmer.
B. Burn Bootloader
Instructions for burning the bootloader:
ⓘ It is not possible to do this via "Arduino Web Editor". You will need to use Arduino IDE or Arduino CLI.
- Select the "target board" from the Tools > Board menu, and any other custom Tools menus (e.g., Tools > Processor).
- Select Tools > Programmer > Arduino as ISP from the Arduino IDE menus.
- Select Tools > Burn Bootloader from the Arduino IDE menus.
- Wait for the process to finish successfully.
- Unplug the USB cable of the "programmer board" from the computer.
- Disconnect the "programmer board" from the "target board".
- Connect the USB cable of the "target board" to your computer.
Conclusion
Now connect the USB cable of the "target board" to your computer. Do you now see a port for the board listed under the Tools > Port menu in Arduino IDE?
I don't think there is any chance that procedure could be useful. You can see that even in the screenshot in their tutorial the port they added is in an error state as indicated by the 
icon overlay.
hello, I got this error when I did step B4:
Connecting to programmer: .
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
Found programmer: Id = "d�n"; type = �
Software Version = i.
Hardware Version = .
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: buffered memory access not supported. Maybe it isn't
a butterfly/AVR109 but a AVR910 device?
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: leave prog mode
avrdude: butterfly_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: error: programmer did not respond to command: exit bootloader
Failed uploading: uploading error: exit status 1
I checked all my connections and they seemed right. the only issue that might be happening is that my arduino micro came with header pins that weren't soldered on, so there might be a bad connection (I tried securing them in place for now, and I was planning to solder it after knowing the device worked).
truthfully I bought a different arduino micro I found off amazon because it was cheaper, but I feel like it isn't worth the trouble going through this and I probably should have just bought an official one.
I guess I have the options of either soldering my current pro micro or buying the official one, and I'll probably choose the latter. do you think this is the best option for me too or are there other solutions?
Please repeat the instructions from the "B. Burn Bootloader" phase, except this time at step (2), instead of selecting Tools > Programmer > Arduino as ISP from the Arduino IDE menus, select Tools > Programmer > Arduino as ISP (ATmega32U4).
This programmer selection must be used when you are using a board based on the ATmega32U4 (e.g., Leonardo, Pro Micro) as the "programmer board". I should have mentioned that in my instructions.
I don't think this could cause your original problem of the port not showing, but it can definitely cause the "Burn Bootloader" operation to fail. As you realized, you will never get reliable connections with the header pins if you only poke the headers through the holes on the Pro Micro. If the connections between the pins on the two boards are not reliable then it is likely the Burn Bootloader operation will fail.
So you should definitely solder the header pins.
I'm sorry for the late reply, I should have updated you.
I tried the revised burn bootloader directions and it still failed to compile. I ordered an official arduino micro and the port was recognized right away. Gotta say I did learn a lot from this experience 
I'm glad you have a working Arduino now. Enjoy!
Per
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