Method 1: Fixing the DLL Error by Copying the Portabledevice.dll Library to the Windows System Directory 

1. The file you are going to download is a compressed file with the ".zip" extension. You cannot directly install the ".zip" file. First, you need to extract the dynamic link library from inside it. So, double-click the file with the ".zip" extension that you downloaded and open the file.
2. You will see the library named "Portabledevice.dll" in the window that opens up. This is the library we are going to install. Click the library once with the left mouse button. By doing this you will have chosen the library.

   

3. Click the "Extract To" symbol marked in the picture. To extract the dynamic link library, it will want you to choose the desired location. Choose the "Desktop" location and click "OK" to extract the library to the desktop. In order to do this, you need to use the Winrar program. If you do not have this program, you can find and download it through a quick search on the Internet.

   

4. Copy the "Portabledevice.dll" library and paste it into the "C:\Windows\System32" directory.

   

5. If your operating system has a 64 Bit architecture, copy the "Portabledevice.dll" library and paste it also into the "C:\Windows\sysWOW64" directory.

   NOTE! On 64 Bit systems, the dynamic link library must be in both the "sysWOW64" directory as well as the "System32" directory. In other words, you must copy the "Portabledevice.dll" library into both directories.

   

6. In order to run the Command Line as an administrator, complete the following steps.

   NOTE! In this explanation, we ran the Command Line on Windows 10. If you are using one of the Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP operating systems, you can use the same methods to run the Command Line as an administrator. Even though the pictures are taken from Windows 10, the processes are similar.

   1. First, open the Start Menu and before clicking anywhere, type "cmd" but do not press Enter.
   2. When you see the "Command Line" option among the search results, hit the "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "ENTER" keys on your keyboard.
   3. A window will pop up asking, "Do you want to run this process?". Confirm it by clicking to "Yes" button.

   

7. Paste the command below into the Command Line window that opens up and press Enter key. This command will delete the problematic registry of the Portabledevice.dll library (Nothing will happen to the library we pasted in the System32 directory, it just deletes the registry from the Windows Registry Editor. The library we pasted in the System32 directory will not be damaged).

   %windir%\System32\regsvr32.exe /u Portabledevice.dll

   

8. If the Windows you use has 64 Bit architecture, after running the command above, you must run the command below. This command will clean the broken registry of the Portabledevice.dll library from the 64 Bit architecture (The Cleaning process is only with registries in the Windows Registry Editor. In other words, the dynamic link library that we pasted into the SysWoW64 directory will stay as it is).

   %windir%\SysWoW64\regsvr32.exe /u Portabledevice.dll

   

9. You must create a new registry for the dynamic link library that you deleted from the registry editor. In order to do this, copy the command below and paste it into the Command Line and hit Enter.

   %windir%\System32\regsvr32.exe /i Portabledevice.dll

   

10. Windows 64 Bit users must run the command below after running the previous command. With this command, we will create a clean and good registry for the Portabledevice.dll library we deleted.

    %windir%\SysWoW64\regsvr32.exe /i Portabledevice.dll

    

11. You may see certain error messages when running the commands from the command line. These errors will not prevent the installation of the Portabledevice.dll library. In other words, the installation will finish, but it may give some errors because of certain incompatibilities. After restarting your computer, to see if the installation was successful or not, try running the program that was giving the dll error again. If you continue to get the errors when running the program after the installation, you can try the 2nd Method as an alternative.

Method 2: Copying the Portabledevice.dll Library to the Program Installation Directory 

1. First, you need to find the installation directory for the program you are receiving the "Portabledevice.dll not found", "Portabledevice.dll is missing" or other similar dll errors. In order to do this, right-click on the shortcut for the program and click the Properties option from the options that come up.

   

2. Open the program's installation directory by clicking on the Open File Location button in the Properties window that comes up.

   

3. Copy the Portabledevice.dll library into the directory we opened up.

   

4. That's all there is to the installation process. Run the program giving the dll error again. If the dll error is still continuing, completing the 3rd Method may help fix your issue.

Method 3: Doing a Clean Install of the program That Is Giving the Portabledevice.dll Error 

1. Press the "Windows" + "R" keys at the same time to open the Run tool. Paste the command below into the text field titled "Open" in the Run window that opens and press the Enter key on your keyboard. This command will open the "Programs and Features" tool.

   appwiz.cpl

   

2. The programs listed in the Programs and Features window that opens up are the programs installed on your computer. Find the program that gives you the dll error and run the "Right-Click > Uninstall" command on this program.

   

3. Following the instructions that come up, uninstall the program from your computer and restart your computer.

   

4. After restarting your computer, reinstall the program.
5. This method may provide the solution to the dll error you're experiencing. If the dll error is continuing, the problem is most likely deriving from the Windows operating system. In order to fix dll errors deriving from the Windows operating system, complete the 4th Method and the 5th Method.

Method 4: Fixing the Portabledevice.dll error with the Windows System File Checker 

1. In order to run the Command Line as an administrator, complete the following steps.

   NOTE! In this explanation, we ran the Command Line on Windows 10. If you are using one of the Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP operating systems, you can use the same methods to run the Command Line as an administrator. Even though the pictures are taken from Windows 10, the processes are similar.

   1. First, open the Start Menu and before clicking anywhere, type "cmd" but do not press Enter.
   2. When you see the "Command Line" option among the search results, hit the "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "ENTER" keys on your keyboard.
   3. A window will pop up asking, "Do you want to run this process?". Confirm it by clicking to "Yes" button.

   

2. After typing the command below into the Command Line, push Enter.

   sfc /scannow

   

3. Depending on your computer's performance and the amount of errors on your system, this process can take some time. You can see the progress on the Command Line. Wait for this process to end. After the scan and repair processes are finished, try running the program giving you errors again.

Method 5: Fixing the Portabledevice.dll Errors by Manually Updating Windows 

Most of the time, programs have been programmed to use the most recent dynamic link libraries. If your operating system is not updated, these files cannot be provided and dll errors appear. So, we will try to fix the dll errors by updating the operating system.

Since the methods to update Windows versions are different from each other, we found it appropriate to prepare a separate article for each Windows version. You can get our update article that relates to your operating system version by using the links below.

Guides to Manually Update the Windows Operating System 

1. Guide to Manually Update Windows 10
2. Guide to Manually Update Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
3. Guide to Manually Update Windows 7 and Windows Vista
4. Guide to Manually Update Windows XP