Unable to upload to ESP32

treefrog
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:12 pm

Unable to upload to ESP32

Postby treefrog » Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:14 pm

Hi, we are working with an ESP32S3-WROOM-1 on top of our own custom PCB. For a few months we were developing code and uploading worked just fine over the built-in USB serial. However in the past couple of weeks we have not been able to upload — they don't show up on the USB bus when plugged in with multiple computers with different OSes (macOS and Ubuntu), multiple cables, and multiple PCBs, even when each of them had different code previously flashed. We have now acquired a JTAG connector (in particular an ESP-PROG) and connected it to our device. When uploading with platformio we get this error:
⁨⁨⁨
Error: JTAG scan chain interrogation failed: all ones
Error: Check JTAG interface, timings, target power, etc.
Error: Trying to use configured scan chain anyway...
Error: esp32s3.cpu0: IR capture error; saw 0x1f not 0x01
[...]
Error: Unexpected OCD_ID = ffffffff
[...]
Error: Target not examined yet
⁩⁩⁩
(sometimes it says all zeroes instead of all ones)

We have also tried uploading with ESP-IDF a blank project. When uploading and directly connected the devices again don't show up on the USB bus. When uploading via JTAG it tries to connect to the JTAG and produces either a "Failed to connect to ESP32-S3: No serial data received", or less commonly on some uploads, "Invalid head of packet (0xFA): Possible serial noise or corruption." The green LED on the ESP-PROG flashes on when uploading via ESP-IDF; it is claimed online that this means it is transmitting data from the JTAG to the ESP.

It should be noted that even though we can't upload now, the ESPs are running the code that they previously had flashed on them just fine — we just can't upload new code.

Here is our PlatformIO config:

Code: Select all

[env:espressif32]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-s3-devkitc-1-n16r8v
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
build_flags = -std=gnu++17
build_unflags = -std=gnu++11
debug_tool = esp-prog
upload_protocol = esp-prog
build_type = debug
debug_speed = 500
debug_init_break = tbreak setup
Thank you for any help!

Sprite
Espressif staff
Espressif staff
Posts: 10596
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:08 am

Re: Unable to upload to ESP32

Postby Sprite » Mon Feb 02, 2026 8:18 am

Pin-based JTAG won't work until you burn a certain eFuse so it's expected that you don't get anything. This smells like a firmware update accidentally re-initializing the pins that the USB-JTAG-serial device uses... have you already tried powering on the ESP32S3 with GPIO grounded, see if the serial port comes back then?

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