I solved this issue by using a shorter cable ... no idea how this helped but it did ,,, 😀

Thank you for your assistance

Maybe the fact that it's shorter helped. Maybe it's just a different cable that fixed it -- and you could have used an even longer cable to fix.

General "can't communicate" issues - and certainly when the setup is confirmed to work on some other computer - are most likely problems with the computer's port or the cable. The cable is the easiest to deal with since it's an inexpensive and quick swap.

Many times before (others' related problems) new/different cables solve the issue which is why there was so much focus on trying a different one despite the facts that the cable was otherwise seemingly OK.

Excellent!!

This could have gone on for months — it had to be something relatively simple — glad you persevered and swapped that cable.