nRF sniffer capture tool is not working in wireshark

[Maulik]

HI,

I am using an nRF52840 DK as a Bluetooth LE sniffer and have followed all the steps described in the official documentation.

In Wireshark, I can see “nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE” listed under View → Interface Toolbars, so the plugin appears to be installed correctly.

However, the “nRF Sniffer for Bluetooth LE COMxx” interface does not appear under the Capture interfaces, so I am unable to start capturing packets.

I have flashed the board with sniffer_nrf52840dk_nrf52840_4.1.1.hex and confirmed that the required files are present in Wireshark’s extcap folder.
Please refer to the attached screenshots for additional details.

[Hung Bui]

Hi Maulik, 
We have a known issue with the nRF52840 DK that the interface IC may not suitable for the nRF sniffer firmware. What you can do is to use the nRF USB port of the nRF52840 instead of the debugger/programmer USB port. 
Please try that and let us know if you see the interface appear.
Tip: if you have BLE activity nearby,  LED1 on the DK should blink on each packet. You can use that as the indicator if the nRF Sniffer is running or not. 

[yango]

Hi Hung:

I'm having the exact same problem as Maulik with the same dev kit. I'm on MacOS Tahoe 26.2, running Wireshark Version 4.6.3. I've confirmed that LED1 is rapidly blinking and I'm using the nRF USB port (not virtual COM). I've also confirmed that if I run "python -m serial", the nRF sniffer shows up as an available port. 

[Hung Bui]

Hi Yango, 

We did a quick test here with a  MacOS Tahoe 26.2 and nRF52840 DK and it worked for us. 


Quite strange that it doesn't show up in Wireshark for you.  Have you clicked Capture-> Refresh Interfaces ?

Please try to double check if you go through all the steps in the installation guide. 

[Maulik]

Hi Hung,
Yes, that worked out by changing port to nRF USB port instead of using the debugger/programmer USB port. I can see interface now.

Thank you!