Arduino Nano uploading gives error: avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

Know this is old but I ran onto it during my search for Nano(V3)'s not uploading so thought might help someone else. Problem is the bootloader - Arduino IDE BUT I Found an easy solution (right under my nose).

I realized that my nano's had been uploading just fine then I had finally updated the Arduino AVR Boards from 1.6.20 to 1.6.21. I didn't think there was any problems because it still showed my Nano and ATmega328 etc in the board manager after the change.

But the new boards manager has a new ATmega328 processor choice for the Nano. I changed processor: In the Arduino IDE select TOOLS > PROCESSOR > pulldown menu from ATmega328P to "ATmega328P (Old Bootloader)".

Since then, I have uploaded many programs to several different Nano's V3 (Prolofic interace Chipset) without issue.

This error message basically shows up for any communication problem, so by itself, it is not all that instructive. The Arduino Nano is supposed to have auto-reset, but maybe your clone does not? In that case, you'd have to press the reset key on the board just before starting an upload.

I was having the same problem and got the same error message. Turns out these boards don't come with a bootloader preinstalled. If you have some jumper wires and another working arduino you can use this tutorial to install the bootloader and it should work great, mine did at least! :)