[Q] Android Phone as USB Stick - General Questions and Answers

Hi!
I know it is possible to connect my Samsung Galaxy SII to a PC and mount the file system of the SD card (either in debug mode as two removable Windows volumes or, without debug mode, as a phone device). However, I would like to have the phone more as a USB stick, i.e. having only one partition (so that Windows can see it properly) and, more important: being a USB stick even when not yet plugged into the host, i.e. the host never seeing anything else than a USB stick.
Why do I want that?
Because I tried to connect the phone to a DVD player that has a USB port, so that I can watch photos directly on TV (via DVD player). The player would offer to display media from USB stick.
However, nothing I tried worked. When I plug in the phone, the player sees the USB device plugged in but does not see a file system, saying that the media is not formatted or supported. When the phone itself offers to go into USB connection mode, it is too late and the player refuses to see it still. The phone simply offers USB connection mode too late.
So the question is: is there an app capable of doing this? That would be an app that I start and which puts the phone into USB connection mode *before* I plug it into the host. If I could define a directory that will be seen as the root file system of the stick from outside, this would be great. If I could put that file system into read-only mode, it would be perfect.
I found many posts about the phone being a portable drive, connecting USB sticks to the phone and so on. But nothing fits that use case I described.
Any hints?

Hm, today I thought about it
But my DVD Player as yours, say USB Device Unsupported.
I'd really like the possibility to connect to DVD Player as normal pendrive, and play movies.

And still no reply. That's... sad

skr68 said:
Hi!
I know it is possible to connect my Samsung Galaxy SII to a PC and mount the file system of the SD card (either in debug mode as two removable Windows volumes or, without debug mode, as a phone device). However, I would like to have the phone more as a USB stick, i.e. having only one partition (so that Windows can see it properly) and, more important: being a USB stick even when not yet plugged into the host, i.e. the host never seeing anything else than a USB stick.
Why do I want that?
Because I tried to connect the phone to a DVD player that has a USB port, so that I can watch photos directly on TV (via DVD player). The player would offer to display media from USB stick.
However, nothing I tried worked. When I plug in the phone, the player sees the USB device plugged in but does not see a file system, saying that the media is not formatted or supported. When the phone itself offers to go into USB connection mode, it is too late and the player refuses to see it still. The phone simply offers USB connection mode too late.
So the question is: is there an app capable of doing this? That would be an app that I start and which puts the phone into USB connection mode *before* I plug it into the host. If I could define a directory that will be seen as the root file system of the stick from outside, this would be great. If I could put that file system into read-only mode, it would be perfect.
I found many posts about the phone being a portable drive, connecting USB sticks to the phone and so on. But nothing fits that use case I described.
Any hints?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this app it seems that work with many devices...

Yeah, might work... If I somehow can install Windows Phone 7 on my Galaxy

On that thread i've read about people that doesn't have win7 phone but that program working on their phone , you could try it doesn't cost anything...

And Elvis lives in Las Vegas

You can try the following:
Open ‘Menu’ on your Android and tap on settings. You can find ‘Wireless and Network’ option in settings, just open it and it will now show you various options. Select ‘USB Utilities’ and you will get the option ‘Connect storage to PC’ as shown below.
Now it will ask you to connect your phone to PC using USB Cable. When you done with that you will get an Android symbol and message ‘USB connected’.
Everything is done now and your Android has turned into USB storage device. Transfer and manage files as you want.

Not fully sure, try putting the videos in root(in no folder) of sd card.

Reboot to recovery and under mounts and storage try mount usb mass storage
Sent from my HTC EVO 3d
Root: revolutionary
Recovery: Twrp cwm 4
ROM: Synergy 2.3.4 ( I want aosp)
The dual core shooter. Double the bad ass.

Hi!
The hints from mikedavis120 and pcbilski actually look like they could work. Unfortunately it is not my DVD player but my father's and he is on vacation now. Will take two weeks until I can try

I have tried both methods on two DVD players, and both failed
pcbilski's - 1st player when in standby, gives power to USB so when I connected a phone it popup a message to mount sdcard. Mounted SD, and started up a player and... nothing, it doesn't load, doesn't say anything.
2nd player doesn't give power to USB so when I turned it on, my phone found a connection. So before phone mounted SD, there was error - Unsupported USB. When it was mounted, choose other source, and back to USB and nothing, like on 1st player
mikedavis120's method - both players didn't saw any USB Device
Sorry for my english, but I think it's readable

Yeah, figured as much today. Problem is that before the phone accepts to becomes a USB drive, you have to plug in the cable, wait a second, and confirm the popup. But until then the DVD player already sees the phone and thinks it is not a USB stick, refusing to accept it later. A hen and egg problem.

Any news on this? My USB-stick just broke and I need to update my TVs firmware...

Hopefully this will work for future readers.
It is actually for installing OSes(I think, atleast that was my use.), but I think it will work. Create a blank image, and copy the files to the blank new drive from a computer.

Related

g1 will not sync with pc

I've had my g1 for about 2 weeks. I have root. I have the RC33 update. I was able to connect to a pc after this update then one day I tried to get this song off of the computer so I plugged in the phone and it said "found new hardware"....I have tried everything different pc's different usb ports,different storage cards,....I tried the anycut app method....failed on one pc it opened on my laptop and then shut off again....I've soft reset,hard reset...removd the card and put it back in...no luck...any one with the answer please help...I will love you long time!
And the pc does recognize the phone is plugged up because its charging...
Hi,
Found new hardware means it was trying to install the usb drivers for your g1.
If this was not done correctly, than several things won't work like adb.
So that's what that message is.
But unplug your phone and go into settings, applications, development uncheck the box that says usb debugging,
Exit out and connect your cable, mount you drive and you can transfer files back and forth again.
Ok I did that but the box was already unchecked...so I plugged up the phone...and nothing happens so I check the box and the g1 acknowleded the pc and vise versa....and the installation wizard is for Android Phone...and is asking for an installation disk...so now I'm back to square 1...
Once you have plugged in the USB cable and Windows has recognized your phone (i.e. no new hardware found dialog anymore), you need to pull down the notification bar of the G1 and click on "connected to USB" or something along those lines. The phone will then give you an option to mount the SD card for read/write over the USB cable.

Win7 won't recognize my phone

I've installed the drivers from links within this forum that have to do with rooting. The phone is rooted but unless it is set in USB Debug Windows will not do anything with it. 2 new drives appear in My Computer after connecting the phone..one being the internal sd card and the other being the sd card I put in the phone...but both drives appear to be unusable for some reason and it shows they are both 0 bytes.
Pull down the notification tray. In mass storage mode at least, if you click the row about about USB, it will offer an option to unmount the drives from Android which will then allow the computer to use the drives.
Just makes no sense at all. I just did as you said and put it on as mass storage and the drivers were installed perfectly. What I'm trying to do is put music onto it but can't really do that using Kies without the PC recognizing it....
I also need it to be recognized to do some customizing stuff since I'm now rooted.
Plug it in, make sure you're in mass storage mode, when you plug it in, you'll get a USB icon in the notification bar, pull down the notification bar, click on USB Connected, and then click MOUNT.
Apparently Kies doesn't work in mass storage mode. I did what you said...opened Kies and it recognized the phone but it said to reconnect it cause that mode wasn't supported
iamcombat said:
Apparently Kies doesn't work in mass storage mode. I did what you said...opened Kies and it recognized the phone but it said to reconnect it cause that mode wasn't supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to use Kies, you need all of the following:
1. USB setting must be in Kies mode, not mass storage mode
2. Your phone must be in home screen (and probably has to use Samsung's TouchWiz launcher, not 3rd party launcher).
If both are met, you will see the phone goes into MTP Application mode once connected to the PC.
I found there is really nothing Kies can do that I can't do with WMP. If you need to sync with your desktop Outlook, Kies is probably your only option. Otherwise, I'd use either Media Player mode or Mass Storage mode and use WMP on the PC to sync music and video.
Are you using Windows 7 64-bit?
foxbat121 said:
If you want to use Kies, you need all of the following:
1. USB setting must be in Kies mode, not mass storage mode
2. Your phone must be in home screen (and probably has to use Samsung's TouchWiz launcher, not 3rd party launcher).
If both are met, you will see the phone goes into MTP Application mode once connected to the PC.
I found there is really nothing Kies can do that I can't do with WMP. If you need to sync with your desktop Outlook, Kies is probably your only option. Otherwise, I'd use either Media Player mode or Mass Storage mode and use WMP on the PC to sync music and video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this,
you absolutely have to use touch whiz for kies to see you.
alternativly, you should just load music to ur sd card from "my computer" when in mass storage mode manually.
Lastly, pandora is free and will introduce you to a lot of good music. Give it a whirl.
Have constant issues with getting this phone to work with Windows.
I've got Windows 7 64bit at home. The provided drivers helped. I was able to detect the phone and see it.
2nd time I plugged it in, it would say error occurred. Installed Kies, phone had been freshly restarted, it was detected just fine. An hour later, after testing a few things, tried to hook up using USB and phone would not show up on Kies.
Rebooting PC or rebooting phone causes the phone to pull up.
Same issue with Windows XP 32bit.
I had some problems as well where windows would not detect it or I would b stuck on a usb slower than 2.0..turns out the stock sync cable included with the phone was garbage bought a new one off ebay and windows 7 installed the drivers perfectly and detects my phone with and without usb debugging turned on. It also gives me usb 2.0 speeds
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

[Q] File transfer from PC to G Tablet?

I'm trying to transfer files from my PC to my tablet, but the PC doesn't recognize the tablet - it wants me to format it. Same thing when I try to transfer the files from my mp3 player, the content of the player should be listed in the usbdisk folder, correct?
This is driving me NUTS, I'd appreciate some help. Oh, and tablet is rooted - VEGAn.
Thanks!
NeedleNerd said:
I'm trying to transfer files from my PC to my tablet, but the PC doesn't recognize the tablet - it wants me to format it. Same thing when I try to transfer the files from my mp3 player, the content of the player should be listed in the usbdisk folder, correct?
This is driving me NUTS, I'd appreciate some help. Oh, and tablet is rooted - VEGAn.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have ADB working
OK, please bear with me, I'm noobish - but what is ADB?
NeedleNerd said:
OK, please bear with me, I'm noobish - but what is ADB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html
Rooting this Gtab is somewhat of a different process fyi
You could always use dropbox, Google it
It works fine for me, with no ADB installed (Vegan 5). Plugging the Gtab straight into the PC and turning on USB storage should recognize it as a USB storage device, like any other USB key.
OP, what operating system are you using? Have you tried a different USB cable? A different USB port on the PC? Perhaps a different PC (if one is available)?
BigJohn
NeedleNerd said:
I'm trying to transfer files from my PC to my tablet, but the PC doesn't recognize the tablet - it wants me to format it. Same thing when I try to transfer the files from my mp3 player, the content of the player should be listed in the usbdisk folder, correct?
This is driving me NUTS, I'd appreciate some help. Oh, and tablet is rooted - VEGAn.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
For the PC, are you connecting from your regular size USB connector on the PC to the *mini-USB* port on the side of the Gtab (not the full-size USB under the cover on the side of the Gtab)?
The mini-USB connector is the one you need to use to connect to your PC.
The full-size USB under the cover is a "host" USB, i.e., you can connect a flash USB drive or USB hard drive to that, and then assuming it's formatted FAT32 with only ONE partition, you should be able to see it on the Gtab under /usbdisk.
Jim
- My PC OS is Windows XP
- I am using the small port on the tablet, not the USB port under the cover, to connect to the PC
- I don't have a different cable/PC to try it with
- FYI - it WAS initially working when I tried to transfer files from my mp3 player to the tablet, the transfer was interrupted when the cord came loose from the tablet, and now it's no-go for both the PC or mp3 player file transfer process
- I do have a permanent folder usbdisk on the tablet, even when there's nothing plugged into the usb ports
Thanks for all the questions and suggestions, I'm glad there's people more savvy than I am with this, willing to help!
NeedleNerd
The small port (like a camera cord) should work. The cable has a USB end on the PC side. It should be recognized on the PC as an external drive. No need to install ADB unless you want to try that too.
One idea is try plugging the USB cable into different ports on the PC end.
If you have wireless and can share network drives on your PC, try File Expert. Its free and can be found in the market. With it I can connect to my PCs drives and copy to SD or USB in my GTab right on it. Granted, it took quite some time to copy a 1GB movie to SD2 (10 min), but it worked. I had to prevent my device from sleeping though or the transfer failed. Worked well though. I'm on TnT lite.
NeedleNerd said:
- My PC OS is Windows XP
- I am using the small port on the tablet, not the USB port under the cover, to connect to the PC
- I don't have a different cable/PC to try it with
- FYI - it WAS initially working when I tried to transfer files from my mp3 player to the tablet, the transfer was interrupted when the cord came loose from the tablet, and now it's no-go for both the PC or mp3 player file transfer process
- I do have a permanent folder usbdisk on the tablet, even when there's nothing plugged into the usb ports
Thanks for all the questions and suggestions, I'm glad there's people more savvy than I am with this, willing to help!
NeedleNerd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I seem to recall that roebert (I think) had a problem w the miniusb connector being loose or broken. Have you looked at the connector in detail? Maybe the solder connection broke and it 'jiggles'? If so, probably need to get it repaired.
Jim
Well, I know it's not the cable, because I used it to transfer files from PC to mp3 player without any problems.
My PC shows the tablet (drive letter E assigned to it when plugged in), but I can't access the tablet - it's like the PC recognizes something is plugged in, but it doesn't recognize it as having content or something.
On top of that, I kept getting the android.process.acore error, so I did a datawipe and had to re-download all my apps again, to add to the aggrevation.
I will look at the different solutions suggested and if they're not requiring too much advanced knowledge, I will attempt them.
Thanks again for the help & suggestions so far, hopefully I will somehow stumble onto a fix that works!
So, I figured it out. Really simple - if you know how.
The VEGAn root is what did me in - when you plug in the cable, it doesn't give you the option to turn on the USB Mass Storage, which you need when you want to transfer files from PC to tablet. The unrooted device was a bit more user friendly by walking you through it when the cable was plugged in.
I figured out that if you tap and drag down on the USB icon on the top of the screen you can actually access the options - it's not just a status icon!
Hopefully this'll help out someone else who's rooting their tablet following instructions blindly without really knowing what's what!
Thank you again for all the suggestions, I really appreciate all the responses!
Astro SMB Module
If you are working on a home/private network and the file is on a shared network drive, you can map it in using Astro and the SMB Module for Astro ("Astro SMB" returns both in the market provided you have the market fix) and browse shared network drives just like you would on your laptop or PC.
Once installed, a network icon appears in Astro (looks like an upside down "T" or an old school windows network icon) and you can map in your network drives pretty easily. I use this with NAS and work files pretty regularly. You may have to enter alternate or domain specific credentials to make it work.
EDIT: Also I believe there are file format limitations, OS limitations, but haven't fully explored that.

Help me recovering Samsung Galaxy Mini II

Hello.
Short story: my phone was a little wet and i have some issues with it, mostly i want to get a mass storage to get working. (cant root)
Basically at first the phone didn't even want to charge, when i connected it to the PC windows was giving me an error that the device cannot be recognized, and couldn't install the drivers. (i had Kies installed)
I dried it completely, now the phone turns on without any problem, when i connect it to the pc the phone is recognizing connection (i hear sound + the button backlights are firing up for a sec)
Homever, windows is not detecting any USB device at all, and in about phone/info it says the phone is connected to the AC instead of USB.
When i connect it with USB there is no dropdown in notification to choose from charging, storage etc.
There is also manual usb storage mounting under settings/communication/usb settings , when i'm trying to mount here it just says to connect the phone with usb cable (not detecting connection, homever the backlight + sound is here after connecting, and it's charging)
I tried connecting it with usb debugging on/off even tried to fiddle with in service menu (*#7284#) but nothing.
And since i cannot get the usb storage working basically i cannot flash anything or root it.
Also the USB cable is not a Samsung but an HTC one, could this be a problem? (people in different thread said those cables are the same so it shouldnt be a problem, same amperage, same stick etc.)
Even tried to install MountUSB Widget from market, but it doesn't work when im trying to start the app it's force closing, when i make widget on desktop and press it the phone just vibrate for 1 sec and nothing happens.
When i connect phone with Kies AIR and it works, i mean it shows the storage information, also recognize the phone model correctly, how much free space i have on internal and on SD card but i cannot click "show in explorer" it's greyed out.
Any experts out there could help me? :crying:
Just a blind guess, try a USB cable which supports your device. If it doesn't help, I'm afraid it's a hardware problem and you will have to consult some hardware expert.

PC not recognizing SD card pictures on my S7

When I plug my S7 into the USB port on my PC (windows 7 64 bit Pro) I get a "folder" for the Galaxy S7 and beneath it a folder for the "card". That's fine. When I dig down into the card, I go to the DCIM folder and down below that to where I store my pictures. But when I try to open those pictures with my usual photo editor (Polyview - an oldie but a goodie that works with every other jpg I have) nothing happens. I just downloaded Irfanview 64 bit and the same thing: it does not recognize the jpg's on my card. What gives?? How can I access the card as though it was a standard card via the usb? On my old phone (an S2) I would go through the settings menu to where I could tell it to connect via usb. The s7 doesn't seem to have a similar option. I did the magic to open up the "developer options" under settings but don't know where to go from there. I see something that says "USB configuration" with options under it for MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) and some other options, but don't know what they mean. What do they mean?
There is also a "USB Debugging" option, but again, what does that do?
Is there any "Android Mashmallow for Idiots" book out there I can read?
You have to use the MTP option. If that still doesn't work get a different USB cable, preferable the one that came with the phone.
I am using windows 10 but as I remember after connecting my phone with the usb cable I waited for the computer to identify the phone and when I tried to view the content of my phone to pc I got a message on my phone that asks me if I give permission ,I accepted it and all ok
Sir_Eagle said:
You have to use the MTP option. If that still doesn't work get a different USB cable, preferable the one that came with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the idea, but I'm already using the cable that came with the phone.
kutulu32 said:
I am using windows 10 but as I remember after connecting my phone with the usb cable I waited for the computer to identify the phone and when I tried to view the content of my phone to pc I got a message on my phone that asks me if I give permission ,I accepted it and all ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same thing happened when I first plugged the phone in to my Win7 box. I can see the card folder, but the images on it don't react the same way as every other jpg does from any other device. I don't know if this is a marshmallow issue, or a Samsung galaxy s7 issue.

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