[Q] Mount Xoom as USB Storage - Xoom Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I just swapped my Samsung Galaxy Tab with a Xoom and I'm a bit miffed. I understand that the Xoom has 32GB of internal storage and does not come with an external SD card (or at least the person I bought it from kept the card).
With my SGT, when I plugged it into my Win7 64bit PC, the SD card would come up as a USB mass storage device.
Is there any way to do this with the internal storage of the Xoom? It's aggravatingly SLOW transferring files through the Personal Music Player icon that Win7 tosses in My Computer. I (as well as several other apps I use) would rather have a physical drive letter to copy to and from.
Not afraid to use a custom ROM or a modded apk or other system file. Yes, I did search and I also read the suggested topics that came up on the posting page, nothing was specifically related to the Xoom.

Yes. The Tiamat Rom, as well as the official 3.2 update activated the SD card slot in the xoom. No, the Xoom didnt ever come with a sdcard already in the slot like phones do, so you didnt get ripped off. the xoom file system is a little funny, "SDcard" is a seperate partition in the internal memory. If using Tiamat, and you have a sdcard in the sdcard slot, its labeled "external1" in the /mtn partition. When first placing an sd card in the slot, the system does take f o r e v e r, to recognize it (make sure you are also pushing the "mount sdcard" button in the storage settings menu). I generally just reboot the xoom after mounting a new card, that usually speeds up the process. When its all said and done when you plug the xoom into your pc you will get two hard drives that pop up, internal and sdcard. And heads up, you still cant put apps2sd like phones can, and you have to use root manager to move files from internal sdcard to external.

Yeah, that's the problem. At the moment, I don't have an SD card to put in it, but I was still expecting the internal storage to be mapped to a hard drive. I don't mind the Xoom showing up as a PMP but a lot of the apps I use as a developer (and some I use recreationally) need an actual drive letter I was hoping that even without an SD card mounted, that the internal storage would show up as a local disk. I've got 3.2.2 if that helps any.

Bought several SD cards, seems one of the contacts on the inside is dead, so I'm out as far as SD cards are concerned

LycaonX said:
Bought several SD cards, seems one of the contacts on the inside is dead, so I'm out as far as SD cards are concerned
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If that's the case, you got a bad deal. Generally, the Xoom is excellent and though you can work around it, having the sdcard feels pretty essential to me. Hopefully you can get it fixed or get your other tab back.

The contact wasn't dead, it had a piece of clear plastic tape over it (not intentionally, it was a corner of what looks like shipping or packing tape). Got a whopping 4GB SD card plugged in, shows up fine under /mnt/external1 but neither of them are showing up as drives in Explorer
I've got 3.2.2, 4G build (HLK75D), tried this with and without root, no luck with any config.
Edit: Okay, lots of searching later, and it seems Google thought it was a wonderful idea to not include such functionality with Honeycomb. I am extremely well versed in c++ but I have never written a driver before, but I will be downloading and studying the Windows Driver Development Kit and seeing if I can write a replacement driver specifically for the Xoom to create an MTP to Logical Disk bridge driver.
In effect, you'll replace the standard Windows MTP Driver for the Xoom with this custom driver, which will bridge MTP to a lettered drive in Windows Explorer. Yeah, I know it's a complicated step but I want my damn Xoom to have drive letters in Explorer and as a programmer, I usually end up solving my own problems when the software giants pull retarded stuff like this.

LycaonX said:
The contact wasn't dead, it had a piece of clear plastic tape over it (not intentionally, it was a corner of what looks like shipping or packing tape). Got a whopping 4GB SD card plugged in, shows up fine under /mnt/external1 but neither of them are showing up as drives in Explorer
I've got 3.2.2, 4G build (HLK75D), tried this with and without root, no luck with any config.
Edit: Okay, lots of searching later, and it seems Google thought it was a wonderful idea to not include such functionality with Honeycomb. I am extremely well versed in c++ but I have never written a driver before, but I will be downloading and studying the Windows Driver Development Kit and seeing if I can write a replacement driver specifically for the Xoom to create an MTP to Logical Disk bridge driver.
In effect, you'll replace the standard Windows MTP Driver for the Xoom with this custom driver, which will bridge MTP to a lettered drive in Windows Explorer. Yeah, I know it's a complicated step but I want my damn Xoom to have drive letters in Explorer and as a programmer, I usually end up solving my own problems when the software giants pull retarded stuff like this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool. Let us know when you've got it. I'm sure there will be interest for such a driver.

Just an update, the MTP side of the bridge appears rather simple to do. I may see why Google decided on MTP instead of the old unmount/mount dance. MTP allows the device to basically 'share' the storage without isolating it to a single device. Although if a hobbyist programmer like me can feasibly believe that they can program an MTP bridge, I don't see why the college educated, career programmers at Google couldn't do the same.
Basically what I am looking at is a driver that will bridge the MTP side of the Xoom over to a virtual hard disk device in Windows. It looks like I'll need to implement a way to present the virtual drive as a FAT32 (or maybe NTFS) formatted device, since software-wise all a virtual disk handles are pointers to what amounts to the 'raw' areas of a disk. Still working on it, as mentioned before I'm a hobbyist and have never dug into driver development.

LycaonX said:
Just an update, the MTP side of the bridge appears rather simple to do. I may see why Google decided on MTP instead of the old unmount/mount dance. MTP allows the device to basically 'share' the storage without isolating it to a single device. Although if a hobbyist programmer like me can feasibly believe that they can program an MTP bridge, I don't see why the college educated, career programmers at Google couldn't do the same.
Basically what I am looking at is a driver that will bridge the MTP side of the Xoom over to a virtual hard disk device in Windows. It looks like I'll need to implement a way to present the virtual drive as a FAT32 (or maybe NTFS) formatted device, since software-wise all a virtual disk handles are pointers to what amounts to the 'raw' areas of a disk. Still working on it, as mentioned before I'm a hobbyist and have never dug into driver development.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I forgot that Team Tiamat had implemented usb mass storage in an earlier verion of their Xoom kernel, but decided to remove it as it caused many complications. Look in the back pages of the Development section, for tiamat kernels and also dinomite's mass storage watcher thread. You may be able to find something you can use.

Related

[Q] Trouble Mounting 1TB Hard Drive

I purchased the G-Tablet because I wanted a way to download photos from my camera's memory, view them, and write them to an external hard drive. The problem I've run into is that I can't get my tablet (running TnT-Lite) to recognize my 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex drive to mount. I've done a lot of searching for answers, and my first thought was that the drive wasn't receiving enough power, but I've tried it through the docking station and a powered USB hub without any luck. I also reformatted it to Fat32 just to be sure it wasn't the drive format. Sniffer never even notices it's connected.
I'm using TnT-Lite, but am perfectly willing to try other ROMs if they have better external drive support. I'm not super familiar with linux so I haven't tried seeing if I could manually mount the drive, but if someone would be interested in telling me how to see if it's recognized and manually mount it I'm all ears.
Cheers!
Gaines Kergosien
(615) 412-9739
Kind of a repost...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=912212
Two things:
Make sure your harddrive format is supported by your kernel. Some kernels like clemsin support ntfs and other formats. I am not really sure what formats does the kernel that comes with tnt lite supports, but i recomend to check or install another kernel.
Second; make sure you connects your HDD to a power source before using it. I have not tried it myself, but i heard that the low power source of the usb port of the g tablet is not enough to supply power to the HDD.
Good luck with that, hope you find a solution to the problem.
Another thought, have you tried rebooting the tab after you've plugged the HDD in. I have a 500 gb WD elements, and if I'm having issues, usually rebooting with the drive plugged up takes care of it.
Pazzu510 said:
Kind of a repost...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=912212
Two things:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, others have posted similar issues, albeit with different drives/ROMs and little or no followup to troubleshoot the problem and no real solution.
I believe I was very specific in mentioning during the opening post that I tried using external power (via the dock and powered USB hub) and different drive formats.
lordgodgeneral said:
Another thought, have you tried rebooting the tab after you've plugged the HDD in. I have a 500 gb WD elements, and if I'm having issues, usually rebooting with the drive plugged up takes care of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried having it plugged in via the dock and powered hub before boot, but still no dice.
The best case scenario for me is that someone here has the same drive, overcame this issue and is willing to share their solution. I'm hoping that I can at least find someone who knows enough about linux/ROMs to help me troubleshoot and figure out if this is a hardware, driver or software issue. Maybe the drive is being recognized but the partition isn't getting mounted for some reason? *shrug*
Try partitioning your drive to 2 500gb sections. I don't think android os recognizes 1tb drive sizes. Just a thought.
Mantara said:
Try partitioning your drive to 2 500gb sections. I don't think android os recognizes 1tb drive sizes. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent suggestion. Just repartitioned it as (2) 465GB fat32 drives and copied over some test files, plugged the drive into the powered USB hub, plugged that into the G-tablet, booted...and at first I thought it didn't work. Then an hour later I look at my tablet and realize it's mounted! I can see the image file I was using to test it...except the image (png) doesn't open. I try moving it to the SDCard using iFileManager and it errors.
...so on the up side, the drive mounted. On the down side, there may still be some issues.
You didn't say what model drive. I got a 1TB drive to use on my Tonido plug server and server would not recognize it. apparently some of the new drives need non standard drivers. For bulk storage, the tonido works great and accessible from the web.
Rumbleweed said:
You didn't say what model drive. I got a 1TB drive to use on my Tonido plug server and server would not recognize it. apparently some of the new drives need non standard drivers. For bulk storage, the tonido works great and accessible from the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is my opening post that difficult to read? Pretty sure I said it's a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex.
not only is this not developement but snapping at the people trying to help you is just gonna not get you any help
Moved to general.
I have the exact same hard drive and the exact same problem as well. Running Cal's 1.1 with Clem's latest kernal ver. 6. No luck in seeing it.
Also, even with a thumb drive it cannot recognize it if it's formatted as NTFS. I know it's supposed to work but there must be something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?
Thanks
thebadfrog said:
not only is this not developement but snapping at the people trying to help you is just gonna not get you any help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seemed to me that troubleshooting problems with ROMs not correctly mounting drives fell under development along with the ROM being used.
As for snapping at people, maybe I wasn't as appreciative of their effort as I should have been, but I felt like people were replying without even reading the opening post where I had tried hard to explain the situation in detail. It's like taking your car to a mechanic and telling him it's making a clunking sound, then receiving a call from them later saying, "Yeah, we took a look and there seems to be a clunking sound."
you try using a file explorer like root explorer?? or only sniffer?
rover442 said:
I have the exact same hard drive and the exact same problem as well. Running Cal's 1.1 with Clem's latest kernal ver. 6. No luck in seeing it.
Also, even with a thumb drive it cannot recognize it if it's formatted as NTFS. I know it's supposed to work but there must be something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey rover442. I'm thrilled to have gotten it to mount and, hopefully if we work together, we can figure out how to get everything working properly. To recap, here's what I did to get it to mount:
Delete the existing partition using Windows Disk Management
Create two new partitions (under 500GB)
Format those partitions using fat32format
Plug the drive into the tablet via a powered usb hub
Reboot
Wait an undefined amount of time for it to magically mount
10roller said:
you try using a file explorer like root explorer?? or only sniffer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried all of them, but when it finally mounted I noticed it in Sniffer then was able to access it using iFileManager.
Ok gaines. I'll reformat the drive and partition it and see what happens. Thanks!
Gaines, I made two partitions. I put an mp3 in each partition. Loaded it into G Tab and it sees one of the partitions and the mp3. It does not see the other partition. FTR, I am not using a powered USB, just plugging straight into the G. (formatted fat 32 on the external hard drive).
Success
Ok here's what I did to make things work in FAT 32
I downloaded a partition software called EASEUS Partition master Home. It was free. I fromatted again the whole 1TB hard drive (931GB available). here are the following tests I did:
Partition 431GB successfully seen in G Tab
Partition 531GB successfully seen in G Tab
So since I broke the 500GB threshold I tried to partition 631GB and it was good. So then I just repartitioned for the whole 931GB available and it is now being seen in Sniffer and Root Explorer. So it's fine.
However, the G Tab still cannot recognize NTFS.
You need a kernel that supports ntfs. Android does not recognise ntfs natively

[Q] How do I mount my sdcard as a drive via USB?

I have a TF101 running Prime 1.1, and a sdcard inserted in it.
I wanted to mount it as a drive via USB to my laptop through a usb cable (like I do on my phone), but I can't find an option for it on Honeycomb to do so. Anyone know how to do this?
Having the same issue. Running Ubuntu 10.04. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
...anyone?
poorace said:
I have a TF101 running Prime 1.1, and a sdcard inserted in it.
I wanted to mount it as a drive via USB to my laptop through a usb cable (like I do on my phone), but I can't find an option for it on Honeycomb to do so. Anyone know how to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's already mounted, on device storage there's a folder called microSD, if that doesn't work just pop the microSD card out and pop it back in while plugged in.
poorace said:
I have a TF101 running Prime 1.1, and a sdcard inserted in it.
I wanted to mount it as a drive via USB to my laptop through a usb cable (like I do on my phone), but I can't find an option for it on Honeycomb to do so. Anyone know how to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest i do not think there is any way to do that yet
Honeycomb does not offer an easy way to include removable storage (which is why the xoom doesnt support sd cards yet officially)
Asus bypassed the Honeycomb issue and mounted the SD card to a directory (Removable Storage)
Since the built in storage is seen as the sdcard by honeycomb that is what is seen by computers
When the next version of honeycomb comes out, they should address this issue
...hopefully
For now i carry one of these bad boys on me while i'm at school (along with my gazillion flash drives )
http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-...FKR8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304203233&sr=8-3
SlimDan22 said:
To be honest i do not think there is any way to do that yet
Honeycomb does not offer an easy way to include removable storage (which is why the xoom doesnt support sd cards yet officially)
Asus bypassed the Honeycomb issue and mounted the SD card to a directory (Removable Storage)
Since the built in storage is seen as the sdcard by honeycomb that is what is seen by computers
When the next version of honeycomb comes out, they should address this issue
...hopefully
For now i carry one of these bad boys on me while i'm at school (along with my gazillion flash drives )
http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-...FKR8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304203233&sr=8-3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That explains it!
SlimDan22 said:
To be honest i do not think there is any way to do that yet
Honeycomb does not offer an easy way to include removable storage (which is why the xoom doesnt support sd cards yet officially)
Asus bypassed the Honeycomb issue and mounted the SD card to a directory (Removable Storage)
Since the built in storage is seen as the sdcard by honeycomb that is what is seen by computers
When the next version of honeycomb comes out, they should address this issue
...hopefully
For now i carry one of these bad boys on me while i'm at school (along with my gazillion flash drives )
http://www.amazon.com/elago-Mobile-...FKR8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1304203233&sr=8-3
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very cool item there. might pick one up myself.
Wait so are you telling me that presently there is no way to access your microSD card from your computer? (without using any extra accessories)
Oops just realized it was mounted in the storage folder**
Had to replug in my Sd card
Deusdies said:
Wait so are you telling me that presently there is no way to access your microSD card from your computer? (without using any extra accessories)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seshmaru already posted the solution to this earlier in the thread.
When your Transformer is attached to a Windows PC, the SD card is mounted as a subdirectory under device storage.
Regards,
Dave
Android switched from the USB storage class to MTP from Honeycomb. In order to access MTP storage from non-Windows machines you'll need an MTP driver.
For Mac use Android Filetransfer. For Linux use MTPFS.
Details for both can be found here:
http://droidweb.com/2011/05/moving-files-onto-android-3-0-devices/
MTP sucks, you have to use Windows' default copy and paste and it doesn't give you full acess to all the files (only ones Honeycomb wants you to see), horrible system.
frosty5689 said:
...it doesn't give you full acess to all the files ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I also dislike the inconsistency between actual files and those displayed via MTP. Fortunately most readers of this forum know how to use ADB push/pull or the file explorer to move internal files to a removable USB storage device.
Watch out
I've got 3 USB 2.5" HDs. All are NTFS formatted and SATA internally with external eSATA connectors so to me similar cases. All work fine on my PCs. On the TF 2 work and these 2 have a similar case but the 3rd is not picked.
Just something to be aware of that your case can be an issue

[Q] Windows sees MicroSD card, but not the SD card

UPDATE: Android 3.2 has fixed the problem
Title says it all.
Computer-->Transformer 101-->Device Storage
I can see the MicroSD directory, but not the SD directory.
The transformer sees the SD card fine.
Using Prime 1.5
Tried both NTFS and FAT32 format on the SD card
Any suggestions?
Lack of Honeycomb support for more than one external storage device.
I'm usually too lazy to get the usb cable. I use swiftp and upload things to my tablet from ftp. It sees the whole directory including /system/ and so forth.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
So, lack of multiple storage devices? Really? That sucks.
I'll try the swiftp. That looks viable.
Thanks.
If anyone knows a work around get the SD card visible in windows, please let me know.
SwiFTP is a old app and not updated much but it still works. App isn't optimized for HC, but you can do the basic things you need to do. Other than optimization for screen, it works great.
You can see /removable/microsd/ and /sdcard/.
Checked out SwiFTP. It gets the job done, with transfer speeds of around 200-300 Kb/s over wifi. Tomorrow I'll buy an extra ethernet cable and see if I can get this usb-to-lan adapter working with the transformer. That should give me fast enough speeds to keep me happy in the mean time. SwiFTP also allows me to charge the transformer while doing file transfers, which is nice.
I really hope Android 3.2 will fix this so I can see the SD card through windows.
I really really like the transformer, but it's all the little things wrong with it that drive me nuts.
Have you considered transferring files the other way around? E.g. sharing a dir in windows and accessing it via smb from tf over wifi with whatever you want - es file manager, file manager hd, file expert, etc. You can also mount it with cifs manager if you want.
The transfer speeds shouldbe reasonably faster over smbcompared to ftp.
Not quite sure what smb is. I'll have to google it. I'll look into it.
typci said:
Not quite sure what smb is. I'll have to google it. I'll look into it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMB protocol is basically what you usually share your windows files via. Just share a folder in Windows like you usually would (not through home network though), and you'll be able to access it via any file manager on tablet.
I'm getting 2-2.5Mbytes/sec over wifi this way, which probably can be improved since the TF connects to my wifi router at 65Mbps (so, theoretically up to 8 Mbytes/sec which is ideal, but 4-5 should be real) but I don't bother with that since I don't really need faster transfer speeds.
There should be a folder called "MicroSD", maybe two. One of them is your external SD Card. But i found out that i don't see every file with windows...
interesting ... so i haven't even tried SD+MicroSD at the same time I can't tell if TF101 will see both ... should probably try it tonight.
But I know I have plugged 2 differnet USB flash drives into the dock with the microSD and the tablet saw everything.
I think people are missing the OPs question. I read the setup as he/she is windows computer connected to the TF and looking at the Windows Explorer window. In Window Explorer it shows the uSD, but not an SD card plugged into the dock.
jerrykur said:
I think people are missing the OPs question. I read the setup as he/she is windows computer connected to the TF and looking at the Windows Explorer window. In Window Explorer it shows the uSD, but not an SD card plugged into the dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We (at least I) understood it correctly. I was just suggesting a workaround based on my own experience to achieve the same goals via different means.
A couple of people missed the point, but the information provided has been very useful. Thanks for the help so far.
I also forgot that not everyone has the dock. If you do not have the dock, then you do not have an SD card slot (the tablet has a MicroSD card slot). The SD card slot on the dock is the card I'm having trouble with.
The ultimate goal of the question was to be able to transfer files between the computer and the Transformer, and Transformer's various storage areas: Internal, MicroSD, and SD card. That has been achieved with the various work arounds provided so far (SwiFTP, smb). But I would like to have an option in windows to drag and drop files to the Transformer SD (not MicroSD, or internal memory) card located on the dock, with the Transformer hooked up to the computer via USB.
Just to clarify:
The transformer can store user files in 3 places:
Internal Flash Memory - /SDCard directory from within Android, /transformer 101/Device Storage directory from windows via USB
External MicroSD Card - MicroSD card slot on tablet, /Removable/MicroSD directory from within Android, /transformer 101/Device Storage/MicroSD directory from windows via USB
External SD Card - SD card slot on the Transformer's dock, /Removable/SD directory from within Android --> This is the card that does not show up when the Transformer is connected to the computer via USB.
I use the internal memory for games, apks, and other basic android stuff.
I use a 8GB MicroSD card for extra stuff needed by apks, clockwork mod stuff, and school stuff (I'm a teacher and a student)
I also have a 8GB SD card I want to use for video and audio. I need a very convenient and fast way to switch out these files, since I will be changing them pretty often, and because they are huge files. Once I get this setup, I plan buy a much larger SDHC card to store videos on.
So far, I really like the SwiFTP suggested by zephiK, because everything can be controlled on my windows computer, and with a decent FTP program it should be really easy to use. I don't like dealing with file systems in Android just yet. Astro and root explorer are nice, but no where near as easy to use as windows explorer (multiple open windows and drag and drop).
Also, I just bought a ethernet cable and USB-to-LAN adapter. This will make it so I can plug my charge my transformer via the wall plug while I transfer files over the LAN.
I'm interested in smb, but probably won't use it because you use a file manager on the tablet to control it. But it is always good to have options.
If someone has a working setup where all three Transformer storage locations (Internal, MicroSD, and SD) are accessible through windows via USB, let me know. Or if someone has it natively working, please let me know. I'm trying to figure out whether my problem is with my transformer, or it all transformers have this problem.
i had this same issue, this is how i fixed it!
I went to the asus website and downloaded all the programs for sync and everything,
Then i was able to see the removable folder on the transformer
Hope this helps
number16 said:
interesting ... so i haven't even tried SD+MicroSD at the same time I can't tell if TF101 will see both ... should probably try it tonight.
But I know I have plugged 2 differnet USB flash drives into the dock with the microSD and the tablet saw everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The TF101 will see SD+MicroSD card at the same time, and probably as many USB flash drives as you can plug into it.
The trouble I'm having is with the TF101 connected to my computer via USB, windows explorer sees the TF101 internal memory, the MicroSD card, but not the SD card.
Do you know if windows explorer will see a USB flash drive plugged into the TF101?
Another very viable solution is to install a samba server on your tablet, and share the needed dirs right from it wirelessly. Then you'll be able to normally work with them via windows explorer like you would with any other network share.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8239139&postcount=128
Needs root though. Havent tried it myself, i will later today or tomorrow.
Needs some setup, but some setup > having to be cable tied in my book, i hate all kinds of cables.
Take the SD/microSD card out, plug it into computer via real reader. You get faster read/writes, takes seconds.
I just realized I missed the pound RE Windows - removed my post entry.
I can't even seem to be able to access my microSD from a windows computer over the sync cable. It only shows me internal storage.
However removing the microSD and directly coping is faster, however if you have stuff open on the card, it is inconvenient. So being able to copy stuff over from the laptop is useful.
My other option is to map the windows drive onto the transformer and copying the files over wifi.

[GUIDE] MTP and PTP (Media Transfer Protocol) vs UMC (Mass Storage Class)

Here I will post the advantages and disadvantages of the two.
Advantages of UMC
UMC works at block level. It means that you access the partition from the operating system like if were local, and you have complete control of it.
For the previous reason, UMC keeps timestamps for files and folders. This is specially important for pictures, photos or videos that don't have EXIF, where you rely on file creation or modification time to arrange them and to know when were taken. MTP sets for all transferred files current system time, thus overwritting the real creation or modification time and ruining your gallery.
UMC allows the use of recovery software (Recuva) or partition software (Easeus Partition Master) and even format with a different filesystem. Without UMC you have to use android side software that usually is less powerful, needs a rooted phone, etc.
As you have total access to the partition, you can access all files there, even hidden, system, etc. With MTP you only have access to the files that the controlling operating system (android) wants. For example, with MTP, files starting with dot (.file) are not accessible. Some file formats are not allowed.
UMC is compatible with any operating system that allows connecting a FAT32 / exFAT pendrive, while MTP requires specific support. Linux and OS X may have built-in support or not.
With UMC you directly access the files, so modification is instant, and viewing. On the other side, with MTP you download it, modify it and re-upload the edited version, but you never do it directly. Even to play files you need to completely download it first. Imagine downloading a 5 GB MKV.
UMC is always the same, while for MTP there are several implementations: MTP, MTPZ (Microsoft Zune), Sony SonicStage, Apple DMAP.
UMC is faster than MTP because requires less time to initialize transfer, but isn't that big difference for an average user. The higher the number of files to be transferred and the lower the size of each file, the higher the ratio MTP/UMC.
Advantages of MTP or PTP
In MTP mode, the android device controls the input/output to the filesystem, so there is no risk of data loss because of cold disconnecting the device from USB. You work on a layer over the filesystem. With UMC you must be careful.
MTP allows you to use the sdcard from both the android phone and the computer at the same time, even to any desired number of them. On the other side, with UMC you only can do it from a device at a time, meaning that you have to unmount the sdcard from the android to view it on the computer, stopping apps, etc. Of course there are software that can force viewing UMC from both sides, but is a highway to corruption.
MTP does not show the native filesystem to the computer (it uses a hierarchery simulated by the MTP driver), so it will always be compatible. For example, on devices with the same partition for data and sdcard (like Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S3) you are writing from the computer to an ext4 partition and you don't need windows to support it. The same if the device partition were in any imaginable filesystem, the MTP will show you it in a standard hierarchy. On the other side, with UMC your local operating system (windows, linux, mac) must support natively the filesystem of the partition or download some software that allows you to do it.
With MTP you use all capabilities and disadvantages of the device filesystem. If the filesystem is in ext4 you can copy files over 4GB to the device, that you couldn't in UMC mode because usually it will come formatted in FAT32, that is the most compatible fs for all operating systems.
MTP enables Windows Media DRM, UMC doesn't.
MTP allows the use of password for accessing the files (on compatible devices). On the other side, with UMC, of course you could use powerful tools like TrueCrypt, but you need the corresponding software on android that reads it.
How to preserve timestamps
- Use File Timestamp app. Root is required, and works recursively too.
- Use Mass Storage Mode when possible.
- zip or tar the files when sending them to the phone or receiving from.
- If the device has external sd, you can use it as a man in the middle.
- samba (smb protocol) allows preservation of timestamps, however applications for android don't support it.
- FTP allows preservation of timestamps, however applications for android don't support it.
- NFS allows preservation of timestamps, however couldn't get any application for android working properly (Servers Ultimate Pro).
- Rsync allows preservation of timestamps, however couldn't get any application for android working properly (Servers Ultimate Pro).
- adb push and pull does not preserve timestamps. Furthermore doesn't work recursively with folders.
- MTP does not preserve timestamps.
- Cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. usually never preserve timestamps.
Questions and answers
Is possible to implement MTP on "put here your device"?​Possibly yes, if has USB. MTP works on software side, so updating your rom or installing a new one will do the job
Is possible to implement UMC on "put here your device"?​That depends on hardware mainly. If the internal sdcard and the data folders belong to the same partition, you can't. The reason is that you can't enable access to a part of a partition at block level, the whole or nothing. This is the case for Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3, in order to take advantage of all space, and discard the case where you have filled a partition and the other plenty of space.
Dan Morill said:
It isn't physically possible to support UMS on devices that don't have a dedicated partition for storage (like a removable SD card, or a separate partition like Nexus S.) This is because UMS is a block-level protocol that gives the host PC direct access to the physical blocks on the storage, so that Android cannot have it mounted at the same time.
With the unified storage model we introduced in Honeycomb, we share your full 32GB (or 16GB or whatever) between app data and media data. That is, no more staring sadly at your 5GB free on Nexus S when your internal app data partition has filled up -- it's all one big happy volume.
However the cost is that Android can no longer ever yield up the storage for the host PC to molest directly over USB. Instead we use MTP. On Windows (which the majority of users use), it has built-in MTP support in Explorer that makes it look exactly like a disk. On Linux and Mac it's sadly not as easy, but I have confidence that we'll see some work to make this better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sources:
Easy UMS, USB Mass Storage and Media Transfer Protocol – XDA Developer TV
DifferenceBetween: Difference Between MTP and MSC
Directions on Microsoft: What is MTP?
CrackBerry: On startup - Media Transfer Protocol
Ice Cream Sandwich supports USB mass storage after all, Galaxy Nexus does not
Issues and questions:
[Q] Hidden folders through Android MTP
Nexus 4 not showing files via MTP
[Q][MTP] Certain files/directories hidden to windows file manager?
Connecting to PC files are different!
MTP and hidden files
[Q] Hidden files and MTP/Windows
[Q] Do the S3 still using 2gb partition for data and 12 as virtual sd?
Just got meself a Nexus 7... But!
Upload to dropbox: file timestamps should be preserved
Android File Transfer - For Mac users only
Thanks for this guide !
If I understand this correctly, then devices like the Asus Transformer Eee Pad (TF300T) which has a 16GB or 32GB internal storage, PLUS a microSD card (and standard SD card slot when docked) could use UMC, if the manufacturer made it so (which they haven't), right?
invertedskull said:
If I understand this correctly, then devices like the Asus Transformer Eee Pad (TF300T) which has a 16GB or 32GB internal storage, PLUS a microSD card (and standard SD card slot when docked) could use UMC, if the manufacturer made it so (which they haven't), right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The UMC should appear then for the microsd, which you can physically remove from the phone, plus the dock if existent.
For the 16/32 GB internal storage it depends if there is a dedicated partition for internal sdcard. Check it for the Eee Pad.
Well, then I assume(?) Asus were lazy or just didn't think to give us the choice, cos I only have MTP or PTP mode. I miss UMC.
invertedskull said:
Well, then I assume(?) Asus were lazy or just didn't think to give us the choice, cos I only have MTP or PTP mode. I miss UMC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, assuming that you have your device rooted and with busybox, can you post the output of these three commands
Code:
ls -lR /dev/block
Code:
mount
Code:
su
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
print
scandiun said:
Well, assuming that you have your device rooted and with busybox, can you post the output of these three commands...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, I don't have it rooted. I have been asking around if rooting / unlocking the TF300T would give me the option for UMC, but pretty much everyone told me chances are zip.
invertedskull said:
Sorry, I don't have it rooted. I have been asking around if rooting / unlocking the TF300T would give me the option for UMC, but pretty much everyone told me chances are zip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting can't change that because it's hardware implemented. You can't do anything about it. Probably the Eee pad transformer doesn't have a dedicated partition for sdcard.
A quick way to check it is see if the free space for the sdcard and the userdata is exactly the same, and is always like that no matter on which of the two partitions you write.
About the issue anyway, modern phones like Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and probably newer like Nexus 2 and Note 2 won't have it anymore, it's just the way to go because takes all the advantage of the free space on the device. It will be the standard from now on.
EDITED:
If you want UMS on devices that don't have it, you can use DriveDroid from market (there's both free and paid). With it, create a blank file that will be used as "partition". Then you can connect your phone to your computer and put there the songs you want. Then do the same in the car. For example, in my Nexus 7 I've created a 2 GB file which serve for that purpose (takes a while when is big).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=39203658&postcount=21
I have 20.71GB free internal, and 1.89GB free on the mSD card. :/
invertedskull said:
I have 20.71GB free internal, and 1.89GB free on the mSD card. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because the mSD is another sdcard, different than the internal, in case it has it.
Would be great if you could get the partition scheme as I requested before, or ask for it, to definitely rule it out.
scandiun said:
Because the mSD is another sdcard, different than the internal, in case it has it.
Would be great if you could get the partition scheme as I requested before, or ask for it, to definitely rule it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this what you need?
when i connect my device with computer(MTP conection), i saw 1drive appear, then i go inside, i saw 2drive(iternal&external with how many free space left), go inside again always empty... how to use it?
I get that also. Just go into either one (internal or external) that you want to copy your files to and do your stuff.
invertedskull said:
Is this what you need?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More or less. The internal sdcard and the external (microsd) are different, one has 27.15 GB and the other 29.80 GB.
Click in the More... and see if you have UMC for the external microsd
scandiun said:
More or less. The internal sdcard and the external (microsd) are different, one has 27.15 GB and the other 29.80 GB.
Click in the More... and see if you have UMC for the external microsd
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, I only have MTP or PTP. This makes me sad.
Of UMC, MPT, and PTP, which is the most benigh?
I don't know if this is the best place to ask my question, but at least you all seem to understand this all pretty well.
I plug my phone into my PC to just use ADB. Under Gingerbread, I would select "Charge only" as my USB connection type.
With ICS, there is no longer the "Charge Only" option for an USB connection to a PC. I have to pick UMC, MTP, or PTP.
Given I really don't want to use any of those, just ADB, which of the three is the most benign one?
WaltA said:
I don't know if this is the best place to ask my question, but at least you all seem to understand this all pretty well.
I plug my phone into my PC to just use ADB. Under Gingerbread, I would select "Charge only" as my USB connection type.
With ICS, there is no longer the "Charge Only" option for an USB connection to a PC. I have to pick UMC, MTP, or PTP.
Given I really don't want to use any of those, just ADB, which of the three is the most benign one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either the MTP or PTP are the safer ones. There is no possibility to select "none" like was possible in previous version as you say. The UMC has the disadvantage that if you activate the Mass Storage usually the /sdcard won't be available from ADB commands.
Anyway, the ADB is separate from those options. The ADB option is usually found under Developer options. You can use adb with any of the options you say.
Thanks a lot very very helpfull!
oops, delete post. wrong window lol
scandiun said:
Rooting can't change that because it's hardware implemented. You can't do anything about it.
...
About the issue anyway, modern phones like Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and probably newer like Nexus 2 and Note 2 won't have it anymore, it's just the way to go because takes all the advantage of the free space on the device. It will be the standard from now on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I would let you (and anyone else reading this thread) know that your post here is wrong. It's not "hardware implemented" in the sense that these two protocols are software implementations of data transfer. In fact, in many cases, even where there is NOT a microSD card that is mounted as a separate partition from system/data, the UMS/MSC (USB Mass Storage Transfer/Mass Storage Class) can still be implemented by this procedure:
1. Root (and optionally flash a custom ROM, that can be easily modded)
2. boot into alt OS, such as Recovery or OS from alt. source (USB OTG?)
3. Partition such that you have the required "separate partition"
4. add kernel modules/libraries you want and will need for UMS/MSC
5. Boot up and enjoy UMS/MSC as well as MTP (if you don't mind crappy speed)
Done.
Also, regarding MTP/PTP (Media Transfer Protocol, which is actually different from Picture Transfer Protocol), being a future replacement for all "modern phones", I am not so sure. It is designed for that indeed, but the Android community is different from most others. I will personally be going out of my way in the future, to ensure all phones I buy have removable uSDcard slots, as long as I can still find them, because it makes recovery in a bind, much easier (like, if there's a problem establishing communications with a computer, and numerous other possibilities). There's nothing like popping in a 32 or 64 Gig card of movies, training videos, eBooks, etc., within 10 to 20 seconds, vice the hours it will typically take to transfer even 5 Gigs of videos over the MTP protocol. Again, I don't like programs handling all my media for me. I prefer to see the files where they live (a higher fidelity simulation, is afterall, a hallmark property of how sharper minds represent reality, and abstractions from it are always mere shortcuts we use in a hurry). You got an easier method to rapidly check file hashes on your phone, from your laptop? Think of it this way, saying that MTP will "replace" UMS, is like saying Apple will replace Linux.
Regards,
Paul
:good:

Why can't various SSH servers see my sdcard?

Hi,
I have a stock Galaxy S7 running 6.0.1 with an SD card configured as portable storage. I tried two SSH servers (Ssh Server and SSH Server, I know the names are not very helpful) and they both work fine. However they can't access my SD card.
Is it possible to get this to work, can this never work, etc.? Various file managers can work with the SD card. I don't understand why the SSH servers don't.
The question behind this question is what's the easiest/fastest way to get a 100 gig of files onto an SD card that a phone or tablet running Marshmallow can access. Without Windows or Mac I don't know of any better way. Why, oh why didn't Android provide a normal plug and play USB interface like you normally get with most devices where you can mount all the drives and act like they're local...
If anybody has ideas on this that would be nice. If not if I can at least access my SD card from an SSH server running on the device I'll be able to pump my files over from my various systems.
Thank you.
Updated: I built the latest libmtp and stable gmtp today and it starts working great but eventually crashes in the middle of transferring a bunch of files. Oddly, it seems to die on the same file each time. I don't have time right now but later I'll check and see if I can prove whether it's after some amount of time/data/whatever or if the file is bad (unlikely). So unless somebody has a better idea how we can get good ole' 1990s USB mass storage working I'm kinda screwed atm.
midnightrider said:
Hi,
I have a stock Galaxy S7 running 6.0.1 with an SD card configured as portable storage. I tried two SSH servers (Ssh Server and SSH Server, I know the names are not very helpful) and they both work fine. However they can't access my SD card.
Is it possible to get this to work, can this never work, etc.? Various file managers can work with the SD card. I don't understand why the SSH servers don't.
The question behind this question is what's the easiest/fastest way to get a 100 gig of files onto an SD card that a phone or tablet running Marshmallow can access. Without Windows or Mac I don't know of any better way. Why, oh why didn't Android provide a normal plug and play USB interface like you normally get with most devices where you can mount all the drives and act like they're local...
If anybody has ideas on this that would be nice. If not if I can at least access my SD card from an SSH server running on the device I'll be able to pump my files over from my various systems.
Thank you.
Updated: I built the latest libmtp and stable gmtp today and it starts working great but eventually crashes in the middle of transferring a bunch of files. Oddly, it seems to die on the same file each time. I don't have time right now but later I'll check and see if I can prove whether it's after some amount of time/data/whatever or if the file is bad (unlikely). So unless somebody has a better idea how we can get good ole' 1990s USB mass storage working I'm kinda screwed atm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a Galaxy S7 forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Labs
sd_shadow said:
there is a Galaxy S7 forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s7
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but this is a generic Android Marshmallow issue as far as I know.
It appears the SD card filesystem is not world writeable. TotalCommander allows me to change it in the GUI but it doesn't actually get changed. No error or warning messages either.
edit: ok after hours of searching here and on the net this is apparently caused by design in Marshmallow. The permissions on the SD card make it not happening to directly update the card. I think, but I am not sure, there is an API for applications that want to write to the card. Some apps can certainly do it. I found a thread here where a guy figured out a solution if you are rooted. I'm sorry but I accidentally closed the tab (DOH!) and lost the link.
The choices seem to be:
1) ask the dev to fix his app to be able to write on the SD card
2) root your phone and change permissions or change the xml file to deal with it
3) use your SD card as adoptable storage. This only works if you have a really fast/expensive card otherwise your performance will suck hard and you'll be miserable. Lots of other downside to this, probably not worth it.
I have no idea if this is going to be fixed in N. I hope so because it is a huge PITA. And stupid!
I just built the linux fuse support for exfat and am downloading a bunch of doc to the sd card from linux. After I fill up the card I'll test it out and update again. Very easy build, the whole thing was less than 3 minutes. For anybody who wants to try this on a non package managed linux (I use Slackware) see here: https://github.com/relan/exfat

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