[Q] USB file transfer in Windows - Galaxy S6 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Did something happen with the way you transfer files on the new S6? I finally got the wife to switch from iPhone, and when she plugs in the phone to her computer, it just charges. It doesn't show in "My Computer" like every other android device I've ever used. Sometimes I'd have to drag down the notifications and select file transfer, or MTP, or something similar. This phone doesn't do any of that. It just charges, very frustrating.
I tried a different cable. Still, the phone just says its charging.
I even figured I'd go to settings, storage, but the menu option in there for "USB Computer Connection" is missing too. Its like the core functionality for usb file transfer is just gone.
What am I missing? Has it been this way for a while and I just never knew because I've been nexus for so long? I don't think thats it. Surely something is wrong and I'm just overlooking it.
For what its worth, it didn't work on my Mac either using the Android File Transfer program. That just says No Android Device Found.
Oh, also no security or anything set up on it. No pin or pattern or anything else. The screen was unlocked at the time, no difference.

Commenting here for posterity.
We tried every cable in the house. One of them finally worked. That's 5 cables before the 6th one did the trick. The odd thing is, I've used them all before with my nexus devices and never had an issue. I guess the S6 is picky. Live and learn.

Related

Don't really know where to start.

I'll try and make this short. Phone charges fine on comp. or charger. Phone works some what fine. Bluetooth seems to be getting quieter and quieter, but thats not the main issue. WMDC isnt working. I uninstalled it and restarted, I downloaded a newer version, I even tried about 5 cables and still the computer isnt even seeing any device what so ever. I was going to task 29 and reflash but now I'm affraid if the phones not even being recognized. Is there some setting or something that happened to of gotten changed that block my phone other than the obvious -virus protection.
Using windows 7. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Try a different usb port. I have had issues where the port I normally use for charging/syncing refuses to recognize my phone. I just use a different port and everything works fine. Even the first port starts working again. Windows 7 does seem to reinstall drivers again when I use switch ports, so patience is required.
Tried many different ports. Can't do a hard reset because : 1- I have some info and text that needs to be sync'd and : 2 my end button doesn't work anymore. Actually it was sticking so I kinda disconnected it. I would try to do a reflash from a SD card but like I said, I have stuff that I need sync'd and I'm not really sure if the phone just isnt going bad or software. I guess either way it wouldn't matter. Would like to learn how to sync with wifi.
I believe there is a wifi-sync method/program, but am not aware of the specifics. You could save your information to your sd card and simply use a usb reader to transfer the information that way. Or you can use the blutooth explorer on the phone to transfer to another blutooth device. Or I believe Google has a sync service so you can sync you information to your computers anytime and anywhere.
You can remap the "end" function to another key.
Your phone's usb port could have a cracked connection as mine disconnects while synced if I move the phone too much.
WMDC does not recognize the Mobile Device "MSW Vista and Later OS"
Try this procedure(s);
Settings, All Settings, Connections, USB Connections, clear the "Fast File Transfer" check mark under the Active Sync option. Restart the device and before connecting to the PC Double check to see if the the fast file transfer is still clear. then go ahead and try to see if your PC sees your device. Good Luck.
"ALEXANDER OF PERSIA"

[Q] Connect to PC as USB Storage?

I have a desktop cradle that I put my phone on at work. I have the USB cable from it plugged into my PC. This is nice, because it slowly charges all day, and if I want to share files between my phone and PC, they're connected.
At least, that's how it was with my S4.
With the S6, all I see in Windows Explorer is the S6 listed under my C drive. When I click on it, it's blank. Well, at least once or twice, I've seen "Phone" under there and could then drill into the folders of the internal storage. But I don't understand why that only happened once or twice and why I can't get it to happen again.
Any suggestions?
i think you have to wake the screen and unlock the phone before it will show up as a drive on your PC. it is kind of a security thing. prevents that sketchy coworker from grabbing your phone and copying all your files while you grab one of the donuts he brought for everyone.
Ah, you may be onto something. Thank you.

Constant connecting/disconnecting when USB plugged in to computer

Got my new GS6 a week ago and now i went to transfer some images and when i connect it to the computer it makes the USB connected sound and suddenly starts disconnecting and reconnecting like crazy, has anyone else experienced this? gotta get my hand on a replacement cable just in case thats the problem..
Yeah it's the cable
soapBro said:
Got my new GS6 a week ago and now i went to transfer some images and when i connect it to the computer it makes the USB connected sound and suddenly starts disconnecting and reconnecting like crazy, has anyone else experienced this? gotta get my hand on a replacement cable just in case thats the problem..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here and mine s6 is only 26 days old.... support told me it's the cable but refused a replacement... what the hell right?
I have the same thing and have tried a few cables. Did you get to the bottom of the issue? My laptop is a dell xps15 and it happens with W8.1 and Mint17 (on the same laptop).
soapBro said:
Got my new GS6 a week ago and now i went to transfer some images and when i connect it to the computer it makes the USB connected sound and suddenly starts disconnecting and reconnecting like crazy, has anyone else experienced this? gotta get my hand on a replacement cable just in case thats the problem..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its the cable.. same issue here..when I use a ps4 controller-cable i have no problem
Yea... I think it has a lot to do with the placement of the port on the phone and and a filmsy input. I tried tried a sturdier cable and it works waaaaay better.
Samsung support did offer to send me a prepaid envelope for my cable. ... then wait 2 weeks for testing... then if it was found to be defective a replacement would be shipped free of charge, but if it was defective due to user abuse then they said they'd send me a repair bill........... SERIOUSLY wtf?
I'm not kidding, this was their solution when I spoke to support.
Well it really was the cable, went out and bought a new one, exactly the same and it works fine, so the one i got in the box was faulty, after some googling it seems this has happened to a fair bit a of people already,
i still use the crappy cable to charge with... although it did stop charging half way through once :silly:
It's a USB Power setting
1. Go to Power Options on your computer
2. Click 'Change plan setting' on your chosen plan.
3. Click 'Change advanced power setting' on your chosen plan.
4. Expand 'USB Settings' .
5. Expand 'USB selective suspend setting' and change it to disabled.for On battery and Plugged In
[email protected] said:
It's a USB Power setting
1. Go to Power Options on your computer
2. Click 'Change plan setting' on your chosen plan.
3. Click 'Change advanced power setting' on your chosen plan.
4. Expand 'USB Settings' .
5. Expand 'USB selective suspend setting' and change it to disabled.for On battery and Plugged In
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried this and still it doesnt work. I changed the cables , I changed the PC which I am connecting to and still no fix. I keep getting disconnected continuously.
I'm having the same problem with Galaxy S7. It keeps disconnecting data after it has been plugged in a few seconds. It's not a cable issue, I've checked on 8 different cables.
BaconMage said:
I'm having the same problem with Galaxy S7. It keeps disconnecting data after it has been plugged in a few seconds. It's not a cable issue, I've checked on 8 different cables.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flash a different ROM. I had this on my s6 e+ on stock nougat. I went to Dr ketan ROM and it stopped
I heard it could be due to using a fast charging cable. The phone attempts to draw out more current than the USB port of the computer allows, forcing it to disconnect/reconnect repeatedly. Try using an older/less-current-rated cable. Alternatively, if you don't actually need to access the files and are just charging the phone, you can go to Window's Auto Play (search in start menu) and set your phone to "Take No Action"
I wanted to throw out a few other tricks to try, for whoever comes across this old thread when googling.
I don't 100% have an idea of why this happens, or why this worked, but it did.
First thing is, the cable really does matter. If you're using a cheapo cable that doesn't do fast charging, or a data-only cable, get a nice cable. If you're using a nice cable, try a non-fast-charge cable or the one that came with the phone.
My fast-charging cable has worked for a while but I recently tried to transfer a large 2 gig movie to the phone's secondary SD card, and it kept disconnecting / timing out.
What worked for me is go to developer options (google it, there's some code you have to enter to unlock these settings) and then usb debugging. It was disabled and I enabled it. The transfer then worked smoothly.
Weirdly, another transfer right after did NOT go smoothly, and the fix for me was to disable usb debugging, then enable it again. Then the file transferred normally, even though it took a few minutes.
Lastly, one file refused to transfer that was sitting in a particular folder. I'd get an error instantly. The folder was the cache folder for a popular video downloading app. Even a tiny text file from that folder, refused to copy. But files from other folders worked. I finally figured out that for whatever reason, the phone (or maybe windows) didn't like copying straight from this folder. Not sure why. Some permissions thing? Anyway - I copied the file I wanted from the cache folder, to a folder I use all the time. Then from this new folder to the phone. Worked smoothly, no error.
Hope these tricks help someone.

USB file access from Windows 10

I'm posting cuz I've literally spent hours and hours searching, trying things, etc, and am stuck. I have several PQs with various CM/LineageOS ROMs. It is not a ROM issue because if I plug via USB into my desktop pc running win 10, they all work as I want. Presumably, it's a driver issue or something related to my specific laptop - I recently bought an old used laptop, originally shipped with win7. After purchase I immediately removed all partitions and installed win10 from disc (fyi, you can d/l win10 iso from microsoft and use win7 oem key to legally install fresh win10, even now the free upgrade stuff is over - that surprised me).
I cannot, no matter what I do, get file access via usb to my phone. I've tried lotsa things. I don't remember if/what I had to do to make my win10 desktop see them - maybe it was automatic, i dont remember, if it wasnt, I easily downloaded/installed what was necessary - but nothing I've tried makes my win10 laptop load the drivers, although it does detect something when I plug it in, and something else when I select MTP on the phone (vs charge). But just exclamation points in device manager and nothing in explorer. Among other things, I've tried MotorolaDeviceManager_2.5.4
It's especially annoying as I have a video on my phone I wanted to send out tonite and can't, spent another couple hours trying. Bluetooth works fine for pictures but freezes at 10% for video, no idea why. But I'd much rather just use a cable than figure out any wireless BS.
Incase it's something specific to this laptop and someone is curious, it's a Sony VPCF115FM. That 'base system device' and "unknown device" are always "!", MTP with "!" only appears when phone plugged in.
Yea definitely a driver issue. When you plug the PQ into your desktop (which seems to work) what shows up in device manager?
Have you tried to right click on the devices with yellow exclamation points and update the driver from Windows update?
I never followed up on this, but still haven't found a solution, and kinda forgot about it. It does work in PTP mode. And works for a newer Moto (Lenovo) phone on this laptop. Yes, I tried the windows 10 device manager update auto search thing (in fact, just tried it again minutes ago before I read this). I'm about to wipe and install fresh as this phone is running crazy slow lately and wanted to copy everything off before I wipe which is what reminded me of this issue - funny thing is that a google search of this problem ("mtp driver motorola photon q windows 10") found this thread as the third search result and I completely forgot I posted it. I vaguely recall I read your reply but was waiting to see if anyone else responded and then just forgot to follow up when it wasn't on my new list...
PROBLEM SOLVED! It happened in TWRP too and sideload was failing (for another reason) but made me try to figure out MTP again.
Found solution here for anyone with similar issue:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...0-solved/d2226a54-65db-41ba-9398-a12196cc279c
Gotta update driver and manually select "MTP USB" from list of devices, in my case I found it under portable devices.

Unable to connect to PC in any mode

Hi all, I'm afraid I already know the answer to my question but I'll still ask if there's even a slight chance to get this fixed on my own.
I had this issue on Android 8.1 where my Pixel kept saying "Supplying power to connected device via USB" even without anything connected to it, (it started doing that one day without any reason) tapping the notification allowed me to switch to "Charge this device" and then turn on MTP mode, battery life was terrible but I wasn't that much bothered by it because I am an Android developer so I kept it connected in USB Debugging mode most of the time anyway.
When I got the notification for Android 9 update I decided to update hoping it'd fix the USB issue but after the update it now always says "Charging connected device" and tapping the notification does bring up the "USB Preference" screen and it allows me to switch to "USB Controlled by this device" and it starts charging but there's no way to switch "Charge only" mode to anything else, ADB does not see it, fastboot does not see it and there's no persistent notification on the phone about it being connected via USB at this point (in any mode). My understanding is that this is a hardware issue but Oreo still allowed me to workaround this and get the USB debugging connected.
Is there anyway I can get back to Oreo without using fastboot flash or any other solution to this?
Thanks for reading.
PS. I'm on Ubuntu but I can access a Windows machine if required and bootloader is already unlocked.
I'm curious if you're able to connect to a USB OTG storage device.
I'm having this issue connecting it to my windows 10 laptop.. the cable recognizes it.. starts charging.. shows option on phone to change type of connection.. but not matter which one i change it too, the computer will not pull lit up as a drive to see the files..
Jaws4God said:
I'm having this issue connecting it to my windows 10 laptop.. the cable recognizes it.. starts charging.. shows option on phone to change type of connection.. but not matter which one i change it too, the computer will not pull lit up as a drive to see the files..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here! I plug the cable into the Windows 10 computer, I even can change the mode from charging to MTP file transfer, but the device won't show up in the Windows Explorer. It appears under connected devices though.
My Pixel 2 XL would not connect to PC for file browsing if USB debugging of Android Apps was enabled in developer settings. Didn't matter which option I chose to connect. IDK if that is expected or not, but it took me a while to figure out. Happened Spring 2018, idk if Google fixed it.
pyro226 said:
My Pixel 2 XL would not connect to PC for file browsing if USB debugging of Android Apps was enabled in developer settings. Didn't matter which option I chose to connect. IDK if that is expected or not, but it took me a while to figure out. Happened Spring 2018, idk if Google fixed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think i've tried to turn that mode off.. i'm so used to needing it on for the computer to recognize and connect to all my previous Android Devices.. thanks for the recommendation...
post-mortem said:
I'm curious if you're able to connect to a USB OTG storage device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couldn't find any OTG cable to try that but strangely enough a few days back I connected it to PC for charging and Nautilus popped up, same cable, same USB port and it started working all of sudden. Did verify with a couple of other cables and different ports and everything is working fine since.
"Charging connected device" notification never appeared again, only thing different (when it started working again) was that I was out of the air conditioned room most of those days, might it be moisture or something like that?
I'm back to my normal routine for a few days now and it's still 100% normal, will have to see if it stays that way.
Sorry for late response.
Here's an update in case someone else runs into this situation, I can say this with 99% certainty that is caused by the blackish residue build-up around the USB port over time. It's not too much that it's visible just by looking into the port but it's enough to make the device behave like this.
Here's what I did to get rid of it, took a match stick (don't use anything metal) and broke it in half making a sharp edge on both broken pieces, took the non coated piece and inserted sharp edge in the bottom side of the port and gently wiggled it around while applying some pressure towards the connector (just a little bit, make sure you don't break anything), did this for about 45 seconds then took out the match stick and the part that was touching the connector had turned blackish (I guess this is when you know you have 'cleaned' it enough?), repeated the same process on the top side of the port with a new match stick piece (guess you can use the same one after cleaning it with a tissue), the only difference was that this time applied the pressure in opposite side (other side of connector), device was on during all this time.
It builds up again after a while (~3 months) so I had to repeat the entire process again when it started doing that again at the start of December but it wasn't that annoying this time because I knew exactly what was wrong and how to get rid of it, device is still working fine 100%.
I'm simply sharing my experience and not encouraging anyone to do this but if you do decide to try this be sure not to use anything metal and don't break the connector inside the port (turning the device off would be a good idea too) and you'll be fine and if something does go wrong I won't be responsible.

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