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Cannot access ext. sd card in gTab from windows via USB cable

I cannot access my external sd card that's in my gTab from windows via the USB cable. I seem to remember that when I first bought it , I could see both the internal and external storage when I connected the gTab to Windows via USB (when it still had stock ROM). Now I am running rooted VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b5.1.1 and when I connect it via USB to windows I can only see the internal storage (I couldn't see it when I tried cyanogenmod either). I can access both brom the gTab just fine and if I take out the ext. sd card, windows reads it just fine.
Any idea why and/or how to access both internal and external storage from windows when gTab is plugged in via USB to windows?

As far as I know you could never access the external sdcard from the computer by usb

I load things from my external SD to internal SD and visa versa using ghost commander. Not a super big deal just one extra step. At this point I almost forgot I had to do that to move files between them and my PC.

i use a app that mounts them both

The way I found to access my external sd card from my computer is to ftp into my gTab using filezilla on my computer and SwiFTP FTP Server (available free from Market) on my gTab. Here is another post that talks about how to access the ext. sd card remotely: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=869844

roguey said:
i use a app that mounts them both
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could share the NAME of the app.

Multi Mount SD-Card Free
I didnt have my tab with me

roguey said:
Multi Mount SD-Card Free
I didnt have my tab with me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I know some other people will want to try this app.
Not a great fit for me as I dislike the delays built into a lot of free apps.

I just plug a USB thumb drive into my PC, download the files onto that then plug it into my tablet and download from the USB drive onto the SDCARD. Easy like pie.
Works the other direction too!!!

[SOLVED] Phone's SD card not showing up in My Computer

Hi,
I just bought the Desire S and it comes with an 8GB SD card. When I plug my phone into the computer to browse the SD card, the SD card doesn't show up in My Computer. I've tried USB storage ON and OFF, debugging Mode and nothing works.
When I go to Computer Management -> Disk Management, the SD card shows up as "Unallocated". I cannot assign a drive letter to it as well.
I took the SD card out of the phone and plugged it into the computer using a card reader and it showed up in My Computer and was working fine. I put it back into the phone and plugged the phone to the computer and selected SD card storage option on the phone and I can't browse the SD card any more.
I've already formatted the card as FAT32 using Windows 7 before putting it into the phone.
I can browse the SD card just fine using a file explorer on the phone.
What could be the problem? why isn't the SD card showing up when I plug the phone into the computer?
I'm running MIUI 1.9.30 ROM, but the problem was also present with the original HTC ROM as well.

maybe you should try to format it through phone's settings, even better if you try to use a sense rom

Do you have htc usb drivers on your pc? Not sure if this they are required to browse the sdcard whilst in the phone, but they maybe?

The best you can do, you must format your SD card (all partitions) with your recovery (Ext3 or Ext4).
If you have used 4EXTRecovery or CWM, it's easier. (I prefer 4EXTRecovery )
At the end I think it will be ok

chris5s said:
Do you have htc usb drivers on your pc? Not sure if this they are required to browse the sdcard whilst in the phone, but they maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I downloaded the "HTC Sync" tool and installed it but it doesn't recognize the phone probably because MIUI is installed on the phone.
Does anyone else have MIUI installed and managed to get it to work? Or is there some USB drivers I need to install?

philos64 said:
The best you can do, you must format your SD card (all partitions) with your recovery (Ext3 or Ext4).
If you have used 4EXTRecovery or CWM, it's easier. (I prefer 4EXTRecovery )
At the end I think it will be ok
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But Windows doesn't recognize Ext3 or Ext4, so I still won't be able to browse my SD card on the computer.

456456 said:
But Windows doesn't recognize Ext3 or Ext4, so I still won't be able to browse my SD card on the computer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, except if you use Droid Explorer on your PC (you can read all partitions from your phone with).
Except your SD partition who's must be in Fat32, all the parttions must be in Ext3 or Ext4.
That's why I'm write that's you can format your Sd card with your recovery.
For exemple, mine is:
System => ext4 => capacity :549 MB => free: 101MB
data => ext4 => capacity :1156 MB => free: 427MB
cache => ext4 => capacity :142 MB => free: 138MB
sd ext => ext4 => capacity :0 MB MB => free: 0 MB
sdcard => fat32 => capacity :29543 MB => free: 15369MB
In my pc, the only partition that I can read is sdcard

I tried Droid Explorer but it is buggy, incomplete, very slow, and overall crap.
I tried RCMix3D 1.5 ROM with Sense 3.5 and Android 2.3.5, and still the SD card doesn't show up on the computer. I have HTC Sync installed, but it crashes when I plug the phone in.
The SD card is formatted as FAT32.
Is there anything else I can do to browse the SD card on my PC? What did you guys do to get your SD card to show up on the PC for the first time?
Thanks for your help.

456456 said:
I tried Droid Explorer but it is buggy, incomplete, very slow, and overall crap.
I tried RCMix3D 1.5 ROM with Sense 3.5 and Android 2.3.5, and still the SD card doesn't show up on the computer. I have HTC Sync installed, but it crashes when I plug the phone in.
The SD card is formatted as FAT32.
Is there anything else I can do to browse the SD card on my PC? What did you guys do to get your SD card to show up on the PC for the first time?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some daft questions:
Did the SD function fine ever, eg with stock ROM when you first got the phone?
Have you tried an alternate SD card in the same phone?
Have you tried a different USB lead?
Have you tried on a different PC?

Have you tried another USB cabel?
Swyped from my Desire S

[Solved]
I found out what the problem was. After having a look at My computer -> Properties -> Device Manager, I found that two of the USB Controllers were not working properly and the SD card was detected as an "Unknown Device".
I uninstalled HTC Sync, fast boot drivers, and anything related to Android or HTC from my computer.
I then uninstalled the USB controller drivers by right-clicking on each and selecting Uninstall, and the same for the "Unknown Device". After a restart Windows started scanning for drivers for these devices and they started working perfectly again.
The SD card now shows up in My Computer when I plug the phone in, without the help of any HTC drivers.
I hope that helps others who come across this problem. Thanks to everyone who tried to help me with this problem. I appreciate your help guys.

i had that too.... i formatted it wiht my desire hd and it worked

Great to hear that this is resolved.
Best to edit your opening post #1 (using Advanced edit) and prefix the title of the post with [SOLVED] so as to note it's resolved.

CM10 (Official Alpha) SD Card issue

I recently flashed CM 10 Official Alpha on my AT&T Skyrocket and I've experienced an issue with my SD card. Basically it shows us as my internal storage. Whenever I hook it up to my PC via USB (Windows 7) my internal storage pops up and another disk that I can't access (grayed out). The files I have on my SD card show up whenever I enter recovery mod (Currently on Touch Recovery) but I can't access it through my PC or any other way. I've tried file browsing applications from the market to see if the SD card shows up, but no luck. I also read the change log on their website to see if there was any issues with an SD card and I came up with nothing. I followed every step exactly as posted in the topic when flashing. Is there any way to get my SD card to show up?
Thanks in advanced.

I second this. What I've been doing is copying things onto the internalSD, then using a file manager to get it on external.
Painful, yes, but, I don't think it's ready yet.
Musehk said:
I recently flashed CM 10 Official Alpha on my AT&T Skyrocket and I've experienced an issue with my SD card. Basically it shows us as my internal storage. Whenever I hook it up to my PC via USB (Windows 7) my internal storage pops up and another disk that I can't access (grayed out). The files I have on my SD card show up whenever I enter recovery mod (Currently on Touch Recovery) but I can't access it through my PC or any other way. I've tried file browsing applications from the market to see if the SD card shows up, but no luck. I also read the change log on their website to see if there was any issues with an SD card and I came up with nothing. I followed every step exactly as posted in the topic when flashing. Is there any way to get my SD card to show up?
Thanks in advanced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Musehk said:
I recently flashed CM 10 Official Alpha on my AT&T Skyrocket and I've experienced an issue with my SD card. Basically it shows us as my internal storage. Whenever I hook it up to my PC via USB (Windows 7) my internal storage pops up and another disk that I can't access (grayed out). The files I have on my SD card show up whenever I enter recovery mod (Currently on Touch Recovery) but I can't access it through my PC or any other way. I've tried file browsing applications from the market to see if the SD card shows up, but no luck. I also read the change log on their website to see if there was any issues with an SD card and I came up with nothing. I followed every step exactly as posted in the topic when flashing. Is there any way to get my SD card to show up?
Thanks in advanced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try astro file manager sdcard show sdcard 0 and sdcard 1 that's how jelly bean treats the sdcards.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium

netomel said:
Try astro file manager sdcard show sdcard 0 and sdcard 1 that's how jelly bean treats the sdcards.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seemed to have worked. Thank you very much!

Limited MTP capability with 6.0

My XT1540 was updated today and noticed a few minor inconveniences.
When connecting to my Linux pc, I no longer can get a MTP connection. I can still get a PTP connection.
When connecting using WIN 7, I can get a MTP connection with the internal storage, however, I am limited to PTP accessing the SD Card, only the Android and DCIM directories are available.
ADB seems to work fine with either connection. I had no issues using either Linux or Windows when on 5.1.1.
Is there a way to restore full MTP capability?

MrTooPhone said:
My XT1540 was updated today and noticed a few minor inconveniences.
When connecting to my Linux pc, I no longer can get a MTP connection. I can still get a PTP connection.
When connecting using WIN 7, I can get a MTP connection with the internal storage, however, I am limited to PTP accessing the SD Card, only the Android and DCIM directories are available.
ADB seems to work fine with either connection. I had no issues using either Linux or Windows when on 5.1.1.
Is there a way to restore full MTP capability?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is your sd card merged as internal? If so, unmerge and mount is the only solution right now as the SD card becomes encrypted once switched over.

christopherrrg said:
Is your sd card merged as internal? If so, unmerge and mount is the only solution right now as the SD card becomes encrypted once switched over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not set my card up as internal as that basically incorporates the card into the OS and eliminates the original intent of the SD Card. Basically makes the card invisible and no longer available to the user as he pleases. It appears Google is trying to take away the portability and convenience of a SD Card. I definitely want to portability and separation from the OS.
BTW....After further research on this topic I see many others are having the identical issues across other platforms. No solution found yet.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/6lMKqYYXpXw;context-place=topicsearchin/nexus/category$3Aconnecting-to-networks-and-devices%7Csort:relevance%7Cspell:false
Nikhil Bastikar said:
I found a solution from user named Peter Oravecz.
So basically we need to delete the cache and the data for the System apps named "External Storage and Media Storage".
Goto
Phone settings-> Apps -> Tap three dots on tiop right to select select Show system apps -> select External Storagge and Media storage and delete data ana cache.
Then REBOOT THE PHONE.
this shud work.
Worked for me.

Ulverinho said:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/6lMKqYYXpXw;context-place=topicsearchin/nexus/category$3Aconnecting-to-networks-and-devices%7Csort:relevance%7Cspell:false
Nikhil Bastikar said:
I found a solution from user named Peter Oravecz.
So basically we need to delete the cache and the data for the System apps named "External Storage and Media Storage".
Goto
Phone settings-> Apps -> Tap three dots on tiop right to select select Show system apps -> select External Storagge and Media storage and delete data ana cache.
Then REBOOT THE PHONE.
this shud work.
Worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will give this a shot... to bad Motorola didn't tell the soak testers this, almost everyone who left their sd card as portable storage (classic mode) lost USB MTP access to the card.

acejavelin said:
I will give this a shot... to bad Motorola didn't tell the soak testers this, almost everyone who left their sd card as portable storage (classic mode) lost USB MTP access to the card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, figured that out already...
But if to believe this
https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/109134/p/1449,9582
going to internal mode will give no access to sd card at all... what they were thinking in Google...hmm...
Of course, we can teach PCs and software to see ext4 - but why o why...

Ulverinho said:
Yup, figured that out already...
But if to believe this
https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/109134/p/1449,9582
going to internal mode will give no access to sd card at all... what they were thinking in Google...hmm...
Of course, we can teach PCs and software to see ext4 - but why o why...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Teach? lol... just run Linux, Windows sucks.

acejavelin said:
Teach? lol... just run Linux, Windows sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, I'm on Mac It's altogether a pain
Anyway, this is quite strange feature that had not much attention.
I hope that post helps.

Ulverinho said:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/6lMKqYYXpXw;context-place=topicsearchin/nexus/category$3Aconnecting-to-networks-and-devices%7Csort:relevance%7Cspell:false
Nikhil Bastikar said:
I found a solution from user named Peter Oravecz.
So basically we need to delete the cache and the data for the System apps named "External Storage and Media Storage".
Goto
Phone settings-> Apps -> Tap three dots on tiop right to select select Show system apps -> select External Storagge and Media storage and delete data ana cache.
Then REBOOT THE PHONE.
this shud work.
Worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that, but I see no option to delete cache.
So you now have full MTP access to your SD Card?
I am also interested if anyone else had success with with a MTP connection using Linux

acejavelin said:
Teach? lol... just run Linux, Windows sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you have full MTP access to your SD Card using Linux?

MrTooPhone said:
So you have full MTP access to your SD Card using Linux?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... The point was if Google gave us direct access to the card as internal storage, we would need ext4 support. Was just a wishful thinking conversation.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

Ulverinho said:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/6lMKqYYXpXw;context-place=topicsearchin/nexus/category$3Aconnecting-to-networks-and-devices%7Csort:relevance%7Cspell:false
Nikhil Bastikar said:
I found a solution from user named Peter Oravecz.
So basically we need to delete the cache and the data for the System apps named "External Storage and Media Storage".
Goto
Phone settings-> Apps -> Tap three dots on tiop right to select select Show system apps -> select External Storagge and Media storage and delete data ana cache.
Then REBOOT THE PHONE.
this shud work.
Worked for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Data clear and reboot also worked for me, thanks!

MrTooPhone said:
I tried that, but I see no option to delete cache.
So you now have full MTP access to your SD Card?
I am also interested if anyone else had success with with a MTP connection using Linux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, Apps - Show system ones - go into app settings, then Storage - and then U'll see Wipe Data and Wipe Cache.

Ulverinho said:
Well, Apps - Show system ones - go into app settings, then Storage - and then U'll see Wipe Data and Wipe Cache.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I did not look under storage. Still made no difference with Linux, I get PTP but not a MTP connection for internal storage. No access to the SD Card. I will try with Windows later tonight, but I bet there will be no change (MTP for internal data and restricted to PTP for SD Card).

MrTooPhone said:
Thanks. I did not look under storage. Still made no difference with Linux, I get PTP but not a MTP connection for internal storage. No access to the SD Card. I will try with Windows later tonight, but I bet there will be no change (MTP for internal data and restricted to PTP for SD Card).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try making MTP default one in Developer Options - Select USB Config. Obviously this is not the solution as to mounting issue, but might force phone to choose MTP as default when cable plugs in.

Ulverinho said:
Try making MTP default one in Developer Options - Select USB Config. Obviously this is not the solution as to mounting issue, but might force phone to choose MTP as default when cable plugs in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried all that several times with no success. Can you confirm your PC OS and if you have full MTP access to the SD Card? Not PTP access where you only see the media directories and files.

MrTooPhone said:
I have tried all that several times with no success. Can you confirm your PC OS and if you have full MTP access to the SD Card? Not PTP access where you only see the media directories and files.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've got access to my books, music, downloads and so on.
This is both Windows 7 and OSX.

Ulverinho said:
Yes, I've got access to my books, music, downloads and so on.
This is both Windows 7 and OSX.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. After wiping data and cache for external storage and media storage, I have full MTP with Windows 7. Unfortunately, my Ubuntu 12.04 does not recognize the MTP connection. But it will connect when I select PTP.

OTG didn't work also. On my build. It's the same as the first update. Was fixed later.
Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

Actually, after clearing data and cache on these two items my attempts to access phone via USB are even worse know... In Windows 7 it just says "Unknown USB device" and the peripheral connect/disconnect tone goes off repeatedly, can't access anything anymore. But in Linux Mint I was able to access both internal storage and SD card now. Weird.
EDIT: Hmm... copying files to Linux from the SD card failed after about 1GB, as soon as I moved my laptop a bit. I might have a bad cable (this is a really old Samsung charger & cable I have carried in my laptop bag for traveling for probably 4 years). Not putting much stock in this test at this time until I can get home tomorrow night and use a known good cable.
EDIT2: Got a different cable from the front desk at the hotel, was able to copy about 8GB of music and pictures from SD card to my Linux Mint PC with no issues... Windows is still unable to recognize the device at all (might be something in my work laptop, but I think it had worked before and any other USB peripheral works fine)

SD card will not (actually) format

Hello,
so I have this SanDisk Ultra 32 GB MicroSD card that I wanted to move to another Android phone but no matter what I do I cannot properly erase the files that are written on it. Every time I format the card the process seemingly completes without errors and you get the "card ready for use blah blah blah" message but the files are still there like nothing happened.
I tried to format it on the new phone -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
I tried to format it on the old phone -> files still there., 13GB out of 30ish space free
I connected the old phone as mass storage to PC:
- a dialog appears if I want to check sdcard for errors -> no errors found
- tried to format by right clicking in My Computer > H: drive > fast format -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
- tried to format by right clicking in My Computer > H: drive > full format -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
- ran chkdsk -> no errors
After searching for some answers I tried:
1) diskpart > attributes disk clear readonly
2) diskpart > clean
3) computer management tool > new simple volume
4) sdcard shows as empty on PC with full 30ish space free
5) disconnected from PC -> in Android the files are still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free (same after phone reboot)
6) reconnected to PC as mass storage -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
So I repeated the whole process with diskpart and computer management tool but this time before disconnecting from PC I created a test txt file on the empty SD card. After disconnecting from PC the test txt file was gone while old files were back yet again.
I also checked if there's a physical readonly switch on the card itself but couldn't find any, so I guess there isn't.
I'm thinking that maybe the card is busted, but if it is, why isn't it showing any errors?

CuriousJack said:
Hello,
so I have this SanDisk Ultra 32 GB MicroSD card that I wanted to move to another Android phone but no matter what I do I cannot properly erase the files that are written on it. Every time I format the card the process seemingly completes without errors and you get the "card ready for use blah blah blah" message but the files are still there like nothing happened.
I tried to format it on the new phone -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
I tried to format it on the old phone -> files still there., 13GB out of 30ish space free
I connected the old phone as mass storage to PC:
- a dialog appears if I want to check sdcard for errors -> no errors found
- tried to format by right clicking in My Computer > H: drive > fast format -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
- tried to format by right clicking in My Computer > H: drive > full format -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
- ran chkdsk -> no errors
After searching for some answers I tried:
1) diskpart > attributes disk clear readonly
2) diskpart > clean
3) computer management tool > new simple volume
4) sdcard shows as empty on PC with full 30ish space free
5) disconnected from PC -> in Android the files are still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free (same after phone reboot)
6) reconnected to PC as mass storage -> files still there, 13GB out of 30ish space free
So I repeated the whole process with diskpart and computer management tool but this time before disconnecting from PC I created a test txt file on the empty SD card. After disconnecting from PC the test txt file was gone while old files were back yet again.
I also checked if there's a physical readonly switch on the card itself but couldn't find any, so I guess there isn't.
I'm thinking that maybe the card is busted, but if it is, why isn't it showing any errors?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use the PC to directly format the sdcard instead of trying to do it through the device or trying to do it with PC connected to the device. Use a card reader. Also, make sure the sdcard isn't encrypted or right protected.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
Use the PC to directly format the sdcard instead of trying to do it through the device or trying to do it with PC connected to the device. Use a card reader. Also, make sure the sdcard isn't encrypted or right protected.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have a card reader, that's why I'm connecting it through a phone. Wouldn't the mass storage option be essentially the same as putting the card in a card reader (the phone has Android 5, which still has the mass storage capability)?
I also noticed that I cannot even create a new folder on the card from within Android. Built in file explorer says "some file operation failed", Astro says "could not write file".

CuriousJack said:
I don't have a card reader, that's why I'm connecting it through a phone. Wouldn't the mass storage option be essentially the same as putting the card in a card reader (the phone has Android 5, which still has the mass storage capability)?
I also noticed that I cannot even create a new folder on the card from within Android. Built in file explorer says "some file operation failed", Astro says "could not write file".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds to me like the sdcard has been "write protected", in other words, it is set to read-only and needs to be set to read/write, look for methods to remove the write protection to return it to read/write status.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
It sounds to me like the sdcard has been "write protected", in other words, it is set to read-only and needs to be set to read/write, look for methods to remove the write protection to return it to read/write status.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could the write protection be caused by the fact that I used to move apps to SD onto this sdcard (the old "move to sd" option, not adoptable storage)? I moved all apps to internal storage and set internal storage as the default install location prior to the first format attempt but dunno if it was enough.

CuriousJack said:
Could the write protection be caused by the fact that I used to move apps to SD onto this sdcard (the old "move to sd" option, not adoptable storage)? I moved all apps to internal storage and set internal storage as the default install location prior to the first format attempt but dunno if it was enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you mean the standard "move to sd" option in the app info page in system settings>apps settings, I doubt that is the issue.
If you used some kind of mod like Link2SD, that might be part of the issue.
If you moved system apps to SD, that also might be part of the issue.
Try factory resetting the device then see if it will format the card.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
If you mean the standard "move to sd" option in the app info page in system settings>apps settings, I doubt that is the issue.
If you used some kind of mod like Link2SD, that might be part of the issue.
If you moved system apps to SD, that also might be part of the issue.
Try factory resetting the device then see if it will format the card.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just the standard "move to SD" option and I didn't touch any system apps. Also the phone wasn't rooted.
Now I'm trying to format the card using SD Formatter but it seems to be stuck at 0%.
Is there a piece of software that could tell me if the card is out of write cycles or generally check its health?

CuriousJack said:
Just the standard "move to SD" option and I didn't touch any system apps. Also the phone wasn't rooted.
Now I'm trying to format the card using SD Formatter but it seems to be stuck at 0%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the sdcard inserted in your phone, boot to stock recovery and select the factory reset option, after you reset the device, then choose the option to wipe cache partition. After resetting and wiping, reboot into system and try formatting the sdcard.
The reason I say to do this is because it will remove any settings or cached files that might be causing the issue.
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk