USB OTG Music Player for unrooted Oreo? - Google Pixel Questions & Answers

I will be traveling internationally soon and was hoping to load up a large USB OTG pen drive for the flight with my entire music collection so I wouldn't have to pick and choose ahead of time and waste internal storage. My device is not rooted, and I would prefer to keep it that way. I've tried a TON of music players, from the big name ones to very obscure ones and none of them seem to be able to recognize or be directed to scan the USB OTG drive for playback. Is this just something that isn't possible with unrooted Oreo? Any help or app recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Have you checked this thread?
This post is from october 2017, so it should work on oreo since it's pretty recent

TENN3R said:
Have you checked this thread?
This post is from october 2017, so it should work on oreo since it's pretty recent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I did find that thread and tried the players listed. I can't get them to work, though. Nothing will let me navigate to the USB drive itself; only to internal storage to pick media folders. I can see it with Solid Explorer, but it will only play a single file at a time.

Reading this reddit thread looks like that otg devices should get mounted to the internal storage (dev post)
And looks like there is a specific music player for this: here
Hope this helps somehow, I know how bad is to have a giant music library but not enough space

TENN3R said:
Reading this reddit thread looks like that otg devices should get mounted to the internal storage (dev post)
And looks like there is a specific music player for this: here
Hope this helps somehow, I know how bad is to have a giant music library but not enough space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the link. The thread made me hopeful, but no luck so far. The drive isn't mounted anywhere under internal storage that I can find. Its actual mount point is /mnt/media_rw/F417-B616 (which, I'm guessing, is some sort of hardware ID or serial for the drive). Can't find a player that will let me navigate to that to scan, though. Haven't tried USB Audio Player PRO yet, though. It doesn't have a trial, and $8 seems a bit steep to just play off a USB even if it did work. May have to break down and try it.

ninja_rancher said:
Thanks for the link. The thread made me hopeful, but no luck so far. The drive isn't mounted anywhere under internal storage that I can find. Its actual mount point is /mnt/media_rw/F417-B616 (which, I'm guessing, is some sort of hardware ID or serial for the drive). Can't find a player that will let me navigate to that to scan, though. Haven't tried USB Audio Player PRO yet, though. It doesn't have a trial, and $8 seems a bit steep to just play off a USB even if it did work. May have to break down and try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I got something somewhat working. I installed MiXplorer file explorer. It can see the USB drive and has a built-in media player that will play all the files in a given folder. So I guess my choice is between one CD at a time, or copying what I want to play from the USB to the device first. Which may wind up being a better solution since I won't be killing battery powering a USB drive.

Total Commander would be able to do it.
It has a built in media player and you're able to create/save playlist from any directory.
.
Check the play store or Google Total Commander Android to go to their official site (ghisler) to download it. The most recent version just improved OTG support, and there are also easy to install plugins for additional OTG support if needed.

Related

Play music from USB

I am trying to do what I thought was the most basic task but I am failing. I have some albums on a USB stick stuck into the dock that I would like to play. I have tried stock, PowerAMP, WinAMP but nothing works. The best I can do is to browse via File Manager and select a track but this will only play 1 track. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
try ubermusic?
Also maybe bind mount your flash drive to the sdcard (Google it)
jcarrz1 said:
try ubermusic?
Also maybe bind mount your flash drive to the sdcard (Google it)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, easiest is to double-mount the drive to a folder on the sd, but you'll need the Android Media Scanner to reindex before it will show up.
There must be a music player that lets you set the home folder...
Instead of a usb stick use a sd card and card reader? Some of those are freaking small. I got a really tiny sdhc card reader that I carry around in my bag just in case someone elses laptop doesn't have a sdhc reader.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
And besides that, sd cards are cheaper then usb flash drives I think
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
All of my USB drives are now tiny USB card readers with MicroSD cards. Before I had that, I had a USB SD card reader that was slightly larger than a normal thumb drive. Maximum flexibility is my motto.
But it is a ridiculous shortcoming that you can't just plug a USB stick in and have it work the way it does on any PC. I dunno if it's Android, developers like Winamp or the Transformer, but its an absurd shortcoming.
msticninja said:
Yeah, easiest is to double-mount the drive to a folder on the sd, but you'll need the Android Media Scanner to reindex before it will show up.
There must be a music player that lets you set the home folder...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help guys but I just cant seem to find any information on the net regarding bind mounting the usb to a folder on the SD card Could you point me in the direction of an explanation or site? I can find some useul apps in the Market but they all require Root which I am a bit apprehensive about doing. If I can avoid rooting for what should be a fairy simple task I would much prefer it. Any further help uch appreciated.
Wahooo! MortPlayer will allow you to set the library folder as \mnt\usbdisk1! Hope this helps someone. I am amazed I seem to be the only one needing this functionality. Thanks for your help guys.
When I had my Acer Iconia PowerAmp was able to see the files on my thumb drive. I had to tell it where the fioles were about four or five times before it took but it finally worked. I finally had to point it to the directory exit the app and restart it to get it to work.
No PowerAmp will only see files on SD card but not for some reason any mounted USB. As far as I know MortPlayer is the only player to allow you to index files from USB. Happy to be corrected though because whist Mortplayer is functionaly awesoe it is woefully lacking aesthetically!
Do you guys mean that I could by a USB sdcard reader and my nexus 7 would think it has a built in SD card slot? Or does it still treat it like any old USB stick?
vilbs said:
No PowerAmp will only see files on SD card but not for some reason any mounted USB. As far as I know MortPlayer is the only player to allow you to index files from USB. Happy to be corrected though because whist Mortplayer is functionaly awesoe it is woefully lacking aesthetically!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My poweramp sees the usb drive in the dock fine.
Check the Poweramp settings for what folders it'll scan!

[Q] Best way to navigate/play files shared on SMB drive, using stick PC connected TV?

Hey,
I just got an MK808 TV Stick and I it's a pretty neat slick device. Like how small it is, and seems to be pretty fast (but, will probably flash some custom ROM on it soon).
Anyways, I want to use this as a replacement OS for my Smart TV and play Netflix/Hulu (have to root/market enabler to get this)/stream from my personal library, which is all shared on a raspberry pi PC via SMB. My Smart TV is DLNA compliant, but can't play all the different formats that I have accumulated over the years. My new stick TV PC, so far can handle it all.
Whats the best and easiest way to open files stored on SMB drives, and play them in a media play on my stick PC (right now, using VLC do to this). I say easy, in the sense that when my 6 year old kid wants to watch one of his movies he doesn't have to mount a drive via ES file explorer and choose what file from a list of directories like I am willing to do, but more of a "see the cover art, click and play" kind of way. I know XBMC would do most of this (if not all) but it only does software decoding, and I would like to have hardware.
Thanks in advance.
Ive got an ICUBE mk809II, i also have a NAS (nsa310) with my network share on. I use solid explorer and you can map to your network drive with that by adding an SMB share. Hopefully you have root. You can also then do a shortcut on the desktop by doing a solid explorer widget to that network share.
The second way i've used is to download a CIFS/SMB app, MountManager seemed the best, and you a can make a virtual link to your network share which is by default in your mnt folder. If you wanted to use your tv stick as a torrent box, you can map to the network share, and point Adownloader to the virtual link in the mount folder and it will get to your share. Its then easy to bookmark to your SMB/network share by doing a widget in Solid Explorer on your desktop. So with one click from the desktop, your there, I mainly use MX Player over VLC player as VLC was having audio sync problems.
colhavoc said:
but more of a "see the cover art, click and play" kind of way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try MIZUU BETA .
Tried MX Player?
Did, played some of my content, but not all of it. VLC so far is working ok.
Anyone have any idea how to install Finless rom with this? Can't seem to find much information on how to flash it, just what its features are.
Sent from my TF300T using Tapatalk HD
zmaki said:
Try MIZUU BETA .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow zmaki, that was the perfect choice! App works great for streaming from my SMB shares and shows the cotent like XBMC, except with decent rendering!
I have to admit though, I wish the program had its own built in media player with codec support, that would make it the cats ass.
PLEX works awesome, no problems with any streaming and it looks great.
colhavoc, welcome from hfx...
Hi,
The question here is the same issue I have wirh my new android miniPC to let my children (and even my self) an easy access to files stored on my PC.
My device is not rooted (not I'm goind to do so).
The device is conected over the same LAN (wi-fi is disabled).
I saw codlike two solutions ("solid explorer" or MountManager) but both need root, is there another solution?
dannygud said:
Hi,
The question here is the same issue I have wirh my new android miniPC to let my children (and even my self) an easy access to files stored on my PC.
My device is not rooted (not I'm goind to do so).
The device is conected over the same LAN (wi-fi is disabled).
I saw codlike two solutions ("solid explorer" or MountManager) but both need root, is there another solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
es file explorer?

[Q] USB OTG direct video saving

I'm having a similar problem to one I noticed in a different post, here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1987102 . I need to save HD video to an external storage device directly, as this guy wanted to do. However, every camera app I've tried, and ursafe media director doesn't recognize my usb otg hard drive as a location. the only way I can browse it is through file manager. Any suggestions? I have a Lenovo S-3000, takes 1080p video, and I want to be able to record directly to a thumb drive with it. Thanks in advance!
mythernal said:
I'm having a similar problem to one I noticed in a different post, here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1987102 . I need to save HD video to an external storage device directly, as this guy wanted to do. However, every camera app I've tried, and ursafe media director doesn't recognize my usb otg hard drive as a location. the only way I can browse it is through file manager. Any suggestions? I have a Lenovo S-3000, takes 1080p video, and I want to be able to record directly to a thumb drive with it. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I think there is a new APP meet your request,
find 'CameraOTG' from google play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.innostor

Android 6.0 and USB OTG devices

Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.
kent1146 said:
Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In which device..?
Needs proper mount point information.
Open the OTG drive in any file manager & check the property.
In most of the devices media_rw is uaed to raw storage access & will no be available for third party apps. The same partition is remounted as sdcardfs file system under /storage to manage write access to external storage.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
This is a Moto X Pure, running Android 6.0.
The USB OTG drive is mounted as what looks like a URL. USB://CORSAIR/
The drive does not have a true representation in /storage, except for whatever symbolic link that might have been placed there by a 3rd party app like StickMount (which I've tried). The true mount point of the USB OTG storage device looks like it's in /mnt/media_rw/XXX-YYYY/.
The issue is that MX Player seems to require scanning of a true directory structure, and can't use a symbolic link as a target for media scanning.
Same issue here running Android 6.0.1 (Resurrection Remix v5.6.0) on Asus ZenPhone 2 ZE551ML.
When going to Settings -> List -> Scan Folders -> Add, the starting location is internal storage (/storage/emulated/0). Navigating up seems to freeze the folder content list below, again one folder upwards (/storage) it lists xxxx-xxxx folders for external SDcard and OTG storage. Navigating into the OTG directory freezes the list again (as it could not read its contents while showing the contents of the previous folder). Tapping 'Add' adds the folder, but back on the main view, it does not actually scan the newly added folder.
kent1146 said:
Does anyone know how MX Player can "Scan" or access a mounted USB OTG drive?
It looks like the drive is mounted in /mnt/media_rw/, but MX Player can't access that directory.
Yes, I know there is a workaround by browsing to the individual videos and hitting play one-at-a-time. But I'd really like to be able to see the list of videos natively within MX Player, so that I can jump to the next video without having to go back into a file manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.
OK. Thank you very much for the response
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
bleu8888 said:
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you add support soon. man!! Love you!
Sent from xt1096 with Marshmallow!
Just for information, I have a Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 with Marshmallow. If i try to open a file from the stock android file manager it works fine, except for the external subtitles that are not loaded (I have to load them once the video is started from a internal folder and not from the OTG video folder), If I open a video file with ES File Explorer (right now the only file manager that can load USB otg on 6.0) it loads also the subtitles but when I try to reload it after a break or when I exit the program I have a black screen and the video doesn't start (it seems that ES file create a fake network address that goes to //usb:/....).
I hope you'll fix this soon! Keep up the great work!
Hey guys sorry for necro post but just wanted to share you the solution i made, for those with similar problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/guide-usb-otg-support-media-players-t3343706
this way you can solve your problem too. Cheers
gaferreira13 said:
Hey guys sorry for necro post but just wanted to share you the solution i made, for those with similar problems:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/general/rooting-roms/guide-usb-otg-support-media-players-t3343706
this way you can solve your problem too. Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your sharing, but my G5 cannot be rooted at this moment. Hope the next update MX player can support OTG in Marshmallow again.
OTG drive support via Android SAF
bleu8888 said:
From Android 6, OTG drive is officially supported by Android but in completely different way.
In fact, OTG drive is not mounted in file system but can only be access via Android's unique Storage Access Framework(SAF).
Unfortunately, listing files on SAF is not yet supported, but will be supported in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@bleu8888, first off, awesome app! This is a really robust media player, and is super helpful to have!
I'm just curious if OTG drive support via Android SAF is still on your roadmap? Or has it been implemented in a recent version and I just haven't figured out how to use it?
Thanks!
MY guess is that the pen's filesystem is FAT32 which doesn't support linux permissions so MX Player tries to check if it has permissions and it can't so it freezes.
Which could be fixed if you tried to format the pendrive as ext4 or something like that.
Good luck
You could also try a bind or remount command from the pen to a certain folder. But there are so many filesystems on android so i can't help on that part either.
DA6030;69350053 [user=3850543 said:
@bleu8888[/user], first off, awesome app! This is a really robust media player, and is super helpful to have!
I'm just curious if OTG drive support via Android SAF is still on your roadmap? Or has it been implemented in a recent version and I just haven't figured out how to use it?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gaferreira13 said:
MY guess is that the pen's filesystem is FAT32 which doesn't support linux permissions so MX Player tries to check if it has permissions and it can't so it freezes.
Which could be fixed if you tried to format the pendrive as ext4 or something like that.
Good luck
You could also try a bind or remount command from the pen to a certain folder. But there are so many filesystems on android so i can't help on that part either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Fact SAF is required to rename/delete file on Lollipop and above. MX uses SAF implementation to rename/delete files & to write subs.
Even if it's implemented for OTG in future, What's the real challenge is is everytime you have to Grant access.
The Current OTG support purely depends on the mount point used in your ROM. For Example in most of the Samsung devices USB OTG is mounted under /Storage/<some ID>. In this case just refreshing the media list will bring the files in list.
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs
ktsamy said:
The Current OTG support purely depends on the mount point used in your ROM. For Example in most of the Samsung devices USB OTG is mounted under /Storage/<some ID>. In this case just refreshing the media list will bring the files in list.
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.
DA6030 said:
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's in the same path for me...
ktsamy said:
What I am thinking is USB host implementation. The best part is that, It can support even NTFS partitions even if it's not supported by the device natively. I have already discussed about this with @bleu8888. But, it won't be a part of 1.9.0. He may implement in future after finishing 1.9.0 to everyone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively... I have the pen on NTFS which seems to work fine through the Paragon NTFS mounter app.
gaferreira13 said:
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely would buy as well.
I know Titanium Backup is a terrible comparison, because TB has root permissions, but just taking a look at their directory-selection implementation (that lets you choose your method), including DocumentProvider, I think is a very slick catch-all that will cover everyone. In my case I used DocumentProvider just to identify the right storage device, and then all further file management happens within the app.
DA6030 said:
Cool -- super helpful!
In my case it's mounted only at /mnt/media_rw/<some ID>, and media_rw doesn't show up in /mnt/ within the MX Player directory browser. Although passing URIs to MX Player from the native Android file browser (from within Settings->Storage) works fine, so maybe I can mess with the permissions to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gaferreira13 said:
It's in the same path for me...
I'd buy MX player if it supported using USB host natively... I have the pen on NTFS which seems to work fine through the Paragon NTFS mounter app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Infact /mnt/media_rw/<some ID> is used for rw access to the storage. But, it's not accessible to the third party apps.
If you changed it's permissions it may be scanned by MX. By default it's excluded since it causes duplicate entries in some devices with improper implementation. In MX Player 1.8.9, Goto Settings > List > Folders. Select /mnt/media_rw & unhide it. Then back to the list screen and tap on refresh button or pull down the list to refresh.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs
ktsamy said:
Infact /mnt/media_rw/<some ID> is used for rw access to the storage. But, it's not accessible to the third party apps.
If you changed it's permissions it may be scanned by MX. By default it's excluded since it causes duplicate entries in some devices with improper implementation. In MX Player 1.8.9, Goto Settings > List > Folders. Select /mnt/media_rw & unhide it. Then back to the list screen and tap on refresh button or pull down the list to refresh.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S5 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please someone confirm this so that i don't format my pen for nothing
gaferreira13 said:
Please someone confirm this so that i don't format my pen for nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't harm anything. You are just forcing MX Player to scan it. If you have root access & fixed the permissions, it will scan without any issues. Else, MX Player will not scan the mountpoints under media_rw.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
ktsamy said:
It doesn't harm anything. You are just forcing MX Player to scan it. If you have root access & fixed the permissions, it will scan without any issues. Else, MX Player will not scan the mountpoints under media_rw.
Sent from my SM-G900H using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry, I wanted to say "Please someone confirm this works", I'm not really 'afraid'.

Playing music from an external source (USB drive)?

Hello,
I wish to play music from my USB drive (via an otg female USB to male microUSB adapter) on my N5. The problem is I can't find a (free) app which can browse the specific usb directory; they all just show the internal storage one. My friend's LG G4's default music player detects the songs and plays them just fine.
Any help is highly appreciated! Thanks!
dude, have you solved this? I want to ask the same thing
Es file explorer will do the job
Hey, I'm using StickMount for this. It mounts the USB Stick in the data partition so all apps can see and change its content. Its working perfectly for playing music with my music players (Shuttle, Poweramp) on my N5, give it a try
muhagl said:
Hey, I'm using StickMount for this. It mounts the USB Stick in the data partition so all apps can see and change its content. Its working perfectly for playing music with my music players (Shuttle, Poweramp) on my N5, give it a try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I was just looking for something like that. It works perfectly!
muhagl said:
Hey, I'm using StickMount for this. It mounts the USB Stick in the data partition so all apps can see and change its content. Its working perfectly for playing music with my music players (Shuttle, Poweramp) on my N5, give it a try
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey, so I try to use StickMount. The tost notification said that my USB has been mounted to /sdcard/usbstorage. I checked the folder with Root Explorer, the folder is there, but it's empty. in fact my USB mounted to mnt/media_rw, jut like the normal mounting without StickMount. any idea to make this work?
Hey, maybe its the filesystem of the stick, I can remind myself that at the beginning I had problems with it but it should work with NTFS. Otherwise I think you can ask chainfire, he will know what to do

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