Ever want to watch a video on your android phone or tablet without losing its storage space or connect to pc? Or maybe you just need to see your friend gave you file. Most modern Android devices support standard USB drives, so you can connect a flash drive as you would do on a computer.
How to Use a USB Flash Drive with Your Android Phone or Tablet
The modern versions of Android have improved support for external storage devices, but on some older devices, this may require rooting your android device. So here we will discuss both methods, starting with the easy non-root method for new android phones and tablets.
See also: What is Rooting and Why should I do it?
#1 Get a USB OTG Cable
You’ve probably noticed that your phone does not have a normal USB port. To connect the flash drive to your phone or tablet, you’ll need a otg support usb cable to the thumb (also known as USB OTG name). These cables can be had for $ 5 or on Amazon. It is a short adapter cable with a small Micro USB connection at one end and a larger USB connection to the other end.
Note:- Sadly, it does not work on some android devices. Your Android phone or tablet needs the ability to function as an OTG host. Some android smartphones and tablets may not have this capability, so you can search the web to see if your device is compatible before buying a cable.
Once you have it, just use the cable to connect your phone or tablet and Android USB drive assembly that is all. This cable can also be used to connect other types of USB devices to your Android device.
Supported File Systems
Your USB drive must be formatted with the FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. Some Android devices can also support the exFAT file system.unfortunately, No Android device will support the NTFS file system of Microsoft.
If your device is not formatted with an appropriate file system, you’ll be able to format it after connection to your Android device. Formatting the drive erases its contents, however, so you should ideally make sure it is in the correct format when you transfer files to it.
Easy way to Use a USB Flash Drive with Your Android device… no need to connect with your pc. -https://apkfact.com
Non-Root method: For most newer devices
On modern versions of Android, you receive a notification saying the drive is “to transfer photos and media” after you attach. You will see a button that lets you browse files on drive “Explorer”, and an “Eject” button that allows you to safely remove the drive.
If you use an older version of Android, you need be rooting your android phone and [root] StickMount app to access files instead.
Press the “EXPLORE” button and the new manager of Android files will open, displaying the contents of the drive. You can browse and manage files as you normally possible. Just press and hold one or more files or folders to select them.
If you have videos, music or movies on the player, you can use them to open them in the media viewing applications on your device. This will allow you to watch videos stored on a USB flash drive on your phone while traveling, for example.
Of course, you can also install a third party apps from file manager and use the integrated Android place in the file manager.
You can also open the Android Settings app and tap “USB Storage” to see an overview of the internal device memory and external storage devices. Press the internal storage to view the files on your device using a file manager. You can then use the file manager to copy or move files to the USB pen drive.
Some applications also allow you to save files directly to a storage device that you want, or open files directly from a storage device. You can use these applications to save files to and load them from the external drive.
Eject the disk when finished and you can connect it to a computer or other Android device, allowing you to transfer files back and forth.
If you want to set more options, you can press the menu button in the file manager while browsing the contents of the USB drive and press “Settings”. There is a “Format” option drive here, which allows you to erase its contents without taking a computer.
Root method: for devices that will not mount USB drives
Some devices can support USB OTG, but for some reason does not support the installation of a USB key (usually devices running an older version of Android). In these cases, you’ll need to root your phone and use an app called StickMount to read your usb pen drive. If you do not have a version of Android with the new built-in file browser, you will also need an application to the File Explorer as well ES File Explorer.
We tested this process with our former Nexus 7 running 4.1 Jelly Bean, but there is no guarantee that it will be the same on all devices. More your device is, the more likely you are to encounter lead and other issues. So your mileage may vary.
Once these applications are installed, plug one end of the USB OTG cable into it and connect the USB device as like USB pen drive to the other end of the cable. You will see a prompt StickMount when the drive is connected. Press OK and will StickMount files on the USB device available.
You will need to grant root access to StickMount. The process will fail here if you are not rooted.
If you accept the two dialog boxes and select the default option by use in the first dialog box, you will not see the dialogs at the next connect your USB drive while this will happen automatically.
You’ll see a notification that StickMount successfully mounted the device on / SD/USB storage.
Open the ES File Explorer app on your device and press the USBSTOR folder.
You will see at least one folder on the USB storage folder. These files represent the different partitions on your connected devices.
Tap the folder and you will see the files inside. Tap or press and hold the file to open or manipulate normally.
In this case, I used this drive to watch a video on my tablet, which does not have much free space at the moment.
When finished, you can press the option in the notification bar to unmount (eject) the drive, then unplug it. The notification also informs you when StickMount mounted a successful workout.
While the cable is a little bit cumbersome, it is always convenient to watch video on a plane or while sitting around your house. You can also use it to move files for other purposes, as you want to use a USB drive to a computer.
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