Few consumers know that a mobile device running on the Android operating system, unlike other portable devices, can be used as a flash drive. Lenovo smartphones on Android were originally designed by manufacturers with functions that allow them to be used as a flash drive and used for their intended purpose. Thanks to this, the user can record the necessary information, delete files from the device that are not used, but at the same time take up a lot of space on it.
Using an Android phone as a flash drive, there is no need to connect it to a computer, constantly carry with you the cable needed to connect to a laptop, that is, to perform a lot of manipulations that waste a lot of time.
Methods for connecting a mobile device as a flash drive
Let's look at how to connect your phone as a flash drive. To do this, you need to do a number of simple sequential actions:
- Select “Menu” on your device and find “Settings”.
- Immediately after this, a list will appear on the screen; you should find the line “SD Card” in it. Depending on the Android version, it can be found through applications or memory .
- In order for the smartphone to recognize the PC as a flash drive, you need to check the box next to the line labeled “Data storage device” in the displayed list. Or click on “Connect SD card”.
- As soon as the smartphone is connected to the computer, an icon will appear in the device’s status bar, which indicates that the USB flash drive is in working condition.
If you lower the curtain in the menu, you will see the connection of the phone via the USB port as a flash drive. If you need to turn off the drive, you must also lower the curtain and click on the corresponding inscription.
Options for connecting a phone with different versions of Android
Let's look at how to connect your phone as a flash drive, depending on the version of Android that is installed on the device. First, you should find out what operating system is installed on your smartphone. To do this, go to “Settings” and find the “About phone” or “About device” item. Usually it is the last one in the list that opens.
If Android OS 2.1 - 2.3.7 take the following steps:
- The device connects to the PC using a USB cable;
- The computer itself should detect the new device. If this does not happen, you need to disconnect the smartphone from the PC, go to “Settings” → “Applications” → “For Developer” → “USB Debugging”. After that, connect to the PC again.
- A drive icon will appear on the device; all you have to do is click “Connect via USB”, which you need to do as a media device.
If your phone has an Android operating system with version 4 or higher, you need to connect to a PC, do the following: “Menu” → “Settings” → “Memory” → “Connect to SD card” .
Android does not see the memory card
Situations arise in which the flash drive is not detected in the smartphone. In order to find it, it is recommended to use a file manager - ES Explorer or its equivalent. With the help of such programs you can find almost everything. In their functions they resemble the My Computer program.
In order to recognize a memory card, you need to launch ES Explorer by downloading it to your device prematurely. After launch, a menu will appear on the left side of the screen in which the memory card (SDcard) is located. All you have to do is click on it. It has been discovered and is open for business.
By following simple steps, anyone, even a novice user of a mobile device, will be able to detect a memory card in it. The reasons why the computer does not see the SDcard may be different. You may need to update the operating system on your PC or install the MediaTransferProtocol (MTP) protocol for Windows XP
(No ratings yet)
Lenovo laptop does not turn on: possible reasons How to install Root rights on Lenovo p780 Why the phone does not see the computer via USB: reasons and solutions How to connect wired Internet to a Lenovo laptop: options How to add a google account on your phone: instructions
Smartphones and tablets are actively replacing not only personal computers, but even laptops from our daily lives. However, some functions, for example, typing a fairly large piece of text, due to the small size of the keyboard of a mobile device, require some effort, and often hassle.
In this regard, the question arises: is it possible to directly connect the desired gadget to your Android device? It turns out it is possible! Not every user knows that it is possible to connect a keyboard, USB gaming peripherals, external modem, etc. to an Android device.
One of the tools for exchanging information between a smartphone and a PC is a flash drive (USB flash drive), which is connected via a USB interface to any reading device.
Most modern devices with Android OS have a standard micro-USB connector that serves as a communication port. To see devices connected through the port, the smartphone must support USB On-The-Go technology (abbr. USB OTG). This function is implemented in Android OS versions no lower than 3.1.
To connect a flash drive, you will need a USB OTG cable with a microUSB plug on one side and a USB connector on the other:
If the manufacturer of your device was stingy and did not include it in the package with the phone, then you need to get it by spending a small amount in any specialized store. If your device does not have a USB connector, you will have to purchase an adapter with USB on one end and a connector corresponding to your device on the other, to which the USB OTG cable will subsequently be connected.
How to open a flash drive on Android
To open a flash drive and view its contents, you need a file manager. Many modern smartphone models are equipped with this initially, and if you have a USB OTG cable, all that remains to resolve the issue is to connect the drive. If there is no pre-installed file manager, then you will have to download a third-party one, fortunately similar ones (directly the path to the files: /sdcard/usbStorage).
Android tablet does not see the flash drive - reasons
However, not all Android devices can function in a simplified way. Often the connection is made, but nothing happens at all.
First reason. This situation may arise due to the fact that a particular device cannot automatically mount an external drive, so it will need help, which is possible by installing a program that can do this. Perhaps the most popular free one in this segment works not only with flash drives, but also with other equipment, including digital cameras.
True, its installation requires root access, and if you already have it, you can connect a USB flash drive via a USB OTG cable. In the pop-up prompt, you need to agree to launch StickMount and the program will automatically detect the drive and mount it accordingly. You can find it along the path /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1. To safely remove the flash drive, go into the program again and select the “Unmount” command.
Another good application worth mentioning is USB OTG Helper (root rights are also required). The operating principle is similar to that described above.
The second reason The reason why your device may not see the flash drive is that it simply does not read some file systems, such as NTFS, by default.
In this case, using a computer, you need to reformat the flash drive to exFAT or FAT32.
But what if there is no PC at the moment? Then you can use the Paragon NTFS & HFS+ application, which supports the NTFS format and allows you to manipulate digital files that have a similar file system (you will need it for installation).
We tried to tell you in as much detail as possible about how to connect a flash drive to an Android device and import files to your device and back to an external flash drive. If, after reading the article, you still have any questions, please contact us and we will dot all the i's. Good luck!
In this article we will figure out how to connect Android to a computer/laptop via USB as a flash drive and be able to transfer information without using a classic flash drive.
This article is suitable for all brands that produce phones on Android 9/8/7/6: Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, Meizu, Fly, Alcatel, Xiaomi, Nokia and others. We are not responsible for your actions.
Before Android 4.4 KitKat, it was possible to connect via USB as a flash drive. The PC saw the device as a removable disk and provided the same rights: the user could also perform other actions.
Then, in new versions of Android, the USB mode was replaced by MTP, in which only the data transfer function remained, and the same formatting did not work.
Setting up a USB connection
To manage the connection to a computer via USB, you need. To do this, add the “For Developers” section to the Android settings (if it doesn’t exist):
- Open settings.
- Go to the "About phone" or "About device" section.
- "Build number" or "MIUI version".
- Press (click) on this item until you see a message that you have become a developer (usually 7-10 clicks are enough).
After the developer section appears in the settings, you can enable USB debugging. The item is called that way, so you just need to move the slider to the “On” position and confirm the resolution.
Increase Now you can connect the device to your computer via USB and select the operating mode. In the latest versions of Android, the most used ones are:
- MTP - transfer any files from computer to phone and vice versa.
- PTP - transfer of photos, as well as transfer of files not supported in MTP mode.
- Charging only.
Connecting in USB storage mode
If you can't get used to using the media player, go back to using USB storage mode. For this you will need:
- USB MASS STORAGE Enabler installed.
Using this method may damage system files. In this case, you will have to reflash Android.
To connect Android to your computer as a drive:
- Launch USB MASS STORAGE Enabler.
- Grant superuser rights and agree to change how Selinux works.
- If the device is supported, the main application menu will open.
- Click "Enable USB MASS STORAGE".
Increase Now, when connected to a PC, the phone or tablet will appear as a drive. To connect in MTP or PTP mode, just restart the device. Once you're done with mass storage mode, go back into the app and disable USB MASS STORAGE.
Greetings. Now many people do not know how to connect a flash drive to their phone. Because it simply doesn’t fit or there are other reasons why it can’t be done. In today's article I want to take this issue apart. You will learn how to connect a flash drive to an Android phone (smartphone) and how to view files on it.
I don’t think there’s any need to explain why you need to connect a flash drive to a smartphone. The reasons can be completely different and the most unusual. Maybe there are simply no other devices nearby for reading information from a flash drive, or maybe you decided to transfer music to your phone this way.
How to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone?
If you are holding an ordinary USB flash drive and your favorite smartphone in your hands, you see that there is nowhere to insert it. Because the flash drive has USB Type-A, and the smartphone has a micro USB Type-B connector. That's bad luck. (Read more about)
Fortunately, many modern smartphones support this technology. USB On-The-Go, allowing them to use most peripherals directly without the help of a computer or laptop. You can connect a mouse or keyboard, work with flash drives and much more. But for this you will need.
An OTG cable usually has a full USB Type-A on one side, and a micro USB Type-B on the other side. Therefore, if your smartphone does not have a micro USB connector, then you should take care of an additional adapter to connect a flash drive. Although the likelihood of this is negligible, now almost all smartphones and tablets have a micro USB Type-B connector.
Eventually, to connect a flash drive to your phone, need to:
- so that your The smartphone supported USB On-The-Go technology. Although almost all smartphones now support it, there are nevertheless exceptions. Carefully read the phone's specifications before purchasing if this parameter is important to you.
- to have in stock. It is inexpensive, so it would be nice if you still have it. You never know when it will come in handy.
Adapter cables for different types of devices
OTG cables need to be selected depending on what connector is available on your smartphone or tablet. It could be microUSB, appleLightning or the most modern USBTYPE-C. The table shows some representatives of these cables.
How to open a flash drive on Android (tablet or phone)?
« How to open a flash drive on a phone, there is no shortcut “ My computer "and nothing similar?- you will be surprised. Naturally, for this we will need some kind of file manager. You most likely have some kind of simple pre-installed file manager. But if it is not there, then you need to install it.
Today, popular file managers on Android OS are: “File Manager”, “ES Explorer”, “Total Commander”, “X-plore File Manager”, “File Commander”, “ASTRO” and others. There are actually a lot of them. For example, I have been using for a very long time X-plore. I have loved it since the days when the Symbian OS operating system was popular on smartphones. X-plore is a convenient, functional and free manager. What else is needed?
X-plore - file manager
Then simply connect the flash drive to the phone and go to the file manager. There it will be displayed with all the contents. Of course, a completely different question is whether a smartphone can work with all files? It's still not a computer. But he can work with the main ones. There are even special programs for working with Excel spreadsheets, but it is so inconvenient that I don’t even know who these programs were written for.
Why can't my smartphone see the flash drive via an OTG cable?
There may be many reasons why your smartphone does not see the flash drive. Let's look at the most common ones.
The flash drive is also often not visible on the computer, why? Read.
Micro USB flash drives
You may not know this, but there are flash drives that fit into a micro USB connector. This information may be useful to you if you plan to often connect a flash drive to your smartphone, then it makes sense to think about such a purchase.
Micro-USB flash drive
There are also combined flash drives that have a USB Type-A output on one side and a micro USB output on the other. You can connect such a flash drive to both a computer and a smartphone. Think this might be just what you need.
If you still decide to buy a micro USB flash drive, we recommend that you pay attention to the following models with a large amount of memory. In addition, they can connect to absolutely any type of USB connector.
Conclusion on connecting a flash drive to the phone
In most cases, you will be able to use a USB flash drive on your phone without any problems. Which is good news. However, if you encounter difficulties connecting a flash drive, do not despair. Many of the problems are resolved fairly quickly. I hope you have learned enough about how to connect a flash drive to your phone. If you have any questions, please ask, we will try to help you.
Did you read to the very end?
Was this article helpful?
Not really
What exactly did you not like? Was the article incomplete or false?
Write in comments and we promise to improve!
Not all users know that you can connect a regular flash drive to your Android smartphone. Moreover, owners of top-end smartphones may not need this function, but for those who have a budget device there are a lot of different benefits from this.
For example, if you have little built-in memory, then you can connect a flash drive and watch movies or listen to music from it. Or you need to transfer some important information from a flash drive to your device, but you don’t have a PC at hand.
In general, this useful “trick” has a lot of applications and, of course, we won’t consider them all. We are more interested in how exactly to connect a USB drive to your gadget.
Checking support for the OTG protocol
OTG protocol is a technology with which you can connect not only a flash drive, but also any other peripheral device to your Android smartphone - a mouse, printer, video camera, etc. More details about this.
To check whether your gadget supports this technology, use the USB OTG Checker application, which can be downloaded.
USB OTG cable
This cable is an “adapter” at one end, which has a standard mini USB connector for connecting a smartphone, and at the other end there is a regular USB port for connecting a flash drive. We simply connect both devices with this cable and don’t need to do anything else.
USB OTG drive
It’s even easier if you purchase in advance a universal flash drive that can be directly connected to both a PC and an Android without any additional “adapters.”
Important! The flash drive must be formatted in FAT32. If it is in NTFS format, then the device on Android OS will simply not see it.
Conclusion
That's all: you shouldn't have any difficulties connecting a USB flash drive to your device. Ask any additional questions in the comments, and we will definitely answer!
