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How to open a flash drive on your phone. Using an OTG cable. way. Using an adapter

It would seem that connecting an Android device to a computer is not difficult at all. I connected it with a USB to mini USB cable and everything should work. But this doesn't always happen. Sometimes additional steps are required. Let's talk about them further.

Let's start with the fact that different versions of Android have slightly different ways of connecting the device to a computer as storage. Don't know your version? Go to settings, look for the menu item “About phone”, “About tablet” or “About device”. The version of your gadget is listed there. Next, proceed according to the instructions prescribed for your version of Android.

Android 2.1 – 2.3.7

  • Connect your device to your computer using a USB cable
  • Wait until the computer detects the device. If the computer detected your phone or tablet, skip the next step. Otherwise, follow the next step of the instructions
  • Disconnect your device from your PC. Go to Settings -> Applications -> Developer options -> USB Debugging. Press the button to enable USB debugging mode. Connect your device to your PC.
  • Once the device has been recognized by the computer, a USB icon will appear in the status bar. Pull the status bar down with your finger, tap “USB Connection”
  • If you are given a choice between the options “Connect as a media device (MTP)” and “Connect as a camera (PTP)”, select the first option
  • Ready! The green Android icon turns orange, and on the PC your device is displayed as a data storage (removable disk with an assigned letter)

Android 4.0 – 4.2

As a rule, in these versions of Android, the device is recognized automatically after connection. If this does not happen, follow these steps:

  • Connect your gadget to your PC via USB
  • Select Settings -> Storage -> USB Connection Settings
  • Of the two options offered (connect as a media device/as a camera), select the first one. Ready! Device connected as storage

Now you know how to enable a USB drive on Android of any version.

How to Clean Android Internal Storage

Clogged internal memory of a phone or tablet is a problem that any user faces sooner or later. Once you have connected to your PC via USB, you have a convenient way to solve it. Here is a short list of actions that you can take to clean the internal storage of your Android device by connecting to a PC.

  • Transfer your photos and videos to your PC. Just drag them to the desired PC folder and delete them from your phone
  • Check your Download folder. As a rule, a lot of unnecessary downloaded files accumulate there. Delete them and transfer the ones you need to your PC
  • You can also save some data directly from applications to your PC. For example, you can archive all your SMS and save them on your computer

By connecting your Android device to your PC as storage, you can easily exchange information between devices, and also comfortably clear the internal memory of your gadget.

We told you how you can connect USB gaming peripherals, such as a joystick or gamepad, both from a computer and from a game console, to a phone or tablet with the Android operating system. But the USB port installed in your Android device can work not only with joysticks.

Maybe you, like us, have had the thought come into your head more than once; “Why can’t you just connect a USB flash drive to your Android phone or tablet and download files directly?” In fact, this can be done, although sometimes this operation is associated with some difficulties. Today we will tell you, dear readers, how to connect a USB flash drive to your mobile device.

How to connect a flash drive to an Android device via micro-USB

Most modern smartphones and tablets running Android OS have a standard micro-USB connector installed as a communication port. In order for a phone or tablet to see devices connected to it through this port, it must support the technology USB On-The-Go, abbreviated USB OTG(sometimes you can also find the name USB Host). This technology means that the micro-USB port can supply power to external devices, thus allowing them to be visible in the system. The implementation of this technology is present in the Android operating system from version 3.1 and higher, so if your phone or tablet is not completely old-fashioned, then everything should work as it should.

If you are not sure about the hardware capabilities of your mobile device, and do not find the relevant information in the technical documentation for it, you can try installing the USB OTG Checker application on your Android device, available for download on the Google Play store.

Its only function is to quickly check your phone or tablet to see if it supports USB On-The-Go (USB Host) technology.

The only thing you need to connect a USB flash drive to an Android device is a USB On-The-Go (USB OTG) adapter cable.

You can buy it at any computer or mobile store and it is very inexpensive. Sometimes manufacturers include it in the delivery package of their devices, saving us time and money.

You insert it with the corresponding end into the micro-USB connector of your mobile device, connect the flash drive to the other end, and the job is done, you can look for the files on the flash drive in the usb storage folder (sometimes just USB), which will appear among the drives available in the system. It can be accessed using any file manager.

Unfortunately, not all mobile devices running the Android operating system can work in such a simple way. It often happens that you connect a flash drive to micro-USB via an adapter using the above method, but nothing happens. If you are sure that your device supports USB On-The-Go technology, but nothing happens when you connect the flash drive to your phone or tablet via an adapter cable, do not despair.

This problem occurs because your mobile device does not automatically mount the external drive, and it needs help with this. On the Google Play market you can find several programs that can do this. The most popular is StickMount, which can be downloaded for free. The latest version of the program works with the Android 4.0 operating system and higher. The application can work not only with USB flash drives, but also with digital cameras and other similar equipment.

Please note that this application requires root access! If you have not yet opened root on your mobile device, it's time to do so right now. You can find out how this is done from our database article:

As soon as you install StickMount on your device, you can connect a USB flash drive via a USB OTG cable. When connected, your Android device will show you a pop-up asking if you want to launch StickMount. Agree with this, the program will detect your USB drive and mount it.

You can find your drive along the path /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1.

To safely remove the flash drive back, go to the program and select the "Unmount" command.

How to connect a flash drive to an Android device without micro-USB

Chinese companies, and even famous manufacturers, sometimes sin by installing non-standard connectors on their mobile phones and tablets with the Android OS, to which it is not possible to connect a USB On-The-Go adapter cable directly. If you are the happy owner of just such a device, to use a USB flash drive with it, you will first need to find an appropriate adapter that connects the USB connector to the proprietary connector of your manufacturer.

This can be difficult, since every store around the corner usually does not sell such adapters. But you can always find and order the required adapter via the Internet on Western or Chinese trading platforms.

Otherwise, the algorithm of actions is the same as in the previous section. Connect the flash drive, and if it is not detected right away, try using a special mounting program.

We hope our article helped you figure out the question “How to connect a flash drive to Android”, and transferring files to your mobile device and back to an external drive has become much easier.

From this article you will learn how to quickly connect a flash drive to an Android phone. This process causes slight difficulties for many users, as it differs from connecting a flash drive to a PC.

· Let's check the device version. It must be from Android 3.1 and higher. Otherwise, connecting the flash drive becomes impossible. Open settings and go to the section "About the smartphone" . Among the various options, you can see information about your Android version. Other specifications are available.

· Buy an OTG cable . If you look closely at mobile devices, you will notice the absence of a classic USB input. Therefore, every phone uses a microUSB port. To connect a flash drive, you need to get an adapter called an OTG cable. It is available for sale in any specialty store.

· Connect the flash drive to the smartphone . It's very easy to do. Take the cable and plug it into the microUSB connector. After this, the flash drive will be connected. Thanks to any file manager, all the data on it will be available. They are in the folder mnt/sda/sda1 .

However, if you have a Google Nexus smartphone, you will need to download the application Nexus Media Importer. It's completely free.

Unfortunately, not all Android smartphones make everything so simple. There are times when the connection has already been made, but there is no access to the phone. This occurs for various reasons. One of the most popular is the inability to mount an external drive. To fix the problem, you will need to install the application Stick Mount. It works with all types of equipment, including video cameras and cameras.

To install, you must have Administrator rights (ROOT). After this, the screen will pop up whether you agree to the terms of use. Click “Yes”, after which the drive will be automatically detected and mounted. It will be available at /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1 . Remove the flash drive in safe mode by pressing "Unmount" .

There are other reasons why the device does not see the drive. For example, a number of file systems are simply unreadable. Among them may be NTFS. To fix this, reformat the drive to FAT32 format on your PC.

Thanks to the OTG cable, you can connect various devices, not just USB flash drives. These include:
· keyboard;
· mouse;
· USB modem.

The first two devices can also be wireless.

Modern smartphones are not far behind Symbian-based devices in terms of permanent memory capacity. Yes, now the amount of free space is measured in gigabytes, not megabytes. But files have recently become much heavier - just remember a video that has a high resolution, due to which it can weigh up to 10 GB. This is why some users prefer to use an external flash drive. In most cases, it is a memory card. But sometimes a USB flash drive is connected to the smartphone. How this is done will be discussed below.

The USB port is a strict standard - in fact, it works the same on all devices, be it a computer, printer or phone. But this does not mean that it has the same appearance everywhere. It is physically impossible to connect a cable from a smartphone to the socket of a scanner, printer or MFP, and vice versa. This is explained by the fact that the connectors differ in both their shape and size.

On smartphones running Android, the most commonly used port is made in the form factor micro-USB. It received this name due to its tiny size. By the way, on new flagships you can find a new type of connector - . Its dimensions remained the same, but its shape changed. But in any case, connecting a USB flash drive right away often won’t work. After all, it is intended for full size USB port, which can be found on computers and laptops, but not on portable gadgets.

There are two ways to solve this problem. The first is to buy a special flash drive equipped with two connectors at once - USB And micro-USB. But so far such accessories are not very common, and they are quite expensive. Therefore, in most cases, users choose the second method of solving the problem, which is to connect a traditional flash drive to a tablet or smartphone via OTG cable. It is made in the form of a short cord, at the ends of which there is a USB female (input for a full-size USB plug) and a micro-USB output.

Unfortunately, not everything is as simple as it seems. By default, Android has supported OTG technology for quite a long time. But many manufacturers still block it, most often for the sake of security. It also happens that this technology is not fully supported. The device may not supply the required amount of energy to the flash drive through its connector. In such cases, it is impossible to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone without special tricks, providing it with a flow of electricity. If you are not comfortable with a soldering iron, then you definitely won’t be able to use the device in conjunction with a USB flash drive.

How can I find out about the presence or absence of OTG support?

Unfortunately, there is no app you can download for this. Even famous AnTuTu Benchmark will not write to you about whether the gadget supports OTG technology. If you want to find information on this matter, you will have to go to the manufacturer’s official website and familiarize yourself with the full technical characteristics of your device. It also makes sense to read reviews of the smartphone published on many sites, including our resource.

If you don’t want to look for information, you can check the presence of OTG support experimentally. Just get the appropriate cable and use it to connect the flash drive to your smartphone. If the accessory is not recognized, then this function is blocked by hardware.

Some restrictions

While smartphones have switched to a micro-USB connector quite a long time ago, the same cannot be said about tablets. Some well-known manufacturers have models with a proprietary port. It is no longer possible to find such tablet computers in stores, but it is quite possible to purchase them in person. Most often, a non-standard connector is present in “ tablets» from Samsung And ASUS. To connect a flash drive in this case, you will not need an OTG cable, but a special proprietary adapter.

Interestingly, the opposite situation also existed before. The first tablets from Acer had an additional full-size USB port. The flash drive was connected directly to such a device, without the use of auxiliary accessories.

How to read the contents of a USB flash drive?

We figured out how to connect a flash drive to Android. But how to read its contents? Do I need any additional program for this?

You can easily use the built-in tools. Now almost every smartphone and tablet is equipped with a file manager. It does not have any serious functionality, but such a utility must provide viewing of the contents of a flash drive.

And if there is no such program on your device, then go to Google Play. Download there Conductor , X-Plore or something similar. Using any of these file managers, you can easily view documents, videos and other contents of a flash drive connected via USB.

On some devices, standard file managers do not cope with their task. This applies in particular to tablets Nexus 7 And Nexus 10. They may require installation USB Media Importer. You can also use the free utility StickMount, but for its functioning it is necessary

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 you do not have a micro USB connector on your smartphone, 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 maybe this is 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.

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