Media Sync nearly useless

[jcthorne#AC]

Why did HTC and Sprint have to take something like USB disk drive connection and muck it up to the point its now useless?

After hours of futzing arround trying to find the drivers so the phone will actually connect, I finally get the MTP driver installed and it opens an explorer window with two folders. One for the phone and one for the SD card.

Problem is, neither one shows all the files or folders. None of the media files already on the SD card show up at all, not even the folders.

How utterly useless. Not even any settings to allow it to work correctly.

Is there some other software workaround so I can actually access and use the 10gb of space on the phone as well as the SD card?

 

[glazedfaith]

Why did HTC and Sprint have to take something like USB disk drive connection and muck it up to the point its now useless?

...

How utterly useless.

...

Is there some other software workaround so I can actually access and use the 10gb of space on the phone as well as the SD card?

Your frustration is duly noted, but I am quite certain there is another explanation for your problems other than Sprint mucking up and providing a useless product. I feel that your words are a bit harsh, perhaps because you didn't seek assistance until after you spent hours attempting to get it to work.

Can you provide more information? What OS is your computer running?

 

[hypercubexl]

Weird, I was actually pleasantly surprised by it working seamlessly and painlessly, I plugged in with media sync mode, device popped up, I was able to view both the internal storage and my SD card exactly as if I had used USB mode, and see everything, even the system folders.

Running on Windows 7. No idea what it might do on XP or such. I think they recommend 7+ for MTP in the user guide.

 

[k000]

jcthorne - I am with you.

I also can't see the Evo as a simple drive either when I connected. I posted this here --> http://forums.androidcentral.com/ht...-connect-mass-storage-device-doubletwist.html

Someone else also mentioned they have been able to see --> http://forums.androidcentral.com/ht...-first-impressions-reviews-4.html#post1817959

I am on Windows 7

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

Disk Drive is one of the options on the EVO when I connect it. It seems that some folks (like k000) don't have this as an option. The only reason I can think of as to why this may be is because I have previously downloaded a HTC driver from when I rooted my OG EVO and my E3D. This driver, still being installed, must be seeing the device as a drive when it's connected to my PC, so it's an option on the phone side to connect as a hard drive. I didn't see any kind of USB driver on HTC's support site, but there is an updated version of HTC sync. Not sure if that will help with this issue or not, but maybe it will get Sync to work correctly.

Here is a link to the HTC support download site:
HTC EVO

I'll check the XDA site top see if any of the Devs have posted a driver download for the rooting process.

Update: OK that was easy.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1671577

At the bottom of the OP there are links to different drivers. That should get you the option of disk drive when you connect it to your PC (once the driver is installed, of course).

 

[crxssi]

Why did HTC and Sprint have to take something like USB disk drive connection and muck it up to the point its now useless? [...]

1) None of this has anything to do with Sprint.
2) Very little of this has anything to do with HTC
3) Welcome to Android 4.0.

It appears to be *impossible* to use USB Mass Storage mode with the phone AT ALL with any of the internal storage (the 2GB system partition or the 9.93GB partition). The end. And this is a "huge deal" for Linux users and an annoyance for MacOS users and also older MS-Windows users. This was expected with ICS (Android 4.0), and I agree that it is a total pain in the ass, but that is what we have now, unfortunately.

However, with a physical SD card installed, a new option will appear for using it "as a hard drive", which is USB Mass Storage mode to the SD card, and that does work perfectly with all computers. I just tested it and you can read and write to the card, no problem. I f you need to get something to/from the internal partition, you can use a file manager on the phone, itself, to move between the two. Although you can't store or move programs to the [real] SD card, you can use it for storing all your local videos, pictures, music, documents, etc. And you can tell the Android camera to put photos/video on the SD card instead of on internal storage.

I want to clear up a misconception, also. You *CAN* access the internal storage with Linux and MacOS using MTP with the right software and utilities (one such program is "gnomad" under Linux, believe it or not). It is just not as easy as USB Storage, not standard, and is far less convenient. MTP will also often restrict you to only pictures and music, without access the other stuff on the partition (which was part of the original intent).

For accessing the phone's internal storage on machines without easy access to the semi-proprietary and non-standard "MTP", one of the best options is to use "Airdroid", which is free and on Play Store, and is a pretty awesome program, allowing you platform-independant access to your internal partition right from a web browser, wirelessly. I highly recommend you check it out.

Believe it or not you should THANK HTC, because from my understanding, USB Mass Storage is not available *AT ALL* under Android 4, and HTC added the ability back in so it could at least be used with the SD card. I don't think they could have hacked the ability for the internal storage, it is just far too complex with the way the system is now presented by Google/Android 4.

 

[darkleafar]

OK so I ve been trying to get my Evo 4g lte to work through USB port with my Prius V 2012 Nav/media system. With the Evo 3D, I used to be able to simply choose USB Mass storage mode, and the car would flawlessly see all my music, metadata, and all perfectly organized. I wasnt even able to get it to work with 4g LTE until I realized I had USB debugging on. If I turn it off, my car is able to see my music through the "Media Sync" option (But still not through the USB Mass storage option). However, its all completely whack. It sees the music and displays all its proper information, album, artist, album art, BUT its not organized as such. On the Browse feature (through my car's Nav screen) if I click on Artists, it shows "All artists" and "Unknown". Same with Albums category. Under playlists, my playlists show up, but when you click them it says "No Content".
Now, when you look under the songs category, songs appear as follows:

01 (track number) Random song for Android lovers (song name)

The thing is I have over 1200 songs, and its as though its seeing my whole library as a single, gigantic album. Every single song that is track number one in its respective album appears first in the song list, followed by every single song that is track number two in its respective album, etc. For example:

01 First song of muse's absolution album
01 First song of muse's uprising album
01 First song of Nirvana's unplugged album
02 Second song of muse's absolution album
02 Second song of muse's uprising album
02 Second song of Nirvana's unplugged album

and so on, of course, because I have a big library, the above example occurs in a much much larger scale, where there are several track 01's. several track 02's, etc.

This is completely weird, and I have never in my life encountered such a problem. Could it have something to do with the the "Media Sync" USB mode option using an MTP protocol which doesnt recognize whatever metadata tagging system ITUNES is using? (I use ITUNES with ISyncr) Please help! I'm seriously considering returning the phone if I cant figure this out. Being able to fully control my music library through my car's Nav screen was one of the most used features I enjoyed on my previous phone (Evo 3D)

 

[crxssi]

OThis is completely weird, and I have never in my life encountered such a problem. Could it have something to do with the the "Media Sync" USB mode option using an MTP protocol which doesnt recognize whatever metadata tagging system ITUNES is using? (I use ITUNES with ISyncr) (

Media transfers do not look at metadata or any other file content. It just moves files from point A to point B (as far as I am aware). I can't comment on "ITunes", since that proprietary stuff doesn't work under Linux I have never used it (and wouldn't use it, even if it did).

 

[grayin]

1) None of this has anything to do with Sprint.
2) Very little of this has anything to do with HTC
3) Welcome to Android 4.0.

It appears to be *impossible* to use USB Mass Storage mode with the phone AT ALL with any of the internal storage (the 2GB system partition or the 9.93GB partition). The end. And this is a "huge deal" for Linux users and an annoyance for MacOS users and also older MS-Windows users. This was expected with ICS (Android 4.0), and I agree that it is a total pain in the ass, but that is what we have now, unfortunately.

However, with a physical SD card installed, a new option will appear for using it "as a hard drive", which is USB Mass Storage mode to the SD card, and that does work perfectly with all computers. I just tested it and you can read and write to the card, no problem. I f you need to get something to/from the internal partition, you can use a file manager on the phone, itself, to move between the two. Although you can't store or move programs to the [real] SD card, you can use it for storing all your local videos, pictures, music, documents, etc. And you can tell the Android camera to put photos/video on the SD card instead of on internal storage.

I want to clear up a misconception, also. You *CAN* access the internal storage with Linux and MacOS using MTP with the right software and utilities (one such program is "gnomad" under Linux, believe it or not). It is just not as easy as USB Storage, not standard, and is far less convenient. MTP will also often restrict you to only pictures and music, without access the other stuff on the partition (which was part of the original intent).

For accessing the phone's internal storage on machines without easy access to the semi-proprietary and non-standard "MTP", one of the best options is to use "Airdroid", which is free and on Play Store, and is a pretty awesome program, allowing you platform-independant access to your internal partition right from a web browser, wirelessly. I highly recommend you check it out.

Believe it or not you should THANK HTC, because from my understanding, USB Mass Storage is not available *AT ALL* under Android 4, and HTC added the ability back in so it could at least be used with the SD card. I don't think they could have hacked the ability for the internal storage, it is just far too complex with the way the system is now presented by Google/Android 4.

I have a nexus with Plain android 4 and there is none of this MTP stuff on there at all. This is ALL HTC and Sprint. Plain ICS connects as a plain USB drive with no issues. I just got an EVO 4G LTE and I am at a loss to understand why HTC went this crazy route. And using Nero to make the Sync software. What were they thinking?

 

[crxssi]

I have a nexus with Plain android 4 and there is none of this MTP stuff on there at all. This is ALL HTC and Sprint. Plain ICS connects as a plain USB drive with no issues. I just got an EVO 4G LTE and I am at a loss to understand why HTC went this crazy route. And using Nero to make the Sync software. What were they thinking?

I don't believe that is correct. I have read several articles talking about how *GOOGLE* was switching Android to use MTP. Of course, I did not save any links, so I can't refer back to them now.

My stock Nexus Xoom is a pure Android 4.0 device.... it has only support for MTP.

 

[grayin]

I stand corrected. The Galaxy Nexus (at least) has this and Wikipedia even lists android as using MTP. Sorry for doubting you. I still can't get the sync app to work on windows 7. But MTP works with Musicbee so I am fine.

 

[dccatfan]

This is completely FRUSTRATING...all I am trying to do is move about 600 photos from my Evo 4g to my new Evo LTE and I cannot mount as a disk drive anymore?? I'm running XP on my netbook and when hooking up the usb, it looks for drivers to install, then the error "A service installation section in this INF is invalid" appears. This is ridiculous, every time I try to connect to a PC this is going to happen? The old Evo you just hook it up, and click on My Computer, and drag and drop. SIMPLE.

I even tried the stupid HTC Sync that requires you to download on to a computer...it sat there for 10 minutes and never starting downloading. I'm seriously thinking to take this phone back and use the old one. I used to be able to plug my phone in to any of my friend's computer to download a song or movie or whatever...now I am going to have to tell my friends that I need to download drivers or programs that may or may not install properly just to trade a file? STUPID.

 

[jcthorne#AC]

1) None of this has anything to do with Sprint.
2) Very little of this has anything to do with HTC
3) Welcome to Android 4.0.
.

Guess I really don't care if its Sprint, HTC or Google. Access to the storage on the phone used to work on previous phones. Now it does not.

I did finally find and install the MTP driver for XP. I can see both the phone and the card storage. Problem is, most of the files on the two storage areas are not presented. MTP decides to hide them for some unknown reason. If there is a setting somewhere hidden that will 'allow' me to see all the files on the partitions, no one seems to know where its hiding. Oh, and its incredibly slow moving files in MTP. approx 25% of the drive access method. No idea why.

Its Broken and HTC/Sprint/Google need to fix it.

For the moment I went back to using drive access and only using the SD card space. Pretty much makes the 10gb of space on the phone useless. Once again between these 3 companies, I get to pay for hardware I cannot use. Thanks for nothing HTC.

 

[Mercury81]

I transferred 300 photos from my OG Evo to my Evo4GLTE without a hitch, it's working perfectly I also used windows and htc sync.

sent from my Evo4LTE

 

[jcthorne#AC]

I transferred 300 photos from my OG Evo to my Evo4GLTE without a hitch, it's working perfectly I also used windows and htc sync.

sent from my Evo4LTE

Yes it will transfer, very slowly, but it will transfer. Problem is, it will not display the many files already on either media location.

 

[hypercubexl]

I may have spoken too soon, it now still connects fine and show all the folders, but everything is invisible..everything is fine with the SD card under drive mode.

Is there a setting that got flipped or something needs updating? Really bizarre, it was working flawlessly on two different computers. Not using HTC Sync at all.

 

[crxssi]

This is completely FRUSTRATING...[...] The old Evo you just hook it up, and click on My Computer, and drag and drop. SIMPLE.

Yep. As I said in other postings.... "Welcome to Android 4.X".

 

[crxssi]

Guess I really don't care if its Sprint, HTC or Google. Access to the storage on the phone used to work on previous phones. Now it does not.

Well, yes it does. It works with USB Mass storage to only the SD card, or MTP to the card or internal storage. Used to be a lot simpler and easier and more compatible when it was USB Mass storage 100% of the time.

I can see both the phone and the card storage. Problem is, most of the files on the two storage areas are not presented. MTP decides to hide them for some unknown reason. If there is a setting somewhere hidden that will 'allow' me to see all the files on the partitions, no one seems to know where its hiding.

Yep, that is by design. They don't want us to see anything but multimedia files because we are stupid end-users. Thank Microsoft for that (they invented this MTP abomination)

Oh, and its incredibly slow moving files in MTP. approx 25% of the drive access method. No idea why.

Yep, that is because the design of MTP sucks. It is like a braindead FTP.

Its Broken and HTC/Sprint/Google need to fix it.

I agree it is "broken", but they are not going to fix it. This is the master plan for Android 4.X. It was designed intentionally to be this way.

For the moment I went back to using drive access and only using the SD card space. Pretty much makes the 10gb of space on the phone useless.

Not really, because that space is still used for applications. Just saying...

 

[jcthorne#AC]

Its intentionally non functional and it intentionally hides mp4, mp3 and jpg files?

THere are more brain dead managers than microsoft to accomplish this level of foolishness. Even apple could not be this dumb.


Well, yes they could. itunes is just as bad. Oh bother.


Did I mention that MTP contiuously looses connectivity with the phone after about 5 minutes? Not sure if its related to the multitasking problem on the EVO or not. But I cannot transfer more than about 2GB of files at a time before the connection drops. I have to turn off media sync on the phone and restart it to get the connection back.

This is just horrid.

 

[crxssi]

http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-evo-4g-lte/177254-media-sync-nearly-useless.html