No mass USB storage -- now what can I do??

[tucse]

Great post, I learned a lot and totally feel your pain. Neither my Droid4 or my Acer IconiaTab a110 will recognize a thumb drive via their USB ports. I've bought multiple adapter cables and apps to no avail. What good is a phone or tablet that can't share a simple word or excel file with a guy standing right next to you. Finding a place to set up a laptop or driving to a WiFi hot spot just to share a file drives me crazy just to think about. Windows devices my be in the near future for this longtime android fan. Until then I'll have to keep lugging my laptop around just to support USBbbbb....

 

[HygradeB]

Let me get this rite you have tried every option that can be done and you cant copg file to a usb.
Have you got one of the otg cables or tried the usb adaptor that can link external drive to your note?
I ask this cause I seen many post about how people are linked their note to external drives and usb both wifi and via the 30pin connection.
Before you got your wifi note did you think about the 3g version so you can have on the go connection?
Yoy say you dont wish to use the cloud as a way of saving data due to hackinv which is a good point but did you know you can encrypt your files that are stored to give extra protection.
I have worked with windows for many years and notice once a compnay is using sumting that make there product work great and windows are not making money from it it will try and stop that company using it.
Maybe thats why yoh cant do the things you dix in the past.
You may need to search this forum and others I.e xda to fine a solution to your problem and when you do fine this post it so others can benefit.
I have no problem moving 4gig files from my pc to note both via usb, wifi or putting my micro sd in a reader, just memba wen moving the micro sd to unmount it in the right way.
I hopd you fine a fix soon as it seems to be stressing you and stopping you enjoy the note as you shoukd.

 

[Jacopo Barberis]

Let's say that, the MTP is bull****! I have a Galaxy S and since I have it, it never gave me any problem at all. Lately I got a Galaxy Note 8.0 and the tablet is fine, but I'm having endless problems with file transfer. I know what's the direction they're pointing and it makes sense marketingwise. They want to disorient people from what a tablet, a phone, a computer really is, they invent all these terms, like multimedia, phablet, cloud, they make all these things undefined, they make them look like almost transendental. You can see it for your self, a lot of people confused even on what a tablet or a phone actually is. Apple is the most fertile in this field, they take things that already exist, already work, change their name, make them somewhat automatic, give them a better design and there you have the next innovation in computer technology.
I am used to doing everything with the help of a computer, it's not the computer doing everything, there are to many bugs and errors that can occur in this automated programs. So I can't stand that they don't leave me do this. I bought this device I want the ability to do what I want and I'm not talking about rooting, just a simple task as orginize it as I want, have my folders and they're files where I want to put them. I don't want to hear converting, fatal flaws etc.
Seriously, samsung, google, whatever, give us back the USB mass storage. I've been trying to get my files organized as I want and I can't do it, and this is freaking me out. I spent like 400? for a tablet that works worse than my 3 years old phone. For sure the tablet performances are a lot better, but since I got nothing but thin air to work with I don't care about the 1,6 Ghz quad-core processor, all 4 cores are wasted.

...by the way. Hello everyone, I'm Jacopo

 

[axllebeer]

Maybe I'm missing something here but....can't you just copy n paste whatever you want to the Notes SD card? MTP, USB mass storage.....who cares what it's called.
I'm new to droid (blackberry convert) and I'm about to pull the trigger on a 32gig Note 10.1 but all this has me a little spooked. I had a 64gig PlayBook and simply just did a copy n paste with excel doc's, word doc's, pdf's, music.....so someone tell me.....is this not possible with the Note 10.1????

edit: even if Kies is needed. Kies Air?

UPDATE: I'm not sure what the hub bub is, but this thing will absolutely operate in mass storage mode. Call it what you want, but one can drag n drop pretty much what ever you want.

Works as you would expect when using it on a PC. The only complaint I have regarding "mass storage mode" is that I can't plug it into my PS3 to transfer files. For that my solution is Imediashare. I can at least copy things off the Note wirelessly that way.
Also have a PlayBook and sadly the same solution doesn't work for me. Even after I sideloaded the app.

 

[Lonwulf]

Have you tried to force Windows to recognize your device as UMS instead of MTP?
Try this out and let us know:
1. Go to Device Manager
2. Find your device and right click and select Update Driver Software
3. Select Browse from comp and then select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my comp
4. Tick "Show compatible hardware" and select the USB Mass Storage Device or something similar. If you have many options, do a trial and error.
5. Click on Next and get the driver installed.

Try it out if this works for you.

 

[Marinewonder]

Well,

I didn't see the operating system the main poster was on.

I don't need USB Debugging mode enabled below, using Galaxy S3, with Jellybean 4.1.2. It may work for other phones.

I'm also not rooted, nor have any apps for mass storage installed. I leave the phone mode in MTP.

With Windows 7, you should be ok with just the Samsung drivers, Windows 7 should pop up the windows explorer view of the media (both phone and card).

On XP, the solution I found was to have the phone show up under Portable Devices in device manager.

On the most basic system, with no custom drivers or tweaked detection of the USB devices, two basic things are needed:

1) Samsung's USB drivers, found on their website.
2) Windows media player 11, or SDK.

I happen to hate Microsoft's Windows Media Player, so while my system still retains WMP9, the SDK allowed me to fix the Phone detection and not upgrade to WMP11.

If you have upgraded Windows Media Players over 9, perhaps this solution won't work for you?

(Download Update for Windows Media Format 11 SDK for Windows XP (KB929399) from Official Microsoft Download Center)

Install the drivers, this will at least get your phone detected, but it will likely show up as an Imaging Device or Media Device with limited access to the phone's storage.

Installing the SDK seems to help the phone show up as a Portable Device, which may by default help populate a Windows Explorer link to the storage on the phone (both phone and memory card).

Windows should pop up a window asking what you wish to do with the media device, and if you select select "Open Device to View Files" and check "always perform this", you should then pop up a windows explorer window anytime you plug in the phone.

If it does not, you may need to change the driver for the phone under Portable Devices to some MTP device.

Update Driver
Install from Other location
Dont search driver
On my system, 3 devices show up, one is Digital Still Camera, the other is MTP Device, and a third is Samsung Mobile MTP Device.

As long as I select one of the MTP devices, the phone then pops up on windows explorer.

You can right-click on the windows explorer Phone Icon, properties, autoplay tab, to change how it behaves when the phone is plugged in.

-Henry S.

 

[dwo11]

Great idea, but nothing like USB Mass Storage Device is shown on my Windows 8.1 laptop when following your suggestion. This ommission by Android is a real game changer for me and it sounds like for many others too. They have rendered some very expensive equipment unfit for purpose for many of us. Take note please Google and rectify asap.

Have you tried to force Windows to recognize your device as UMS instead of MTP?
Try this out and let us know:
1. Go to Device Manager
2. Find your device and right click and select Update Driver Software
3. Select Browse from comp and then select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my comp
4. Tick "Show compatible hardware" and select the USB Mass Storage Device or something similar. If you have many options, do a trial and error.
5. Click on Next and get the driver installed.

Try it out if this works for you.

 

[zopfan]

Have you tried to force Windows to recognize your device as UMS instead of MTP?
Try this out and let us know:
1. Go to Device Manager
2. Find your device and right click and select Update Driver Software
3. Select Browse from comp and then select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my comp
4. Tick "Show compatible hardware" and select the USB Mass Storage Device or something similar. If you have many options, do a trial and error.
5. Click on Next and get the driver installed.

Try it out if this works for you.

Pls don't do this. I treaded on this path and such wrong drivers was installed (by hit and trial method as envisaged by Lonwulf) that every time I connected the mobile with laptop, immediately a bsod appeared. And even it won't let me change the driver to earlier one also (even in safe mode). Thank god, in the end, sytem restore came to my help (even partially only). But I was spared the pain of reinstalling the full OS.

 

[zopfan]

Have you tried to force Windows to recognize your device as UMS instead of MTP?
Try this out and let us know:
1. Go to Device Manager
2. Find your device and right click and select Update Driver Software
3. Select Browse from comp and then select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my comp
4. Tick "Show compatible hardware" and select the USB Mass Storage Device or something similar. If you have many options, do a trial and error.
5. Click on Next and get the driver installed.

Try it out if this works for you.

Don't every try this solution. By this (hit and trial method envisaged by Lonwulf) I happened to install such a corrupt/wrong driver that as soon as I connected my mobile with laptop, BSOD appeared and immediately pc rebooted. it didn't give me that much time as to change the driver to prior state, even in safe mode. Ultimately, thank god, I was saved by a system restore (that too not fully, only partially, but so much as to give me a chance to replace the faulty driver).

So, guys, pls don't experiment unless you want to really get in trouble with windows 7.

 

[Dale_M]

Late to party but for what its worth....

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...om.homeysoft.nexususb.importer&token=63kbtVi3

Also USB debug mode is supposed to be there... Open Settings go to General, find "About device", tap "Build number" several times... Should give you new option in left hand screen..."Developer options"... USB Debugging is in there...

Dale

 

[Tracie Lee]

One word: Dropbox.

 

[Phill Burns]

At present I use almost every cloud provider under the sun but I think Owncloud and Polkast (which are also built into my Zxyel NAS) are the two I use most.


Or you could just get a Lima when they are released (I backed it on Kickstarter and it sounds very useful.)

http://meetlima.com

 

[AngieSmithf]

I would suggest you to take online backup in future. Because there is no fear of damage or loss during any accident. It is safe and affordable way of storing your data. Dropbox. Open drive, Google drive etc are some astonishing and potent online storage services.

 

[ctsurv553]

Dropbox is not a viable long-term solution for file transfers between a PC and an Android device; what are you supposed to do when you need to do a file transfer at a remote location and there's no WiFi and/or no Internet connection? It's ridiculous that Mass Storage Mode was removed from the newer Android devices. What are you supposed to do when faced with connecting your tablet to someone's older PC that is still running XP? XP does not natively support MTP Mode - it requires installation of special drivers.
And even on Windows 7, MTP is flaky and unstable: I often have to re-boot my PC or un-install/re-install the MTP drivers before doing a file transfer to or from my Samsung Galaxy 3 tablet, or the files come over with significant corruption, especially big files like video clips or high-quality/hi-res JPEG's.

 

[ctsurv553]

Great idea, but nothing like USB Mass Storage Device is shown on my Windows 8.1 laptop when following your suggestion. This ommission by Android is a real game changer for me and it sounds like for many others too. They have rendered some very expensive equipment unfit for purpose for many of us. Take note please Google and rectify asap.

Agree 100%. The lack of Mass Storage Mode on newer version of Android is extremely frustrating: I can't use file-syncing tools like WinMerge, I can't use TeraCopy, and when I do a search of the memory in my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 in Windows 7 (MTP Mode), the search window doesn't tell me what the file Attributes are, or what Folders the found files are in! (unless I right click and select Open File Location - an extra hoop to jump through that shouldn't be necessary). I have been hoping for a year that a newer version of TeraCopy would be released that does support MTP but it hasn't happened yet.

I have also checked into the various Apps that claim to add Mass Storage Mode (for the external SD card) to devices that run Jelly Bean and KitKat, but none of them seem to work on my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0, even though I have rooted it.