Can't access phone storage when charging via USB

[kirk]

Just got the Captivate yesterday and really liking it except for one issue. I setup the USB options to prompt me for the type of connection when I plug into USB. If I choose Mass Storage I'm still not able to connect to the phone from my computer (Mac or Win 7). I assumed that choosing that option would mount the phone as an accessible drive. Just wondering what I'm missing. I don't have an external MicroSD card in the phone... is that required to do this? The options I have when I plug in via USB are...

Samsung Kies
Media player
Mass storage
PC Internet

I'm new to Android... moving over from Blackberry... and any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

PS... Also looking for a good silicone case for this phone... any pointer to a good source for cases would also be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[JackImageX]

For the Mac, I had the same issue. I wrote up what the work-around is here:

http://forum.androidcentral.com/t-captivate/23462-captivate-os-x-doubletwist.html

(although it's written for doubleTwist, it should allow you to access the internal memory via USB).

That may help you with Windows 7 also. I don't have a mini USB cable here at work to test it. You may need to load a specific driver for the phone with Windows (Samsung does have a driver on their website for Windows XP and Vista). Also, it will depend if you are running 32-bit or 64-bit.

I think this may be a flaw on the phone with the way it handles USB. But, luckily, it's something that's easy to circumvent.

 

[maerlim]

Click "Mass Storage", then you'll notice in your notification bar a message "USB Connected. Select to copy files to/from your computer." Click that, you'll get a screen that has 2 buttons, "Mount" and "Don't Mount". Click "Mount", and your drives will pop up on the computer.

 

[kirk]

Thanks for the quick reply. I went in and enabled USB Debugging and then when I connected to my Mac (my primary machine) it gave me the option to Mount as USB Storage so I did that but unfortunately it still isn't showing up anywhere on the Mac. I tried Un-Mounting it and then Mounting it again but still no go. I'm running 10.6.4 on this machine if that matters.

Cheers!

 

[JackImageX]

Thanks for the quick reply. I went in and enabled USB Debugging and then when I connected to my Mac (my primary machine) it gave me the option to Mount as USB Storage so I did that but unfortunately it still isn't showing up anywhere on the Mac. I tried Un-Mounting it and then Mounting it again but still no go.

I had a few problems like that. Try unplugging everything then rebooting your phone and your Mac. I found that the USB bus hung on my Captivate because I kept plugging it in and unplugging it. Once I rebooted it, things worked.

What version of OS X are you running also? I have Snow Leopard and this did work for me. You do have to mount the USB storage (looks like you did that).

 

[maerlim]

Mac support seems to be a little sketchy on the Captivate. If you have access to a windows box, you might be better off there until they do some work to get the Mac support better.

 

[That Guy]

help

when I connect my Captivate to my computer the message "PC connection available only in ideal screen. close running applications." when I click on the usb icon nothing happens.
is it because I'm running launcher pro, or is there something running in the background.

 

[ChuckTheHammer]

I messed around with this for a long time last night. Two suggestions from my end:first, ATT now has the manual up and it helps quite a bit. Second, I tried all different connections and using Samsung's driver to no avail. Finally I uninstalled the Samsung driver, rebooted, and connected via the Media Player option. Once connected as a media player Windows installed the driver fine and I was able to see and access the phone like an external (usb) drive. It also worked like a champ with Media Player. With any other selection I was not able to move files around. I hope this helps.

I am running Windows 7 64 Ultimate