Note 4 and external hard drive

[AC Question]

I will be going on holiday soon,and will be recording alot of video on my Gopro.How could I connect my external hard drive to my Note 4 mobile?Ive bought a Female USB to micro usb cable,but my mobile wasnt detecting the hard drive.My drive gets power from a lead connecting to a wall socket.Why is it that my Note 4 cant detect the hard drive?Are there any other solutions?Id appreciate help ASAP,as im going on holiday in two weeks.Thanks.

 

[Rukbat]

The USB port is a "device", not a server, the same as the hard drive is, and devices can't see each other - servers see devices. To make the phone a server, you use an OTG cable. It looks the same, but it's wired differently inside. The cheap (99 cent) ones are as good as the $40 ones - I've been using a 99 cent Chinese one for over a year, and using it a lot, with no problem. (All there is inside is wire, so as long as they use decent connectors, and good ones are still only pennies, the cable will outlast the phone. No need to go broke buying an expensive one. (Unfortunately it takes about 30 days to get one shipped from China, but you might find some for a few bucks that you can get faster - look on eBay or Amazon for otg cable.)