Cannot save direct from PC to phone

Ian Turvey

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Can anyone help? When I plug my S4 into the PC it picks it up and shows an external drive on the PC. Things can be exchanged between the 2 without problem. However, should I choose to save something from the web direct to my phone, it won't allow me to do it. I have to save it to my PC then transfer it across. Not a massive problem, but a curious one. Can anyone offer any advice please?
 

STSVA

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You could try turning "USB debugging" on in the Developer options section of Settings. I don't know if that will fix the problem, but it's worth a try if you haven't already tried it.

EDIT: I'm not an expert or particularly knowledgeable about USB mass storage, which is what the setting above activates, but from a little reading on the Web it may be that you can only use it if you have an external SD card in the phone. If you don't have an external SD card in your phone maybe that could be the issue.
 
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STARGATE

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You could try turning "USB debugging" on in the Developer options section of Settings. I don't know if that will fix the problem, but it's worth a try if you haven't already tried it.

Beat me😃I agree 👆

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!
 

Ian Turvey

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Thanks for that tip. Unfortunately hasn't worked as I still can't save direct from the PC, all I get is a message saying "you can't save here choose another location" this applies to both phone and the memory card. Strange really can;t understand why it can't do it. Thank you for your help though.
 

Dave-in-Decatur

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Can anyone help? When I plug my S4 into the PC it picks it up and shows an external drive on the PC. Things can be exchanged between the 2 without problem. However, should I choose to save something from the web direct to my phone, it won't allow me to do it. I have to save it to my PC then transfer it across.
When you're saving directly from the Web, what browser are you using? Have you tried doing it with a different browser? Since the PC itself is making the connection to the phone, it sounds like it might be a problem with the software you're using to access the Web.
 

mrsmumbles

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Do you have WiFi? It may be easier doing it wirelessly. You could upload from pc to cloud and download from cloud to phone.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2
 

Dave-in-Decatur

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But he said it worked fine to save the data to the PC and then copy it to the phone, so it's not a storage issue.

I think it is a Windows limitation, or at any rate some kind of interoperability problem. I just tried saving a file to my S4 from Opera, and from WordPad, and in neither case did it work. When I tried opening a file on the phone using Explorer on my PC, I found that it first (transparently) copied the file to a temporary location on the PC, then opened it from there. So it looks like Windows cannot directly do file opens and saves on the phone, though it can move and copy them.
 

Busse

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Definitely either a windows or USB transferring limitation. If you plug your MicroSD Card into an adapter and plug that into your computer, there would be no issues with downloading/saving files directly to the SD card; however when it's connecting via USB it's not going to be possible. Not an expert so I can't give you an actual explanation, definitely a minor inconvenience but seems to be one of those "It is what it is" cases.
 

Busse

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An update, I busted out an old razr and it works fine. I believe the issue may be the method of USB Connection (MTP) by default as opposed to Mass Storage as it was prior to Jellybean. There is an app out there that reveals the option for Mass Storage on the S4 and other S Devices, however it does require Root access, and to my dismay does not work on Verizon devices. I found it on xda-developers site, also on the play store: SG USB Mass Storage Enabler
 

STARGATE

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An update, I busted out an old razr and it works fine. I believe the issue may be the method of USB Connection (MTP) by default as opposed to Mass Storage as it was prior to Jellybean. There is an app out there that reveals the option for Mass Storage on the S4 and other S Devices, however it does require Root access, and to my dismay does not work on Verizon devices. I found it on xda-developers site, also on the play store: SG USB Mass Storage Enabler

Dang! That sucks.

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!