How to connect a USB flash drive to an Android device using a special OTG cable: solving reading and recognition problems. Connecting a flash drive to the tablet and exchanging information

Owners of smartphones with large amounts of memory do not have to worry about the size of the downloaded content and the number of stored photos.

If your phone doesn’t have enough memory, you don’t have to go to the store and buy a new device, because almost any Android smartphone can work with regular USB flash drives. We tell you why such a “union” is needed and how to connect a USB drive to a smartphone.

Why do you need to connect a flash drive to your smartphone?

Let's start with the main one - the question of why you need to connect a USB drive to your phone. This feature can be useful in everyday life:

• It is necessary to expand the memory of your smartphone.
• Quickly transfer information from your computer to your smartphone and back.
• Download movies “on the road” without filling up the phone’s main memory

Connecting a USB flash drive to your phone

Some smartphone models can work with USB flash drives out of the box. To connect, you only need an adapter, which can be purchased at any mobile electronics store.

Thus, the OTG cable simply connects the USB flash drive and the smartphone.

You can also use a special flash drive with a microUSB connector for a smartphone on one side and a classic USB (2.0 and 3.0) on the other. When you connect a flash drive in Explorer on your smartphone, you can select removable media and then use it at your discretion. You can copy data from a flash drive to a smartphone, or vice versa - “reset” all accumulated photos and other files from the phone, launch any media file or document.

Some smartphones can initially work with an additionally connected flash drive, but due to the stripped-down file manager, it can be difficult to get to the data from the memory card. In such cases, the solution to the problem will be simple - you need to install a third-party file manager from Google Play (for example, ES Explorer).

Developer mode and enabling OTG

Sometimes the smartphone does not detect the flash card after connecting. In this case, you need to do two things:

• Open developer mode - that's it.
• Enter developer mode and activate the OTG function.

Sometimes, after obtaining developer rights, you also need to check the box next to the item.

Root rights to connect a flash drive to the phone

If the phone still does not detect the flash card when connected, more complex manipulations are required. First, you need to have and install a special application for working with a flash drive.

For each smartphone, obtaining root rights requires different steps. In general, the process is similar to flashing a smartphone. If you do not have the necessary skills to do this, contact a service center. To configure your phone yourself, you need to find instructions for a specific smartphone model on w3bsit3-dns.com.

If you don’t want to understand complex settings, you can immediately install an application that will allow you to connect USB flash drives to your smartphone. One such application is StickMount. Root rights are required for this program to work.

When you turn it on for the first time, the program will ask for root access - you need to agree to the program's request. When you connect a flash drive, the program will prompt you to always use it “by default” to access files. The files on the flash drive will be available in the sdcard/usbStorage directory. If you have an additional memory card, it will also be available while working with an external flash drive, so you can copy data from anywhere convenient.

Sometimes you have to transfer files from a flash drive to your phone, but in such cases, not every user knows what needs to be done for this. Despite the fact that smartphones are not equipped with bulky USB connectors, there are many ways to connect a flash drive to your phone and transfer documents, applications, and files without any problems.

Well, let's look at all the possible ways to connect a USB flash drive to gadgets with micro-USB connectors, namely smartphones, tablets and some other touch devices.

How to connect a USB flash drive to your phone

First of all, you should find out whether you can supply power to external devices using the micro-USB port of your smartphone. It is important that the same connected devices are displayed in the phone system.

In most cases, such verification is not required. But, if you buy some adapters to connect your phone to a flash drive, that is, you spend money, then it would be better to make sure of this from the beginning.

If you have Android version 3.1 or higher installed, you can safely skip the checks.

The smartphone documentation contains information about OTG support; you can also use the Internet.

To be completely sure, download the USB OTG Checker application, the main function of which is to check the device for support of OTG technology.

• Launch the program and click on "Check Device OS on USB OTG".
• If the test is successful, a green message will be displayed; if the test is failed, the response will be red.

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Methods for connecting a flash drive to a smartphone

To connect a flash drive to a smartphone, you can use the following options:

• Via OTG cable;
• Through an adapter;
• Use a USB OTG flash drive for this;
• If you have a mobile phone from Apple, then to connect you can use a special flash drive equipped with a special Lightning connector.

If necessary, it is possible to connect not only a flash drive to a smartphone, but also some other devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, joystick. However, let’s take a closer look at how to connect a flash drive.

1 way. Connecting a flash card via an OTG cable

This method is the most common. It involves the use of an adapter cable. This adapter is very easy to buy, as it is constantly in demand. There are a huge number of places of sale. As a rule, these are points where mobile devices are sold. In some cases, the purchase is not necessary at all, since manufacturers add this adapter to the configuration of their mobile devices.

The adapter is a cable with a USB connector on one side and a micro-USB plug on the other side. We insert the flash card into the USB, plug the micro-USB plug into the mobile phone.

If the memory card is equipped with light indicators, then when the lights start to glow, you can immediately understand that the work process has begun. In addition, the smartphone will also signal that a removable storage device is connected to it, however, in some models of gadgets these notifications are not available.

In order to see the contents of the connected memory card in the phone’s explorer (FileZilla, Total Commander), you need to follow the following path: /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1

Method 2. Using an adapter

There are quite a few small adapters on sale at mobile phone outlets; they can also be called adapters, which convert regular USB to micro-USB. Such adapters are equipped with a micro-USB output on one, and on the other there are contacts created for USB. To make it work, insert the adapter into the memory card interface, after which you can connect to your smartphone.

3 way. Using the OTG connector

If you need to connect to a flash drive quite often, the simplest and most convenient option would be to purchase a USB OTG flash drive. This carrier has 2 ports. One of them is a USB port. The second is a micro-USB port.

At the moment, USB OTG flash cards are sold in almost every mobile phone store or in department stores where you can buy a regular memory card. It is noteworthy that the cost of the above-mentioned cards is not much different from ordinary flash drives.

Let's move on to the fourth method, where we will connect the flash card to the iPhone

In nature, there are special carriers for Apple phones. Transcend has developed the JetDrive Go 300. This drive has a Lightning connector on one side and a USB connector on the other side. In principle, this connection method is limited to this.

How to connect a flash drive to your phone if the smartphone does not see the flash card

What to do if your mobile phone does not detect the flash card that you connected to it?

There are three main reasons. Let's sort them out...

1. File system type of the flash drive. Each mobile phone operates exclusively on the FAT32 file system;
2. The mobile phone is not capable of providing the flash card with power to operate. In this case, you should, as an option, connect another memory card;
3. The smartphone cannot automatically mount a flash drive that is connected to it. Under such conditions, the solution is to install the StickMount application.

Using the StickMount app

When the application is installed, when you connect the memory card, a message will pop up on the device screen where the phone will prompt you to launch the StickMount application.

Then you will need to check the automatic start box.

When this is done, you should click “Mount”, after which you can go to your flash drive using the previously specified path /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1

The "Unmount" command is used to safely remove the flash drive. Please note that you must be rooted to use the StickMount app. To obtain them, there are many instructional videos online for each specific phone.

How to get root rights:

To connect a USB flash drive to a mobile phone, it is important that the device itself operates with OTG technology. In this case, it will be possible to use a special cable, adapter, or you can use a memory card connected to micro-USB.

Despite the support of an Android smartphone or tablet for SD cards up to 32 GB, sometimes you need to connect external “storage” - portable hard drives and flash drives.

The essence of the problem with USB-Flash drives on Android devices

Modern Flash drives have a capacity of up to 128 GB. This amount of memory is not superfluous, especially when the owner of a smartphone or tablet downloads and distributes many films, music, programs, etc. at once. Additional memory is needed. The essence of the problem is as follows.

For this you need to connect additional “flash drives” via microUSB. An ideal option for those who often go on business trips or travel is to carry a tablet and several 32–128 GB flash drives in your bag.

How to connect a flash drive to an Android gadget via OTG

OTG is a USB-microUSB adapter, a replacement for a USB cable with a Card Reader device. Takes up little space - no more than a standard flash drive. In this case, the flash drive must be formatted in FAT32 - not everything is going smoothly with the NTFS file system for the Android operating system.

There is a more difficult way: install a special Android application that allows your smartphone or tablet to work with NTFS media. So, these can be exFAT/NTFS for Total Commander, Paragon NTFS & HFS+ and their analogues.

If the flash drive is not readable, you need special Android applications. Some of them require Root rights.

How to get Root access

Applications that allow you to get Root access without using a computer: FramaRoot, Universal Androot, Visionary+, GingerBreak, z4root, BaiduRoot, Romaster SU, Towelroot, RootDashi, 360 Root, etc.

Applications that “hack” Root via PC: SuperOneClick, Unrevoked, GenoTools, vRoot, MTKDroidTools, etc.

Remember that by obtaining Root rights, you lose the supplier’s warranty and risk harming your gadget.

Another way is to change the licensed Android firmware to a “custom” one with unattached Root access.

Viewing the contents of a flash drive on an Android smartphone or tablet using third-party applications

USB Media Explorer app

If you want to simplify the process of accessing a flash drive, use the paid USB Media Explorer application. The old name of the program is Nexus Media Importer; it was initially developed for Nexus gadgets, but quickly expanded the line of supported Android smartphones and tablets. Root rights are not needed, the program is paid.

If this solution doesn’t suit you, you’ll have to work a little harder.

Solutions based on the StickMount program

The StickMount application is one of the most famous and requires Root rights. Works in conjunction with any Android file manager, for example, ES Explorer. Both applications are available on the Play Market.

The flash drive is read/write.

All your files are now available

Connecting USB flash drives to devices that do not have miniUSB/microUSB

A number of companies, not as well-known as ZTE, Huawei, Sony and their other competitors, install non-standard interface connectors. OTG adapters with miniUSB/microUSB are absolutely not suitable for gadgets with a highly standardized connector without a special OTG adapter. Look on Ebay or AliExpress for an OTG adapter that matches the standard of the interface socket of your smartphone or tablet. Further steps to obtain software access to your flash drives are the same.

Modern flash drives can store a huge amount of information, weighing up to 256 GB or even more. That's just due to the lack of the required connector, it is problematic to “sync” with a smartphone, and they come to help adapters. Today we will find out how to connect a USB flash drive to Android via OTG and what you will need for this.

What is OTG

The OTG cable is a special adapter, allowing you to connect devices with a standard USB connector to phones and tablets. In short, this is an adapter, one end of which is connected to the smartphone, and an accessory is inserted into the second.

You can connect to both mice and keyboards, and any external drive.

You can purchase an adapter at any store, which specializes in electronics and gadgets for them. We also note that Some phones already come with OTG. For example, this detail was seen on Samsung and Sony smartphones.

How to check Android and OTG compatibility

Unfortunately, not all smartphones can boast of supporting the OTG protocol. But how can you find out in advance whether the device can recognize an additional gadget? The simplest thing is this is a visual definition. If the phone has standard microUSB, Most likely, in this case it will connect to the adapter without problems.

But for a better test, we recommend using a special program, namely USB OTG Checker. This is a very useful application with a minimum of functions that perfectly performs the main option - recognizing OTG support or lack thereof on an Android smartphone.

USB OTG Checker app

The utility can be easily downloaded from . After installation, we launch it and after a few seconds we see either a green square or a red one on the main screen. Everything is very clear here : green means successful further synchronization, red – inability to connect to the adapter.

Below is a table with a little information about the device, which shows the phone model, its name and ID. This, in principle, is where all the functionality of the application ends.

If the result is negative – There are two options to solve this problem. Perhaps the flash drive is simply not recognized by the built-in Explorer. There are special utilities for this, which we will discuss below. Or the OTG protocol is completely blocked in the device. Then, unfortunately, you won’t be able to do anything except buy a new phone running Android.

The procedure for connecting directly is very simple: we insert the accessory into the adapter, and connect the adapter to the smartphone. If the flash drive is successfully recognized by the operating system, a corresponding notification should appear on the screen, on which you should click "Allow". The external flash drive is recognized by the device, but how can we now read information from it?

File managers will help here, they are also called explorers. These are applications that allow you to view all the information stored in the memory of your mobile device and the drives attached to it.

Some phones, for example from Xiaomi, already have a built-in Explorer.

But you can also install any third-party manager, the best option is ES Explorer, which we talked about in detail in the article. We launch the program, go to the root menu and the external drive should be displayed there. Click on it and a list of materials appears. This way you can view images, videos, read documents and work with archives. All information stored on the flash drive is accessible from the smartphone.

But what to do if the drive is not recognized? The only way out is specialized utilities. For example, An excellent program is Media Explorer, available for download from Google Play. Unfortunately, it is paid and there is no beta trial.

StickMount (Root)

Don't want to spend money? Don't despair, there is a free alternative - StickMout app, requesting . If you are already a “Superuser”, you can easily adapt to the program, but otherwise you will have to either buy the tool or get root, otherwise you will not be able to work with the flash drive.

Possible problems why the phone/tablet does not see the flash drive via OTG

You bought an adapter, downloaded the necessary file manager, are happy to connect the flash drive, but it is not readable by the device - what is the reason? Let's discuss the most common factors that prevent successful synchronization:

• Incorrect flash drive format. Android doesn't read file systems NTFS and ExFat. Only suitable FAT32.
• Inappropriate software or operating system. The issue may be in the firmware, or in special drivers, or in the Android version. To avoid such troubles - Check your phone in advance via USB OTG Charge.
• Dirty connectors, due to which no contact occurs. This also includes faulty flash drive or adapter.
• The flash drive contains too much information. For example, if you connect a 256 GB drive to a smartphone with only 4-8 GB of permanent memory, problems are possible. The same applies to RAM less than 1 GB.

Video instruction: how to connect USB to a smartphone without OTG support

As you can see, it’s quite easy to connect a USB flash drive to Android via OTG; all you need to do is strictly follow the instructions and have the necessary tools at hand. Good luck!

Modern smartphones are not far behind Symbian-based devices in terms of permanent memory capacity. Yes, now the amount of free space is measured in gigabytes, not megabytes. But files have recently become much heavier - just remember a video that has a high resolution, due to which it can weigh up to 10 GB. This is why some users prefer to use an external flash drive. In most cases, it is a memory card. But sometimes a USB flash drive is connected to the smartphone. How this is done will be discussed below.

The USB port is a strict standard - in fact, it works the same on all devices, be it a computer, printer or phone. But this does not mean that it has the same appearance everywhere. It is physically impossible to connect a cable from a smartphone to the socket of a scanner, printer or MFP, and vice versa. This is explained by the fact that the connectors differ in both their shape and size.

On smartphones running Android, the most commonly used port is made in the form factor micro-USB. It received this name due to its tiny size. By the way, on new flagships you can find a new type of connector - . Its dimensions remained the same, but its shape changed. But in any case, connecting a USB flash drive right away often won’t work. After all, it is intended for full size USB port, which can be found on computers and laptops, but not on portable gadgets.

There are two ways to solve this problem. The first is to buy a special flash drive equipped with two connectors at once - USB And micro-USB. But so far such accessories are not very common, and they are quite expensive. Therefore, in most cases, users choose the second method of solving the problem, which is to connect a traditional flash drive to a tablet or smartphone via OTG cable. It is made in the form of a short cord, at the ends of which there is a USB female (input for a full-size USB plug) and a micro-USB output.

Unfortunately, not everything is as simple as it seems. By default, Android has supported OTG technology for quite a long time. But many manufacturers still block it, most often for the sake of security. It also happens that this technology is not fully supported. The device may not supply the required amount of energy to the flash drive through its connector. In such cases, it is impossible to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone without special tricks, providing it with a flow of electricity. If you are not comfortable with a soldering iron, then you definitely won’t be able to use the device in conjunction with a USB flash drive.

How can I find out about the presence or absence of OTG support?

Unfortunately, there is no app you can download for this. Even famous AnTuTu Benchmark will not write to you about whether the gadget supports OTG technology. If you want to find information on this matter, you will have to go to the manufacturer’s official website and familiarize yourself with the full technical characteristics of your device. It also makes sense to read reviews of the smartphone published on many sites, including our resource.

If you don’t want to look for information, you can check the presence of OTG support experimentally. Just get the appropriate cable and use it to connect the flash drive to your smartphone. If the accessory is not recognized, then this function is blocked by hardware.

Some restrictions

While smartphones have switched to a micro-USB connector quite a long time ago, the same cannot be said about tablets. Some well-known manufacturers have models with a proprietary port. It is no longer possible to find such tablet computers in stores, but it is quite possible to purchase them in person. Most often, a non-standard connector is present in “ tablets» from Samsung And ASUS. To connect a flash drive in this case, you will not need an OTG cable, but a special proprietary adapter.

Interestingly, the opposite situation also existed before. The first tablets from Acer had an additional full-size USB port. The flash drive was connected directly to such a device, without the use of auxiliary accessories.

How to read the contents of a USB flash drive?

We figured out how to connect a flash drive to Android. But how to read its contents? Do I need any additional program for this?

You can easily use the built-in tools. Now almost every smartphone and tablet is equipped with a file manager. It does not have any serious functionality, but such a utility must provide viewing of the contents of a flash drive.

And if there is no such program on your device, then go to Google Play. Download there Conductor , X-Plore or something similar. Using any of these file managers, you can easily view documents, videos and other contents of a flash drive connected via USB.

On some devices, standard file managers do not cope with their task. This applies in particular to tablets Nexus 7 And Nexus 10. They may require installation USB Media Importer. You can also use the free utility StickMount, but for its functioning it is necessary