Today, modern devices play a huge role in our lives. We are not talking about computers or laptops, which are already starting to fade into the background. Smartphones and tablets are portable computers that have almost all the functions, just like laptops. Unfortunately, these modern devices are not suitable for office work. Typing on a tablet is quite difficult, let alone on regular phones.
People began to think about how to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone or keyboard, mouse and other useful devices. It turns out that this can be done. However, not everyone knows how to connect an additional device to their smartphone. Let's look at this using an ordinary flash drive as an example. As a rule, this is the device that many people try to connect to their device.
How to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone
Modern devices running the Android operating system have a standard microUSB connector. For a USB flash drive to work on your device, it must have USB On-The-Go technology installed. Producers startedimplement this feature in Android OS from version 3.1.
As a rule, in modern tablets, and even more so in phones, a USB connector is not installed. Therefore, you will need a USB-OTG cable. Some manufacturers include a flash drive adapter in the kit, if you do not have one, you will have to buy it at any store that sells digital equipment.
Smartphone does not have a micro-USB connector
If you have not found a microUSB connector on your smartphone, you will first need to purchase a USB-OTG cable, and then an adapter to it. Of course, this is quite inconvenient: if you need to connect an additional device, you will have to use several cables. But this is the only way that will allow you to connect a USB flash drive.
How to view the contents of an external drive
So, we have looked at how to connect a USB flash drive to an Android smartphone. Now let's move on to opening an additional device. How to do it? We need to download a file manager. You may already have it, since the manufacturer installs a certain set of programs in some devices. Of course, if you don't have a file manager, you'll have to install it. For Android smartphones, ES File Explorer, FX File Explorer and Total Commander take the leading places. You can choose the app you like best.
How to open a flash drive on Android
As we already found out, we need a file manager. After installing it, we can go into this utility and find the USB flash drive. If you can't find the external device, try entering the file path (/sdcard/usbStorage). After successfully opening the flash drive, you can view, copy and move files as you would on a regular computer. Now you know how to connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone and open it, but, unfortunately, there are problems on some devices. Let's look at them and try to find ways to solve them.
"Android"-tablet or smartphone does not see the flash drive
If you have reached this point, then you are having problems connecting the flash drive to your smartphone. This may be for various reasons. Now we will look at the most common of them.
First. If the file manager does not see the flash drive, you should help him. Now there are applications that can solve this problem. The most effective program is paid, so we will look at a free alternative. Unfortunately, it requires root rights. StickMount works not only with flash drives, but also with other additional devices.
If you managed to get superuser rights and you have installed the necessary utility, you can connect an external device. When connecting, you must agree to the rules of StickMount, after which it will automatically start and see the flash drive. How to find the device? You can go to /sdcard/usbStorage/sda1 in the file manager. Do not forget to properly disconnect additional devices so that there are no problems with them in the future. To do this, go to the program and click on the button"Unmount".
One more quality application worth noting is USB OTG Helper, which works in a similar way.
Second reason. Before installing additional programs and root rights, you should make sure that the problem is not in the flash drive. What is it connected with? Your device simply does not see the flash drive, as it may be configured for a different file system (probably NTFS).
USB flash drive in this case will not be readable on your device until you convert it to another format (FAT32 or exFAT). You can do this using a computer. Detailed instructions can be found in electronic sources.
Let's say you don't have a laptop or computer: how can you connect an additional device? You need to download Paragon NTFS & HTS+, an application that supports the required format for reading text data. Unfortunately, this app requires root access. You can get them using the King Root program. However, superuser rights can not be obtained on all devices. Remember: you do this at your own peril and risk. Due to this application, your smartphone may start to work not quite correctly. If the device is still under warranty, then you do not need to get root rights, as the warranty will be lost in this case.
Conclusion
So, we looked at how to connect an external flash drive to an Android smartphone, and described some of the problems associated with the connection. As practice shows, issues arise on older devices. If you have a new device, problemsshould not occur. To use a flash drive, keyboard, mouse or other applications on your device, you must follow the rules and do everything carefully.
