Develop Bugs

[Q] Resize partition for USB Mass Storage?

Thinking about getting a VZW-branded GN. One of the biggest draw backs I have with it is the lack of USB Mass storage support. Is it possible to resize the internal 32GB memory to 16 or 24GB, and then create another partition that can be used for USB Mass Storage?

It basically acts as USB mass storage.. you plug it into your computer and you see all of the files. You can place files on it and remove just like you would USB mass storage

joshnichols189 said:
It basically acts as USB mass storage.. you plug it into your computer and you see all of the files. You can place files on it and remove just like you would USB mass storage
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The problem is that MTP/PTP doesn't work for embedded devices and also most cars don't support them. That's why I'm trying to find a solution to make it work in normal USB Mass Storage mode instead.

Cheyse said:
Thinking about getting a VZW-branded GN. One of the biggest draw backs I have with it is the lack of USB Mass storage support. Is it possible to resize the internal 32GB memory to 16 or 24GB, and then create another partition that can be used for USB Mass Storage?
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Click to collapse
It should be possible (take a look at the Blackrose thread in the Nexus One forum). Dla5244 and intersectRaven managed to do it for the N1, so it should be a similar process for the GN. It will take a custom bootloader.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

joshnichols189 said:
It basically acts as USB mass storage.. you plug it into your computer and you see all of the files. You can place files on it and remove just like you would USB mass storage
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Click to collapse
It is not that simple. If you dont have the right drivers drag and drop could be frustrating. And then there's the "other" hardware issue like car radios or other mobile devices not seeing the device.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

@rbiter said:
It is not that simple. If you dont have the right drivers drag and drop could be frustrating. And then there's the "other" hardware issue like car radios or other mobile devices not seeing the device.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Didn't think about that sorry, just works on my Mac so I never thought about the drivers a window user might need :/
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

internal storage as removable?

does it support USB Mass Storage???
i connect device to PC via cable (debugging mode already on) but internal storage doesn't determines as removable... seems like it is in PC-mode only.
how to make it removable? i am former sgs2 user and the only thing i had to do is mark debugging mode, connect the device to PC, in status-bar choose removable device/mass storage.

You can't. It uses mtp
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

There is no USB mass storage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Not sure if it's available for Windows but I use Android File Transfer for Mac and it lets me transfer files to and from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus.
http://www.android.com/filetransfer/

To expand a little - the GN doesn't do UMS because there's only one data partition, formatted as ext4. To make it support UMS you'd need to repartition it to have an extra fat32 partition, afaik no-one's done it nor said they're going to try.
MTP deals with the file system for you, should work OOTB for Windows Vista and 7 (MTP is a microsoft product) but winXP users seem to have problems.
Android file transfer does something similar for mac.
MTP is a pita under linux; I run Ubuntu and have switched to airdroid for doing transfers over wifi.

joshnichols189 said:
There is no USB mass storage.
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Click to collapse
I don't see a difference though? As you can just plug it in your PC and put whatever file you want on it.

If you're running Linux you can also look into using sshfs and an SSH server on your phone. I use that now and it works great, even automatically reconnecting when I leave home and come back again. But I also had the SSH server (QuickSSHd) installed on my phone prior to this.

Tanith said:
I don't see a difference though? As you can just plug it in your PC and put whatever file you want on it.
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I don't see a difference either..

joshnichols189 said:
I don't see a difference either..
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The difference is most marked for those running linux, to a degree for mac users and also for some xp users.
If you're running Vista or Win7 you won't notice unless you're moving big files (say > 1Gb) - MTP is slower.

I couldn't move files to my nex from my PC either:/ ..so I started using drop box to move files back and forth
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Check out the StickMount app, if you use a ROM. With the right cable, you can mount a USB stick. Works great.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

We Need Custom ROMs with Mass Storage Mode Resurrected

I am so sick of MTP instead of Mass Storage Mode. I run Linux Mint and it's simply painful to try to get MTP working properly like Mass Storage Mode did in GB. Please, ROM devs, answer my prayers.

when you can add a sd card to the phone, you will have your mass storage.

I realize people don't like change, and want to stick with UMS, but you would have to pretty much crush the awesome single partition storage of the GN to get UMS...

Just dont understand why most people are aways want SOME MORE STOREGE, how many stuff you gonna put in your device? A thousand songs or pics?

GoZhU said:
Just dont understand why most people are aways want SOME MORE STOREGE, how many stuff you gonna put in your device? A thousand songs or pics?
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With UMS enabled, they'd theoretically have lower storage than sticking with MTP. There would have to be at least 2 partitions that would mean files couldn't span across them.

I use wifi file explorer pro. Real easy and just as effective as having mass storage. Was bummed as far as me not being able to connect and drag/drop but when i found this app its just as good.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium App

I can't for the life of me understand this complaint. I have no issues using MTP either in Linux or Win7. Do partition the space up would only bring about all the issues with inadequate space the Nexus One encountered.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I don't know if it's a MTP thing, but I'm having a hell of a time copying .mkv files to the phone. I can FTP to my Thinkpad Slate at 3MB/s via wifi, the GNex capps out at 400KB/s. I've tried to connect the phone via USB to my desktop and just drag and drop and the progress bar doesn't even move. This is driving me insane.
I'm using the latest GummyNex 0.6.6.
If I recall correctly, when I was using Android Revolution 2.1.2, it was copying at 2MB/s via wifi FTP. I guess I need to look into this.

mallinj said:
I am so sick of MTP instead of Mass Storage Mode. I run Linux Mint and it's simply painful to try to get MTP working properly like Mass Storage Mode did in GB. Please, ROM devs, answer my prayers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried adbfs?
Looks like it solves your needs without introducing the troubles of mass storage mode.

I am using SAMBA...

airdroid also works well (ubuntu 10.04 and 11.10 on different machines, also better than mtp on vista for me)

it's been 8 hours and my music is still copying to my phone. MTP is completely unacceptable. it's already told me i had to skip like 30 songs before i hit "skip this message" 2 hours ago. i'm copying ~25 GB of music over and half of that is .ogg which is not natively recognized by MTP. I could have copied the 25GB onto my thunderbolt 10 times over already. I dont care what the reasoning, requirement, or intent was to remove mass storage, but it was not work it. watching my files copy at like 400 k/s to a phone plugged in with a USB 2.0 cable makes me want to return the phone.

somnambulator said:
it's been 8 hours and my music is still copying to my phone. MTP is completely unacceptable. it's already told me i had to skip like 30 songs before i hit "skip this message" 2 hours ago. i'm copying ~25 GB of music over and half of that is .ogg which is not natively recognized by MTP. I could have copied the 25GB onto my thunderbolt 10 times over already. I dont care what the reasoning, requirement, or intent was to remove mass storage, but it was not work it. watching my files copy at like 400 k/s to a phone plugged in with a USB 2.0 cable makes me want to return the phone.
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Really? I use windows media player to sync my music and it flies. Way faster than my nexus one did. It takes about 1-3 seconds per track.
Sent from my Xoom using xda premium

Drag and drop the files onto the folder icon. Don't open the folder itself and then copy into it.

My problem with MTP is compatibility. Hardly anything recognizes MTP and knows what to do with it besides my PC. Things I used to connect to via USB to transfer files or backup while on the go just don't work with the nexus. So instead of having an all around portable storage device in my phone I now have to carry other devices to perform those tasks, might not sound like a big deal but its just nicer being able to have that ability in one device. MTP may be great for some but not for everyone.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium App

dev/null/ said:
MTP may be great for some but not for everyone.
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Agreed - my primary OS is linux, I can make mtp work kinda but it's poor and slow.
However enabling UMS would require repartitioning the GN and afaik no one's done it or said they plan on doing it.
Most people find wireless transfer much more satisfactory for this phone - I've only used airdroid but others have set up their own wireless ftp server. There are probably other apps that do it...

josteink said:
Tried adbfs?
Looks like it solves your needs without introducing the troubles of mass storage mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is it an app on the phone or computer (windows/linux)?
thanks

[Q] ROM which supports USB Mass Storage on Galaxy Nexus?

Hi
To my great dismal, I only noticed after having bought the Galaxy Nexus, that it doesn't support USB Mass Storage (UMS) mode I've read Dan Morrils explanation, but don't subscribe to it - since I'm on Linux and since PTP and MTP don't work too well there (at least on my two Ubuntu 11.10 installations) his statement "On the whole it's a much better experience on the phone." is just plain wrong, as far as I am concerned. The pseudo SD Card in my "old" Nexus S worked totally fine…
Oh well… Enough for the rant…
I'm now looking for a ROM which allows to mount the device in good ol' USB Mass Storage mode. I read that the modaco ROM supports this - but only after a "rebake" (what's meant with this?).
Are there alternatives?
Thanks,
Alexander

same opinion!

I don't know if there are any
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

There is no sdcard, internal or not. There probably was on the S. The data partition and sdcard are one and the same. Sdcard is a symlink to data/media. Android does not support mounting individual folders as ums. So until someone devises a way to partition sdcard separately, you will have to live with mtp.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

I don't use it but I understand you can install Stickmount by Chainfire from the market. That will give you USB host.
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samizad said:
I don't use it but I understand you can install Stickmount by Chainfire from the market. That will give you USB host.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Which is not usb mass storage, which the thread deals with

I too wish there wish there was a mass storage option.
In my car - I get a constant connect/disconnect cycle when attempting to charge it via the auxilliary usb jack which renders the radio useless. Another car just failed to recognize the device and wouldn't read the directory structure, so couldn't play over usb. In both cases, iDevices work fine :/
PS - why are the captchas so darn hard to read on this forum?

ceribaen said:
I too wish there wish there was a mass storage option.
In my car - I get a constant connect/disconnect cycle when attempting to charge it via the auxilliary usb jack which renders the radio useless. Another car just failed to recognize the device and wouldn't read the directory structure, so couldn't play over usb. In both cases, iDevices work fine :/
PS - why are the captchas so darn hard to read on this forum?
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Where do you see any captchas in this forum...?

anton2009 said:
Where do you see any captchas in this forum...?
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Might be due to the low post amount or searching while not logged in?

I'm hoping they go away after 10 posts? But I constantly find I have to take several attempts for it to say that I got it right.
Anyway back on topic... does anyone know of any software/roms/etc that would make the usb media on your phone look more like mass storage for things like car radios to read them proper?

ceribaen said:
I'm hoping they go away after 10 posts? But I constantly find I have to take several attempts for it to say that I got it right.
Anyway back on topic... does anyone know of any software/roms/etc that would make the usb media on your phone look more like mass storage for things like car radios to read them proper?
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Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27495288&postcount=13

scandiun said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27495288&postcount=13
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Click to collapse
Stop bumping old posts.
"Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light."

How do I enable mass storage?

I'm trying to connect my phone to my Father's Mini via usb, but the car does "see" the phone.
I've noticed that the check box for mass storage is greyed out and I cannot select it.
Does anyone have any good ideas for me to try out and get my gnex to connect?
For what it's worth, I'm using Liquid rom, and but my dad's HTC Desire HD running AOKP has the same problem, yet I have no problem connecting a BlackBerry.
Cheers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

your nexus will never have mass storage as the partition is 1 giant partition used by the system and used for storage.

You will never be able to use USB Mass Storage on the Galaxy Nexus. It uses MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) and PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) to xfer files between the phone and a PC.
The reason why they use this is to provide the phone with 1 partition for the entire storage, rather than separate system, apps, data and media partitions. It also allows for the OS to be running while accessing the files.

MTP is much better than Mass Storage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Thanks for the quick explanations. What I don't understand, is why the option is there under usb connections (in storage options). If the option is not available on our phone, why show it?
As far as MTP being better, it's not when you want to play music on a Mini!
I'm not convinced that MTP is my problem though, as my dad's phone (see above) will not connect either. Interestingly the option to select mass storage is not available on his HTC.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

itsfozzy said:
Thanks for the quick explanations. What I don't understand, is why the option is there under usb connections (in storage options). If the option is not available on our phone, why show it?
As far as MTP being better, it's not when you want to play music on a Mini!
I'm not convinced that MTP is my problem though, as my dad's phone (see above) will not connect either. Interestingly the option to select mass storage is not available on his HTC.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ice cream sandwich supports mass storage, the nexus does not. the option is going to be there since it is stock android.
The HTC phone, did you actually select it to be in mass storage mode?

itsfozzy said:
As far as MTP being better, it's not when you want to play music on a Mini!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you elaborate? do you mean a Mini, as in the automobile?

JoeM01 said:
can you elaborate? do you mean a Mini, as in the automobile?
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im pretty sure he means the car.

Zepius said:
im pretty sure he means the car.
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If so, what's the problem? there's no shortage of people who connect their nexus to their car stereo's (myself included)

Quick bit of clarification.
Yes it's a BMW Mini (2009)
Yes I did connect via Mass Storage on the HTC, yet it still did not work. It would not connect to an iPod Classic either. I wonder if it needs a special cable to connect? My wife's Seat Leon needed a dedicated cable to make it compatible with the car stereo.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

JoeM01 said:
If so, what's the problem? there's no shortage of people who connect their nexus to their car stereo's (myself included)
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Click to collapse
They are trying to connect it through usb, and the vehicle will not communicate with a mtp device
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

As of now, Android does NOT support USB audio, which explains why the Nexus nor the HTC worked. Blackberries DO support USB audio, as far as I'm aware.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

itsfozzy said:
Thanks for the quick explanations. What I don't understand, is why the option is there under usb connections (in storage options). If the option is not available on our phone, why show it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I take it you're using a custom ROM? The option is not there in standard ICS.

Frosty666 said:
As of now, Android does NOT support USB audio, which explains why the Nexus nor the HTC worked. Blackberries DO support USB audio, as far as I'm aware.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
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Click to collapse
I think what he's getting at like myself I used my Evo to USB to car CD player and could access my music files and play them and I guess that's cause the Evo has a sd card. now with the nexus i cant that IM aware of.

It's very annoying that we can't use UMS anymore. I know it's great, to have only one partition but MTP just sucks. I wasn't even able to copy files from Windows 7. The only system that has worked for me so far was Windows XP Pro.
I'd rather have a well sized Internal storage plus some Mass Storage 8/8GB or so.
And well, I'm mainly a PowerPC Mac user. Android File Transfer crashes all the time when I connect the phone (seems to use Intel-Only libraries which is very typical for Google) and on Intel Macs it's slow as hell.
So I always had to use ADB which was......very comfortable.
To the devs: Wouldn't it be possible to emulate a Mass Storage device thru software?
land.apfel
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

land.apfel said:
To the devs: Wouldn't it be possible to emulate a Mass Storage device thru software?
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Click to collapse
Keep in mind that wanting to maintain two separate partitions isn't the only reason for wanting to switch to MTP. Another reason was so we no longer had to store our data on the fragile and limited fat32 file system. In order to emulate a fat32 block device over USB you would need to be able to translate between fat32 and ext4 at a low level. I don't think there is generally a 1-1 mapping between structures in the two file systems which would make this difficult and slow if not impossible.

theking_13 said:
MTP is much better than Mass Storage.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
At which point?
Some examples?
There are so many things, which dont work with MTP
I didnt found any advantages, yet

land.apfel said:
I know it's great, to have only one partition but MTP just sucks. I wasn't even able to copy files from Windows 7. The only system that has worked for me so far was Windows XP Pro.
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I don't like MTP either, and was missing being able to use it as a Mass Storage. My biggest annoyance with MTP is that I can't get last modified date Windows Explorer
I've not had any problems copying files to/from my Galaxy Nexus from one Windows 7 system, but another didn't work until I installed the Samsung drivers (the MTP device came up with a "?"). What was the problem you had?
---------- Post added at 06:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:05 PM ----------
itsfozzy said:
Yes it's a BMW Mini (2009)
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LOL, because I first thought you meant a Mac Mini, but then realized you meant a car and thus a Mini Cooper... because no one I know calls it a BMW, even though it is.

pfmiller said:
In order to emulate a fat32 block device over USB you would need to be able to translate between fat32 and ext4 at a low level. I don't think there is generally a 1-1 mapping between structures in the two file systems which would make this difficult and slow if not impossible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why can't we just take the ext file system? Who cares what the Mass Storage is formatted for?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

land.apfel said:
Why can't we just take the ext file system? Who cares what the Mass Storage is formatted for?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if that would work, but assuming it does, we then have to face the issue of the single partition storage that the Nexus has. If we were to mount it via UMS, the whole phone would become completely inoperable.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus