Related
So, this isn't about the Galaxy Nexus per-se, but I know many of you are scared of the change to MTP and the interaction with the computer, especially those of you coming from Gingerbread directly through to the Galaxy Nexus.
I've had a Motorola Xoom (which doesn't support USB mass storage mode) for a while. Simply put, there is _no_ native support for MTP in OS X (10.7 or lower). If you plug your Galaxy Nexus into your Mac, nothing will happen at all. OS X won't see it, DoubleTwist doesn't see it, Songbird won't and iTunes (obviously) won't see it. As far as I know, there's no way of enabling your Mac to see the device natively, and all of the software designed for other MTP devices that I've tried doesn't work.
In fact, the only way your Mac will ever see it is if you download Google's Android File Helper software. This program, once installed, runs in the background, and whenever you plug in your Honeycomb (or ICS) device, it pops up a window showing the contents of the phone's memory. From here (and only from that window), you can pull files from the phone/tablet or put them onto it.
This works acceptably, but with a few hangups. First, unlike a normal finder window, only one transfer can occur at once, and there's no queueing. So, if you drop one folder on to copy, you're not able to move anything else onto or off of the card until it's finished. Also, large transfers (~10 GB) don't work particularly reliably, and may fail partway through, so you may consider dragging files in in groups. Finally, and most frustratingly, it will often not be up to date with what files are on the device, especially if you've recently deleted them. So, folders or files may still show up that you've recently deleted. Maybe this has been changed in ICS (I hope so!), but that's my experience.
That's your primary way on or off the device. I've had limited success using DDMS for transferring files on and off of the device, and although it's clunky and requires USB debugging mode, it's the most reliable way I've found for transfers that fail in the Transfer client. In practice, I'd recommend using something like SwiFTP to copy (smaller) files to and from your device, and avoiding the hassle when you can.
In short, you definitely CAN use OS X to transfer files onto and off of your Galaxy Nexus, but it's not as easy as it was for Gingerbread Devices, and tools like DoubleTwist and Songbird can no longer access your device at all (in their current versions). You can get around this using AirSync for DoubleTwist to load music, or doing so manually, but it's kludgey. It's unlikely that Apple will choose to support MTP in future versions of OS X (it's a Microsoft protocol now used mostly by Android), but hopefully Google will improve the tool as time goes on.
Sorry if this is all well known and obvious, but if you were on the fence about the GNex because of this, don't be. The MTP switch is annoying, but nothing showstopping, even for OS X. Just FYI.
wanderfowl said:
I've had a Motorola Xoom (which doesn't support USB host mode) for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which doesn't have USB Mass Storage mode (not USB Host - this is USB OTG where you can plug in other USB peripherals into the Xoom). Sorry just a pet peeve watching people confuse the two.
Thanks for an informative post. MTP looks like it is going to cause headaches to every non-Windows device by the looks of it. Ironic for a Linux based device ; ).
Jebus99 said:
Which doesn't have USB Mass Storage mode (not USB Host - this is USB OTG where you can plug in other USB peripherals into the Xoom). Sorry just a pet peeve watching people confuse the two.
Thanks for an informative post. MTP looks like it is going to cause headaches to every non-Windows device by the looks of it. Ironic for a Linux based device ; ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoops! Edited
So WiFi File Explorer outta work though if your other ftp type app did?
Thanks for the info. I remember using the app on my MacBook when I had the Xoom. I didn't mind it too much, but it was a tad annoying having to open the app rather than just pop open 'finder' and go. FWIW it DID work just fine for my couple months with the Xoom.
So WiFi File Explorer outta work though if your other ftp type app did?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, FTP apps of all sorts work fine. I use Transmit on the Mac to access the phone via FTP, and that works like a charm.
martonikaj said:
Thanks for the info. I remember using the app on my MacBook when I had the Xoom. I didn't mind it too much, but it was a tad annoying having to open the app rather than just pop open 'finder' and go. FWIW it DID work just fine for my couple months with the Xoom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It works fine to the internal storage. Maybe I should've said explicitly that I had more issues using the Android File Transfer app with the SD Card in the Xoom.
I'm glad Google gave this a thought, now they should make one for linux too, but they probably won't.
wanderfowl said:
iTunes (obviously) won't see it.
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Click to collapse
My post is pointless, but hell will freeze over before iTunes recognizes a Samsung device, lol. If it wasn't for laws and standard, they wouldn't allow their PC to recognize Samsung devices either.
eksasol said:
I'm glad Google gave this a thought, now they should make one for linux too, but they probably won't.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the nice part about Linux. The people working on Linux have an active incentive to add this functionality, as it improves the experience. With OS X, they have an active (marketing) reason to not add it, anti-competitive behavior. Don't give up hope
wanderfowl said:
It's unlikely that Apple will choose to support MTP in future versions of OS X (it's a Microsoft protocol now used mostly by Android), but hopefully Google will improve the tool as time goes on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a protocol native to the USB standard since 2008 so if Apple want to be standards compliant they should implement it. There are lots of other devices that use it as well.
wanderfowl said:
As far as I know, there's no way of enabling your Mac to see the device natively, and all of the software designed for other MTP devices that I've tried doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those apps probably just need an update to libmtp.. for some reason that library has the device ID of every device it supports hardcoded in, rather than working out whether a device supports mtp in other ways as things like windows do.
If anyone has ported mtpfs to OSX you should be able to get that going (will probably do that myself when I get time.. Android File Transfer is OK but a bit quirky).
blunden said:
It's a protocol native to the USB standard since 2008 so if Apple want to be standards compliant they should implement it. There are lots of other devices that use it as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, I'm not defending it, but I can't imagine Apple in its current state implementing a change which would help in supporting a competitor's product (especially Android) just to be open and compliant. Given how willing Apple as a company is to cut off its nose to spite its face, I doubt that they'll rush to help their users here. Prove me wrong, Apple.
TonyHoyle said:
Those apps probably just need an update to libmtp.. for some reason that library has the device ID of every device it supports hardcoded in, rather than working out whether a device supports mtp in other ways as things like windows do.
If anyone has ported mtpfs to OSX you should be able to get that going (will probably do that myself when I get time.. Android File Transfer is OK but a bit quirky).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried working with the existing mtpfs ports, but wasn't able to get very far at all. I'm hoping that ICS will spur people to develop further on that, maybe pulling it into MacFUSE.
wanderfowl said:
Trust me, I'm not defending it, but I can't imagine Apple in its current state implementing a change which would help in supporting a competitor's product (especially Android) just to be open and compliant. Given how willing Apple as a company is to cut off its nose to spite its face, I doubt that they'll rush to help their users here. Prove me wrong, Apple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You certainly have a point and is the primary reason I dispise Apple as a company.
My main point was that it's not to be considered a "Microsoft protocol" as it's been part of the USB standard for years now. Nothing is stopping any OS from implementing it and as a standard they really should as it brings some nice improvements like not requiring the OS on the PC to have support for the filesystem used on the device. Considering FAT32 and exFAT are basically the only filesystems that work in all major OSes, the former being old and having severe limitations and the latter requiring a license it's nice to be able to use something like ext2/3/4 or any other filesystem of choice and still maintain compability.
Apple hasn't typically been particularly resistant to implementing standards and protocols used to communicate with 3rd party devices. Also, the major force behind Apple's resistance to just about everything is gone now... We'll see if they continue the trend without him.
Just bumping this again for the new crop of ICS users
So I've just gotten my VZW Gnex, and unfortunately, Android file transfer seems to have the same problems with not refreshing the files in the folder as it did on the Xoom.
That said, if you're trying to get into a given folder and your Android File Transfer can't see the contents (or the folder itself), just reboot the phone and when it comes back up, the new folder should be there and right as rain.
wanderfowl said:
OS X won't see it, DoubleTwist doesn't see it, Songbird won't and iTunes (obviously) won't see it.
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Click to collapse
If syncing with iTunes is your goal, you left out iSyncr. Our app can sync Android 3.0 and 4.0 devices with iTunes on a Mac over USB (and WiFi). If your Android device is supported by Android File Transfer, it is supported by iSyncr.
As always, you can shoot me an email if you are having an issue with this.
-Justin
I seem to be having a new issue. All of a sudden, I can't sync anything to my XOOM. I had to unlock, and re-unroot it to install ICS on it. I don't know why, but everytime I begin a transfer to my XOOM Android File Transfer instantly says that my my device is locked and I need unlock the screen and/or it can't access the media storage device. It's really frustrating. I can't push the SU.zip bc it gets lost in between the "Ext SD Card" and the "Internal SD Card." Long story short... my Xoom boots into ICS and runs perfectly fine, but I can't finish the root process. Any help?!
Android File Transfer supports files up to 4gb in size. This may be why you are having trouble transferring files that are 10 gb. At least this is the case in OS X Lion
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I have been very excited about the GN since it was announced. I love the big screen and the fact that it is a pure Android phone.
There has been a lot of talk about the lack of Mass Storage on the GN, but I am not sure I care. I don't really understand what happens with MTP. So I have some questions that perhaps those familiar can fill me in on.
When you plug the phone into a Windows PC, what happens?
-Can I still drag music over to the phone or do I have to use some kind of a wizard?
-I will ONLY be able to copy over music, videos and pictures correct? I can't copy other data over, for example a ROM via USB right?
- I can still copy things like ROMs over using a file manager and WiFi correct?
Thanks!
TheTinRam said:
I have been very excited about the GN since it was announced. I love the big screen and the fact that it is a pure Android phone.
There has been a lot of talk about the lack of Mass Storage on the GN, but I am not sure I care. I don't really understand what happens with MTP. So I have some questions that perhaps those familiar can fill me in on.
When you plug the phone into a Windows PC, what happens?
-Can I still drag music over to the phone or do I have to use some kind of a wizard?
-I will ONLY be able to copy over music, videos and pictures correct? I can't copy other data over, for example a ROM via USB right?
- I can still copy things like ROMs over using a file manager and WiFi correct?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Provided that the Windows PC is Windows XP + WMP10 or above, it'll function very similarily to a normal drive, except you will just see it as "Galaxy Nexus" instead of being represented with a drive letter.
You can copy anything you desire, only PTP has a restriction of accessing the camera/picture folders.
It is said that transferring larger files or a bigger queue of files may lead to freezing or cancelled transfers, but i've personally not experienced that yet(On my Eee Pad Transformer)
FISKER_Q said:
Provided that the Windows PC is Windows XP + WMP10 or above, it'll function very similarily to a normal drive, except you will just see it as "Galaxy Nexus" instead of being represented with a drive letter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! So if that is the case, why all the talk that people are disappointed that Mass Storage support is not there? If it still appears and you can still copy files over, what is the problem? Do people really want a drive letter that badly? For what? Scripting of some soft?
How does this affect mounting the phone under Linux?
With my current phone, I plug it in and since it is a mass storage device Fedora simply assigns it as a hard drive /dev/sdb for example. I can then just mount the SD card inside the phone.
Is this going to cause a major headache for me? I'm switching to a Linux phone to get away from all this Windows crap!
HooloovooUK said:
I'm switching to a Linux phone to get away from all this Windows crap!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are going to have to deal with all the Linux crap, including the additional software you will need to make MTP work for you.
TheTinRam said:
Thanks! So if that is the case, why all the talk that people are disappointed that Mass Storage support is not there? If it still appears and you can still copy files over, what is the problem? Do people really want a drive letter that badly? For what? Scripting of some soft?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually MTP is not without it's drawbacks, due to the "lack of a drive letter", or rather it being considered a physical drive, it also means that interoperability will be harder to achieve.
This would especially be true for devices like car radios with USB support, traditionally you would be able to simply connect your phone and let it serve as a USB thumb drive, the car radio could then play music from the phone, but that won't be possible due to MTP, further more since the phone is not a drive, a program that for example does not use the windows explorer as a way to copy those files would have no concept of the drive, for example, a command prompt wouldn't be able to access the drive as it has no drive mapping.
There are other pros and cons, but i think this is the one people are the most concerned about.
HooloovooUK said:
How does this affect mounting the phone under Linux?
With my current phone, I plug it in and since it is a mass storage device Fedora simply assigns it as a hard drive /dev/sdb for example. I can then just mount the SD card inside the phone.
Is this going to cause a major headache for me? I'm switching to a Linux phone to get away from all this Windows crap!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Google has official support for MTP on Mac, as for Linux the community already has support for it as well, i don't use either system so i can't go into more detail, i just know that the support is there
TheTinRam said:
You are going to have to deal with all the Linux crap, including the additional software you will need to make MTP work for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great. Well I'm sure there will be a mod somewhere that enables mass storage.
HooloovooUK said:
Great. Well I'm sure there will be a mod somewhere that enables mass storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're referring to a mod that enables USB Mass Storage mode on the Galaxy Nexus, there likely won't be since the storage on the Galaxy Nexus is partitioned in a completely different manner to how has been done previously on Android phones.
oscillik said:
If you're referring to a mod that enables USB Mass Storage mode on the Galaxy Nexus, there likely won't be since the storage on the Galaxy Nexus is partitioned in a completely different manner to how has been done previously on Android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I guess I'll just plug it in and see what it makes of the device.
oscillik said:
If you're referring to a mod that enables USB Mass Storage mode on the Galaxy Nexus, there likely won't be since the storage on the Galaxy Nexus is partitioned in a completely different manner to how has been done previously on Android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm wondering what would happen if one put an extra partition on the phone...
not going to be the first (or even 10th) to try it though!
Clancy_s said:
I'm wondering what would happen if one put an extra partition on the phone...
not going to be the first (or even 10th) to try it though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Considering how Dan Morrill explains why the Galaxy Nexus has no USB Mass Storage support I certainly wouldn't want to try it
edit: to clarify, it probably is possible to do it on a modded ROM, I'm just saying that I wouldn't want to monkey around with that personally.
Clancy_s said:
I'm wondering what would happen if one put an extra partition on the phone...
not going to be the first (or even 10th) to try it though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using your own bootloader/recovery there's nothing preventing you from repartitioning the Galaxy Nexus the same way how Android systems used to be partitioned before Honeycomb, i.e. with a separate FAT32 internal partition for media storage. You just have to be aware of the tradeoffs: with a separate media partition, you have USB mass storage but you'll have to manage two separate partitions for apps and media with two separate space constraints. With a unified partition you just have one constraint, but you lose the USB mass storage capability.
oscillik said:
Considering how Dan Morrill explains why the Galaxy Nexus has no USB Mass Storage support I certainly wouldn't want to try it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that link.
On Mac or Linux, MTP devices appear just as any another UMS device.
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Click to collapse
Sounds ok then.
seems time waits for no man..... done here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1359579
birdster said:
seems time waits for no man..... done here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1359579
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed..
*this* is why I got a Nexus Something not right.. wait a couple of hours and there'll be a fix on XDA..
Sorry, but the Nexus is a pile if I can't use it as a DAP source for my car audio. Is there any possible way to enable USB mass storage? This device will have far too many compromises to be even usable if mass storage isn't present.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
Which built-in or OEM car infotainment systems support MTP?
Supposedly Ford cars with SYNC 1.0/2.0 support MTP. Windows Embedded Automotive 7 supports MTP, which is used in the MY2012+ MyFord/MyLincoln Touch systems, Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500, and some Kia models (may go under the "Uvo" system name). Alpine may use WEA7 at some point, maybe in a built-in or OEM nav system that might have a USB port that would work with the Galaxy Nexus, but I haven't found any model numbers yet. There have also been rumors that some upcoming cars (Tesla Model S, maybe?) will use Android for their infotainment systems, but nothing specific, and that doesn't guarantee MTP support.
One article mentioned using Bluetooth instead, but I'm not sure how that would work with the car's built-in Bluetooth. Possibly means pairing with a portable Garmin/TomTom nav device that supports Bluetooth A2DP, though higher end portable nav devices have flash storage for music files and can play music directly.
There are also several aftermarket head units that support MTP. Alpine, Sony, and Kenwood have some, I believe, and there may be others.
EDIT: As far as built-in goes, I think BMW has supported MTP devices on their stock audio systems for at least 3-4 years. I haven't looked at Audi or some of the better Japanese/Korean makes/models, but wouldn't surprise me if some of them did as well.
This is not the same.
This is USB host functionality, where GN can access external usb disk attached to it.
What we are talking here is GN attached to something an recognized as usb disk.
birdster said:
seems time waits for no man..... done here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1359579
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, doesn't clockworkmod recovery already allow you to repartition your storage the way you want?
And since the OS does actually support usb mass storage, it should be fairly easy to create a FAT32 partition for sd card usage. (Similar to Nexus S, which has no sd card slot but comes with 2 partitions: 1 GB internal storage apps, 15 GB for usb storage)
As the title says, just got the phone today and I fail to find the option to connect the phone as mass storage.
Am I an idiot or are Samsung the idiots? I can't conceive of this being so
How am I supposed to copy for example music to and from the device?
PS: don't say in MTP mode
No usb mass storage on this device. mtp mode only
We are all sorry.
Samsung didn't add an option for Mass Storage mode
You can try the SG USB mass storage enabler (as has already been discussed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2396135 ).
However, the MTP mode should be just fine for copying files to the device. Do you have any problems with it?
Well, I usually plug the phone to USB (as mass storage) when I get to work, and listen to my music from Winamp.
Hence the issue with MTP.
There are other quirks, but that's all secondary.
My main gripe was Winamp.
As far as I know the SG USB needs the device to be rooted, won't that void my warranty?
Pity we're even having this conversation though, can't see why anyone on their dev team would see this as a good ideea.
PS: I remember laughing at Windows phone devices some time ago for not having mass storage mode, now ain't this a bit ironic.
MTP still better than needing some third software to "sync" your music.
btnetro said:
MTP still better than needing some third software to "sync" your music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do you listen to music on your computer, if you phone only knows MTP?
Name one legit advantage of MTP, that users care about?
Since I bumped into this issue I've searched the web extensively, and I was not able to find a single user happy about this crap MTP.
I miss mass storage because I used to listen music/charge my phone on my car on the same cable
Enviado desde mi GT-I9192 usando Tapatalk 4
I have to agree it seems like a bad choice on Samsung's part. But I'm sure they have their reasons.
You could just copy over the music files for your WinAmp to play then
Whosat said:
I have to agree it seems like a bad choice on Samsung's part. But I'm sure they have their reasons.
You could just copy over the music files for your WinAmp to play then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that beats the purpose if keeping my music on my phone
turbare said:
So how do you listen to music on your computer, if you phone only knows MTP?
Name one legit advantage of MTP, that users care about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Users care about not having corrupted data. I think it's safe to assume that many users are too ignorant/incompetent/forgetful to properly eject their phone that's mounted as a USB mass storage device. As less ignorant users know, the result can be data corruption on the SD card. Corruption is less likely to occur when you mount as a MTP device.
Well, less ignorant user's also know that the default Windows (7) policy for removable drives is to "optimise for quick removal", and it doesn't require you to safely unmount.
On the other hand, the decision on how to proceed should be the user's, not to be taken for them.
turbare said:
Well, less ignorant user's also know that the default Windows (7) policy for removable drives is to "optimise for quick removal", and it doesn't require you to safely unmount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's beside the point. You might wanna read the Wikipedia entry on MTP.
MTP works like a transactional file system, MSC does not. Hence, file system corruption due to a failed transfer cannot occur when using MTP.
fistpump said:
That's beside the point. You might wanna read the Wikipedia entry on MTP.
MTP works like a transactional file system, MSC does not. Hence, file system corruption due to a failed transfer cannot occur when using MTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Beside the point is this argument that I'm having with you.
The fact that you believe MTP is a good thing doesn't change the fact that it's not, at least for me and for all the other users complaining about it.
Now lets get back to the topic on ways to circumvent the lack of UMS
It's all Google's fault. They also don't support external sdcards anymore, or physical navigation buttons amongst other things.
apple style crap.
turbare said:
Beside the point is this argument that I'm having with you.
The fact that you believe MTP is a good thing doesn't change the fact that it's not, at least for me and for all the other users complaining about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's easy to see through this. You don't have arguments left, and try to force an end to the discussion this way.
You suggested in #7 that MTP has *no* legit advantage. That is flat-out wrong. MTP much reduces the risk of file-system corruption, which seems to be a common problem on SD cards (just browse the forums). Moreover, MTP has the advantage that your PC can access it without requiring an exclusive lock on the file system. Thus, applications on the SD card can continue to run.
fistpump said:
It's easy to see through this. You don't have arguments left, and try to force an end to the discussion this way.
You suggested in #7 that MTP has *no* legit advantage. That is flat-out wrong. MTP much reduces the risk of file-system corruption, which seems to be a common problem on SD cards (just browse the forums). Moreover, MTP has the advantage that your PC can access it without requiring an exclusive lock on the file system. Thus, applications on the SD card can continue to run.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear fistpump,
Those are not "advantages", they are just marketing BS.
I've never had a corrupted card or data ever since the first Galaxy S came out. To bring that as an argument is utter bs.
The lock on the file system again, is irrelevant, if you are looking to connect as mass storage you already know the implications that would bring.
If Google or Samsung worry so much about the user's data integrity, I can understand them putting MTP as the default mode, BUT leaving the option to use mass storage even if they bury it in the most hidden corner of the Settings menu.
Has anybody been able to get USB Mass Storage working ?
There are no devices that use mass storage anymore since like 4.1.2. Everything has switched to MTP. This is everywhere on the internet and id bet on XDA.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium HD app
trialsrider1 said:
There are no devices that use mass storage anymore since like 4.1.2. Everything has switched to MTP. This is everywhere on the internet and id bet on XDA.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, my Galaxy S2 has Android 4.1.2 and both USB mass storage and MTP
Sent from Galaxy Note 8.0 GT–N5100
I use one of these http://www.2leef.com/store/product/bridge/
Works fine on The Galaxy note 8 and Galaxy note 3 with Astro File Manager.
stevejau said:
I use one of these http://www.2leef.com/store/product/bridge/
Works fine on The Galaxy note 8 and Galaxy note 3 with Astro File Manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be just an usb pen with 2 connectors
Sent from Galaxy Note 8.0 GT–N5100
I've found the USB Mass Storage handy for specific items and recently I was trying to recover some files (Via Android Restore program) that only worked if there was a USB Storage option, MTP wouldn't work. I have tried some apps on the app store, but none of them work to activate USB Storage. Was hoping their was a work around
gabripranzo said:
It seems to be just an usb pen with 2 connectors
Sent from Galaxy Note 8.0 GT–N5100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that is all it is..and as i said it works fine with Astro File manager..I have not tried it with Root Explorer or any other file manager as yet, but Astro does the job well.
Their website does say it is compatible with Galaxy note 2 amongst others and I can vouch that it works great with Galaxy Note 8 and Note 3.
Cheers
Steve
USB
Maybe I'm missing something here.
My USB 128GB stick works fine with my OTG cable.
I've just ordered a micro USB reader for micro SD cards from meenova.
Will let you know how it works when it arrives.
Shofar1 said:
Maybe I'm missing something here.
My USB 128GB stick works fine with my OTG cable.
I've just ordered a micro USB reader for micro SD cards from meenova.
Will let you know how it works when it arrives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're talking about connecting an android device using mass storage and not MTP protocol. USB otg has nothing to do with this.
Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 utilizzando Tapatalk
gabripranzo said:
We're talking about connecting an android device using mass storage and not MTP protocol. USB otg has nothing to do with this.
Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 utilizzando Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure how connecting a pendrive (otg or not, and btw it is very likely that the the microusb port on the pen-drive is also otg ) does not violate the above the same. When the note 8 acting as a Usb mass Storage Media is the main concern.
now back to topic,
Like it or not of companies have decided to do away with UMS. It basically boils down to architecture issues with their future plans.
UMS Gives exclusive access to the HOST (your computer or what ever you connect your device as Media to) and thus android/phone has to unmount the volume to prevent any locks or other potential issues (which are many including security).
Also the Host (your computer) has to be able to read/write the Files System format that you phone/ sd card is formatted to. (it's a dependency, because if the tablet where to use/ invent some new native file system, a lot of existing hosts might not be able to read them at all.
There are other reasons too like singular large ultra fast storage blocks to act as file systems as well RAM which can break if requiring unmounting,
Now MTP is not god send either and has it's own set of issues (read below)
however it's evolving.
with MTP most of the control is with your tablet or phone. and data is not written to the media directly by the host in for form for Blocks, but rather as files etc and thus the slowness as speed also depends a lot on your device not to mention it's biggest drawback that it's sequential/synchronous.
Personally, If i need to do large transfers etc, I just remove my microsd card in put that it into a tiny card reader, not ideal but works.
It is very unlikely that we are going to be getting UMS officially from those who are done with the standard on similar devices, . Maybe some better alternative in future than MTP, but who knows.
Here is little extract from the wiki : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol
for who care about the how's and the why's
History
The main purpose of this protocol is to allow only the transfer of media files and associated metadata to and from portable devices, one transfer function, in or out, at a time. Productivity functions such as open, edit and modify require copying to the hosting system for these functions then copied back in their entirety to change the data.
The protocol was originally implemented for use across USB but extended for use across TCP/IP and Bluetooth. Windows Vista supports MTP over TCP/IP. Windows 7 and Windows Vista with the Platform Update for Windows Vista also support MTP over Bluetooth.[7] The host connecting to an MTP device is called an MTP Initiator whereas the device itself is an MTP Responder.[8]
A main reason for using MTP rather than, for example, the USB mass-storage device class (MSC) is that the latter operates at the granularity of a mass storage device block (usually in practice, a FAT block), rather than at the logical file level. In other words, the USB mass storage class is designed to give a host computer undifferentiated access to bulk mass storage, such as compact flash, rather than to a file system, which might be safely shared with the target device (except for specific files which the host might be modifying/accessing). In practice, therefore, when a USB host computer has mounted an MSC partition, it assumes absolute control of the storage, which then may not be safely modified by the device without risk of data corruption until the host computer has severed the connection. Furthermore, because the host computer has full control over the connected storage device, there is a risk that the host computer may corrupt the file system, reformat it to a file system not supported by the USB device, or otherwise modify it in such a way that the USB device cannot completely understand it.
MTP and PTP specifically overcome this issue by making the unit of managed storage a local file rather than an entire (possibly very large) unit of mass storage at the block level. In this way, MTP works like a transactional file system - either the entire file is written/read or nothing. The storage media is not affected by failed transfers.
In case the device maintains a database/index of the content of the disk, MTP saves the cost of re-scanning the entire disk every time the content is modified.
Additionally, the MTP allows MTP Initiators to identify the specific capabilities of device(s) with respect to file formats and functionality. In particular, MTP Initiators may have to provide passwords and other information to unlock files, or otherwise enable digital rights management. Nothing specific of this nature is in the core standard but the features are available via vendor extensions. MTPZ, the Zune Extension to MTP specifically denies access to files until authentication has been processed, which is only possible using Windows Media Player 10 or higher.
Drawbacks
No multitasking - Unlike USB mass storage, MTP has been built to only allow a single function at a time, e.g. read, write, delete, with no other function available until the first function is complete.
By design, MTP devices (like PTP devices) are not treated as a traditional removable drive. The actual file system is implemented by the device, not by the computer's operating system. In theory the operating system may hide this difference, but this is not the case on Windows or Mac OS.[clarification needed] This also means that file system recovery tools on the computer will be of no use if the drive is corrupted, or crashes.
As of 2013, MTP is much less widely-supported than USB Mass Storage (see support section).
The MTP and PTP standards do not support direct modification of objects. Modified objects must be copied out of the device and reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects.
Google's MTP implementation in Android includes extensions to deal with this limitation.[9][10]
Windows/PC MTP implementation:
When opening a file, the user must wait till the file has copied to the PC before it can be viewed. (Note: The file remains on the PC hard drive after viewing and the device is removed)
No creation of files on the device from the PC, files must be created on the PC and copied over.
No editing of files on the device, files must be copied off the device before edits can be saved and file copied back.
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As a workaround, for PC users at least, there is a Total Commander plugin which displays the MTP folders in normal file panel. It does not provide all the UMS features, like say binary directory sync (lack of which is one of my biggest griefs with MTP), but it's useful for simple file operations (browsing, copying etc.)
If anyone's interested I'll try to find the link/instructions.
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Sorry.. Wrong thread
trialsrider1 said:
There are no devices that use mass storage anymore since like 4.1.2. Everything has switched to MTP. This is everywhere on the internet and id bet on XDA.
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And I can tell you, my brother is SERIOUSLY pissed. He's all ready to go smack around a few people at Google for this (once he's done smacking a LOT of people at Microsoft, now that his new machine is saddled with MSWin8).
In truth, it seems very arrogant on Google's part to presume that no one would want/need to use USB storage mode. My brother would like to edit files on the Note8 while it's attached to teh computer (using LibreOffice on the computer to edit it), and he feels it's absolutely preposterous that he has to copy the file down, edit it, then copy it back up. Google, 1985 wants it's broken methodology back.
Drive Droid
Pda23 said:
Has anybody been able to get USB Mass Storage working ?
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DriveDroid on the play store at least.
I haven't yet had a reason to check if the Note will work, but does work on a Galaxy3 with Cyanogenmod. It goes and mangles the drivers to support the depreciated mass-storage proto. Expect it to be hit-and-miss when changing roms, requires root, requires kernel to no have completely disabled the old drivers. I now carry a recovery cdrom on my phone, it's worked most of the time.
I'm thinking about buying a Shield .....
One thing I do want really to be able to do is write to attached external storage remotely over a network .... either to an SD card or a Drive .... using something like Sambadroid (rather than via FTP) which can be set up as a network location from a PC/Laptop so I can control downloads to it from elsewhere in the house.
It's something I can't do with my current box as it doesn't give you write access and if you try and change the permissions it bricks.
Does anyone know if this can be easily done?
Witterings said:
I'm thinking about buying a Shield .....
One thing I do want really to be able to do is write to attached external storage remotely over a network .... either to an SD card or a Drive .... using something like Sambadroid (rather than via FTP) which can be set up as a network location from a PC/Laptop so I can control downloads to it from elsewhere in the house.
It's something I can't do with my current box as it doesn't give you write access and if you try and change the permissions it bricks.
Does anyone know if this can be easily done?
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The shield already does this, the plex server running on it also creates a smb share, you will need to activate it first though, in the storage settings.
And I do think if you want to use another solution, you can, you just need to make sure that the smb share plex creates is not active.
Only downside is, it's only using smbv1.
But I do think nvidia is working on getting smbv3.
It does already have it if you mount lets say your pc
or a nas through the shield as a network storage.
mLgz0rn said:
The shield already does this, the plex server running on it also creates a smb share, you will need to activate it first though, in the storage settings.
And I do think if you want to use another solution, you can, you just need to make sure that the smb share plex creates is not active.
Only downside is, it's only using smbv1.
But I do think nvidia is working on getting smbv3.
It does already have it if you mount lets say your pc
or a nas through the shield as a network storage.
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Thank you for that ..... do you happen to know if you can then create network locations in the \\plexserver\androidstorage type format as opposed to ftp:// format ... things like iplayer only recognise the former
Witterings said:
Thank you for that ..... do you happen to know if you can then create network locations in the \\plexserver\androidstorage type format as opposed to ftp:// format ... things like iplayer only recognise the former
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This is the path to my external hdd attached to the shield.
\\SHIELDANDROIDTV\Toshiba 2TB USB3.0
I don't know if they have changed it, but when you add a external harddrive, it will create the folder NVIDIA_SHIELD.
Under that folder you can create whatever you want, the shield wont see anything outside that folder.
So for example my movies are located here
\\SHIELDANDROIDTV\Toshiba 2TB USB3.0\NVIDIA_SHIELD\Media Server\Movies
If I did it like this \\SHIELDANDROIDTV\Toshiba 2TB USB3.0\Media Server\Movies the shield wouldn't be able to see those folders
And this is my path to the internal drive in the shield
\\SHIELDANDROIDTV\internal
Thank you for that ... much appreciated and have just ordered one!!
I wonder if they're bout to bring out a new version though as they're really hard to get hold of, yesterday morning 1st thing I could have order click and collect the next day at Curry's ..... by 11.30am they weren't available and ringing around virtually nowhere has them in stock.
This worked fine for a couple of days and then suddenly stopped ... it also seems to have made the button in storage settings inactive as I thought switching it off and back on again might be like a mini re-boot and get it working.
I also thought about trying something else but was also aware you mentioned not to unless the plex share was inactive ... frustrating.
Witterings said:
This worked fine for a couple of days and then suddenly stopped ... it also seems to have made the button in storage settings inactive as I thought switching it off and back on again might be like a mini re-boot and get it working.
I also thought about trying something else but was also aware you mentioned not to unless the plex share was inactive ... frustrating.
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If the plex media server is not running the smb part wont work.
I've noticed that if the plex server is running then switching the smb off and then on works for me.
Are you on the most recent shield experience version?
You can try turning it off in the storage settings, and try running the smb server from another app, won't hurt anything.
Check system updates and Plex Server updates.
On a side note, I though smbv3 was out already in SHIELD Experience 7.2 update... need to check.
Partially me being a numpty as was trying to switch it off / back on again the wrong way but I manged to get it running again ... I think the main issue was to do with Windows Networking Security and got itself into a loop where I'd saved it as a Network location from a couple of machines as it now asks for a Network password if I go in via \\shield but I can get in without using the \\IPaddress and save them as mapped drives.
Another query along the same lines, if instead I re-format the drive as internal storage can I still access it across the network the same way or is it restricted again .... I ask as I'm now getting available space warnings and need to decide what route to take.
I'd be interested to know what data speeds people get across a wired network as well, I tried copying a video from my NAS to the USB drive and it was running around 6/7 Mbs, is that a limitation of the write speed of the Shield as I was expecting it to be quite a lot higher.
zinko_pt said:
Check system updates and Plex Server updates.
On a side note, I though smbv3 was out already in SHIELD Experience 7.2 update... need to check.
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Its only smbv3 if you mount lets say your pc as a network storage on the shield.
The smb share the plex server makes is smbv1
---------- Post added at 04:15 ---------- Previous post was at 04:00 ----------
Witterings said:
Partially me being a numpty as was trying to switch it off / back on again the wrong way but I manged to get it running again ... I think the main issue was to do with Windows Networking Security and got itself into a loop where I'd saved it as a Network location from a couple of machines as it now asks for a Network password if I go in via \\shield but I can get in without using the \\IPaddress and save them as mapped drives.
Another query along the same lines, if instead I re-format the drive as internal storage can I still access it across the network the same way or is it restricted again .... I ask as I'm now getting available space warnings and need to decide what route to take.
I'd be interested to know what data speeds people get across a wired network as well, I tried copying a video from my NAS to the USB drive and it was running around 6/7 Mbs, is that a limitation of the write speed of the Shield as I was expecting it to be quite a lot higher.
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You can access it if you make it as internal storage, it will just be the internal storage that shows up on the smb share then.
I don't really know much about the write speeds, but there should be no limitations.
It might be because of smbv1.
You could try and set up a ftp server on the shield and transfer through that, just to see what speeds you get.
What you could also do it mounting your NAS as a network Storage, that way it should run smbv3, if you are on nvidia experience 7.2+ that is.
I am a little dumb when it comes to this. I have an external attached to my nvidia, plex server active, and can see server/hard drive on PC. But what I cant do is to transfer files. I really need help.
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GastonC said:
I am a little dumb when it comes to this. I have an external attached to my nvidia, plex server active, and can see server/hard drive on PC. But what I cant do is to transfer files. I really need help.
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Have you created a folder on the external harddrive called NVIDIA_SHIELD?
If not, do that.
You can only read outside of that folder, but inside you can read/write.
I have not. I will try that and will respond back.
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