How to connect a flash drive to a tablet? (overview of methods)

Non-standard connection methods

USB-host - made easy

All kinds of adapters

Software barriers

Common Problems

Software problems

Wireless external drive

Detailed video instructions

Update 04/29/2019

Tablet computers are very limited in internal memory. Plus, most of them deliberately lack the ability to use microSD memory. It follows from this that many users, and more than once, wondered how to connect a flash drive to a tablet?

Standard connection methods

Everyone has encountered the need to quickly copy files or move necessary documents, because the tablet is increasingly penetrating our everyday life. It’s hard to imagine a modern person without a touchscreen gadget, because it’s:

Convenient and practical;
Everything you need to perform everyday tasks is always at hand;
Mobile, minimal weight and dimensions are the goal of any manufacturer.

Full size USB

Some touch devices are equipped with a full-size USB connector, which allows you to seamlessly connect any peripherals. In the image below, you can see a Gigabyte tablet running the Windows 7 operating system.

USB connector

Microsoft's Surface line of tablets also features a separate USB port. By the way, many transformers that come with a docking station are also equipped with a functional connector. If the tablet does not see the flash drive, then there are only three possible options:

Mechanical damage to the port itself;
Drivers were not installed correctly in the case of Windows OS;
The flash card has become unusable.

OTG mode

A very useful technology that, fortunately, is supported by many devices. Allows you to eliminate “dancing with a tambourine” when trying to connect an external flash drive to the gadget. Such a small cord will allow you to easily synchronize both devices for data exchange.

OTG cord

The price of such an adapter is not very high, so every owner can buy and try it. There are two ways to check if your device has OTG mode:

Study the technical characteristics in detail - manufacturers indicate this possibility;
Practice, buy and test its performance from personal experience.

If the tablet does not see the flash drive, alas, we must admit that the manufacturer decided, for its own reasons, to deprive the gadget of this ability.

How to use SD card as internal memory on Android?

How to replace the phone's internal memory with an external SD card on Android? Configuring your SD card to act as internal storage on Android is essentially a fairly simple process. There is nothing complicated about this and you will see for yourself later.

Please note that your SD card will be formatted during the process. Don't forget to back up your data by temporarily transferring it to the main unit of your phone, desktop computer, laptop or other smart device.

It is possible that the Adoptable Storage function is not supported by your device, even if the smartphone runs Android 6.0 and higher (this can happen, it all depends on the model and brand of the smartphone). The device manufacturer may have disabled this feature. However, there are command line methods that allow you to force the use of a flash drive to store data.

Below are the basic formatting steps.

Place the SD card on your Andro phone >

Tap your SD card's name.

Tap the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen.

On the next screen you have one last chance to decide for yourself if you want to change your mind

Don't forget to back up your data; after formatting, the information will disappear without a trace!

Next, click “Erase and Format” if you want to format the SD drive as internal data storage. You will be notified later if Andro >

Click "Done" to complete the decision process.

Once the formatting process is complete, you can use the removable SD card as a “temporary” or “removable” permanent location. But keep in mind that hot swapping and ejecting will no longer be available as you may have previously done. Therefore, do not remove the flash drive without using the Eject parameter.

In addition, you can practically delete the place accepted by the operating system, which, accordingly, is not recommended, since this can cause certain errors in the operation of the device. Now you know how to make a memory card the main memory on Android.

Non-standard connection methods

Fortunately, for owners of tablet computers, the methods for connecting external flash cards are not limited to the methods discussed above. This allows you to still configure the devices without spending a little time.

USB-host - made easy

This method is suitable for those owners who are faced with the problem of their gadget not supporting OTG mode. Its essence lies in the fact that a USB connector of this type uses a two-way voltage supply: from the tablet and to it. This circuit powers the external device and the device recognizes it.

Double head cable

In order to create a chain yourself, you need to purchase a cord, as in the image. Micro-USB is connected to the touch gadget, USB on the left is connected to the mains via an adapter, and a flash drive is inserted on the right.

USB hub

Instead of a cord, you can use a USB Hub, but still the main condition for the functionality of this method remains the supply of voltage to the external device. If you are still wondering how to connect a flash drive to a tablet, then the methods below are just for you.

By the way, you can even connect hard drives or game joysticks in this simple way.

All kinds of adapters

Some manufacturers, for example, Samsung, categorically refuse to use standard micro-USB in their devices. Instead, they produce tablets with proprietary connectors, which causes a lot of inconvenience for owners.

Adapter

After all, the cost of such small adapters is quite high and the manufacturer makes good money from this. Users, in turn, have to suffer in search of adapters on the Internet.

Adapter for Asus

Asus, as the progenitor of the Transformers line, is also forced to use a non-standard power connector.

Software barriers

The tablet does not see the memory card even after the manipulations have been done - you should seriously think about software barriers. One of these obstacles may be the inability of the built-in conductor to recognize connected external memory devices. This may be due to a software block or a normal set of circumstances.

USB device detection

StickMount is a free application that, unfortunately, only works with pre-installed root rights. But, practically in 99% of cases it allows you to configure the flash drive to work. Additionally, some kind of file manager must be installed, for example, ES Explorer.

Setting up a flash drive

After installing the applications, connect the flash drive to the tablet and give the utility access to root rights: a few seconds and a separate folder for the flash card is created.

You can use paid programs that are tailored for specific device models.

File structure

Now by going through the installed explorer, you can access the files as shown in the image above.

Why are applications not saved to the memory card?

Find out the Android version

Well, now let’s put everything into pieces. First, we need to find out the Android version.

Saving applications to a memory card for Android 2.2 – 4.2.2

Everything here is extremely simple and banal:

1. We still go to the menu and look for “Settings” there - the icon, as a rule, resembles a gear in appearance - there should be no problems finding it;

2. Next, look for the “Memory” sub-item. In our case, it is located between “Screen” and “Battery”. The menu may differ depending on the device manufacturer. The screenshot shows an example of a clean version of Android, without shells that are preinstalled at the manufacturing plants;

3. And now the most important thing - tap once on the “SD card” item, located below the inscription: “Default recording disk”. On the contrary, a circle or a tick should appear;

4. Profit! Now all applications downloaded through the Play Market will be automatically installed on external memory.

By the way, if the flash drive is slow, and there are such things, then applications may not work correctly. So buy a good SD card - don't skimp.

Common Problems

As has already been found out, problems when connecting external memory drives to the tablet can be physical and software. If the first option is, for example:

Flash card failure;
Damage to the USB-OTG cable;
Broken micro-USB connector.

In this case, physical intervention will be required: replacement or repair, each case has its own choice. As a rule, it is very difficult to restore a flash drive; it is easier to buy a new cord, and take the connector to a service center for replacement.

Software problems

Some users believe that by inserting a flash card into the device and you can immediately work with it, as a rule, this is not true. First of all, the drive must be formatted in FAT32, because Android processes data in a very specific way.

You should also check the maximum storage size that the device can support. In this case, only using a less capacious flash drive will help. The problem may also lie in a low version of the Android OS, which does not yet provide modules for working with external devices.

In the era of wireless technologies, it is already becoming a bad taste to use standard connectors, so you should pay attention to wireless external drives, which will become a convenient alternative to standard flash drives.

Features of using the card as the main storage

There are a number of important features that should be taken into account during this procedure.

When using a storage device, be it an SD flash drive or a USB drive, it is important to remember what format the device is in and whether the Android operating system supports it, and there are four main file formats: FAT32 or exFAT, ext4 or f2fs.

How to change phone memory to android memory card? The question is not entirely correct, it is impossible to completely replace it, you can only “increase” additional volume, as it were.

Using your SD card as your main storage can be a great solution for music lovers and those who like to watch TV shows on the way to work or on a long trip. But, as often happens, memory expansion always depends on the cost of the required device, because they differ both in speed and volume, as well as in the adaptable information storage function. Here are some nuances that can be viewed from different angles - both negative and positive:

SD cards are slow. This is the painful reality of today's tiny memory chips. Even though they can store tons of data, they are slower than phone storage and have a limited number of read-write cycles.

Using SD cards as persistent storage will require more frequent read/write operations, which will degrade its performance over time, and in the worst case, may result in complete data loss. It will be especially offensive if there are important documents or treasured photographs or unique videos.

First, before you change the phone's memory to a memory card, your Android will do a performance test of the SD card to make sure that it is fast enough and can meet the parameters for use as a main drive.

Android will warn you about the presence of external storage and may even refuse to accept it if the SD card is very slow.

Permanent integration into the operating system. With the Adoptable Storage feature of the Andro operating system, however, you can remove the external removable storage from your device and revert it back to a simple flash drive mode. The device will remember information about the applications that are on this card in order to restore the settings when the accepted device is connected later. So you can also use another storage device.

Always make sure that you do not remove the default SD card during the unmount procedure, otherwise the storage media may be damaged.

Not all programs can be installed. Almost Android can install almost all applications on the internal storage. However, this also depends on the consent of the application developer. He has the right to enable or disable support for the accepted storage in the application by adding the appropriate attributes to the code of the downloaded program.

Wireless external drive

External storage media usually require a special USB port to connect to mobile or desktop computer devices. However, the Wireless HDD does not need such a port, since its connection uses Bluetooth technology or a wireless Wi-Fi connection. The tablet user has wireless access to files stored on the hard drive, or the ability to send files from the computer to the drive.

Such a device is fully compatible with any device, even one that does not have a USB connector. It is worth noting that recently there are more and more connectorless gadgets, which means that it is definitely worth taking a closer look at the Wireless HDD.

This wireless external hard drive has its own power supply, and as long as its battery is charged, it can be used. By the way, the connection is password-protected, so no one else will see the data. After connecting the tablet, a dialog box pops up on the screen, which contains all the necessary information to perform subsequent actions. To protect the disk from outside connections, WiFiSlax is activated. The battery life of the Wireless HDD directly depends on the intensity of the disk's work; on average, it is 6 hours; in standby mode, the device can be used for 20 hours.

The disadvantages of such an extremely convenient device include its relatively high cost, which will certainly decrease over time.

Supported File Systems

Your USB drive should ideally be formatted with the FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. Some Android devices may also support the exFAT file system. Unfortunately, none of the Android devices will support the Microsoft NTFS file system.

If your device is not formatted with the appropriate file system, you will be able to format it after connecting to your Android device. However, formatting the drive will erase its contents, so ideally you should make sure it's in the correct format the first time you transfer files to it.

What else can you connect to your tablet using USB OTG?

You may be surprised, but using a USB OTG cable you can connect not only flash drives, but many other peripheral devices to your tablet. For example, you can connect a keyboard, mice, gamepads and even 3G modems. In this case, mice and keyboards can be either wired or wireless.

The process of connecting a keyboard, mouse or other device to the tablet is no different from connecting a flash drive. We connect the USB OTG cable to the tablet, and then connect the device we need to the USB connector on the USB OTG cable.

When working with a tablet, it is often necessary to connect a USB flash drive. For example, to copy or edit a file. Unfortunately, there are practically no tablets with a USB host connector. Therefore, simply plugging a flash drive into a tablet, as is done with computers, laptops and other equipment, will not work. But there is a way out of this situation. Now you will learn how to connect a flash drive to a tablet based on the Android operating system.

How to connect a flash drive to a tablet using a USB OTG cable

So, connecting a flash drive to a tablet is done using a MicroUSB port, which is found on almost any device, and a USB OTG cable. The USB OTG cable is a small adapter from MicroUSB to a regular USB host. Thus, in order to connect a flash drive to the tablet, you need to connect the USB OTG cable to the MicroUSB port, and then connect the flash drive to the USB OTG cable.

Method of connecting a flash drive to a tablet using USB OTG

The USB OTG cable is supported by the Android operating system starting from version 3.1. Therefore, it will work with most modern USB OTG devices without problems.

It should be noted that some tablets may not have MicroUSB, but instead such tablets are equipped with a non-standard proprietary connector. For example, some Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets use a wide 30-pin connector. If your tablet has a similar proprietary connector, then in addition to the USB OTG cable, you also need an adapter from your proprietary connector to MicroUSB. There are also special USB OTG cables that are equipped with proprietary connectors.

USB OTG cable with proprietary 30 pin connector

How to connect a flash drive to a tablet using a USB OTG cable

Method of connecting a flash drive to a tablet using USB OTG

The USB OTG cable is supported by the Android operating system starting from version 3.1. Therefore, it will work with most modern USB OTG devices without problems.

USB OTG cable with proprietary 30 pin connector

What else can you connect to your tablet using USB OTG?

Tablet computers have quite strong limitations in internal memory. Some models do not have the option to use microSD memory. It follows that many users wondered how to connect a flash drive to a tablet.