Database Develop

Fix for USB Mass Storage...

I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.

ckl_88 said:
I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GREAT find! I am testing right now...
EDIT: Works excellent! It doesn't seem to be in the market for me...maybe because qvga, but I found it online.
I'm running:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
ADB Drivers installed by PDANet (not that it affects the SD mount)
Sourceforge 2-14-10 NBH (240x320)
Myn's Warm Donut with Hero theme.
This is awesome!
EDIT2: I can also run ADB/tether with PDANet and use mass storage simultaneously.

This is Fantastic!! It works. Great find man. didnt find it on the market but i did find it on the net. im using version 1.6
EDIT: you should take off the "possible" from your title as it is a perfect fix

Working perfect with Myn's Warm Donut + Windows 7 64 bit. Thanks for the tip!

Definitely works! (Using Ubuntu Karmic)
I was only able to find version 1.0 on the net - couldn't find it on the market.

ckl_88 said:
I've recently installed Android to NAND and was looking for a way to mount the sdcard as a usb mass storage device in windows from within Android. I came across an interesting widget on the Android market called "Dual Mount SD Widget":
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-protocol-usb-jBAw.aspx
So I downloaded and installed it to see if it really works... well, IT DOES!
I used voguimg-320x480-17-02-10.nbh and Plemens Android Feb 8th build.
Here's what I did.
1. Download widget. Install. Add to Android desktop.
2. Tap on it. It will say "SD Split"
3. Plug in USB cord to the phone.
4. Notification area says "USB Connected". Don't do anything (ie. Mount it).... Instead, wait about 30secs to a minute.
5. Vista pops up the default actions window for the sdcard. My Computer also lists the sdcard as a removable drive.
I've transferred files back and forth with no problem. Not only that, Astro can see the SD card contents as well at the same time.
Now, the interesting part is that the description for the widget says:
"This widget Modifies a setting that will allow you to mount your SD card to your phone and PC/Radio/ect at the same time."
I'm wondering what setting was modified and if it is possible to build this in so that we don't need to use the widget anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you get it on the phone? Then how do you install it? All I have is a .apk file...what do I do with it? Vista does not recognize my phone, and I do not have a card reader. Thanks.

$1 in market. works great.

crobs808 said:
How do you get it on the phone? Then how do you install it? All I have is a .apk file...what do I do with it? Vista does not recognize my phone, and I do not have a card reader. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=5579322&postcount=14

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttt Luv it luv it and luv it some more...

Man do us a favor and pl take off "Possible" from the title. This is THE fix.

Could you remind me why it's not possible without this app? is it a kernel or user space issue?
A long time ago, dzo told us that this could be solved when nand boot would be ready. Now, that's ready, what avoid solving this problem?

How fast is USB Mass Storage with the Vogue? Does anyone remember the transfer speeds it's rated for?
I'm using a class 6 MicroSD so I guess the card reader method will still be faster for me?

osilvan said:
Could you remind me why it's not possible without this app? is it a kernel or user space issue?
A long time ago, dzo told us that this could be solved when nand boot would be ready. Now, that's ready, what avoid solving this problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as I recall the notion was that running from nand would allow us the option of dismounting the sd card from the system so it could be used by USB mass storage. currently, nand still uses a cache on the sd card, so this is not yet possible.
this program allows both the system and the usb mass storage to access the sd card at the same time. I'm sure if someone cared enough to backwards engineer this we could incorporate something similar. however, why bother when there is a perfectly usable program already.

So this won't work using ext2 or fat for haret users I assume?

myn said:
So this won't work using ext2 or fat for haret users I assume?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm running haret on a partitioned card (fat 32 and ext2) and it works great for me - just tested it.

berardi said:
How fast is USB Mass Storage with the Vogue? Does anyone remember the transfer speeds it's rated for?
I'm using a class 6 MicroSD so I guess the card reader method will still be faster for me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
~500kb write and ~800kb read (with class 4) results may vary

slapadabass said:
I'm running haret on a partitioned card (fat 32 and ext2) and it works great for me - just tested it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I confirm this also, running fat32 and 2 512Mb ext2 partitions. this is very handy. I found the 1.65 version doing a Google search, and that is what I have tested.

I would love to find out what this widget is doing so we can add the functionality to the base roms. I haven't had a close look at this yet but does anybody know exactly what it's doing?

jamezelle said:
~500kb write and ~800kb read (with class 4) results may vary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that if your SD card is class 4, this will still be grossly slower than simply taking the card out and using a card reader, no? 800 kb vs 4 mb / sec? or do I have the figures wrong... For small files this is convenient but for large amounts of music files etc it probably is less practical - granted not eveyone has a card reader

berardi said:
So correct me if I'm wrong, but it would seem that if your SD card is class 4, this will still be grossly slower than simply taking the card out and using a card reader, no? 800 kb vs 4 mb / sec? or do I have the figures wrong... For small files this is convenient but for large amounts of music files etc it probably is less practical - granted not eveyone has a card reader
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right - unless you're running off SD card and can't take your SD card out . . .

Why android dont have drive install choise?

Well I mean... even symbian have an option if you want to install on C or D if you know what I mean. why Android dont have this option when installing new app? why is this so complicated? is there a reason?

The idea is that these are "post-PC" devices. Choosing which drive to put it on is an implementation decision. Post-PC devices try not to have the user worry about implementation and just take care of it. Notice the complete lack of a file explorer in the OS.
In practice this is still a little shaky. Android has allowed you to install apps to an external drive since 2.2, but at the time manufacturers weren't including mass storage chips on the phone, and relied exclusively on SD cards for media storage. The Galaxy S line changed that, and the Optimus 2X takes some cues from that by having a large amount of storage built into the device (the Nexus S doesn't even have external storage). The only place to mount that and have it show up properly when you connect to a PC is /mnt/sdcard/ (/sdcard/ is just a symlink). Some apps are able to recognize when there are multiple mass storage cards available, but most still assume just the SD card.

thanks for answer, its like linux the mnt folder. I hope it gets better

What do you mean hope it gets better?

i guess he means this ^^
keyboardr said:
Some apps are able to recognize when there are multiple mass storage cards available, but most still assume just the SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks to MTP, Cannot see all files on SD from PC

EDIT: Re-editing my post to remove the rant.
Basically, MTP ignores folders with .nomedia files in them... very short sighted.
Just wondering if there are any good alternatives out there, and what people prefer, other than just rebooting to recovery to mount USB?

I use wireless transfer apps like Samba. You can set it up on your network and browse the touchpad just like another directory.
Sent from my slim_tenderloin using xda app-developers app

-SGA- said:
I use wireless transfer apps like Samba. You can set it up on your network and browse the touchpad just like another directory.
Sent from my slim_tenderloin using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, that does work. I have been using Android Commander, which freezes sometimes... and doesn't like to connect over USB, so I have to use WiFi.
I guess what I'm hoping for is something that will work over USB which is a little faster for transfers than WiFi, which can be pretty slow for larger files.

The reason MTP ignores other files is because it stands for Media Transfer Protocol.

sstar said:
The reason MTP ignores other files is because it stands for Media Transfer Protocol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I think I'm smart enough to figure that out.
Don't care. It is insufficient, because it makes it very difficult to manage the SD Card as a filesystem, forcing use of 3rd party utilities. I've heard all of Google's excuses for ending support of USB Mass Storage mode, but in the end, they did not give us a workable alternative.
The reason I use a .nomedia file is because I'd rather not have thousands of images from manga/comics, etc, show up in my Gallery app.

lotherius said:
Yeah, I think I'm smart enough to figure that out.
Don't care. It is insufficient, because it makes it very difficult to manage the SD Card as a filesystem, forcing use of 3rd party utilities. I've heard all of Google's excuses for ending support of USB Mass Storage mode, but in the end, they did not give us a workable alternative.
The reason I use a .nomedia file is because I'd rather not have thousands of images from manga/comics, etc, show up in my Gallery app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i don't know how smart you are and was just trying to be helpful ,its not often I get told for trying . I will try to be more careful/refrain before offering any advice in the future.

I use FTP to transfer files from PC to my touchpad vise versa first install ES file explorer from Play Store, go to settings> remote settings> turn on remote manage> set the parameters
Use filezilla on your PC to enter the IP add of your touchpad>quick connect and you can access your tablet files

I use Android Sync Manager over WiFi (Free in the Play Store and a free download for the PC) which lets me transfer back & forth over a WiFi network connection.

OK I will try again there is an app called USB Mass Storage Watcher. I have just installed it and put a tick in Mount mass storage automatically. Now when I connect to my PC although the tablet says connected as media device when I open the USB SD card on my computer I am able to see all files and tested by transferring a 1.3 g backup file to my desktop.
Maybe this helps ?

[Q] Is there a shortcut to unmount a USB OTG device?

Hi!
I just got my USB OTG cable and it works great. Is there an easier way to unmount the USB storage? Do I have to go into settings>storage every time to unmount the USB device safely?
Thanks!

You can install stickmount free app or donate version. Will put a mount/unmount in the notification bar.

gunnyman said:
You can install stickmount free app or donate version. Will put a mount/unmount in the notification bar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I installed stickmount but it doesn't seem to work. After I unmount the USB drive from StickMount, it's still visible in "settings>storage" and I have to unmount from there again. Am I missing some thing here?
I am rooted on ElementalX kernel.

I'm sorry. I thought it would work.
Try otg helper https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.shajul.usbotg

I'm using Paragon NTFS but it also doesn't seem to be working as You would like. It kind of unmounts but after connecting some other device, Settings>Storage shows stats of previous one. So I need to unmount and mount again. But it's still a low price for possibility of connecting NTFS devices.

I may be wrong, but I'm of the opinion that the HTC One actually mounts the USB/OTG itself and the other programs attempt to re-mount it to another location (which thy know about) hence, when you unmount it, you only unmount 'their mount' .. the 'HTC mount' is still in place ... hehce the One still thinks that it's mounted ... which it is.
It shouldn't be beyond the kind of devs we have on here to produce a notification for a USB/OTC (click to unmount/mount) once it's detected ad present.

Bump
I would very much like this as well and after a couple of weeks of searching, with detours, side tracks, and no solutions I've finally decided to post about it. The best solution would have been if hTC or Google (?) had included a shortcut to unmount from the settings, so that the user could create a shortcut on the home screen or in their favourite widget (I'm quite liking multicon and widgetsoid, between the two I can open or toggle almost anything from the home screen); as it is it's not even possible to shortcut to the storage page.
The hunt for a solution took me first to the apps store, to find a bunch of root only apps; so naive me (this is my first android phone, indeed my first smart phone) I googled and followed the root instructions from cnet. And it seems I've probably lost all hope of ever returning to stock, PLUS the htcdev bootloader unlocking process actually deleted the stock calculator and flashlight. Silly me, I thought "factory reset" meant what it sounds like, e.g. a factory reset; oh well, I prefer to cross my fingers and ignore warranties anyway :silly:. Then I found out that those apps weren't useful anyway because the stock automount still happens and you actually have to unmount the stock mount point in order to mount with any of them (e.g. stickmount). Stickmount was the closest I got, if I recall correctly nothing else I tried would even mount - I probably didn't try that many, I cottoned on pretty quick that the automount wasn't going to let me go this route anyway. At this point I got side tracked and started playing with other root required apps, but my ham fisted stock + root thing acted funny, with many random root apps I installed to play with unexpectedly restarting the phone. Then I found XDA and I've been lurking, though probably not doing as much reading as I should: thousands upon thousands of pages are a tad intimidating. Now I've got ARHD 71.1, with the toolbox & exposed & XSBM more or less tweaked to my liking and everything running smooth. Stickmount gets closer now: it can mount as well as the system. I started thinking about custom kernels, ntfs support, etc; but with no clear info searching whether kernel ntfs support would even automount, and it still doesn't get me what I want so I think I've had enough poking the system files for now. I just tried 'su' then 'umount /storage/usb/', it appears to unmount but I still get 'USB storage unexpectedly removed' when I unplug, and I can't find a way to create a shortcut without the window persisting (android terminal emulator). Also tried scripter, no idea if it can create shortcuts and it couldn't even run the scripts it created so I uninstalled it pretty quickly.
It comes down to: can I get a shortcut to dismount the stock OTG or can I disable the stock mount to properly use an alternative instead of doubling up? And (looking at you hTC and Google, NOT the XDA community which I greatly appreciate), if not why not? This thing is basically a computer so why is android so limited out of the box?
(Sorry for the long noobish ramble, hopefully I got across what I've tried and why it doesn't work. I'm too tired to reread it again. Perhaps at least this has cautionary tale value?)

Found the widgetsoids command option which works silently, unfortuneately it also fails silently too leaving usb mounted if there's any file operations. Maybe there's a more complicated command I could use then 'umount /mnt/usb/'? I have zero idea where to start, but at this point I want to make an app that can hook into the native process and either send it commands or disable it. I don't suppose there's a newbie guide to figuring out what service is responsible for something and then hacking it?

i tried stickmount on a rooted huawei GR5
it works perfect thank you

Why I hate MTP

Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android

Of course you have all that stuff backed up....!?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

chiwou said:
Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Come on, just don't delete stuff. MTP is not a problem, it ensures ext4 compatibility with different desktops.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

reqmon said:
Come on, just don't delete stuff. MTP is not a problem, it ensures ext4 compatibility with different desktops.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but I think there is a better solution like it's used on usb sticks, and I can delete every damn "empty" folder I want
gori11a said:
Of course you have all that stuff backed up....!?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope :silly: but I love the auto backup tools from google+ and dropbox, so it's not that bad, it just really annoying and bugs me

chiwou said:
Just updated to KitKat and connected my Nexus to the PC. Found a curious folder named storage, it was empty.
I thought maybe some app created this folder, so I deleted it. BAMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!
My SDcard is free from all this unnecessary stuff, like photos, music and what else Android thought I didn't need anymore.
So what I want to say is just don't delete any "empty" folder on your sdcard
Take care
PS: I hate MTP, google shouldn't have used it in android
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same happened to me last weekend. Luckily I had all my apps backed up daily with Titanium Backup to Box.net and my photos with Dropbox. The positive outcome for me was that I finally got allot of disk space back that I wouldn't have manged myself.

You don't want the solution like on USB sticks. For starters, FAT is extremely inefficient compared to EXT3/4 and if phone storage size keeps expanding we will hit a brick wall that FAT can't handle, then what? NTFS? NTFS works on *nix just fine but it is even more inefficient than FAT since it's all reverse engineered which might also cause issues with licensing.
MTP just needs some maturing. It's a little buggy under Linux but other than an occasional odd error message (it's very beta) transferring media it works just fine.

AnotherBill said:
You don't want the solution like on USB sticks. For starters, FAT is extremely inefficient compared to EXT3/4 and if phone storage size keeps expanding we will hit a brick wall that FAT can't handle, then what? NTFS? NTFS works on *nix just fine but it is even more inefficient than FAT since it's all reverse engineered which might also cause issues with licensing.
MTP just needs some maturing. It's a little buggy under Linux but other than an occasional odd error message (it's very beta) transferring media it works just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because of maturity and some other factors I use FTP to transfer files, not MTP. It's wireless, fast and easy ^_^.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Ha! 'rant' as a keyword!

I once deleted it in JellyBean，when I found something was wrong ，I clicked the cancel，but it's too late，everything is gone……
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

for some, MTP does not work well under windows environment..
unfortunately im one of them.. (and "hate" is quite an accurate description of my actual feeling in this matter)
now im mostly using samba to transfer files between phone and pc..

I came to realize that if I ever find the need to extract or backup or move files from my phone, always use the darn Nexus ToolKit. I use to for any device as long as the ADB is recognized.
Its glitchy, it once had my Titanium folder as an file instead of a folder. I was super picky and hawkish on deleting stuff on my Nexus 4 because its 16gb. Now on Nexus 5, 32gb I tend to not give a dam.
It is annoying

MTP is slow, only shows Image Thumbnails in the DCIM (or something) Folder and is not meant to be used for Multitasking.
I had the EXACT same problem.
Just wanted to clean my internal storage, deleted the Folder and bam ... everything gone.
Lost about 2 months of Images and ... yea, seriously sucks.
Got point about that, I got enough space again

I did that once too.
It is really confusing for average users.
Also, it is slow and not detecting all files most of the time.
Yes I know it can be fixed by rescanning media or rebooting the phone, but then again this is so trouble and average users would just assumed that they can plug in the phone to pc and use it.