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SD card not reading movies all the time

Sometimes I copy (.wmv) movies to the external SD card and the video player says unsupported format. But when i copy the same movie to the internal SD it plays fine. Strange. Maybe I should let the phone reformat the card but at this point there's all kinds of files on there and I find the file system confusing. I see everything using ROOT EXPLORER but even then its confusing as to what is residing in the phone or on the card. It could be a problem with the video player itself. Can anyone recommend another player to use?
I have rooted my phone, backed up with Titanium, etc. When I install the official froyo (hopefully to be released soon) will it revert the phone back to "stock" Will i have to re-root again? Is there anything else i will have to do over?
thanks

What brand sd card and where did you buy it?
File system is pretty simple. /sd is internal storage. /sd/sdcard is external.
Sent from my MB520 using XDA App

micro sd card
alphadog00 said:
What brand sd card and where did you buy it?
File system is pretty simple. /sd is internal storage. /sd/sdcard is external.
Sent from my MB520 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont really know the make. It says MICRO SD on it, 16GB, bought it off ebay, it worked fine in my previous phone I think. Looking at the card thru the file manager I see a whole bunch of directories, not sure how they got there. I don't think its the card itself, I think it has something to do with the OS or maybe the compression rate of the video or something else. I have a lower resolution .wmv movie on the card and that one plays fine....weird...but the movies that play were done a long time ago formatted for my Dash 3G. I am converting these movies off the origional DVD. I tried using another player and it did the same thing. The .wmv movies are about 1 gig and they look beautiful so putting them on the card makes sense. I'll try playing with the conversion settings and other file formats...I'll probably figure it out.
Thanks for the info on the file system.

continue looking
The videos app says that it will enable you to play H.264 and 3gp movies from your SD card but I have tried that and so far no luck. So there must be other specific conversion settings it requires to work.

panflute said:
I dont really know the make. It says MICRO SD on it, 16GB, bought it off ebay, it worked fine in my previous phone I think. Looking at the card thru the file manager I see a whole bunch of directories, not sure how they got there. I don't think its the card itself, I think it has something to do with the OS or maybe the compression rate of the video or something else. I have a lower resolution .wmv movie on the card and that one plays fine....weird...but the movies that play were done a long time ago formatted for my Dash 3G. I am converting these movies off the origional DVD. I tried using another player and it did the same thing. The .wmv movies are about 1 gig and they look beautiful so putting them on the card makes sense. I'll try playing with the conversion settings and other file formats...I'll probably figure it out.
Thanks for the info on the file system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your original post says that sometimes the same vids play from internal memory but not from the card. This points to the card as the culprit - not the format of the video.
Ebay purchased cards are usually fakes or poor quality and are notorious for unpredictable results.

video never play
A couple of the older ones I have do read off the SD card, but none of my recently converted videos do. I am still play around with different conversions. I will find one that works, eventually.

now working
I have to admit you were right.....I got a message from the phone saying my SD card was corrupted..so i let the phone format it. The phone is now running much better and i can run movies off the card now with Arc Media and VPlayer. I think Vplayer is now my favorite with its on screen gesture controls and luminecense setting. Copying the big movies from my computer to the card is still a little iffy. While copying a 1 gig movie to the card for instance, the progress bar on the computer will appear to hang, but if i give it enough time then disconnect and reconnect to the computer I discover the movie actually copied to the card. Sometimes I have to reboot the phone in order to reconnect. It does better with smaller files. Maybe 2.2 will fix this issue....thanks again.;

USB mass storage

Hi,
has anyone succeeded to export the internal or external SD storage as a USB mass storage device? The only thing that works for me is MTP under Windows.

Of what I know it's not possible because the phones usb mass storage only supports one drive.
Our phone has two drives, internal and external SD.
Therefore it has to use MTP for you to see the two drives in Windows.
It's the same for all phones with external and internal memory.
Solution: Unmount SD card, rip it out of the frickin phone, ram it into your computer, start copying HD quality movies super fast, rip it out of your computer and showe it back into your phone! Problem?
Sent from my LG-P880

Yes, but I don't like to open the filigree back side too often.
MrWunderbaum said:
Of what I know it's not possible because the phones usb mass storage only supports one drive.
Our phone has two drives, internal and external SD.
Therefore it has to use MTP for you to see the two drives in Windows.
It's the same for all phones with external and internal memory.
Solution: Unmount SD card, rip it out of the frickin phone, ram it into your computer, start copying HD quality movies super fast, rip it out of your computer and showe it back into your phone! Problem?
Sent from my LG-P880
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Sorry for digging out this old thread. But still better than starting a new one.
I am new to android and the 4X HD is my first android phone. Was using iPhone with PWNtunes, which allows for free file transfers to and from the phone (including music & videos) without using ANY additional software on the other end.
Is there really NO way to activate USB mass storage at least for the external SD card ? I mean, I could like copy the files later to the internal memory, but I really hate the idea that I have to open the phone everytime I want to transfer a file. I can't always mail the files.
I am willing to modify the phone in any way, but I often come across computers where I can NOT install any additional software. Even worse I work with Hardware devices (like my car Stereo or my Set-top-box) where there is no possibility to change the Software.
So USB Mass Storage is the only way to go for me. All the google searches I've done so far point out 2 piece solutions, at best, where I would also need to install software on the PC.
Is there really no standardised solution for this that works on ANY Android ICS (like PWNtunes for any iPhone) ?
I would even pay up to 10 € for this feature, a feature that should be included !

With Total Commander and the Android-ADB-Plugin I have access to the entire file system and SD cards of all my Androids.

I don't know about yours but, for me its enough when I select "LG software" (don't know how's in yours cause mine is in Portuguese...), after I just need to run "LGAutoRun.exe" and I can see the internal store and external sd just like if I had "mass storage" selected.
If I have previously selected "LG software" windows just ask me if I want to open to see the files, but thats normal cause the drivers are already installed.

@Bud Cord & @RuedasLocas
Both are again solutions where I would have to run some kind of software on the Host side.
Yes, this will work for Win7 computers BUT IT WILL NOT work for my TV, it will NOT work for my Car Stereo, it will NOT work for my Printer, it will NOT work for my portable mediaplayer, it will NOT work for my DSL-Router, it will NOT work for my DVB-SetTopBox, and so on. For all those other devices that ONLY understand USB MASS STORAGE it will simply NOT WORK.
Yeah USB MASS STORAGE (UMS) is some crappy old block access device. BUT it is also the defacto standart that every USB Device that can read a USB stick supports.
I had a Windows Mobile 6.1 Phone some years ago, it hat UMS, only for the SDcard.
I had a simple Feature-Phone(SE K610), it hat UMS, again only for the Memory card.
I had a Chinese unbranded Phone with dual-Sims and a TV set built in, it had UMS!
I had an iPhone I could Jailbreak it and activate UMS. Every 2$ cheapo USB stick has UMS.
I again want USB MASS STORAGE at least for the SD-Card. I am still trying to find some workaround. Even that the phone was not rootable at the beginning was no dealbreaker for me, but THIS actually IS a dealbreaker for me. I loved to use my Phone as a USB-Stick and plug it in everywhere. I always did that. IPhone has forced me to carry around my own cable, android is forcing me to carry around a regular USB stick.
I hate the phone for not having MASS STORAGE. The worst part is that it seems like Android has adopted this crap, so any Android phone is just as bad.
Sorry for whining, I just thought that there was some simple solution that I am not seeing.

[Q] Exfat and CM

I just flashed CM 10.1.3 on my replacement HD+. I've got a 64GB Sandisk Ultra formatted to exfat. It seems to read the card without flashing the fuse scripts, but I'm having some issues. The card is not detected on boot up, I have to remove and re-insert the card.
Titanium is having fits. It says the card is not writeable though I can write to the card fine with CM's file manager. Is exfat stable in CM 10.1.3?
Alternatively, can I still flash the fuse scripts? Or will that break something else? Or is exfat better in the 10.2 nighties?
Thanks!

silkshadow said:
I just flashed CM 10.1.3 on my replacement HD+. I've got a 64GB Sandisk Ultra formatted to exfat. It seems to read the card without flashing the fuse scripts, but I'm having some issues. The card is not detected on boot up, I have to remove and re-insert the card.
Titanium is having fits. It says the card is not writeable though I can write to the card fine with CM's file manager. Is exfat stable in CM 10.1.3?
Alternatively, can I still flash the fuse scripts? Or will that break something else? Or is exfat better in the 10.2 nighties?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same card, and I ended up reformatting it to FAT32 so that GL to SD would work. I hadn't even tried using my TB before the reformat, as I had tried copying my 32GB Sandisk Ultra to it in exfat and nothing really worked correctly. Things like Acer Video Player didn't seem to like the exfat format either.

RageAgain said:
I have the same card, and I ended up reformatting it to FAT32 so that GL to SD would work. I hadn't even tried using my TB before the reformat, as I had tried copying my 32GB Sandisk Ultra to it in exfat and nothing really worked correctly. Things like Acer Video Player didn't seem to like the exfat format either.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to avoid fat32. Before it hit the bugged emmc, my old nook was used for videos and its a big pain to split movies. I can also report that folder mount (similar to GL to SD) doesn't work with exfat on the CM 10.1. I am trying to find out how to disable fuse on the CM rom so I can flash the fuse scripts which I used previously and work fine. Tried straight flashing it and it was very unstable.

silkshadow said:
Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to avoid fat32. Before it hit the bugged emmc, my old nook was used for videos and its a big pain to split movies. I can also report that folder mount (similar to GL to SD) doesn't work with exfat on the CM 10.1. I am trying to find out how to disable fuse on the CM rom so I can flash the fuse scripts which I used previously and work fine. Tried straight flashing it and it was very unstable.
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Click to collapse
I am using my 64gb Sandisk for games and emulator games, hence the GL to SD and such. I plan on using the USB hosting to stream stored videos from a flash drive / card reader / usb hdd on the go, or try one of those mini network wireless media streamers for no wires. At home I use Emit to stream from my 'server' pc ( 6TB storage ).

RageAgain said:
I am using my 64gb Sandisk for games and emulator games, hence the GL to SD and such. I plan on using the USB hosting to stream stored videos from a flash drive / card reader / usb hdd on the go, or try one of those mini network wireless media streamers for no wires. At home I use Emit to stream from my 'server' pc ( 6TB storage ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, been there. We're straying off topic but its my thread so its ok . I've been on the hunt for things like this since I was on a Palm Pilot. In my experience, contrived USB host works but its very inconvenient on the go. The cable is unwieldy (in Nook's case very long) and the connections/adapters/etc are a PIA to manage unless you have a purse and a stable situation (like a table or something). I have an iUSBport which is basically a wireless/wifi USB host port. It woks great and I am happy with it (even a 1TB self powered USB hard drive no problem), but again kind of a pain to use on the go.
I think you may find that these solutions work great for traveling and in your hotel at night and situations like that, but day to day its far more convenient to have a few movies and TV shows on your microSD (TV shows are under the 4GB limit, so no issues). For example, have you ever watched a movie on the subway? Spotty 4G, no room to run cables, one of many situations where work arounds just don't work.
I use plex great on other tabs, and its been the best solution though not perfect, but on the Nook it only has wifi, so without 4G its pretty useless on the go (tethering to the phone works but again a pain). In house, its no problem and all TBs of my media server are available (I am somewhere around 75TBs these days ).
IDK, I don't find existing work arounds compelling and I try everything I see. I bought the iUSBport (called iCloudFTP or something then) via a Kickstarter and was excited to see the concept in retail. The one exception is that my Acer tab (getting older now though) has a normal usb 2.0 port right in its side. Its the only solution I find that works great with non-internal storage. Wish everyone did that. I give Asus and others credit as they do it on the keyboard dock which is a dream for traveling but I find, for example in the subway scenario, the keyboard can be more of a hindrance than a benefit as it is essentially a really big accessory.

Case with extended storage built in

I have access to a 3D printer, and I was thinking of designing a case with a bare flash drive built in. If I cut one of the USB OTG cables down that allows usb and charging simultaneously and fit it in the case design would I be able to have the USB connected and still be able to charge? If that is a possibility, is there a way to trick Android into thinking that the USB drive is instead an SD card? If we could trick Android into thinking it was an SD card wouldn't we be able to merge the flash drive with the internal storage and increase the storage capacity of the phone? My other thought for this idea was using multirom, and just sticking a 256gb flash drive in the case and just booting off of that. Do either of these ideas sound like they would work well at all? I just have the 32gb model and it just isn't enough.

No. The phone will not charge while in USB host mode, if you try to just throw in voltage you'll burn out the flash drive and or damage your phones micro USB port.
You're multirom idea wasnt bad. But all multirom does is allow a system partition to be installed with an image to a flash drive, and then boot it from the flash drive. It still reads data cache and such off your devices partition.
How are you using your storage? I got use to the "no expandable storage" with my lg and Galaxy Nexus.
Are you encrypted? Unencrypt your phone, you'll save 1.5-2gbs of storage capacity. Use Google photos to backup your photos and videos in HD quality and have it delete files after backup. Do you flash roms? Go through your android/data and Android/obb folders and delete everything related to apps you don't use.
It's not a bad idea to backup music/photos/videos to a PC, then wipe internal storage and restore all the photos and such. You would be amazed at how much storage our phones will use that you can't find and delete without digging around.

Deleted as apparently useless...

noidea24 said:
No. The phone will not charge while in USB host mode, if you try to just throw in voltage you'll burn out the flash drive and or damage your phones micro USB port.
You're multirom idea wasnt bad. But all multirom does is allow a system partition to be installed with an image to a flash drive, and then boot it from the flash drive. It still reads data cache and such off your devices partition.
How are you using your storage? I got use to the "no expandable storage" with my lg and Galaxy Nexus.
Are you encrypted? Unencrypt your phone, you'll save 1.5-2gbs of storage capacity. Use Google photos to backup your photos and videos in HD quality and have it delete files after backup. Do you flash roms? Go through your android/data and Android/obb folders and delete everything related to apps you don't use.
It's not a bad idea to backup music/photos/videos to a PC, then wipe internal storage and restore all the photos and such. You would be amazed at how much storage our phones will use that you can't find and delete without digging around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am un-encrypted so I do have that little bit of extra space. I have a lot of music on my phone for listening in the car. LTE is spotty where I live, so streaming isn't a great option. I was under the impression that with a modified kernel it is possible to charge and access a device at the same time. Doesn't the nexus 7 have a kernel that allows that? If that is in fact possible is there a way to trick android into thinking that it's an sd card instead of a flash drive?
This is one such kernel for the nexus 7
https://mehrvarz.github.io/usb-host-mode-power-management-nexus7/
I think my solution my work great if there is a kernel that works with charging and we could get the USB to integrate.

Encryption takes up more space?

Code:
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
lets you use any external storage device as adoptable storage letting you use a OTG drive as internal storage. Could've just been my drive but it stalled at 20% for a couple minutes, mighta finished but my OTG adapter is kinda flaky and lost connection. After a bit of reading I've learned it might be since my phone isn't encrypted and adoptable storage is encrypted by default.
Also from what I understand about OTG things is that you CANNOT charge the phone while it's connection with OTG even wirelessly.
Though with the N6 having USB 2.0 it'll likely be very very slow.

Ad
StykerB said:
Code:
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
lets you use any external storage device as adoptable storage letting you use a OTG drive as internal storage. Could've just been my drive but it stalled at 20% for a couple minutes, mighta finished but my OTG adapter is kinda flaky and lost connection. After a bit of reading I've learned it might be since my phone isn't encrypted and adoptable storage is encrypted by default.
Also from what I understand about OTG things is that you CANNOT charge the phone while it's connection with OTG even wirelessly.
Though with the N6 having USB 2.0 it'll likely be very very slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome!! Thank you. I'll do some tinkering maybe this weekend to see what I can come up with. That was exactly what I was looking for as far as adoptable storage!
EDIT: I ran the adb command you gave me through terminal emulator on the phone itself after giving it root access. All 3 flash drives I tried integrated with my internal storage just phone. All 3 were 32gb usb 3.0, but each was a different brand. I built a custom "y" cable, but you can buy them on Amazon. I'm talking with a kernel developer and it seems it is possible to charge the phone at the same time. Both the nexus 4 and 2013 nexus 7 have custom kernels that allow what's called USB OTG Host mode that allows the device to charge and use a USB device at the same time. From what I can tell it's a kernel module that needs to be added. For the nexus 4 it was just a zip file that patched whatever kernel you were currently using. I don't have a lot of experience with compiling kernels, but I'll try and find out what needs to be done and fire my Ubuntu box up.

Sandisk ultra dual drive

Hello all! I have bought dual flash drive by Sandisk, size 64gb. For some reason when I connect the device I cannot use it, and when I try to set it to MTP, it "jumps" right back to reverse charge. I have unrooted stock ROM and would like to keep it that way if possible. I have tried usb debugging, and formatted the device.
Help please.
Thanks in advance!

Try to format sd card in reader with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. Google for it. I'm using same sd card moded to use with 2 sim cards and it works fine (with more than 50GB of data occupied). Or maybe the card died

Please notice that it's not a card but a flash drive.

From SanDisk page:
64GB and 128GB Dual USB Drives come preformatted in exFat file system and certain mobile devices do not support exFat. In this case please format the drive in Fat32 file system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also:
Note: Some mobile device protective cases interfere with the full and proper connection between SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive and the microUSB port of mobile devices. You may have to remove the protective case on your mobile device to obtain a full and proper connection.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weirdly P9 is not listen in compatibility page even when P8 and P7 is... but I often use OTG drives with my P9, from cheap sd card reader for 3$(with microUSB so I use usb-c dongle...) to even external SSD is working with it, so lack of OTG support is not a problem.

It's not the cover. Will formatting it to fat32 won't affect the size of the flash drive I can use? And Is there a way to format it with unrooted phone? Because I will not be at home for the next few weeks.

nope, formating just change file system/algorithms of how files are stored in drive. But you need to remember that 64GB drive will have just about 59-62GB of REAL size, its because of difference between how the manufacturer calculates capacity (decimal-based) compared to how a computer calculates it (binary-based).
And you dont do formating on phone but on PC:
1. just plug it to PC.
2. backup files if you have any on it.
3. right click on that dive in "My Computer".
7. select format -> Quick format
8. select FAT32 and then hit format.
9. done.

Thank you for your answer. I know to format through a computer, I just won't be near one for the next few weeks. What file system should I format into?

umm... I mentioned that 2 times: Fat32 format :]

It should be fine if it's in Reverse charging. In my case, I'm using a USB-C to USB (female) adapter (check Google if you can find one). It works fine, my P9 can even read the contents of my 1TB external hard drive. Probably something wrong with the USB-C part of the flash drive itself?