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How to use USB Hard Drives on an HD Dock for Droid Bionic

Disclaimer - This is my first post on this site, so I'm going to try to be strait forward and concise, I'm sorry if any info I give lacks a certain panache.
First and foremost, if you want to use a hard drive on your phone through an HD dock, you must format your hard drive to Fat32. This is a very basic, but unavoidable step. That is if you don't want to make the entire process way more complicated. I used Easeus Partition Manager to format my entire 250GB hard drive (impressive I know). You can use other partition manager software, but Easeus is the one I'm used to, and I found a free download of it, which works perfectly on my old XP PC.
The Second step is to make sure you have enough power to make your hard drive usable, and thus be recognized by your phone. I used a USB hub with a Y-Cable and my phone charger to supply the extra power. Note: Do not put the additional USB power port on the HD dock, you will not get enough power. You have to use an additional power source for this method to work. I suggest using at least a 5V 1A charger, but my phone charger is 5.1V 850mA, and works perfectly.
Step Three is to connect the hard drive. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but there is some important things to know. Do not plug multiple storage devices into the hub. There seems to be some priority conflict when this happens. Thus, if you have a Thumb Drive and a Hard Drive, connect the Thumb drive to the HD dock directly, and the Hard Drive to the hub. I haven't tested if there is a similar conflict with two hard drives being plugged in to the hub simultaneously, nor two thumb drives. There also seems to be an issue where if you only have the hard drive plugged in, but no other storage device in any port, the hard drive still won't be detected. So, you may need to plug a thumb drive to your HD dock, and then a hard drive to the hub. This results in your phone calling the Hard Drive the same device name as the Thumb Drive, but the two are shown separately in the file manager.
The hub I used was a Micro Innovations 4-Port USB hub [Model # USB210P/USB210P-F], with a Mini USB port for the main data connection. As such, my Y-Cable was a Mini USB to Full USB Y-Cable. My USB enclosure for my hard drive was made by Manhattan, which has a single USB power/data connector. My Thumb Drive was a 16GB SanDisk Cruzer Micro. My additional charger was my stock Droid Bionic charger. I also used USB extension cords as needed.
In regards to my use of a hub and a Y-Cable there are a couple simple alternatives. One is to use a Y-Cable with a full sized female USB connection in stead of a Mini USB connector. This would allow you to forgo the USB hub. The other alternative is to, depending on the hub you have, use the provided wall charger to directly power the hub, thus not needing the phone charger, nor the Y-Cable.
This method of allowing your Hard Drive to work on your HD dock should work on other devices, as well as (with minimal alterations) silversonic1's guide "How to use USB Host without an HD Dock." http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1495720
Please let me know if this helped you, and feel free to post any additional info on your success and methods used.
Edit 05/28/12: My brother bought a power converter that gives 5V 2.1A, or an optional 5V 1A on two ports. It's an RCA AC to USB converter, model # PCHUSB2R. This adapter was able to supply enough power to my hard drive for it to be read without my Thumb Drive being plugged in as well. It appears that the biggest problem the HD Dock has is that it does not give enough power to charge the phone and power a hard drive through USB. The normal power supply provides 12V 1.5A to the Dock, but I don't know how that power is distributed throughout the Dock. This apparently causes problems, but the additional Amps from the new adapter resolves a lot of them.
Although, recently I've had the problem of the Hard Drive failing on the phone's OS, but not on the Webtop OS, so the hard drive is still usable where it needs to be. You just have to go into the Webtop's file manager to unmount it once your done, but sometimes it won't say it's unmounted, so be careful. Also, the hub solution still doesn't allow you to plug in extra storage devices. It seems you're limited to one storage device per USB port on the dock itself. So, a max of 3, while, theoretically, you should be able to plug in up to 7.

thanks for the concise guide, i've been mulling over NTFS hacks for a while but frankly id probably not be worth the time.
currently i have a USB hub connected to my lapdock by a USB A (back port on lapdock) to mini connector on the hub. correct me if im wrong, but if you actually own the HD or lap dock, USB host mode is activated for you and thus you do not require an OTG cable (assuming you have adequate power for your components)-
i'm working on trying to mount a USB dvd drive, it is being detected correctly however i wonder if the issue you presented with the HD failing to mount without the thumb drive could also present itself here? (seems like simply mounting the DVD shouldnt be too difficult, but device drivers for writing i havent come across..)

nitephlight said:
thanks for the concise guide, i've been mulling over NTFS hacks for a while but frankly id probably not be worth the time.
currently i have a USB hub connected to my lapdock by a USB A (back port on lapdock) to mini connector on the hub. correct me if im wrong, but if you actually own the HD or lap dock, USB host mode is activated for you and thus you do not require an OTG cable (assuming you have adequate power for your components)-
i'm working on trying to mount a USB dvd drive, it is being detected correctly however i wonder if the issue you presented with the HD failing to mount without the thumb drive could also present itself here? (seems like simply mounting the DVD shouldnt be too difficult, but device drivers for writing i havent come across..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
It may be mostly power consumption problems for the most part for my set-up. After all I have my Thumb Drive, my Hard Drive, and a wired keyboard with built in USB 1.0 hub (which I connected a wireless mouse dongle and a USB powered fan to). But I did notice that my particular Hard Drive enclosure and Laptop Hard Drive won't work without the extra power. The light on it will turn on, but the Hard Drive remains inactive.
I just ran another test with nothing but the hard drive plugged in, but it wasn't readable until it had both extra power and my Thumb Drive connected. I don't know what exactly is up with this, but I know someone (other than me) will figure it out. I simply am not experienced enough with programming nor diagnostics to be able to find the cause, but I at least can work around the symptoms.

Anyway to play music thru usb port on car radio?

I'm wondering if it's possible to play music on a car radio (or any usb input) thru the usb port on the note 4?
Any app, mod, hack, tweak to mount a certain folder (music) as a thumb drive?
I have several usb input audio devices, but I can't access anything when I attach the note.

I feel you, I tried to do the same with no success ended up buying a 3.5mm headphone jack to rca for my car stereo ?

Yeah that sucks

Araltd said:
I'm wondering if it's possible to play music on a car radio (or any usb input) thru the usb port on the note 4?
Any app, mod, hack, tweak to mount a certain folder (music) as a thumb drive?
I have several usb input audio devices, but I can't access anything when I attach the note.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you're trying to MOUNT a USB DRIVE filled with music and play it to your car stereo? You using a 3.5mm cable or Bluetooth here?
I have some USB OTG cables (really cheap, ebay) and play the music from my SD card using PowerAmp (FLAC Playback, also allows folder choosing; your USB drive?) through the OTG cable, to my Fiio E07k, then to my headphones/speakers. Works FLAWLESSLY, and if I plug anything to the headphone jack simultaneously, it will re-route the audio.
Hope this helps.

I want to use a usb cable from my phone into my car radio usb port and play the music that is in my phone thru the car radio using the usb cable and not the 3.5mm head phone jack.

i believe this is a feature in lollipop to enable audio through usb. gonna have to wait
"Android 5.0 has added official support for USB audio devices (both input and output) along with lower-latency audio input and the ability to mix up to eight audio channels. All of which means one, amazing, thing: "

I want my phone to act like a usb thumb drive when I connect it to my car radio thru the usb port.

Araltd said:
I want my phone to act like a usb thumb drive when I connect it to my car radio thru the usb port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK I've dabbled in some sterreo, almost all radios that use USB only support apple iPhone via usb . Is your SD formatted as fat32 or ext4

sandman7793 said:
OK I've dabbled in some sterreo, almost all radios that use USB only support apple iPhone via usb . Is your SD formatted as fat32 or ext4
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Click to collapse
I can't remember, I set it up a long time ago. It's a 64gb uhs1 card. I remember I had to format it with a pc app to get it to be recognized in my (then) Galaxy S3, and I simply moved it in to my note 4.

Araltd said:
I can't remember, I set it up a long time ago. It's a 64gb uhs1 card. I remember I had to format it with a pc app to get it to be recognized in my (then) Galaxy S3, and I simply moved it in to my note 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK, with that being said, what stereo you using? Display style or single din?
Is it linix based or android?
Brand and model number?

I've got a pioneer single din in the wife's car (can't remember the #) and I've got a Kenwood dnx5120 double din, which has a usb port that will read a usb thumb drive or a hdd (or iPod / iPhone) but will not "see" my phone when connected usb.
I figure if it can read a usb thumb drive or even a hdd, why can't the note 4 mount itself as a thumb drive (external sd card) and allow my radio to read it's content and play it's mp3's?

Ever found a way?
Im in the same situation.
Ive tried the apps that enable usb mass storage mode on my sgh-1337m galaxy s4 and while it works and my computer recognizes my sd card as an usb drive, my car stereo still does not.
Any other way or USM enabler that works?

NachoLaflame said:
Ever found a way?
Im in the same situation.
Ive tried the apps that enable usb mass storage mode on my sgh-1337m galaxy s4 and while it works and my computer recognizes my sd card as an usb drive, my car stereo still does not.
Any other way or USM enabler that works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never found a way ? sad to say. If anyone can point us in the right direction if that direction even exists, that would be great.
Sent from my Samsung Note 6

I just bought a Kenwood KDC x701 and I had a very unusual set of circumstances. When I plug in my HTC 10 to either USB cable one or two nothing happens other than charging the phone. The Kenwood radio does not recognize the HTC 10 at all. I thought this was completely normal as I was not trying to mount the HTC 10 internal storage to play music files as I have no music files on my phone except audio recordings I make myself a phone calls and such. I am able to stream music via Bluetooth from the phone to the radio just fine and that's what I've been doing this entire time. The only thing I listen to is tidal music streaming service. So the other day I went to plug in my lgv10 to charge while I was driving and a funny thing happened. The radio display indicated it was reading and then went into a hand mode, it is literally called hand mode LOL. The next thing that happened was a message popped up on my phone asking me if I wanted to download a Kenwood app from the Play Store I hit cancel. Then all of the sudden it started playing music from the Tidal music streaming app. Although no information was displayed on the radio I was able to use the buttons to skip forward and Skip ahead of the different tracks but I am not sure I am able to pause or play music on the radio controls. I am not sure how it is possible to stream digital audio through the USB cable directly into the radio. I have no audio files stored on my phone on either phone and I'm not even sure how to mount internal or external storage on the phone if I wanted to use the head unit to access any audio files. So I called Kenwood and they said what I described is not possible with any of their head units. They did say that I should be able to mount my internal or external storage on my phone and use the Kenwood app two act as a music player and play the files on the phone and have them information sent to the radio. What it sounds to me like is I have a USB OTG situation with the LG V10 and no one knows why. Also of note I am unable to stream music from the lgv10 to the Kenwood stereo and no one knows why Kenwood does not know why. All of the track information is displayed on the radio I can control the songs going backwards and forwards the timer countdown xcetera but there's just no music. I will say streaming music from Tidal music service streaming app sounds much much better through the USB cable versus Bluetooth. I can't believe how much better it sounds over the USB cable it's like adding an amplifier to your system. I will try to make some videos and if this helps anyone that's going to be awesome. Also of note when I select source to USB when I have my lgv10 plugged in it calls the source Android1. This totally sounds to me like USB OTG. What do you all think and has anything like this happened to anyone else? And this does not work with my HTC 10.

I don't believe that this is possible any longer. It was possible under older versions of android (pre kit kat i believe) where the "internal sd" was seen as a physically separate storage device instead of being mounted under /data/media. Once they made this change, they had to swap from USB Mass Storage mode to the annoying Media Transfer Protocol. The reason Mass Storage had to be dropped is because of how it functioned. When you allowed access to your "internal sd" it would have to dismount it from the OS to give the host device plugged into the USB port exclusive access to the file system. Since they made the move to mounting it as /data/media there is no way to give that exclusive access any longer. Trying to dismount that /data/media to give that exclusive control would yank away all of the writable media away from the OS. Android would likely crash, or at least nothing would function any longer.

Help debugging/configuring my custom AA/AM install's USB device network?

Hi all - I'm finishing up installing a 2019 Samsung Tab A 10,1 into my Chrysler 300C. Everything is great, except that my USB SSD drive kills the battery when in standby. Let me detail the build:
Samsung Tab A 10,1 > USB C > Kingston Nucleum USB hub
- This is the only connection into the tablet. The hub is powered from a 12v USB point with USB 3.0 QC and a USB-C PD port. Pass through charging wakes the tablet up as the accessory power energises. Once turned off, the tablet renegotiates power supply arrangements and starts to deliver this to the hub itself. At least, that's my understanding.
Connected to the hub is a 512GB Sandisk SSD (USB 3.0), a Meizu Pro Hifi DAC (USB C) and an external USB 3.0 socket.
Is it possible to have the tablet either unmount the SSD whilst not powered (the SSD might still draw power even even unmounted?) or preferably not take on the role of being the supplier of power to the USB hub? Alternative suggestions are of course welcomed.

Prostheta said:
Hi all - I'm finishing up installing a 2019 Samsung Tab A 10,1 into my Chrysler 300C. Everything is great, except that my USB SSD drive kills the battery when in standby. Let me detail the build:
Samsung Tab A 10,1 > USB C > Kingston Nucleum USB hub
- This is the only connection into the tablet. The hub is powered from a 12v USB point with USB 3.0 QC and a USB-C PD port. Pass through charging wakes the tablet up as the accessory power energises. Once turned off, the tablet renegotiates power supply arrangements and starts to deliver this to the hub itself. At least, that's my understanding.
Connected to the hub is a 512GB Sandisk SSD (USB 3.0), a Meizu Pro Hifi DAC (USB C) and an external USB 3.0 socket.
Is it possible to have the tablet either unmount the SSD whilst not powered (the SSD might still draw power even even unmounted?) or preferably not take on the role of being the supplier of power to the USB hub? Alternative suggestions are of course welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use tasker to recognize usb charging on/off and when tab is gonna lose usb charging set it to power off. Unless tab can deliver power from usb even if its off, than you should search for another solution.
For tasker help go to Tasker tips & tricks section on XDA.
Good luck.
Sent from my Galaxy Tab 2 3G using XDA Labs

Thanks for the input! I'll have a look into Tasker. I'm guessing that when you say "power off", the tablet itself is not being shut down....after all, waking an Android device from cold is somewhat annoying to have to do manually every time one starts the engine. Currently Auto Mate wakes the tablet on a USB charging condition and instantly opens the main screen. Very convenient. Hopefully Tasker can integrate into this setup without conflicting with the functionality that works right now! I'll keep this thread updated with what I find, actions taken, etc. so that anybody else going down the path I have doesn't have to ask or chase themselves....
Cheers.

Okay, first impressions. It seems that Tasker might be able to do this but as stated, I suspect that it may conflict with the functionality of Auto Mate. After installing the demo version of Tasker and creating a basic Profile/Task to test detection of USB charging removal (beep, not sure if can/how to unmount yet) Auto Mate no longer autostarts when plugging in USB charging. That bit is somewhat of a backward step before we've even started to move forwards
I'll keep testing and experimenting and hopefully things will fall into place a little better.

Make AndroidAuto WIRELESS using 'USB over the Air'!

Hello, I have an idea how we can make the current Android Auto completely WIRELESS.
Idea is as follows:
Plug a micro Dongle in the car's USB port.
The Dongle will essentially be a WiFi Tranciever. (it may need custom code/firmware etc.)
The Dongle will talk to the Android Phone over WiFi (Because Bluetooth is already being used by Android Auto).
A custom program will be running on the Android phone to send ALL USB Data to the Dongle using WiFi.
Suggested Dongle models:
Xbee, Arduino with WiFi module, any other similar board, possibly any cheap Chinese WiFi USB dongle available on Ebay/Aliexpress.
Things to consider:
The Car's infotainment must recognize the Dongle when it is plugged in as a "USB device" (not a USB Stick/Flash Drive !!!)
The Dongle may need custom code/firmware that will start sending packets to the car's infotainment as soon as it is connected/powered up/car ignition is on, in order to Emulate a phone running android auto.
In the mean time, the app running on the phone will already be connected to the Dongle and the two will be talking to each other.
I you have any other suggestions, leave a comment bellow.
PS: Such devices (USB Over the Air) are actually available on the market, but are quite bulky. We need something smaller.
But even if it is big, we can use a Micro USB plug like this one with flat cable, that will run in the Phone tray, where the board will be hidden so it will not be visible at all!!! :good::laugh:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000325524998.html
Just cut the other end of the flat cable if needed and solder as necessary.
Again, if you have specific ideas/suggestions leave a comment bellow.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aawireless#/

USB Storage As Internal, Play Through AA

I'm running a Pixel 3XL (128GB) in the car with Android Auto. I also have a 256GB USB key loaded with music that I keep in the car. Is there a way, with a cable or otherwise, that I can attach the USB storage to my phone so my phone sees it as internal storage, while still passing Android Auto to the car? I will be travelling soon through an area with poor cell service, so reliable streaming is out, which I usually do through Plex. And as we all know, the limitations and interface with the cars' head units are sometimes prohibitive with a USB key, not to mention constantly having to navigate screens to go back and forth between the factory interface and AA. Will something as simple as an OTG adapter work, or would I need something more specific? If I have more phone storage natively, I'd just load it up, but I only have a few GB remaining.

Try a USB OTG adapter and AAWireless.