Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#204223 22-Sep-2016 11:20
Send private message

Why do some USB flash drives work with tablets, and others don't?

 

I have a tablet (Mediatek) that will happily mount a couple of 1GB USB drives, but not an 8GB one ... both are FAT32 formatted, and using the same OTG cable.

 

I've read that some tablets with older Android versions need an app to use USB drives, but I'm on 4.4.2, and as I say it works fine for 2 drives, just not the 8GB one.

 

Is brand of USB drive the problem?


Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer Create new topic
d3Xt3r
687 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

  #1639649 23-Sep-2016 22:41
Send private message

Since both drives are FAT32 formatted, I doubt it's a software issue. My guess is that the 8GB drive requires more power and the tablet is unable to supply it. If you have a Y cable (or a powered USB hub), you could try plugging the drive to it and see if it makes any difference.

If you want to dig deeper, open a terminal emulator app and run the following commands immediately after plugging in the drive:

 

dmesg | tail
lsusb

 

and see if your drive is being detected, or if there are any errors. If the drive is detected, then try using a third-party file-browser like Solid Explorer (with the USB OTG plugin), or if you're rooted, try Chainfire's stickmount.

 

If your drive isn't being detected then it's likely that the tablet isn't able to supply sufficient power to that drive.




Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #1639714 24-Sep-2016 09:02
Send private message

The Y-cable worked!!  I never really thought of power as an issue for flash drives, more the realm of mechanical drives sealed

 

Thanks for the pointers.


Batwing
672 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Subscriber

  #1639744 24-Sep-2016 10:53
Send private message

Interesting, my android tablet happily reads a 16GB stick, though it is tegra 3 not mediatek.

What bugs me about USB sticks on it though is they unmount when the screen is off and don't auto remount.



solutionz
589 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #1639772 24-Sep-2016 11:09
Send private message

Batwing: Interesting, my android tablet happily reads a 16GB stick, though it is tegra 3 not mediatek.

What bugs me about USB sticks on it though is they unmount when the screen is off and don't auto remount.

 

It depends on the implementation; some devices wont sleep at all with OTG as here: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=48&topicId=201548

 

 

 

Another thing to consider is that the USB drive's firmware can present as either a USB HDD or a USB Flash ("Removable") Drive which can be be treated differently by hosts. This commonly affects whether the drive can be booted from and it's compatibility with certain Windows applications. Tools exist for various models of USB drive to switch between the two modes. 


  #1639776 24-Sep-2016 11:27
Send private message

mine will run a 1tb external drive no problems


Filter this topic showing only the reply marked as answer Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.