Connect external drive to Android Tablet

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Geektastic

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# 243311 5-Dec-2018 19:19

I was wondering

(a) is it possible ?

(b) what formatting would you use for the drive so it could also be read by a Mac computer?

The tablet would be a Galaxy Tab S4 with USB C port.

nzlegs

51 posts

Master Geek

# 2140081 5-Dec-2018 20:06

I have done it on a Nexus 7 with a 256gb SSD external drive that I manufactured as a test of battery life for the tablet a long time ago. I transferred fies but I did not run apps. Never considered formatting method so it would be windos formatting method.
It worked.

shk292

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# 2140105 5-Dec-2018 20:50

Google "USB OTG Android" and all will be revealed. Not all Android devices support it

I think most formats except NTFS are supported

d3Xt3r

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# 2140114 5-Dec-2018 21:10

a) Yes, you just need to buy a Type-C USB OTG cable, but I believe Samsung devices already come with an adapter.

b) This is a tricky question, as it depends on your device and use-case. Do you plan to read-write from both macOS and Android? Or is one of them only going to read the files? Would you use the drive on any other system (Windows?)

You could try exFAT, which is supported by macOS, but may not work on Android, however, you could use Paragon's exFAT/NTFS app. It's a bit clunky but it works.

landcruiserguy

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Ultimate Geek

# 2140153 5-Dec-2018 21:20

You should be ok. Samsung supports fat 32 and exfat. Nexus devices only supports open standards which is fat32 only. This is an example of stock Android not being better and is made worse by no sd card support on Nexus or pixel devices. The tablet needs to be able to support the amount of power that the drive needs but you can always use a posted hub. No idea about Mac, not an apple person.

Geektastic

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# 2140182 5-Dec-2018 22:11

What I was hypothesising is copying RAW image files from SD cards to Lightroom CC on the tablet and also backing them up to an external drive.

There are some drives that have SD card slots that will copy straight from the card, but one copy isn't a backup and you can't edit it.

You can't do it with an iPad except using a wireless drive, which is slow.

richms

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# 2140184 5-Dec-2018 22:19

Does the ipad camera kit not let you connect 2 drives at once to an ipad?

Richard rich.ms

Geektastic

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# 2140867 6-Dec-2018 23:40

richms:

Does the ipad camera kit not let you connect 2 drives at once to an ipad?

There is no external drive support, even on the latest model, for wired drives AFAIK.

1eStar

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# 2141309 7-Dec-2018 21:36

I've used external hard drives on android. Formatted to fat32. But exfat will be better for more modern sizeable drives. The thing to consider is some physical spinning drives draw too much power for the usb otg to support it. Some work, some don't. I find usb pen drives or sd cards useful for file transfer. I bought a usb c dongle which does usb, sd card, hdmi, and can be powered to charge through too for my Tab s4

Geektastic

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# 2141335 7-Dec-2018 22:03

I was wondering about one of the portable Samsung SSDs - the little flat square ones. How much power do they need?

landcruiserguy

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Ultimate Geek

# 2141386 8-Dec-2018 06:10

I would guess an ssd is ok but you wont know for sure untill you try.

obsshn

78 posts

Master Geek

# 2141662 8-Dec-2018 15:37

Geektastic:
I was wondering about one of the portable Samsung SSDs - the little flat square ones. How much power do they need?

Have a 500gb one that works flawlessly with my note 8 and 9. Drive has an app also.
Not sure of exact transfer speeds however its light years faster than a non ssd drive

Geektastic

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# 2143439 11-Dec-2018 15:29

I found a dongle by Smaak in NL that has power in, HDMI out, Ethernet and USB A which will power a spinning drive and charge the tablet at the same time.

I connected a LaCie USB 3/Thunderbolt HDD and it was recognised as a USB device immediately.