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Help Connecting Phone to PC & Copying Files

AeolianReflex

AeolianReflex

Android Enthusiast
Coming from an HTC Rezound (and all previous android phones), when I would connect to my PC via usb, all folders on the phone were accessible on the PC but not on the phone while connected. The hidden folder starting with a period would show up on the PC as well. Copying to either the internal storage or the sd card was quick and easy.
With the S4 connected via usb the hidden folders are not visible & the folders are still accessible on the phone while connected. Copying to the sd card takes forever or pops up an error. Copying to the internal storage is fine. If I remove the sd card and mount it directly to the PC everything is fine.

Is this a known issue or is there a setting that can me managed to fix this?
I am thinking about pulling the card to back it up & reformat it to see if that helps but with almost 45 gb of media on it, it could take quite hours.
 
You ARE enabling USB Storage before trying to access the card from the computer, right?
 
I am connecting as a Media Device (MTP) from USB PC Connection options. Is there another way to connect to transfer files?
 
Did you let the phone format the SD card? If not, might want to backup the stuff on the card and do that first. Transfers to my 32GB Class 10 SanDisk Extreme card via USB is pretty fast. I've transferred many GB's of movies, pictures, songs, etc. Quick and easy.
 
jejb, are you saying you can connect your phone with USB and copy stuff on/off its SD card ? I'm with the OP, I used be able to do that on my old Android phones but not on the S4 - you seem to need KIES (which I have no interest in - I'm on Linux for a start) to connect. I can switch the USB connection over from "MTP" (i.e. KIES) to connect "as a camera" but it doesn't allow access to the SD card, in fact it shows me one image, there are many more than that on the card. There don't seem to be any options to help me.

I really liked that my old phone was basically a flash-drive and I could copy files on/off it as I liked. Why did Samsung have to mess it up so much?

I suspect I'll root and dump the idiocy of Samsung's version of Android quite soon.
 
I backed up and formatted the card and the results are about the same. Funny thing is, when just using the card in the phone it is quick to access pics and video just as it was on my previous phone. It's just the PC connection that is slow. I've ordered a 64 gb samsung class 10 ultra fast card so I'll see if that makes a difference.

Does anyone that is able to quickly transfer files via usb also see the hidden folders on the sd card. By hidden i mean the ones like .data or .android. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the problem.
 
AeolianReflex said:
Does anyone that is able to quickly transfer files via usb also see the hidden folders on the sd card. By hidden i mean the ones like .data or .android. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the problem.
Click to expand...

No, I can't see the hidden folders on my Win7 laptop.

I just copied a .9GB file over to my phone's external SD card from my laptop. Took 70 seconds. To me, that's acceptable. Not sure how it compares to your download times.
 
I can see my 32 GB class 6 card and internal storage when I connect my S4 to our Windows EX or my work Windows 7 computer. (Not sure about the hidden folders though, don't remember) I just use the drag and drop feature to move/copy files or media from PC to phone or vise versa.
 
Installing the Samsung class 10 did the trick and transfers are now as fast as I would expect them to be. Thanks everyone for your help!

Maybe spoke a little too soon...
5 days later the Samsung card is the same as the sandisk - slow and sometimes unresponsive.
I'm hoping I don't have to wipe the phone to fix it....
 
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