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Jelly Bean USB Mass Storage

i have had this problem since i got the jellybean 4.1 update cannot use my htc one x as mass storage with no option to enable like on ICS however i can still access the phone storage on my laptop running vista a mac book and tried my friends windows 8 vaio which also works.

the problem i have is that when i connected my phone to either my xbox 360, ps3,tv or any pc running XP via usb cable pretty much nothing happens it does not come up as removable disk/portable device. i have tried changing the debugging settings etc but nothing.

i contacted htc uk by phone and was told as mentioned by someone above jellybean opens all three things disk drive /charge etc and will require a software update on the device the phone is connected too which i said was bit of an 'Apple' move restricting the device/ software and causing complications. i was then told to find an app without much direction mind to control usb connection to device etc

this has been a pain since i got the update and there is still no apps free or charge that can do this and htc/android/tmobile/carphone warehouse have nothing to say on the matter it seems were on our own

if anyone finds something pleas share it !
 
I think I know what's going on. I have the following:
1) Motorola USB driver (https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/88481) I don't know if this is a requirement, but I installed it as part of getting root.
2) I set my USB Storage as Camera (Settings, Storage, - click on the menu at the top right corner -, USB Computer Connection, Camera PTP.
3) I used the *MOTOROLA* cable. If you use a generic cable that's meant for charging it may not work. I tried two generic cables that came with chargers and it did *not* work.

And here's the proof (couldn't embed the pic for some reason. Adding a link to my box.com where I uploaded the screenshot.

https://www.box.com/s/7p8l1afwirhysih3f5sr
7p8l1afwirhysih3f5sr

I can confirm that the Motorola USB driver is the key!

I have a stock Razr M running stock JB. Before reading this thread, I wasn't able to get my computer to find the SD card (was able to when running ICS). Now that after installing the driver, the computer recognized both the internal drive and the SD card right away. I didn't turn on USB debugging and the USB type was set to MTP (default). I just dragged 1.5 GB of video file from my PC to the SD card with no issues.
 
try this Workaround: power down the phone. physically remove the micro SD card from the phone. insert it into the SD card holster it came with. insert that into your computer. copy files to sd card external drive. remove sd card from computer and reinsert into phone. this is definitely faster if you are trying to copy 22GB of music over to your phone lol. HTH
 
You don't have to power down the phone. Dismount the card in settings, eject it and the SIM and go on from there. I'd replace the SIM while I'm copying files so the phone continues to work. The Maxx HD doesn't particularly care if you pull the SIM and replace it live. And it will remount the card more or less automatically.
 
After trying for days I finally got a mass storage connection. All it took was using the USB cable that came with the phone with USB debugging on.
 
I just found it!

Just migrated today from ics to JB cm10.1, and the mass storage
problem wasn't easy to solve, so here it is:
Unplug your usb cable.
Go to settings->storage and press the menu button (the left bottom button).
It will give you the option to connect usb. press it and will open 3 options, I selected the bottom one - large storage.
Plug in your cable (a regular usb cable), confirm, and the pc will recognize the mass storage.
I hope I translated it ok 'cause my system is in hebrew.

Good luck!

Now all is left to find is if there is a way to work with kies.
 
I just got my RMHD last week. Not sure why you guys are having so many problems. I plugged my usb cable into my laptop, let everything install itself, and i was ready to go. Can read the phone's internal storage, sd card i had with my incredible 2, everything really. I'm running stock everything.
 
Yes, you can drag and drop or copy and paste video, image, and audio files with ease. But try opening a file on your computer and then selecting "Save as" and navigate to your SD card and attempt to save it there. Won't work.

For example, I ripped some audio CD's to my computer, applied MP3 tags and then attempted to "Save As" directly to my phone's SD card. No go. But if I save them to my computer I can then transfer them by copy-paste method. Same thing happens with photos I've tweaked in Photoshop and want to put on my SD card. "Save As" does not work.
 
I just found it!

Just migrated today from ics to JB cm10.1, and the mass storage
problem wasn't easy to solve, so here it is:
Unplug your usb cable.
Go to settings->storage and press the menu button (the left bottom button).
It will give you the option to connect usb. press it and will open 3 options, I selected the bottom one - large storage.
Plug in your cable (a regular usb cable), confirm, and the pc will recognize the mass storage.
I hope I translated it ok 'cause my system is in hebrew.

Good luck!

Now all is left to find is if there is a way to work with kies.

The large/mass storage option doesn't come up on my RMHD with Jellybean. Annoying thing for Google to capriciously remove! :mad:
 
Yes, you can drag and drop or copy and paste video, image, and audio files with ease. But try opening a file on your computer and then selecting "Save as" and navigate to your SD card and attempt to save it there. Won't work.

For example, I ripped some audio CD's to my computer, applied MP3 tags and then attempted to "Save As" directly to my phone's SD card. No go. But if I save them to my computer I can then transfer them by copy-paste method. Same thing happens with photos I've tweaked in Photoshop and want to put on my SD card. "Save As" does not work.


I'm not trying to be a douche or anything, just trying to understand. What's so much better about the save as method? Isn't it basically the same thing, but one less step?
 
I'm not trying to be a douche or anything, just trying to understand. What's so much better about the save as method? Isn't it basically the same thing, but one less step?

Yes, it's the same thing with one less step or two less steps if you don't want to retain the file on your PC (have to take another step and erase it.)

Let's say you take a photo with your phone that you want to touch up using software on your computer and then want to put the corrected photo back on your phone but don't want it on your PC. Three months ago, when this phone had ICS you could do that with Save As; now with JB you can't.

Same thing with audio files. If you make a custom ringtone or notification sound you have to store it on your PC first. I don't need ringtones on my PC so now with JB I have to erase them after I've created them, saved them to PC, and transferred them to phone. Same thing with MP3 files ripped from CD's.

Another consequence of not having mass USB storage on phone is that I can't play songs via a USB cable to my auto's stereo system. I must now use bluetooth. My Ford Sync system can only recognize a limited number of spoken commands via bluetooth--"play next track", "play previous track". Again, just 3 months ago with USB I could tell my truck "play artist Metallica, play track Ain't My Bitch" and it would find it and play it. Now, with only bluetooth connections available (no USB) I have to navigate the phone, find that file and manually punch it up to play it. (Bluetooth can't read MP3 tags embedded in audio files.)

First World problems, I know, but again, Jelly Bean actually took away features that were cool on ICS.
 
Yes, it's the same thing with one less step or two less steps if you don't want to retain the file on your PC (have to take another step and erase it.)

Let's say you take a photo with your phone that you want to touch up using software on your computer and then want to put the corrected photo back on your phone but don't want it on your PC. Three months ago, when this phone had ICS you could do that with Save As; now with JB you can't.

Same thing with audio files. If you make a custom ringtone or notification sound you have to store it on your PC first. I don't need ringtones on my PC so now with JB I have to erase them after I've created them, saved them to PC, and transferred them to phone. Same thing with MP3 files ripped from CD's.

Another consequence of not having mass USB storage on phone is that I can't play songs via a USB cable to my auto's stereo system. I must now use bluetooth. My Ford Sync system can only recognize a limited number of spoken commands via bluetooth--"play next track", "play previous track". Again, just 3 months ago with USB I could tell my truck "play artist Metallica, play track Ain't My Bitch" and it would find it and play it. Now, with only bluetooth connections available (no USB) I have to navigate the phone, find that file and manually punch it up to play it. (Bluetooth can't read MP3 tags embedded in audio files.)

First World problems, I know, but again, Jelly Bean actually took away features that were cool on ICS.


First world problems indeed ;)

As far as transferring files goes, i dont have a problem with taking an extra 2 seconds to select a file on my laptop, right click, and select delete. I dont really even think its worth complaining about tbh.

The bluetooth car thingy though would be quite annoying, i agree. However, I've never had bluetooth in my car, so I'm used to having to use my finger to nav the phone.

I get your point though that these features used to exist in ics, and now they dont in jb. Strange. Google ever say why they did that?
 
I get your point though that these features used to exist in ics, and now they dont in jb. Strange. Google ever say why they did that?

Nothing officially was said, IFAIK. The working theory is that Google wants files to be stored in the cloud, not locally, so they removed the USB mass storage option.
 
Crewville96, what OS are u running on your pc that you transfer files to/from? Just curious.

I have a RMHD with ICS and block the update install every 24 to 48 hrs or so...its a pain, but I still like the open features on ICS.
 
However, one big plus (for me anyway) that MTP offers is that you don't need to mount/unmount the sdcard. This means you can access all the files on your sdcard while still plugged into your PC.


That I didn't know, but that is a big pluss in my book. I work off my phone as if it was a usb drive. Meaning I update excel stored there from the computer it is plugged into.

Being able to access these files, while also being able to run applications that are stored on the sd card(which I couldn't when it was mass storage) is a huge pluss in my book.

Let them cry, we have more flexibility. Not less.
 
That I didn't know, but that is a big pluss in my book. I work off my phone as if it was a usb drive. Meaning I update excel stored there from the computer it is plugged into.

Being able to access these files, while also being able to run applications that are stored on the sd card(which I couldn't when it was mass storage) is a huge pluss in my book.

Let them cry, we have more flexibility. Not less.

What are you talking about?! There is less flexibility, not more. So many people here have no idea what is going on. MTP has always been there for you, not some new addition!

Mass Storage no longer works. MTP does, it gives you an icon to click THEN displays the 2 drives on the phone. with Mass Storage option these 2 drives were at the root of the computer, along with C: and other drives in your computer. This is NOT the option anymore. It takes away functionality people were used to and for you to say blahhhh let them cry is just ignorant. MTP was always there for you and now Mass Storage is gone for the ones who relied on it.

Less Flexibility
 
What are you talking about?! There is less flexibility, not more. So many people here have no idea what is going on. MTP has always been there for you, not some new addition!

Mass Storage no longer works. MTP does, it gives you an icon to click THEN displays the 2 drives on the phone. with Mass Storage option these 2 drives were at the root of the computer, along with C: and other drives in your computer. This is NOT the option anymore. It takes away functionality people were used to and for you to say blahhhh let them cry is just ignorant. MTP was always there for you and now Mass Storage is gone for the ones who relied on it.

Less Flexibility

Couldn't have said it better EVO!! I use UMS too (went back to ICS). Also, MTP won't work with windows XP...took me awhile to figure out that the sd card is only recognized on win 7 or greater. That sucks, if you're running xp you're just screwed.
 
Couldn't have said it better EVO!! I use UMS too (went back to ICS). Also, MTP won't work with windows XP...took me awhile to figure out that the sd card is only recognized on win 7 or greater. That sucks, if you're running xp you're just screwed.


Taking away options is clearly not in the "you get more choices" camp. But I will take exception to the "if you're running XP, you're just screwed" part. If you run an OS that's 12 years old, you have to expect less support. I can't fault any vendor for not adding support for an OS that was released in 2001 (I think that's about right). I think if you're running XP, the old children's saying "you get what you get, and you don't complain" comes into play.
 
Taking away options is clearly not in the "you get more choices" camp. But I will take exception to the "if you're running XP, you're just screwed" part. If you run an OS that's 12 years old, you have to expect less support. I can't fault any vendor for not adding support for an OS that was released in 2001 (I think that's about right). I think if you're running XP, the old children's saying "you get what you get, and you don't complain" comes into play.

They didn't add support, they took it away...it worked before the JB upgrade without a hitch. I bought a RMHD that worked flawlessly on every account with my xp os. So I did get what I bought...they just took it away a month later with JB. Don't kid yourself on the support issue...not supporting xp is nowhere the reason why ums no longer works. When you start paying the same for cloud services as you do your data plan per month, you'll know why.
 
I'm having the same issue. I can't even use DoubleTwist on my Samsung anymore. Does anyone know if switching to ubuntu might make things easier?
 
I would agree the standard Mass storage is the preferred method of using the drives. With Debugging on it allows me to use drives without the Motorola specific drivers. With debugging off I must install the drivers and either way the phone is listed as a device, not USB mass storage.

The same is true of my Nexus 10 with Android 4.3. This actually gives the user from the PC less control over the files. So no I am not thrilled but this is not enough for me to leave Android for Win8 devices...........
 
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