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Pixel 2 XL OTG not working after Dev. Option changes

4

40_LTDShooter

Newbie
Hello all, I recently dug into my Developer Options menu to try and speed up my Google Pixel 2 XL by turning off all animations, and I may have inadvertently made another change that has caused a different problem...... I have a small Go-Pro style camera that I used to be able to connect to my Pixel 2 XL thru the USB-C (OTG style) cable. I just did this as recently as a week ago .... same cable, same OTG adapter (the one that came with my Pixel), same camera...... but now when I plug it in is just says it is charging the camera, no data transfer is available.

Tried a few different cables, even tried a different OTG adapter.

I did some research, and went back and made sure USB Debugging was turned on. Then I made sure the default USB Configuration was set to "File Transfer".

After that didn't work, I tried to clear the cache & data from the "External Storage" and "Media Storage". I then cleared the cache & data on the "Settings" app. I also reset all APP Preferences....... but I'm still not having any luck.

Also I used to be able to plug my Pixel 2 XL in to my PixelBook (Chromebook?) and it would transfer data, but no such notification now when I plug the two together.

Any other advice I can try? I was thinking of maybe upgrading this phone soon, since it's a year and a half old, but if I can't transfer any data, I can't retrieve any files or pics off this phone, so I'm beginning to get very nervous.

Thanks for any help or ideas you may have, I'm willing to try anything at this point.
 
I think you are looking in the right place - at any rate my first guess was also that you'd changed the default USB connection type. What's weird though is you not getting a data transfer when you connect it to the laptop if the default mode is set to "file transfer" - I leave that as my default just to save me the effort of selecting it (since if I connect to a computer that's always what I want to do). It's possible that the camera needs PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol), but that's just a suggestion as I've never used one of those devices. But I can't see why file transfer to your Chromebook wouldn't work.

This may sound illogical, but have you tried setting the default connection to "no data transfer"? I'm suggesting that because of the options available that looks most like "default to charging only", which is what I remember the out of box behaviour to be. My thinking is that this might result in you getting the option to select a different mode back when you plug in?
 
Is there a 'Revoke USB debugging authorizations' option in your Developer's Options menu? Perhaps something from a previous connection became corrupted during an interrupted file transfer or something like that. This will clear any saved authorizations you made while connecting via USB.

As for getting files off your phone, don't forget there are always file storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc. plus there are plenty of other no-USB-requried, WiFi-based file transfer/remote access apps and services. I usually rely upon AirDroid, but KDE Connect and Syncthing are a couple of others that have worked really well.
 
If USB debugging is enabled you could see whether you can use ADB to copy data over USB. Or attach a flash drive to the USB socket and copy stuff to that. Wireless options are available, they're just slower.

I'm thinking about this because you want to back up everything you can. If this is an obscure settings issue a factory reset will fix it, but that obviously deletes the data you wish to save.
 
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