Using a USB C memory stick on Android Phone

[wood1e2]

Hi

My son is travelling and going to be on a long flight, can he insert a USB C memory stick and watch movies stored on the external storage on his phone?

I have seen OTG connection allowing USB A connection to a memory stick, so I was thinking rather than using the OTG I just get a USB C flash Drive/Memory stick?

 

[Scalloway]

This is the first I have heard about this but a look at USB C sticks available on Amazon say that OTG needs to be enabled before they can be used.

 

[wood1e2]

Thanks for the response, so I could just buy a micro SD card in and insert it.

But then I saw OTG as a ways to extending the capacity, but I can't see why I would want that then it seems that there is USB C memory sticks available so no need for a OTG solution...

Or maybe there is more to using an external memory and an android phone than I realised?!?!

 

[Scalloway]

My phone doesn't take micro SD cards. Your post has inspired me to order a USB C stick to see if I can use it for music and films when I am travelling.

 

[wood1e2]

JUst ordered a USB C card reader so it is slightly bigger than a USB C stick, in that it comes with a reader and a short cable, but that it is less likely to be knocked out of the phone whilst holding it... Well that is my logic..

Will let you know if it works.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

75% chance usb c storage device won't work in your phone. Not all USB C storage devoces are the same. My personal recommendation is never to use any storage extension on mobiles. It was never meant to do that. and manufacture wanna earn money with higher capacity storage. Little intrest to support external solutions.


As a base guideline the storage device must be exfat as filesystem. Ntfs won't work due to licensing.

Playing directly content of the external device will wear out the thumb drive much faster. Not recommended at all.

As with any phone and USB c it's a hit and miss both need to follow standards which most cheap phones or thumb drives won't follow

 

[WaveJumper]

Last time I went on a long flight I watched the in flight movies

 

[Scalloway]

Playing directly content of the external device will wear out the thumb drive much faster. Not recommended at all.

How much faster? I would only anticipate using one for a couple of hours once a month.

 

[fisicx]

@wood1e2 - why can’t he just watch the inflight movies. Last time I flew long distance there were hundreds to choose from.

 

[estwig]

I'm quite able to swap files, watch and listen to movies and music via anyone of my usb-c drives, between my windows machines and android12 running on a Samsung.

Nothing special needed, no magic formatting, it just gets on with it.

 

[WaveJumper]

@wood1e2 - why can’t he just watch the inflight movies. Last time I flew long distance there were hundreds to choose from.

I like the jets that have the exterior cameras as well, interesting watching as you taxi round Heathrow and then hurtle down the runway.

 

[MikeJ]

I'm quite able to swap files, watch and listen to movies and music via anyone of my usb-c drives, between my windows machines and android12 running on a Samsung.

Nothing special needed, no magic formatting, it just gets on with it.

What he said. It never crossed my mind this wouldn't work, and it was absolutely fine when I did this.

 

[HFE Signs]

Best option is to read a decent book

 

[gpietersz]

Playing directly content of the external device will wear out the thumb drive much faster.

Playing content is read heavy, should not cause the same problems as write heavy usage?

Also better to wear out external storage than built in.

I find it easiest to transfer files from my PC to mobile devices over the LAN. There are various apps for doing this but I use this: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/download.html (not sure its a good option for Macs or IOS).