Do you know how to connect a USB flash drive to your Android phone? If you don’t know, this article from MiniTool will show you some tips about how to use a USB flash drive on an Android phone.
Sometimes, you may need to connect a flash drive to your Android. As we all know, the USB port on your Android does not match that of a flash drive. How can you make it? Well, this article will give you some instructions on how to use such a drive with Android.
How to Use a Flash Drive on Android
- Check your Android USB port
- Check if your Android supports USB On-The-Go (OTG)
- Prepare a USB OTG cable
- It should be formatted as FAT32
- Connect it to Android
- Tab the pop-up file manager on Android to browse the files on the USB
How to Use a Flash Drive on Android
You can connect a USB drive to an Android so that you can use it on Android and transfer files at ease. The question is: how to connect the USB drive to an Android? Well, the way to connect the flash drive to your Android may depend on what types of USB port your Android has.
Check Your Android USB Port
If you have an Android with a USB Type-C port and you have USB drive with both a USB-C interface and a USB-A interface, you can use the USB drive on Android without the need for an adapter. If you are using the traditional USB-A flash drive, you will need an adapter such as the USB On-The-Go (OTG) cable.
However, currently, most Android use Micro USB interface (USB Micro-B) for data migration and charging. Although USB type-C port appears on some android nowadays with the maturity of technology, Micro USB interface is still widely used in various mobile portable devices including Android.
So, generally speaking, when people asking how to connect a flash drive to an Android, the USB interface of the Android refers to the Micro USB interface. For these Android users, they have to resort to a USB OTG cable.
In conclusion, if you have an Android with a USB-C port, you can buy a new flash drive with both a USB-C interface and an A interface or adopt the USB OTG cable if you are using the traditional USB-A drive. If your Android has the traditional Micro USB port, you have no choice but to use the adapter USB OTG cable to make the connection.
No matter what, a USB OTG cable is vital, but what’s more important is that your Android should support USB OTG.
Check If Your Android Supports USB On-The-Go (OTG)
USB On-The-Go enables your Android to act as a USB host, allowing your Android to connect additional hardware such as flash drive, keyboard and so on.
However, not all Android support USB On-The-Go. So before applying this method, you should check if your Android supports USB OTG first. There are many USB OTG Checker apps, which can quickly scan your Android to check it supports USB OTG. You can download one via the Google Play store.
You can also visit your Android’s manufacturer’s website. If you see USB OTG listed in the specifications, it means the device supports USB OTG. If your Android is not compatible, you are unable to use the USB OTG cable to connect your USB drive to Android.
Prepare a USB OTG Cable
The USB OTG cable has a male Micro USB connector on one side and female USB-A jack on the other, which enables you to connect the USB drive to the Android.
You can plug your USB drive into the USB A jack, and then plug the other end of the USB OTG cable into your Android. In this case, the USB drive can be connected to your Android, which is very convenient.
If your Android supports USB OTG, you can connect your drive to your Android via USB OTG cable. However, most Android don’t come with a USB OTG cable. If you do not have one, you can buy a USB OTG cable from Amazon.
Prepare a Flash Drive Formatted as FAT32
Prepare a USB drive to be used on your Android. If the USB drive is formatted as NTFS, you need to format it to FAT32, as NTFS doesn’t work properly with Android.
If you don’t know how to format USB drive to FAT32 file system, you can keep reading.
Format your Android Flash Drive to FAT32
To make sure the flash drive can be read on your Android, a proper file system is vital. If you want to use it with Android, the file system for the USB drive should be FAT32.
If you need to format Android flash drive to FAT32, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is recommended.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is an all-in-one partition manager. It can help you move/resize partition, extend partition, format partition, convert FAT to NTFS, convert MBR to GPT disk, migrate OS to SSD/HD, backup partition and so on.
With its simple procedures, powerful features and user-friendly interface, it has become the most popular partition manager for Windows users. So if you want to format USB drive to FAT32, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is your best choice.
Before you format USB drive to FAT32, you need to connect the Android flash drive that you need to format to your computer. Then you can follow the detailed guide below.
Step 1. Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by clicking the following button. Install it on your computer and launch it to get the main interface.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 2. Select the target partition, and then choose Format from the left action pane.
Step 3. On the Format partition page, choose FAT32 file system and click OK button.
Step 4. At last, click Apply button on the top left corner to allow the change.
If there is no important file on the Android flash drive, you can format it to FAT32 using the following method. However, if there are important files stored on your USB drive, such as loads of movies that you want to play after connecting the USB drive to your Android device, what should you?
You can move them to another drive and restore them after formatting, but it consumes much time. If your Android flash drive is formatted as NTFS, here is another method for you: convert NTFS to FAT32 without data loss.
Convert Android Flash Drive from NTFS to FAT32
In most cases, a USB drive will be formatted to NTFS by default. If it is NTFS, you can convert the USB drive to FAT32 with MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Edition.
Like the above steps, you just need to get MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro Edition by clicking the button. After installing the partition manager, select the USB drive and choose Convert NTFS to FAT32. At last, follow the prompts to apply the pending operation.
So if formatting is not a good idea for you, you can convert NTFS to FAT32 without data loss with MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro.
How to Connect a USB Flash Drive to Android
After having a USB OTG cable and formatting or converting the USB drive to FAT32, you can connect the drive to your Android. If you don’t know how to make the connection, this guide is helpful.
Step 1. Plug your cable into your Android.
Step 2. Plug your USB drive into the female connector of the cable.
Step 3. Then the file explorer on your Android should automatically pop up after detecting the USB drive.
Step 4. If the USB drive is not properly formatted, it will require you to erase and format your drive. If your USB drive is properly formatted with MiniTool Partition Wizard, you are able to tab the notification and open the file explorer to view the contents of the drive as if they were originally stored on your Android.
Then you are able to transfer files from android to this removable drive and play media files from the USB drive. Remember that do not remove the storage device while using it, as this will cause unexpected data loss on the USB drive.
If you need to copy and paste certain files from the flash drive to your Android device, you can long-press on the items you want to move and perform the proper operation. If you want to remove the Android USB drive, to avoid data loss, you should safely disconnect the Android flash drive.
How to Safely Disconnect an Android Flash Drive
When you don’t need the Android USB drive, you can follow this instruction below to safely disconnect the USB drive.
Step 1. Swipe down from the top of the screen.
Step 2. Tap the USB mass storage connected. Then you can now safely disconnect your flash storage device.
Now you should know how to safely disconnect the Android flash drive. It is not a difficult thing to connect and disconnect a flash drive to your Android.
After knowing how to connect a flash drive to an Android, you can use the USB drive on Android at ease no matter if you want to transfer files or play media files stored on the USB drive.
Bottom Line
After reading this post, you should know how to connect and use a USB drive on Android.
If you have any question about how to format Android flash drive or how to use such a drive on Android, you can leave a message in the following comment zone and we will reply as soon as possible. If you need any help when using MiniTool software, you may contact us via [email protected].