Help USB OTG and External USB Storage on SIII

[desmofan]

My Wife got a Nexus 7 last Summer, and loves it. She not very techhy, just loves being able to browse the web, read magazines, play games, etc. I however, have an interest in the tech side of gadgets (hence why I have an SIII!), and played on these forums looking at Nexus 7 comments. One of the biggest gripes people have about the Nexus 7 is no MicroSD storage. A USB OTG cable works great for streaming movies or opening certain file types from a USB stick, but you cannot move files back and forth without being rooted and using StickMount.

We bought a USB OTG cable and two 64GB USB sticks (I can't have her with more storage capacity than me, after all ), and this process works fine with her Nexus. I just tried this with my SIII, and as soon as I plugged the USB stick ito the cable I saw a notification about USB Mass Storage being connected. I am able to stream from it, and copy files back and forth between it and the phone. I am rooted, but do not use StickMount, only using Astro File Manager.

What is the difference between the Nexus and the SIII that allows me to do this, and does not allow my Wife? Is it just that I'm rooted, or is there something else different between the two devices?

 

[dan330]

great question... like to know myself too.
i have N7 (getting rooted soon); and a rooted S3 on TPR ROM.
ordering the OTG cable and a flashdrive.

side note: (I can't have her with more storage capacity than me, after all )
why do you need this? your S3 can use microSD cards. that is faster and less wear&tear on that usb port.

i have not tried this.. but you can hot-swap the cards when the phone is on.. just have to unmount and remont the cards each time.

 

[desmofan]

great question... like to know myself too.
i have N7 (getting rooted soon); and a rooted S3 on TPR ROM.
ordering the OTG cable and a flashdrive.

side note: (I can't have her with more storage capacity than me, after all )
why do you need this? your S3 can use microSD cards. that is faster and less wear&tear on that usb port.

i have not tried this.. but you can hot-swap the cards when the phone is on.. just have to unmount and remont the cards each time.

I actually got myself a 64 GB USB stick so we could have different movies, etc. to take on trios with her Nexus. I played with it today on my SII just to see what I could do with it.

I hadn't thought about hot swapping the card in my SIII because my previous phone, Droid Bionic, had the card underneath the battery. That's great news, thanks!

 

[mrhomiec]

my setup is kinda weird. my rooted N7 can detect a USB stick via OTG with StickMount. but my rooted S3 with or without StickMount can't detect it.

 

[Harry2]

As far as I know, your Galaxy doesn't need to be rooted for to move files back and forth on an USB thumb stick via USB OTG cable.
My unrooted HTC One X does it too

Harry

 

[SUroot]

Correct. Galaxy s3 has otg support out of the box. It can support and power upto 500 GB hdd

However it doesn't support NTFS

 

[FxsX24]

Correct. Galaxy s3 has otg support out of the box. It can support and power upto 500 GB hdd

However it doesn't support NTFS

so i can transfer files to the usb stick without root correct?

 

[mrhomiec]

However it doesn't support NTFS

ah ha! that's prolly it.

 

[desmofan]

Correct. Galaxy s3 has otg support out of the box. It can support and power upto 500 GB hdd

However it doesn't support NTFS

Yet another reason to not go the "Nexus" path, with phone or tablet. I left Windows phone system for android because it was open source, but to see the parent company go so far along the path of forcing folks to their will is irritating.