Which phone support UMS?

[mscheaf]

I have a Galaxy Victory LTE. The kernel is such that USB Mass Storage cannot be enabled even with rooting and all of the UMS enabling apps. It's just not possible on this phone, and no t enough people have this phone so I can't find any kernels for it that would allow UMS. So I guess a new phone is my only option.

Is there any modern android phones that still allow UMS?

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

Probably none. As unhelpful as that is, I doubt you'll find anything with UMS that didn't have it before an update. On prepaid it will be even harder.

 

[mscheaf]

Well there are people making these UMS apps that seem to work for some people. Just non of them work on my phone.

 

[davoid]

Sony Xperia Z series phones have UMS (they call it MSC)

 

[mikedt]

Well there are people making these UMS apps that seem to work for some people. Just non of them work on my phone.

Sure USB mass storage has got to be done at the low-system or kernel level. If it was easy as just installing an app, it would likely be very popular.

 

[mscheaf]

Right, which is why I am trying to figure out which phones will allow me to use a UMS app, so I can get one.

 

[SulkyAndroid17]

Are you looking for a phone on Virgin Mobile? Or is any carrier fine?

 

[mscheaf]

Oh, actually I would prefer to get away from VM and stay away from Sprint's network in general. I would kind of just like an unlocked GSM phone at this point. Sprint and Verizon are both abysmal in my area anyway, so I would likely go to AT&T, T-mobile, etc.

 

[fdbryant3]

What is so important about it supporting UMS (not sure your going to find that since I believe it is Google that took it out)? There are lots of ways to get files on and off of the phones.

 

[drakey]

Sony Xperia Z series phones have UMS (they call it MSC)

Interesting, I didn't know this. Thanks for the info

 

[Hadron]

What is so important about it supporting UMS (not sure your going to find that since I believe it is Google that took it out)? There are lots of ways to get files on and off of the phones.

It's a universal standard, unlike OS-specific carp like MTP.

But the clearest use case is if you need to recover files. Dead easy with a UMS mounted volume, not so via a protocol that's just designed for file transfer.

 

[mscheaf]

What is so important about it supporting UMS (not sure your going to find that since I believe it is Google that took it out)? There are lots of ways to get files on and off of the phones.

Not sure the 'why' matters but here it is: I want to be able to plug my phone into any of the 2 dozen audio devices that I own that use UMS (like EVERY audio device does). And no bluetooth isn't an option for most of them and the analog audio jack sucks.

 

[mscheaf]

Sony Xperia Z series phones have UMS (they call it MSC)

I will look into these. I will also just look into getting an android 4.0 phone when UMS still existed and not upgrading until they bring it back.

Edit: there is no way I am paying that much for a Sony phone. That is insane. 4.0 it is. Thanks everyone

 

[fdbryant3]

Not sure the 'why' matters but here it is: I want to be able to plug my phone into any of the 2 dozen audio devices that I own that use UMS (like EVERY audio device does). And no bluetooth isn't an option for most of them and the analog audio jack sucks.

Ah, fair enough. I hadn't thought of that use case since to me UMS is just about moving files on and off the device and as I mentioned there are plenty of ways doing that without MTP.

The "why" does matter though. Now that I (and others) know what your looking to do if I come across a solution that sounds viable I'll probably come back here to mention it. For instance a bluetooth adapter like this might be a viable alternative (not ideal I know, but personally I'd prefer it to having another device to manage, although it also would depend on how many I would need to get).

 

[mikedt]

I will look into these. I will also just look into getting an android 4.0 phone when UMS still existed and not upgrading until they bring it back.

Edit: there is no way I am paying that much for a Sony phone. That is insane. 4.0 it is. Thanks everyone

Don't think Google is going to be bringing it back as a core feature of Android. I believe one of the premises of not having UMS, is that devices are no longer required to have FAT formatted storage. I think the internal storage on 4.1+ devices is Linux EXT format. The only things that can natively read that via UMS, is Linux OSs. Certainly not USB audio devices, they only read FAT formatted storage AFAIK, and Windows can't read/write EXT either. Modern USB audio devices should be implementing music over USB, which Android does support. And how the storage is formatted doesn't matter, same with MTP.

A limitation of FAT is no bigger than 2GB file sizes, and now we have phones capable of shooting huge 4K videos. Individual manufacturers are still free to implement UMS and FAT storage if they want to, e.g. Sony, and many Chinese manufacturers do as well.

 

[John Bean]

It's a universal standard, unlike OS-specific carp like MTP.

I'm not a fan of MTP but I'm not clear why you say "OS-specific"; it works fine with all my Windows and Linux installations. Can't speak for Apple, never used one.

 

[John Bean]

I believe one of the premises of not having UMS, is that devices are no longer required to have FAT formatted storage.

That's not a valid reason if you dig deeper. I once had a Creative music player that used an internal microdrive (a tiny "real" hard disk) that was formatted to some bizarre internal format but always presented it as FAT to the outside world. Translation of the physical format to FAT for USB purposes is not really that different from presenting it as MTP.

It's more likely the main driving force is losing the need to mount/unmount the USB mass storage to be able to use it; MTP doesn't require this, allowing access at any time "on the fly".

 

[mikedt]

That's not a valid reason if you dig deeper. I once had a Creative music player that used an internal microdrive (a tiny "real" hard disk) that was formatted to some bizarre internal format but always presented it as FAT to the outside world. Translation of the physical format to FAT for USB purposes is not really that different from presenting it as MTP.

It's more likely the main driving force is losing the need to mount/unmount the USB mass storage to be able to use it; MTP doesn't require this, allowing access at any time "on the fly".

It was one of their Nomad players wasn't it? I remember reading something about it on the wonderfully named AnythingButIpod forums. Used a 1inch HDD, the same HDD that the iPod Mini used, and the iPods on PC used FAT, was before large capacity solid state players became really popular. I don't think it appeared to the PC as true FAT, you still had to install a proprietary Creative driver to mount it, and then it would appear as a drive to Windows. But from what I recall the driver was Windows only, and people with Macs and Linux were kicking up a stink about it and having to reverse engineer the thing.

I'm sure Creative were one of the first manufacturers to adopt MTP instead of UMS, because they had to do that for Microsoft's now defunct "Plays For Sure" DRM scheme. Funny thing was Microsoft's own Zune player wasn't "Plays For Sure" LOL.

 

[John Bean]

You could be right, it was probably translated in the drivers in the case of the Creative device; my memory is a bit vague about the details.

However I am sure I have handled a device that did the same thing internally - because I was surprised when I inspected its drive in isolation - but I'm struggling to remember what it was. I thought it was the Creative player but the more I think about it the more unlikely it becomes. I'll remember what it actually was. Eventually

 

[mscheaf]

Modern USB audio devices should be implementing music over USB, which Android does support.

huh? How? Howe does android support music over usb?

 

[mscheaf]

It is really really hard to find a site to buy phones that makes it easy to search through them. I have yet to see a single Android 4.0 phone. Searching for phones on amazon is a nightmare. Maybe I will just go back to a dumb phone. Found a nice samsung that does everything I want.

 

[mikedt]

There's likely no manufacturers making ICS 4.0 phones now, even off-brand cheapo Chinese ones. And if you do find one, it's likely to be old stock.

 

[dibblebill]

Not sure I fully understood all of the thread. HTC One can mount and use USB storage flash drives via a OTG cable (native 4.4 kernel and ROM)

EDIT: That's the m7, not m8.

 

[mscheaf]

I just bought some old unlocked samsung with gingerbread. I will use that until I no longer can. If Android phones are no longer going to have UMS, then I simply will not buy any more. If it gets to the point where 2.3 phones are not allowed to be used, I will simply go another route. Thanks for the help.

 

[mikedt]

I just bought some old unlocked samsung with gingerbread. I will use that until I no longer can. If Android phones are no longer going to have UMS, then I simply will not buy any more. If it gets to the point where 2.3 phones are not allowed to be used, I will simply go another route. Thanks for the help.

Another route? If you don't get an M7 which has already been suggested, you might have to go second hand then if can't find any new phones with UMS. Really because most no longer use FAT storage, because of its limitations. I know iPhones definitely don't do UMS. Windows Phone is probably MTP as well.