Read NTFS usb drive?

[Adrenoreceptor]

I dont recall having this problem with my old phone, but I also haven't pulled it out and tried the usb memory drives I've tried in the S-10+.

Phone wants to format the drive in order to use it. From some reading, it looks like it will format the drive to Fat32.

Thing is, I want usb drives to float between the PC and the S-10+ and I am reading that Windows 10 has issues reading FAT32 drives. I'm about to upgrade to a Windows 10 PC at some point.

Is it true that modern androids and modern Windows PCs dont read the same file format? New Windows is NTFS format but Android is only FAT32?

There is this file manager app but a lot of people are saying it's a sucker app that gets you on the hook and makes you pay for every step and format. I dont mind paying for an app I know will work if its not going to poison my phone with junk and ads, but these so-called "free" apps that are only really free to download really aggravate me. Tell me up front what I need to pay to make the app work without ads and dont waste my time. I cant stand a bait ans switch and thats what most apps seem to be.

Any knowledge about this is appreciated. I dont plan to do a lot of usb transfer/use at this time but the phone came with an adapter, so I just plugged a usb flash or thumb or whatever those sticks are called in to it to see if it worked and found this issue.

 

[Dannydet]

Fat32 is read on both windows and Android with no issues

 

[kate]

From what I've read, Windows 10 by default wont format a USB drive over 32GB to FAT32. Is that the issue you heard about?

Windows 10 should be able to read an already formatted FAT32 USB drive just fine.

 

[svim]

FAT (inclusive of all its variations - i.e. FAT15, FAT32, exFAT) and NTFS are proprietary file systems owned solely by Microsoft. They're also licensed and protected by copyrights so any other platform that includes any support for them have to negotiate either very tricky bypasses of the established legal boundaries or negotiate some kind of contract with Microsoft (monetary or otherwise). Even though Microsoft no longer actively develops or supports FAT, it's still proprietary and at any time Microsoft can opt to things very difficult for the industry in general if it chooses to. Note all this was set into place during Microsoft's Gates/Ballmer era, the Nadella Microsoft is a very different one. Just the other day Microsoft freed up exFAT support so now full support for it will be included in the Linux kernel itself. (Up until this it was still a matter of more modular support, not integral.) But it's still not a matter where FAT will become open-sourced so the haunting specter of Microsoft doing a 180 is still a potential time bomb. It's not a likely scenario but still possible.

Anyway, it's not a matter of Android having problems with including support for other, non-native file systems. There are legal restrictions that prevent it from happening, especially with NTFS. Because of this, you do need to rely on third-party support like that app from Paragon. Some file manager apps will also have plugin support for NTFS too. If you don't want to use Paragon's app because it has detractors, please report back later for better alternatives that you find work better.

 

[Adrenoreceptor]

Thanks all.

So from what I glean from the helpful replies is, at this time a portable Fat32 formatted drive will have no problem being read on current Windows operating systems per Dannydet, but this could change in the future. Since, as Kate indicated, Windows will not format any drive larger than 32GB as FAT32, it may be that Windows is already phasing it out and Svim says Windows no longer supporting it could possibly become an issue.

So it seems the answer, as always, is backup, backup, backup. If I'm going move a portable drive/flash drive from the S-10+ to a PC, I'll need to allow the phone to format it in to (I suppose the format will be) FAT32, but anything of value should be redundantly backed up in another format such as NTFS in case Windows, one day decides to abandon supporting FAT32.

I prefer an Android primarily because it works interchangeably with Windows without additional software, like Apple requires iTunes to interface (at least it used to). This is a new hoop to jump through, but I'm wondering at this point if I even need to be concerned about it. The phone comes with around 100GB of available space on it and plug-and-plays with my current Windows 7 PC just fine. Other than lots of video, I'm not sure why a flash drive would be needed and I can install a 512GB micro SD if needed on the phone. The main other reason for USB flash drive and the phone is sharing files with others through the USB. The biggest problem with this is if on the spot, and someone has an NTFS flash drive with something on it they want to share with me, it cant be done because allowing the phone to format a drive wipes anything on it.

I'm reluctant to download any app that is not up front about its costs, just from principle, and I believe downloading then removing a lot of apps has to leave stuff behind on the phone. If I cant trust an app to be up front about costs and features, how can I trust the app at all as far as I'm concerned. I'll just do without and keep my phone as clean as possible rather than take the risk. I do without a LOT of apps for this reason...too shady. "Free to download" means "Warning" to me. Almost all of them are bait and switch it seems. I'm happy to pay for any software that tells me up front fully what it is, what it does and what it costs. I cant stand pay-go apps.

 

[svim]

.....
I'm reluctant to download any app that is not up front about its costs, just from principle, and I believe downloading then removing a lot of apps has to leave stuff behind on the phone. .....

When you want to Uninstall any app completely, don't just use the 'Uninstall' button.
-- tap on 'Force stop' if that button isn't already greyed out
-- find and tap on the 'Clear data' button
-- now tap on the 'Uninstall' button
Using Clear data prior to Uninstall will wipe any settings and configuration files for that app, along with its cache. A lot of apps will still have their config data left as is if you use just the Uninstall button.

 

[Adrenoreceptor]

Thanks Svim. Good info