USB OTG problem - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Im having some strange problems connecting my SD card to my SGS3.
Bought a USB OTG cable from ebay 2 weeks ago (this one) and also an SD card reader to plug into it (this one). The phone found the SD card when plugged in and i could browse files from the card fine. a file browser would pop up instantly and allow me to navigate the card. Then it literally stopped working a few days later.
I thought it was the card reader so i plugged a USB mouse into the cable and conntected to my phone and it worked fine, meaning it wasnt the cable. I then plugged the card reader into my PC and it didnt find it, so i thought the card reader might be damaged, and went and bought a new one (this one), but when i plug it into my USB cable, and then into the phone,it still says "USB connector connected" (as shown in this image), but it doesnt launch the file browser, nor can i find the card anywhere in the file system.
Ive turned off USB Debugging from Developer options, but cant for the life of me find out why my SD card cant be read by my phone!
To summarise:
USB OTG cable works fine as ive plugged a mouse into it.
SD Card reader works fine as ive pluuged it into PC with SD card in and i can view files
SD card wont connect to my phone via USB OTG cable

Not all card readers might be compatible, it depends on the chip they use.
I'd recommend using 'real' USB-Sticks instead of SD-cards due to the better compatibility unless required.

The first SD card I bought was working and then suddenly stopped working so I can't understand why this is!
I could probably try a USB stick (will do when I get back from work) but for her purpose I'm using it for, I need to be able to read an SD card.
Really confused as to why this is happening!!
Does USB debugging make a difference being on/off?

so I can't understand why this is!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said, probably a different chip in that card reader. It's trial and error.
Does USB debugging make a difference being on/off?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, that allows ADB. It has nothing to do with OTG.

"USB connector connected" just means that the OTG cable is connected, nothing else.
In terms of SD cards, especially with readers, they can be a bit of a pain. Better to stick to usb devices. I use a kingston USB card reader and it works with the S3.

d4fseeker said:
As I said, probably a different chip in that card reader. It's trial and error.
No, that allows ADB. It has nothing to do with OTG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Surley if it was working before, then it shows there isnt a problem with any chip's compatability with the S3?

Surley if it was working before
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to your description it was never working.
It worked on another SDcard reader with different internal electronic
If you get the same one you had at the beginning or one with identical chip, it should work again.

Oh i understand what you mean, crossed wires sorry. i thought you were talking about why the first one had sudennly stoped working.
Why do some SD card readers work with USB OTG and some dont? I thought they would all work as all USB?

Card readers are not real mass storage devices but have electronics to convert from SDcard-connectivity to USB.
These need to be controlled by the host computer, and as such need drivers.
Linux and Windows include drivers for most common devices and often can control a device with generic drivers which guess how the device MIGHT react.
If your device is rooted, please open Terminal Emulator (free App on the market) and type: (It may work with non-rooted devices too, I'm not sure)
Code:
dmesg > /sdcard/usb.log
DO NOT PRESS 'ENTER' YET.
Plugin the USB-OTG connector without the device. Wait 1-2 seconds, then plugin the SDcard reader with an SDcard in it.
Wait 1-2 seconds again, then hit ENTER to run the commend.
Then please attach the logfile you will find on the SDcard (with the name usb.log) to your next post.
It should show what exactly goes wrong

Oh i see, I thought any USB card reader would work... i was wrong
Ive done what you said (it did work on my un-rooted GS3), but wouldnt let me attach it, it was saying it is an invalid file, so i put it on Google Drive for you to download. it's here.
The usb.log is for the new card reader that works in the PC but not in the phone. Didnt see any point doing the first card reader that suddenly no longer works in the phone, as it doesnt work in a PC either.
Thanks for all your help so far!

Code:
<5>[64485.553889] c0 scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB2.0 CARD-READER 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
<5>[64485.558943] c0 sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[...]
<5>[64486.078812] c0 sd 9:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
Seems I was wrong and it's recognizing the card-reader all right and seems to be able to access it.
So, for any reason, it seems to be unmountable.
Could you please confirm it's recognizing the partition alright by attaching the card reader to your phone and then typing: (Should work without root too)
Code:
ls /dev/block/sd*
It's supposed to give you 2 lines of output:
sda
sda1
If only sda, please make sure your SD-card is in FAT32 format (not exFat, may cause issues)
If both, go to System->Storage and check if you can manually mount the USB storage (called an SD-card under CM10 at least)
If not, apart from re-formatting the SD-card that's as far as we can go without root, 'mount' commands need root to work.

Yeah it does show both sea and sda1.
I can go to storage settings but I have a microsd card in my phone so when I click unmount it just unmounts the micro sd. When the microsd is unmounted, I cannot mount the SD card either
d4fseeker said:
Code:
<5>[64485.553889] c0 scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access USB2.0 CARD-READER 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
<5>[64485.558943] c0 sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[...]
<5>[64486.078812] c0 sd 9:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
Seems I was wrong and it's recognizing the card-reader all right and seems to be able to access it.
So, for any reason, it seems to be unmountable.
Could you please confirm it's recognizing the partition alright by attaching the card reader to your phone and then typing: (Should work without root too)
Code:
ls /dev/block/sd*
It's supposed to give you 2 lines of output:
sda
sda1
If only sda, please make sure your SD-card is in FAT32 format (not exFat, may cause issues)
If both, go to System->Storage and check if you can manually mount the USB storage (called an SD-card under CM10 at least)
If not, apart from re-formatting the SD-card that's as far as we can go without root, 'mount' commands need root to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hmm, I have no clue why it doesn't automount it.
Should you decice to root (it's a real painless method) we can look further but for now I'm out of ideas on checking the reason.

I've got the exact same problem - my otg usb hub worked with everything yesterday, now it won't mount drives, but my usb keyboard worked? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I only moved from the dark side a couple of weeks ago!
Sent from my GT-I9300

Are you rooted?

Yes with CF root 6.4
EDIT here's my usb.log http ://db.tt/dcTrO9nZ with space!
Sent from my GT-I9300

I'm not rooted but planning OK rooting and getting an unbranded version of jelly bean when its official. Can you point my in the right direction to root (at work now so only looking at reading the process)

I used this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27049357
Hope that helps
Sent from my GT-I9300

@imfromwales
Here you go, it's pretty straight forward. (A lot of text to say so little =D )
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1695238
@M-Lin
Please try: (with the device attached)
Code:
ls /dev/block/sd*
Remember the last device in the list with the name sdX1 (where x is a letter)
Code:
su
mkdir /mnt/usbdisk
mount -t vfat /dev/block/sdX1 /mnt/usbdisk
(The x in sdX1 here being the one you remembered above)
If it doesn't give an error-message, try accessing that folder through a file browser.

@M-Lin
Please try: (with the device attached)
Code:
ls /dev/block/sd*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I get
/dev/block/sd*: no such file or directory
EDIT: I also get SC3 usb host driver NOT found! In usb host controller 0.44
EDIT 2: it was my usb hub - a wire has come loose - thanks for your help anyway
Sent from my GT-I9300

Related

/SDCARD2 Need to Know

Folks,
I don't claim to be an expert on the microiSD card, but there are some things
that need to be said -- and if I don't get it all or get it right then other folks
need to jump in.
1. Care always need to be taken putting your microSD card in and out. Not
only is it small and fragile, but the slot is small as well. You sometimes may
have to use your fingernail or something else thin to ease it far enough in
against the spring to get it to "click" into place. Same thing in reverse for
removal.
2. YOU CANNOT JUST PLUG AND UNPLUG THE FULL SIZE USB STUFF IN ANDROID.
They are not "Plug and Play" like Windows. I don't know the final word, but on
the full size USB port -- when I put in a USB key -- I always shut down, plug it in,
then reboot.
The miniUSB you use to your PC is a little more flexible, but that's another
post for another time.
3. You can use the microSD for recovery, but you have to edit the recovery
command file to point to /SDCARD2. When you boot standard recovery, Android
checks the internal memory for a recovery/command and update.zip presence.
If it does not find them, the it looks for a microSD external card and if it finds it
then it checks for recovery/command and update.zip file there.
4. Different ROMS have different capabilities with regard to finding and using the
USB ports. You'll have to research that -- or maybe someone will fill in that
blank here.
I hope this helps. I know this is not all the info on /SDCARD2 -- but I hope it
get the discussion going to help those having problems.
Rev
Good Topic! May want to add mention that /SDCARD2 does not normally mount to your PC when the tablet is connected for file transfers (I've seen that question 3 or 4 times in the past few days). There are some apps that allow it but I've run into some serious issues with a couple of them up to and including corruption of the internal memory.
#2 - the large USB port... I'm not an expert on this either but I do have two flash drives that will not mount if they're inserted with the tablet off. They do work fine when inserted with it on. So there is at least some level of auto-detect and mount going on I'm just not sure to what degree. It is on the list for further study. I would definitely err on the side of caution on this one with regards to anything containing important data.
#3 could be expanded to include or link to a how to on making your own recovery/utility MicroSD (another thread?). This could really save some folks some time and anguish.
+1 placeholder
+2 placeholder.
I won't bump it again. Just want those who need this to have the opportunity to
read it.
Rev
If SDCARD2 does not mount to your PC, how do you get the PC to recognize it so that you can store media files from your PC? Thanks!
mebrat said:
If SDCARD2 does not mount to your PC, how do you get the PC to recognize it so that you can store media files from your PC? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I understand your question correctly, you must get a standard sd holder for your micro sd (usually comes with the micro, but not always), and then you need a card reader with a usb plug to go into your computer.
snarful,
Yes. In my case an adapter came with the microSD card and I have a card reader
on my PC -- so I'm good to go.
But if you are going to do much with the cards, it really helps and speeds things up.
Rev

[Q] Connecting camera with USB-OTG - what I have found so far

Evening all,
I bought a OTG/USB cable to see if it would connect a device with USB-OTG.
I plugged in my Canon EOS with one image on the camera.
The i9100 stated that a USB device was connected in the notification window, and one could tap the message to disconnect the USB storage.
I checked to see whether a device was there but it was unmounted so I presume that it would not auto mount the disc.
I looked for an autofs type file, but found vold. There is an entry for an OTG device:
Code:
# otg sdcard
{
ums_path = /dev/zero
asec = disable
}
usb_mount sdcard2 /mnt/sdcard/usbStorage auto /devices/platform/s3c_otghcd/usb
I checked with the camera plugged into the i9100 and /mnt/sdcard/usbStorage was empty.
Did anyone else try this?
Regards.
Tha same thing happened with my flash disk. After i repaired with scandisk, it worked.
mdalacu said:
Tha same thing happened with my flash disk. After i repaired with scandisk, it worked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mdalacu,
Thank-you for your reply, but I don not understand what you mean. How do you repair with sandisk? Sandisk make hardware. Its akin to saying that you formatted your PC with Sony Vaio.
Anyway: The CF card I have in the Camera is a Sandisk 8Gb extreme formatted with VFAT via the camera built-in format function. Its been formated a few times before with mkfs ext3 but that was years ago and since uses the camera to format it.
Scandisk, not sandisk. m8
Scandisk is a windows utility to verify drives, the table of contents and disk errors. It's pretty similar to the manufacturer name, so it's easy to mistake one for the other
Ahh. Apologies, my mistake.
I shall reformat the disc, but I cannot see this as the problem, although the camera mounts as a USB drive on Windows and Linux without a hitch.
forgetmyname said:
Ahh. Apologies, my mistake.
I shall reformat the disc, but I cannot see this as the problem, although the camera mounts as a USB drive on Windows and Linux without a hitch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, and after mount : My Computer, right click on usb storage device - properties, tools - Error-checking - Check now!

[Q] Can't use usb as a storage device using card reader

Hello, I am having a problem getting my galaxy tab 10.1 to recognize a usb flash drive I have connected via an adapter. I know it works because it detected a wireless mouse I connected to it, and it shows up when I use dmesg or lsusb in the terminal. The thing is that none of the file explorers I've used (Es, Astro) are able to detect the files I have on it. The usb drive is formatted to fat32; would it be more likely to detect it if I formatted it to ext3 or ext4?
Maybe you need to use this?
RoberGalarga said:
Maybe you need to use this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for showing me that! I went through at lest five other apps that didn't work before trying this. :victory:

[Q] How can I stop the mysterious SD card removal affecting my phone?

My Note II, running the latest CM 10.2 nightly, has had a ghost--or Electro--remove the SD card making SD card dependent programs stop working.
I have a 64gb SanDisk card that has been working like a champ since I bought the phone.
Earlier this week, I kept getting errors that my SD card was not available. These errors would come out of the blue, sometimes even when the phone was in its dock. This made Spotify and Camera apps useless.
However, the phone still recognizes that the card is still plugged in.
At no point in time had I touched the actual card physically.
The only way to fix it, is to either pop the batter door, pop out the SD card out and back in, and then force close the apps that depend on it.
Or, reboot the phone.
How do I go about fixing this?
Your card might have become mounted "read only" ....you can fix it in a computer. Do a google search for "sd card mounted read only". It has happened to me before. It happens sometimes when one or more files on the card become corrupted....the fix will not erase your card.
Sent from my SCH-I605 / Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk v 2.4.13
manbat said:
Your card might have become mounted "read only" ....you can fix it in a computer. Do a google search for "sd card mounted read only". It has happened to me before. It happens sometimes when one or more files on the card become corrupted....the fix will not erase your card.
Sent from my SCH-I605 / Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk v 2.4.13
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had feeling that it would be something related to the writability of the card.
Seems that this is a common problem, but none of the solution threads showed up in my searches.
From here, we have the following:
Fix the FAT
- connect device to your PC (USB connection) and make sure it’s set so that you can copy files to/from your computer (on my device in the notification panel there’s an option to do this under “USB connected”)
- on your pc, open windows explorer (or click on start->computer), then right click on the mapped drive to your sd card – you may have to wait a minute or two for the mapping to take effect
- select Properties
- select Tools
- select Check now… (for error checking) to automatically fix file system errors (no need to deal with bad sectors at this time)
- when completed (takes a minute or so), the FAT will be in working order once again. No files are deleted during the process, so no need to worry about that.
- safely disconnect the device from your pc, at which point the sd card will now be mounted read-write and you’re good to go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once I get home I'll try this out.
I just put it in a SD Adapter and plug it into the computer. Use the same process listed. Worked for me.
Sent from my SCH-I605 / Galaxy Note 2 using Tapatalk v 2.4.13
I executed a check disk on my sd card and put it back in my phone. The same problem persists. This is rather annoying.
Mine was close to capacity a while ago and exhibited all signs of being toast.
I removed about 20 gigs of music from it, and it came back to life.
Good luck.
Hmm, I'll give it a try. The SD card is pretty full with all the TWRP and Titanium backups ...
I tried everything under google's radar, and I cannot get this to work. The car simply does not like to be written on, cannot be formatted, an check disk does nothing.
HTML:
[email protected]:~$ dmesg | tail
[439975.916884] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[439975.916896] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[439975.918251] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[439975.918259] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[439975.923608] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[439975.923616] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[439975.924857] sdb: sdb1
[439975.929020] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
[439975.929033] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[439975.929044] sd 18:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[email protected]:~$ fdisk -l
[email protected]:~$ sudo umount /dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for z:
[email protected]:~$ sudo mkfs.vfat -n 'SDCARD' -I /dev/sdb1
mkfs.vfat 3.0.14 (23 Jan 2023)
mkfs.vfat: failed whilst writing FAT
[email protected]:~$
I looked up my order on Amazon, and then at the product reviews for the card. I stumbled upon this thread: http://www.amazon.com/review/RUM36X...IN=B009QZH6JS&nodeID=172282&store=electronics
Seems like it is time to call Sandisk and get this card RMAed
I have fixed this by transferring my card to pc, running a full format via cardreader. and putting my files back. I believe a full format will mark bad sectors. It will take a while though.
If you are having trouble formatting in windows try using a software called gui format.
johnwaynegacy said:
I have fixed this by transferring my card to pc, running a full format via cardreader. and putting my files back. I believe a full format will mark bad sectors. It will take a while though.
If you are having trouble formatting in windows try using a software called gui format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried formatting from both Ubuntu and Windows. There seems to. Something totally off with the card; I simply cannot write to it.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4
Here is what happens in windows:
Through CMD
Code:
C:\>format /fs:FAT32 Q:
Insert new disk for drive Q:
and press ENTER when ready...
Code:
C:\Users\Z>format /fs:exfat /x /q Q:
Insert new disk for drive Q:
and press ENTER when ready...
The type of the file system is FAT32.
The new file system is EXFAT.
QuickFormatting 60890M
Volume label (15 characters, ENTER for none)?
Invalid media or Track 0 bad - disk unusable.
Through Disk Manager
Code:
---------------------------Virtual Disk Manager---------------------------
The format did not complete successfully.
---------------------------OK ---------------------------
There is something definitely wrong with the card

PC cannot detect Nano Memory

Hi.
I couldn't find a specific Nano thread with issues so post it here as I am using with my P30P.
I got a Nano memory card + official Huawei USB reader so I could transfer my music and other things before my phone arrived.
When I connect the reader the laptop is detected and shows 2 drives - nano mem and standard sd - however my laptop just does not detect the nano memory when it is in the reader.
The drive letter stays greyed out.
I do not find anything online about this specific issue, I wondered if I would need to format it in my phone first but that doesn't make a difference.
Anyone have issues?
(in the end I copied my files laptop>usb stick>phone USB C connector > file manager to copy and paste but it was an extra step I could do without).
Try looking at the card in disk management in admin tools
unibomber said:
Try looking at the card in disk management in admin tools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, I tried this but no luck.
It's odd, the usb stick works with normal SD, the nano works in my phone fine but doesn't get detected in the stick.
I can't try in another laptop as my work one has USB drives blocked
Wonder if the nano card uses an unknown file format. Will probably need to be formatted in the phone. When my note 4 originally came out, that's what I had to do.
unibomber said:
Try looking at the card in disk management in admin tools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
unibomber said:
Wonder if the nano card uses an unknown file format. Will probably need to be formatted in the phone. When my note 4 originally came out, that's what I had to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I wondered this too, I'll try it again and see if it picks it up.
Will also try my old Teclast dual boot tablet and if it can detect in windows via USB OTG to the reader.

Categories

Resources