Connecting a USB flash drive to a smartphone was unimaginable once, but now, almost every smartphone has the USB On-The-Go (OTG) functionality. You can attach a flash drive to your smartphone to extend the storage capacity of your Android smartphone, or most likely to back up your data like pictures or videos on it. Some might even prefer carrying extra data including movies and large files to access them later.
Below are the methods using which you can connect the USB flash drives to your Android phone for data transfer.
Method 1: Using USB OTG Cable/Adaptor
Connecting a flash drive to your smartphone is an easy task. You need a flash drive, a USB OTG cable or adapter, and your smartphone. After you get them, follow the steps below:
- Connect the USB OTG to your smartphone.
- Now connect the flash drive to the other end of the USB OTG adapter.
- The USB flash drive will start blinking (if in case it has an LED indicator).
- On your smartphone, you’ll get a notification that a USB storage has been mounted.
- Open any file manager app and access the data on the flash drive.
To remove the flash drive, open notification drawer and tap the “Eject to Safely Remove USB drive” button in the notification panel. You will get a toast message that USB storage ejected, now you can disconnect your flash drive from the smartphone.
Method 2: USB OTG flash drives
As the USB OTG functionality is spreading in latest smartphones, flash drive makers have manufacturing dedicated USB OTG flash drives with both connectors on the same drive; USB Type A and micro-USB connector. You can easily connect this drive to PC as well as your smartphone to transfer data.
Some popular manufacturers even have started giving options of flash drives with USB Type-C and Lightning connectors to be compatible with the current upper-midrange Android smartphones and iPhones, respectively, in addition to the commonly used MicroUSB OTG flash drives.
Method 3: Use Wireless flash drives
Certain USB flash drives can be accessed wirelessly, be it from your smartphone, PC or tablet. One such example is Sandisk Connect Wireless Stick; using the Sandisk’s app on your Android phone you can upload, download, save, share and play all your stuff from a distance, to and from the device you want to use. Not only you can share it with your friends but also can stream videos to multiple devices, simultaneously and hence saving a lot of time.
