I'm tearing my hair out.
I have a 1TB USB 3.0 drive with two plugs, Type A on one end and Type C
on the other. I bought it to simplify moving files to and from my
laptop and my phone, which is Type C.
I have been told that Android uses EXFAT and Linux can read/write EXFAT
as well, since kernel 5.4, which I have. I formatted the drive on the
laptop as EXFAT and copied some files to it. Then I removed the drive
from the computer and plugged it into the phone, which announced that
there was an 'unsupported USB drive' and it had to be formatted to be
used. I formatted it on the phone, ignoring the warnings that all data
would be erased. When the formatting was finished I removed the drive
from the phone and put it back into the laptop, expecting that I would
have to copy the files to it again, but when I looked at it all the
files were still there.
So then I put the drive back in the phone, but no files. All that I
find are a root folder 'Android,' with sub-folders:
Android
data
com.android.vending
files
com.google.android.apps.translate
files
olvp3
v5
02, 25, + more,
all empty
com.microsoft.skydrive
cache
com.samsung.android.aremojiedito
com.samsung.android.messaging
cache
files
com.sec.android.gallery.3d
files
con.sec.imsservice
files
org.kman.AquaMail (I installedthis)
cache
files
All of the above folders are empty. My files appear when the drive is
inserted into my laptop (Xubuntu 20.04.1), but Android can't see them.
I thought that EXFAT might be great idea for USB drives, since
everything can read it. No permissions, but that may be a good idea for
USB drives. However, considering all the pain I have suffered trying to
get it to work, I'd rather use ext4. I mean, at least it effin' *works*.
I inserted an ext4 USB drive into the phone, and nada. The phone
doesn't even see it. I have poked all over the net and many places say
that Android is supposed to be able to read/write to ext4, but not in
my experience.
Maybe I need some utility on my phone to get it to read/write to ext4.
Does anyone have any clues?
