How to Fix USB OTG Issues in Android Devices

The USB technology has been around for some time and has played an incremental role in uplifting the usability of the smartphone. The USB OTG (On The Go) capability has boosted the smartness of today’s phones a notch ahead. The fact that you can access files by plugging your USB flash drive to your phone is not only cool but convenient too, if you have a phone with low storage. Plus, improvements in technology like the USB Type C format has made accessing files through OTG, a lot faster. However, there are certain USB OTG issues that many Android users face. Well, we are listing down the various USB OTG problems along with how you can fix them:

The USB OTG flash drive isn’t connecting to the phone!

This depends on two major reasons – the first one being that you have overlooked the specification sheet of your handset. In that case, you should read it back and find out if your phone supports USB OTG functionality or not.

The second reason is that users have ensured the compatibility factor but haven’t delved into technicalities of how USB OTG works. We have broken down these reasons below:

1. Is your USB OTG drive as old as Charles Babbage’s machine?

We often prefer to swap our month-old smartphones for the latest offering but do not pay attention to our ageing accessories. Older flash drives were designed keeping in mind the devices from yesteryears. The older generations of USB devices are slower and comparatively, more resource hungry. Plus, they need a substantial amount of power and voltage to aid transfer of data.

On the other hand, modern day smartphones are technically advanced and are designed to run on lower power for optimum efficiency in performance. So, the ports in smartphones give out lesser power to slave devices, limited by their manufacturer. New USB OTG devices are designed to work on old, as well as new devices. They can adjust to varying levels of power input from USB ports of the host devices.

2. Software Compatibility Issues

Since the inception of computers, the annoying issue of file format compatibility has plagued us, making our lives more stressful. Your phone’s hardware might detect the attached peripheral but the software fails to recognize its file format system.

What’s the solution?

Well, you can’t get rid of them completely. But, there are some workaround solutions for USB OTG issues, that can do the job for the time being.

  • For the first issue

Prefer upgrading to newer thumb drives, especially from renowned manufacturers like SanDisk. USB OTG drives from renowned makers might be a tad bit expensive but chances are, they will work a lot better with your device. They provide faster data transfer speeds and are designed to work on low power with smartphones. They won’t affect the health of your phone’s battery and the chipset, thus ensuring that the hardware is happily synchronizing with the software.

usb-type-c-pendrive

  • For the second issue

If your device does support USB OTG and software incompatibility is the issue. I would suggest you to switch to a better file manager app that has clever algorithms to figure out a way to deal with file formats of your portable devices. It will able to detect your new thumb drive or even an old thumb drive. You can find many capable file managers on the Play Store, each with its own advantages.

For instance, I plugged in a relatively old flash drive on my new Android phone and the native file manager failed to identify it. I could access the files only after I installed a separate file manager like ES File Explorer that can deal with advanced levels of system file operations.

SEE ALSO: 12 Unique Ways to Use USB OTG on Android

Fix Your USB OTG Problems

The USB OTG functionality is a great feature, which comes in handy for various situations. Therefore, ironing out its issues will help you get the best out of your Android device. However, we recommend you to always upgrade to the latest technology every year. We know that it might be heavy on your wallet but newer gadgets and accessories always deliver a better experience.

If you have any other issue related to the USB OTG functionality or have better solutions to the above-mentioned problems, you can share your thoughts in the comments section below.

comment Comments 80
  • Olly says:

    My itel a60 is unable to turn on the otg connection setting and I’ve tried everything even using developer options but nothing is working

  • Lawrence Kanaabi says:

    My Tecno camon 16s supports otg and I used to share data via flash n different phones but after changing my phone screen after getting a crack , it only detects the otg but not showing the flash or memory hence showing charging connected with others divice why

  • Larry says:

    My otg is recommended on my phone but invisible on the file manager it only show internal storage for me unlike b4 the if I input it it will show both internal storage and Otg storage. What can I do ?

    • Lawrence Kanaabi says:

      I also experience the same problem but started after changing my phone screen I dont know why

  • Hussein says:

    Comment:My otg is not playing videos,i format it and its still doing the same thing please help me.

  • E_rock adock says:

    Android 11 will communicate with external drive using a -y- connector,one lead to power and the other lead to pny 1tb drive.However onece the battery drains below 100 percent android refuses to acknowledge connection to external drive unless the drive has been connected at one hundred percent battery charge.Unplug the external drive while the battery is below one hundred percent charge and you are forced to wait until the battery is charged to one hundred percent.That being said,I am able to connect -y- cable to android and to external brive as long as the battery is charged to one hundred percent establish connection to the drive and then unplug the power lead and remain connected to the drive until battery is drained.How about addressing this limitation please

  • Eve says:

    Can I fix my corrupted OTG flash drive with my android phone?

  • Riya says:

    Will a OTG pendrive will work after soaked in milk😞

    • Babul Khan says:

      I don’t think it’ll work but you can try on a Laptop or Computer after drying it and giving a little heat of Sunlight.
      I hope your problem will be solved and if it’s get solved Pray for me Once 😊

  • Eri says:

    Hey can someone help me. So my mom owns a realme c3. Previously all of her OTG’s worked on that phone but recently it all stopped working. The OTG isn’t the problem since they worked well with her samsung j7 pro. I tried things but it just won’t work. Does anyone know what should I do?

  • Obinna says:

    Same here

  • Sumaiya Monir says:

    I m using Mi Max 3. While transferring some files , the process failed several times and usb starts asking top format . This happened around 10-15 times. Finally after transferring files when I disconnected usb from my android , it started asking to format again . Then atlast my phone stopped recognizing my usb . (My Usb is 1 year old now)

    • Samantha Cabullo says:

      same. have you found a way to fix it? please

    • Babul Khan says:

      You should use Windows to format your usb for once and than try to download a new driver pack from the manufacturers official Website and install it using Computer or you can also use your cousin’s Laptop to flash it and reinstall the latest driver and boom your problem is no more.
      You can pray for me once cuz I have lots of problems in my life if It helped you.

  • Manase says:

    My flash drive (128gb) is working and well functioning on my computer, but fails to read on the TV and it also reads on my phone but displays errors, and some times it asks for me to format it although I formatted it several times ….what could be the problem

    • Divine says:

      I had this same issue earlier. Format the flash drive on your computer, and this time, uncheck the quick format box and use full format so that it will rectify all issues in the flash drive. The process might take up to an hour.

  • Bayo says:

    Trying to charge my phone with charger not its own charger, it continue to ask me to go to settings and on OTG I can’t charge with the charger am using before. Help me out please

  • Rilwan says:

    Same problem with me somebody help me oo

  • Ankit Pandey says:

    I just changed my charging port my new charging port not supported otg plzz help which charging port is goot for my mobile (lenovok6 note)

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