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.
-
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.
I used Sony Experia X for almost 2 year. Also with Sandisk OTG 64gb. Recently my phone couldn’t detect the OTG when plug in. What should I do?somehow others phone like Asus could detect it, how come my phone cannot.? Any idea?
Comment
otg cant allow my phone to charge and drain my battery too
My galaxy s9 + says I have an osg cable attached but I dont and its draining my battery!!!!
My phone is swipe connect power is charge well but not show otg devices
In my tablet sumsung 8.0 an otg connecting but not accsable and automatic media device disconnected
Sir, I can’t read/view any type of file directly from sony otg 32gb pendriveon my redmi 4 mobile..
Whenever i open files from otg pendrive it says”cant open file.. pls copy file to internal memory”
Pls solve this.
1
I have Xiaomi Mi A1 phone ,I have faced the otg connection problem after update the Android with stable update,
So ,how to resolve my problem,
Seems like we all have the same problem. I have 7 sandisk dual drives that worked in my LG stylo 3 Plus until about 2 weeks ago. I can still access all my flash drives files on my tablet, just not my phone Anymore.i did update ES explorer about the same time as this problem happening.
I am using a Sandisk pmc usb3.0 OTG drive. Connected to my OPPO F1 Plus. Picture files is OK to view, but all videos cannot be played. The files are there, but so far no players can play the files. Please Help!!
Yeah thats is the problem of my otg but ir works in t.v.
My phone and my sister’s phone can’t read my otg flash drive(usb) but when i plugged my otg on our t.v. it worked.
MI A1 mobile but in the mobile OTG not supported
Oreo update 8.0 .0 in the update it does not use the OTG
What the solution for enable the OTG in this mobile
Hello, I’m using Nokia 3. I have this OTG pendrive (samsung brand), so I when I plugged the OTG to my phone, my OTG appeared in my file manager. So I tried to copy a video from my internal storage to my OTG. So after that, I tried to eject the OTG and check back whether the video is still in there, but unfortunately the video gone. So I tried to download file manager app like ASTRO, I still can’t find the video. So I tried to copy a video from my internal storage and paste it to my OTG by the app. Then I ejected it. Then I check back, the video is still there. Butttttt unfortunately, the video can’t be play. UGH WHAT A LIFE PLEASE HELP ME TELL ME WHAT TO DI NOW
Why Alcatel smartphone PIXI4 not detecting otg USB cable?
I have a samsung a8 and usb otg is working great but suddenly its not working when i plug my usb its not detected by my phone even if i plug my phone in a pc its not getting detected by the pc. Need some help
I have rooted my lenovo a 2010 a
Rooted verify success
Now I installed many file manager app like usb otg helper
Es file explorer
Stick mount app
But my otg sandisk32 GB not showing any icon connect in phone
I have also checked otg support app
Compatibility
It shows compatibility yrs
Suggest me to connect otg after king root verify
my huawei y6 pro is otg supported. but when I connect otg it says, Can not load usb.Check if ur usb drive is FAT32 or not.But my pendrive is FAT32.I have tried different pendrives but same problem occurs. What should I do now?
Comment:mine did not even show signs of otg plugged I am thinking its the cable that is faulty wich type of cable do u used
My tablet was able to read OTG devices with no problem. Today, the feature stoped working. I have tried four different OTG cable and two different storage devices–one a USB flash drive. All these worked in the past. I tried rebooting and soft resets to no avail. Even a hard off/on. It still won’t recognize the OTG. (The tablet still charges from the same micro USN port. Any ideas?
Same problem pls reply anyone
I have letv le 1s eco. It doesn’t support otg. why?
My tablet was able to read OTG devices with no problem. Today, the feature stoped working. I have tried four different OTG cable and two different storage devices–one a USB flash drive. All these worked in the past. I tried rebooting and soft resets to no avail. Even a hard off/on. It still won’t recognize the OTG. (The tablet still charges from the same micro USN port. Any ideas?
my huawei y6 pro is otg supported. but when I connect otg it says, Can not load usb.Check if ur usb drive is FAT32 or not.But my pendrive is FAT32.I have tried different pendrives but same problem occurs. What should I do now?
Same problem. Is there a solution?
My umi emax mini is compatibel and I have tried connected a mouse to it, both cable and wireless, both mouses get a signal as I can see the leading light come on but no “arrow” pops up on the screen as it should… The screen works but is unresponsive to the touch so that is why I wanna connect a mouse to it…
I have sansui horizone 2, in this phone firstly otg detect but now otg does not detect what problem is going on.
I already factory rest of my phone but problem still nt solve
i have a san disk usb otg but as I plug it to the port sometimes it will be detected but sometimes not..what should i do to fix it?
i have Samsung Galaxy j2 2015 first time it’s support then next time i insert my pen drive then not connect
i change otg
and reset mbl
my pen drive is sanDisk 32 Gb
plz help
same problem here but having samsung galaxy C7 Pro(c type charging point) when ever i use OTG to use pen drive is simply doesn’t show however the charging is going on nicely.
is there any solution for it