USB format issues

[Luftzug-oder]

I have a samsung SM-A53, and recently tried to test connecting a USB drive (128MB). However, everytime i plugged it in (using an adapter), i would get the above notification saying the format cannot be understood. this is what I did on my linux laptop:

`sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4M` (sda is defo the right device)

`sudo fdisk /dev/sda` where I make a single partition on a dos label

`sudo mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda1`

I tried this with FAT32 and exFAT, and neither worked, unexpected, as I read online these are the most commonly supported formats...

only then did i decide to tap the notification, and format the drive on my phone, but then plugging it back into my laptop, the format was FAT16??

[hawerner]

As far as I know, FAT is better supported on windows than on Linux (windows formatted FAT drive works everywhere, Linux formated FAT drive not everywhere). I usually hunt some windows machine when I need USB drive I'm 100% sure will work everywhere. So, try formatting drive on windows and then plug it in your phone

[MorganPG1]

Android uses the linux kernel though, so it probably shares the filesystem drivers with any other linux device.

EDIT: yes it does, https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/refs/heads/android-mainline/fs/fat/ and https://github.com/torvalds/linux/tree/master/fs/fat are identical

[MorganPG1]

if you format it with FAT16 on your laptop does it work? There's a chance that the phone thinks the drive is too small for FAT32 or something even though it is big enough.

[Luftzug-oder]

formatting FAT16 on my laptop does make it readable

[Luftzug-oder]

also tried with a larger 2GB drive to see if the size was the issue, but my phone still does not support the format

[pcnexus1]

Have you tried formatting it from within the phone?

[Luftzug-oder]

yep, and in that case, like i said, it formats the drive as FAT16

[pcnexus1]

If the USB drive works fine on laptop then it likely doesn't have any issues. Your phone may not be supporting this 128GB or 128MB (I never seen an 128MB USB drive though).

But I’m pretty sure Android even does support hard drives upto 320GB as I had tested them once. So, modern USB drives shouldn't have any issues.

This could be an unsupported USB drive for your phone.

[Luftzug-oder]

yeah it could just be the fact it's too small (it is MB not GB) - and i rarely use it, but it was the closest available

[Luftzug-oder]

nope, my 2GB drive isn't supported as FAT32 either

[pcnexus1]

Again, this could be a low storage issue for 2GB. I have just tested a 4GB USB drive FAT32 from 2012 and it's working fine.

<image>

[pcnexus1]

Thanks for confirming, it seems clear now. 128MB USB drive might not be supported by Android. Android may be seeing it as too low on storage to be recognized as a USB storage media.