Database Users

ClockworkMod and mounting USB?

Hey all,
So I just ran ClockworkMod (2.5.13) and wiped my Vibrant in preparation for the new Bionix. I have found that on my phone I had to wipe sdcard too or it wouldn't wipe fully. The problem: ClockworkMod won't let me mount USB storage or mount sdext so I can't figure out how to get the new ROM on the phone. Voodoo is also enabled and I can't seem to disable it without a working ROM on the phone.
When I plug the phone into my PC the "H" and "I" drives automatically pop up but are inaccessible. Mounting USB storage in ClockWorkMod appears to do nothing.
Any ideas? Thanks!

ohhhhhhhhh
I had the same problem last night but i thought my PC was acting up. I guess it has to do with CWM, but idk why.
What i did was copy the ROM on my external sd card, then put it on the phone and move them to internal sd card
Hope that help

you can use adb to push file to your phone.

Djapatos said:
I had the same problem last night but i thought my PC was acting up. I guess it has to do with CWM, but idk why.
What i did was copy the ROM on my external sd card, then put it on the phone and move them to internal sd card
Hope that help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CWM won't let me mount SDEXT. Is there something special I have to do to get this to work?

You may have to pull the sd card and use an external card reader.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

ADB did the trick. I didn't realize it could push to the phone like that. Easy cheesy. Thanks!
And as for external SD card reader - this doesn't do anything to help transfer a file to the phone. Recovery was unable to mount SDEXT. I can't find any documentation on the matter, but I assume this is a Vibrant-related issue?

Hi, I just have the exact problem on my galaxy note. Trouble is that I can't find a way to connect to my phone through ADB. It just isn't listed when I type "adb devices". I would appreciate any help so I could "push" a rom and be done with it.

demircantas said:
Hi, I just have the exact problem on my galaxy note. Trouble is that I can't find a way to connect to my phone through ADB. It just isn't listed when I type "adb devices". I would appreciate any help so I could "push" a rom and be done with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check Applications/Development/Enable USB Debugging. If that is on, make sure you have the necessary drivers on the PC.
As for mounting via CWM, that should work if CWM gives the option. Again, check drivers on PC.

Cant access USB transfer in TWRP.

Im having an issue with TWRP 2.2.2.0.
It seems that I cant mount USB storage from the recovery at all. I can hear the sound on my lappy that a USB device is connected but when I try to mount through the recovery, nothing shows up on my computer. I tried mounting all the options there with no luck. Is this a known issue or have I messed up with my Nexie somewhere?
Thanks in advance fellow forumites.

Are you trying with usb otg? as in, cable and flash drive?

chichoko said:
Im having an issue with TWRP 2.2.2.0.
It seems that I cant mount USB storage from the recovery at all. I can hear the sound on my lappy that a USB device is connected but when I try to mount through the recovery, nothing shows up on my computer. I tried mounting all the options there with no luck. Is this a known issue or have I messed up with my Nexie somewhere?
Thanks in advance fellow forumites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I couldn't figure that out either, I'm also using twrp. I had to use adb to transfer files. I don't think you messed up your nexie.

unclefrancis said:
I couldn't figure that out either, I'm also using twrp. I had to use adb to transfer files. I don't think you messed up your nexie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having the same problem.
With my Kindle Fire I could connect with a USB cable and see all the files on my pc, just like it was a drive. I can't get that to work on my N7. The only way I can do it is to use WIFI File explorer which works great, but I would still like to get the cable to do it's thing if possible.

goofball2k said:
Are you trying with usb otg? as in, cable and flash drive?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im trying to access the internal storage of the N7 from within the recovery. And it seems impossible :S
Right now for example, I wanted to do a NAND backup but I forgot to delete the previous one and Im out of space. The only thing I can do is reboot back to the system, plug in the usb and delete the backup, then reboot into recovery and backup -.- I wanted to avoid just that but it seems that USB mount doesnt work in TWRP at all. Is anyone using CWMR and can report wether it works there? I would re-flash the recovery in an instant...

Plugging my device into my PC, there is a TWRP folder that contains the backup I made. Couldn't you do this and just delete that folder? I'm not in debugging mode.

Some times windows detect USB device but fail to attribute a letter for that mass storage device. Look at disk managment for storage device without a letter.
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

Visa Declined said:
Plugging my device into my PC, there is a TWRP folder that contains the backup I made. Couldn't you do this and just delete that folder? I'm not in debugging mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm used to do all that stuff from within the recovery on my phone... So Im looking for the same thing for my Nexie. My biggest concern is that I wanted to have USB mount from within the recovery in case my Nexus fails to boot so I can transfer a new ROM and flash it with ease. Dont want to mess with ADB for basic stuff. I can access the storage when its booted normally just fine, its the recovery mount thats bothering me...
maztahbr said:
Some times windows detect USB device but fail to attribute a letter for that mass storage device. Look at disk managment for storage device without a letter.
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is something I completely forgot about, will check it later on and report back. Awesome advice, thanks man! :good:

unclefrancis said:
I couldn't figure that out either, I'm also using twrp. I had to use adb to transfer files. I don't think you messed up your nexie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do I use adb to transfer files? Thanks

Adb push/pull file_name
I guess
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium

I don't have fast boot though .... What else should I do?

[Q] Can Recovery access OTG USB drive?

Usually I would save my Nandroid backups in the ext sdcard on my SGS2 but on the N7 theres no sdcard slot.
Am worried that one day I might lose my Nandroid backups while doing some clean wipe install of ROMs.
Can the recovery mode access an OTG USB drive and save Nandroid backup there?

twrp can mount/unmount otg usb drives. it also can restore from and save directly to the otg usb storage
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

Is there a way in CWM 6.0.2.7 too?

TexasJake said:
twrp can mount/unmount otg usb drives. it also can restore from and save directly to the otg usb storage
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you actually mount the otg usb drive ?
When I look in Mount in Recovery, there is no area to actually do this ?

screenoff said:
How do you actually mount the otg usb drive ?
When I look in Mount in Recovery, there is no area to actually do this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, its the "Use external SD" toggle in TWRP in any of the Mount/Backup/Restore/Install menus. Kind of confusing terminology, for sure - but it works.
I tried it with a thumb drive formatted as fat32, ext3, and NTFS. TWRP mounted them all, but NTFS only mounts read-only. (I couldn't remount it in rw mode using TWRP's command-line facility)
If you need to check to see if it's mounted, use
cat /proc/mounts
from the TWRP command-line facility (Advanced->Terminal Command).
It should be mounted at the /usb-otg directory.
good luck

Thank you for assisting.
I know that it is just a "navigation" problem that I have because I can see the led on the usb stick light up, so it is definitely alive in TWRP.
I just think that I am reading something wrong and not giving the correct commands to reach the usb.
This is what I did, perhaps you can steer me in the right direction.
Firstly, do I reboot in recovery mode with the usb-otg attached or do I first go into recovery mode and only then plug the usb-otg in ?
I have Named the usb memory stick ext-otg, is that correct or does it not matter ?
I then entered Terminal Mode in Recovery and chose "Select" and then typed in usb-otg, is that correct or do I need to type this /usb-otg ?

screenoff said:
Thank you for assisting.
I know that it is just a "navigation" problem that I have because I can see the led on the usb stick light up, so it is definitely alive in TWRP.
I just think that I am reading something wrong and not giving the correct commands to reach the usb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my tests yesterday, the only thing I needed to do was to touch the "Use external SD" radio button; I didn't need to do anything else (note I was using TWRP 2.4.1.0, so ymmv). Also, TWRP seems to remember your settings (dunno where, perhaps in /data/media/0/TWRP/.twrps file?), so if you were to leave this setting this way I presume it would automount the drive as soon as it was plugged in for future sessions of TWRP.**
screenoff said:
Firstly, do I reboot in recovery mode with the usb-otg attached or do I first go into recovery mode and only then plug the usb-otg in ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if it matters. In all my tests yesterday I only plugged in after TWRP was fully booted. I surmise that it would work either way.
screenoff said:
I have Named the usb memory stick ext-otg, is that correct or does it not matter ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I presume you are talking about a Windows volume label - no, that should not matter one bit.
screenoff said:
I then entered Terminal Mode in Recovery and chose "Select" and then typed in usb-otg, is that correct or do I need to type this /usb-otg ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither. You should be able to get the device to mount and dismount by using the onscreen touch controls of TWRP alone. (But see ** below). A person familiar with Unix/Linux administration can use that terminal command interface to do all sorts of things, but I can tell from your question that you are not there yet in command-line skills. However, I did give you precise instructions in my prior post on how to give a command in that interface to check if the device is mounted, namely
Code:
cat /proc/mounts
If the device is mounted you will see a line of output that starts with "/usb-otg"
good luck
** The TWRP touch UI presentation of the controls and current mount state of the USB OTG device leaves a bit to be desired (at least in v2.4.1.0, anyway). Anyplace you see "external SD" you should interpret as "USB-OTG drive". Also, note that the Mount menu toggle does in fact work correctly for mounting and dismounting, so long as you have the "Use external SD" radio button selected. To make matters worse, though, there seems to be a bug - when you use that mounting toggle control, it will indeed either mount or unmount the device - but the "X" check mark display may not correctly show the current mount status. That is why I suggested using the "cat /proc/mounts" command to check the mount status to be sure of the mount state.

bftb0 said:
** The TWRP touch UI presentation of the controls and current mount state of the USB OTG device leaves a bit to be desired (at least in v2.4.1.0, anyway). Anyplace you see "external SD" you should interpret as "USB-OTG drive". Also, note that the Mount menu toggle does in fact work correctly for mounting and dismounting, so long as you have the "Use external SD" radio button selected. To make matters worse, though, there seems to be a bug - when you use that mounting toggle control, it will indeed either mount or unmount the device - but the "X" check mark display may not correctly show the current mount status. That is why I suggested using the "cat /proc/mounts" command to check the mount status to be sure of the mount state.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no "USE external SD" radio button showing at all.
I also did notice if I rebooted into Bootloader with the USB OTG plugged in, it basically froze and said to remove USB.
Once I had removed the USB OTG cable, then I was able to carry on and boot into recovery.
I have 2 different USB-OTG connections, the one is not Powered and the other is Powered.
Both of these work without any problem when I am booted into the Phone, I can access the USB drive without any problems.
But, if I try to reboot with the Powered one into bootloader, it freezes until I unplug it, in fact, it recognizes it and prompts you to unplug it.
The Non Powered cable does not freeze when I reboot into bootloader.
I cannot understand this, I have full Root, I must be missing something ?
But thank you for your time, I really appreciate it.

@screenoff - what version of TWRP are you using?
It's easy enough for me to soft-boot whatever version you are using to have a look.
The bootloader freeze is interesting - I wonder if there is a possibility the USB port is for initial flashing of the devices at the factory. (The devices are certainly blank immediately after assembly)
[ Edit ] - I just soft-booted TWRP 2.5.0.0 - the UI has indeed changed, and now there is a "USB-OTG" in the Mount menu. That seemed to work correctly for me. I hot-plugged my OTG cable (as I had soft-booted TWRP using fastboot) and then used this mount menu.
Note there is a status bar which also functions as a toggle - it shows either:
- "Storage: Internal Storage (nnnnn MB)"
or
- "Storage: USB-OTG (nnnn MB)"
If you tap on that (above) status line, it will allow you to choose between the two options, and then all the other menus Backup/Restore/Install will reflect your choice. (I copied a few Nandroid backups onto my uSD card to be sure that this worked - sure enough, the backups that I put there (in TWRP/BACKUPS/<device-serial-number>/ where the TWRP directory is in the root folder of the SD card, so it shows up after the mount as /usb-otg/TWRP/BACKUPS/<device-serial-number>/)
In the interest of time, I did not repeat the re-formatting of my uSD card into ext3 or NTFS filesystems.
I guess I would say that if you are having trouble getting a mount to occur with this, it is something about:
- use of a powered hub
- partitioning of your usb key (I only used a single primary partition)
- choice of filesystem on your SD card?

I have tried all of these versions in the link below.
http://techerrata.com/browse/twrp2/enrc2b
None of these additional functions are available with my device.
Perhaps, my device which is an HTC One X Plus, does not allow access to these functions even when the phone is Rooted ?
I have also tried it with several different ROMS, from AOKP 4.22, CM10 and various other 4.1.1 versions.
One of the reasons that I want this function is that I am continually experimenting with different ROMS and to have the ability to not have to use SIDELOAD when I wish to do a Completely New Install will be helpful.
I also like to understand what I am doing and I am fascinated by this OTG function and how it works.
- use of a powered hub - I have tried it with the Non Powered Hub as well and although it does not freeze when booting into BootLoader, the end result is the same.
- partitioning of your usb key (I only used a single primary partition) - I have one single partition.
- choice of filesystem on your SD card? - I have used Fat, Fat32, I have not tried NTFS as I believe it only had read abilities.
Thank you for your interest and help, I really appreciate it.

screenoff said:
Perhaps, my device which is an HTC One X Plus...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you might have just convinced me to never offer help to a single XDA user ever again.
This is a Nexus 7 forum.

bftb0 said:
I think you might have just convinced me to never offer help to a single XDA user ever again.
This is a Nexus 7 forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not even notice that it was a specific Nexus 7 forum, I googled Recovery otg usb or something like that and this thread popped up.
I do apologise and although you may not feel happy about helping, you have indeed helped because now I have learnt how to find my way around in Recovery.
So your help is not all in vain and I will find a solution to this problem even though everyone is not as helpful as you are.
I can say that even if I had noticed this was not an HTC One X Plus forum, I would still have asked the questions because Recovery in common to all devices I suspect and I cannot understand why the HTC One X Plus cannot and does not give the same functions.
Had I known that this was not a HTC One X Plus forum, I would have said upfront that my device was an HTC One X Plus and I apologise once again for that oversight.
Thank you once again for your kind assistance.

Formatted USB stick in FAT32 with HP USB format tool, and now TWRP recovery can see my USB-OTG. (it was 0 mb before)

[Q] Accessing Phone storage via a PC when the handset is in RECOVERY

Any way that we could access the phone storage via a PC when the handset is in RECOVERY MODE.
I remember I can do that on my Nexus S.
but when i boot N4 into recovery mode, then plug in the USB cable, the phone would not pick up the phone as an external storage, nor can not recovery files or copy any ZIP or IMG to the phone.
Any ideas? Thanks for reading.

Sorry What I mean is that the PC would not pick up the phone as an external storage.
stevo_stevo said:
Any way that we could access the phone storage via a PC when the handset is in RECOVERY MODE.
I remember I can do that on my Nexus S.
but when i boot N4 into recovery mode, then plug in the USB cable, the phone would not pick up the phone as an external storage, nor can not recovery files or copy any ZIP or IMG to the phone.
Any ideas? Thanks for reading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I remember reading somewhere that this is a current limitation on the recoveries we have now, so you may be out of luck until a dev figures out a fix. At least I think I read that somewhere...

You cannot mount the phone while it is in recovery. If you borked a ROM flash and need to use .IMG files to fix it, you have to boot into fastboot and flash them that way.

i thought so, however i remember i have done that on my Nexus S, May be it is just a limitation on N4’ RECOVERY
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Its a limitation that started showing up about a year ago, i first noticed it on the PHOTON. It is mildly annoying especially when you bork something.
But you can sideload apps/roms/zips on ADB and of course you still have fastboot so all in all its not that bad.

stevo_stevo said:
i thought so, however i remember i have done that on my Nexus S, May be it is just a limitation on N4’ RECOVERY
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your Nexus S also had removable storage and didn't mount via MTP.

joshnichols189 said:
Your Nexus S also had removable storage and didn't mount via MTP.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didn't have removable, it just wasn't MTP.
Sent from my Jelly Nexus 4

DarkhShadow said:
Didn't have removable, it just wasn't MTP.
Sent from my Jelly Nexus 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
However the Nexus S did have USB Mountable storage though as the storage was split between system and USB Mountable (and not MTP). The Nexus 4 only has one continuous area of storage (hence the use of MTP) and "emulates" internal storage. So no, unfortunately no way to access in recovery as of yet.

theimpaler said:
However the Nexus S did have USB Mountable storage though as the storage was split between system and USB Mountable (and not MTP). The Nexus 4 only has one continuous area of storage (hence the use of MTP) and "emulates" internal storage. So no, unfortunately no way to access in recovery as of yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks theimpaler, I understand now, as long as everything could be done via fastboot.

[Q] How can I mount a mass storage device?

Hello,
I'm trying to mount my cellphone as a mass storage device in my Nexus 7, in order to listen the music I have in its sdcard.
Using an OTG cable and StickMount, I can mount pendrives without any problem, but I can't read my phone's contents.
Obviously, I enabled Mass storage mode in my phone (it's running Android 2.3) and tried to mount using 'mount /dev/sda' without luck.
Thanks!

I think you've got the wrong subforum.

davisac said:
I think you've got the wrong subforum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I wasn't clear. Fixed.