[Q] Kindle Fire USB Port work with External Hard Drive? - Kindle Fire General

Can anyone with a kindle fire confirm whether or not a USB External HDD containing various data could be directly connected for Video / Music / Picture / Documents? (with adapter of course)
The kindle seems great, but aside from the usual "connect it to your computer for mass storage" I haven't yet found an answer to this question.
If not, how successful have people been with streaming video from a HDD connected to a wireless router to the kindle fire?

I dont believe this has "USB Host" ability. And with the current stock rom I would highly doubt it is even possible if it were there.

Related

Gen9 Full Size USB Slot - Thoughts

Hi Folks
I've been playing around with a 101 Gen9 and in particular the Full Size USB Slot on the back.
On the Archos WebSite in the FAQ they state:
What can I plug in the USB port on the back of the tablet?
The USB host port on the back of your G9 tablet is reserved for only the ARCHOS G9 3G Stick. You will not be able to plug any other USB devices in this port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been doing some of my own testing on this port and found that not to be the case
Every device I plugged into it has worked in one way or another (very much another in some cases)
1. The tablet has been rooted using letma's method.
2. You need to turn on the "3G Stick" in the Wireless Settings
3. The tablet Was Plugged In
On point 3. I have no idea how the battery was doing. especially with some of the more power hungry usb devices.
Here's a list of what I've tested
Not Working:
Keyboard (USB 1.1)
Working:
Kingston Data Traveller II+ (USB 2.0) - Picked up as external storage
HTC Hero Mass Storage
HTC Debug Bridge (Required Root for adb)
HTC Sensation Mass Storage
HTC Sensation Debug Bridge (Required Root for adb)
4 Port HUB (USB 2.0)
A Couple of observations.
After turning the 3G Stick on I restarted the device
I had to plug the USB devices while the tablet was starting for it to be picked up.
The Keyboard worked when plugged into the 4 Port USB Hub. I think the keyboard will function on its own with the right kernel modules
No Device showed up as The "External Storage" in the "Files" program when plugged into the Hub, even though I mounted the device (/dev/block/sd*) from terminal emulator to the /mnt/ext_storage folder.I suspect it is looking for a specific USB device number as the external storage device.
I suppose it would be good if some other people to test what USB devices they have to hand to see what works, maybe we could build a list of functioning devices. I'm going to investigate getting the Keyboard going on it's own, which is what sparked this off and also test some external hard drives with various file systems.
I hope someone finds this helpful
Trev
For me the usb stick and hard drive is working on the stock archos firmware without reboot!

Kindle Fire support USB on-the-go?

Can I buy an otg cable to read external memory cards or external Bluetooth USB? Or does kindle fire support MHL tv output? Using micro-USB to have tv out features?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
I've been curious about this as well, and there are several threads on Amazon.com regarding this. So far, there haven't been any successful reports in getting the Kindle recognizing an external USB device - in other words, no evidence of USB host support, as far as I know.
wondering OTG function need the hardware support or driver support?
Nope, not working on mine.
Hardware-wise, it looks like it should, and there seems to be a way to get the battery charger to kick power out the USB connector.
Has anyone tried external memory to Kindle Fire to check if OTG feature is present or not..??
cubalarm23 said:
Has anyone tried external memory to Kindle Fire to check if OTG feature is present or not..??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried... no success even with powered USB hub (It works with my Atrix flawlessly).

Utilizing the USB port for media playback with a USB hub

I've used a SONY GoogleTV (with Bluray) to play media files (mkv, avi, mp4, etc) through ViMu app. Two 128 GB thumb drives stayed connected to the USB ports in the back of the unit at all times for kids' movies, while I utilized the front USB port once in a while to connect a WD 1TB portable external HD to watch movies.
Now, we moved to FireTV and I’d like to carry over the same setup through XBMC and StickMount. Obviously, having only 1 USB port limits this. I tried connecting a USB hub (non-powered, “mobile”); although the thumb drive worked fine, the external HD wasn’t powered. Looks like I’ll need a powered USB hub to be able to connect what I listed above.
Is there a particular one that works better with the FireTV?
Can StickMount handle mounting 2-3 USB drives and an external hard drive simultaneously? When it's time to unmount the external HD, will I be able to pick that specifically or "unmount" will get rid of thumb drives as well?
Thanks!
tenderidol said:
I've used a SONY GoogleTV (with Bluray) to play media files (mkv, avi, mp4, etc) through ViMu app. Two 128 GB thumb drives stayed connected to the USB ports in the back of the unit at all times for kids' movies, while I utilized the front USB port once in a while to connect a WD 1TB portable external HD to watch movies.
Now, we moved to FireTV and I’d like to carry over the same setup through XBMC and StickMount. Obviously, having only 1 USB port limits this. I tried connecting a USB hub (non-powered, “mobile”); although the thumb drive worked fine, the external HD wasn’t powered. Looks like I’ll need a powered USB hub to be able to connect what I listed above.
Is there a particular one that works better with the FireTV?
Can StickMount handle mounting 2-3 USB drives and an external hard drive simultaneously? When it's time to unmount the external HD, will I be able to pick that specifically or "unmount" will get rid of thumb drives as well?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have bought a USB 3.0 mains powered hub (4 ports) so will let you know later how it goes with 3 portable 1TB HDDs attached.
DEREKTROTTER said:
i have bought a USB 3.0 mains powered hub (4 ports) so will let you know later how it goes with 3 portable 1TB HDDs attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Did it work?
tenderidol said:
Thanks. Did it work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi,
yes it is working perfectly.
here is what i bought: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131220799541
I have tested it with 3 HDD's attached
> 1TB portable (FAT32 formatted)
> 1TB portable (NTFS formatted)
> 2TB portable (NTFS formatted)
All plugged in at once and i could navigate them fully and play files. I tested a 7GB MKV on each and all played perfectly.
1 Downside:
The Amazon Fire TV fails to boot if the powered USB is plugged in on startup (hangs at amazon white logo)
I have heard someone else mention this also, would love a solution to this as they will then get mounted by stickmount automatically.
Currently got to boot without USB hub > connect hub > mount via stickmount.
Hope this helps
DEREKTROTTER said:
1 Downside:
The Amazon Fire TV fails to boot if the powered USB is plugged in on startup (hangs at amazon white logo)
I have heard someone else mention this also, would love a solution to this as they will then get mounted by stickmount automatically.
Currently got to boot without USB hub > connect hub > mount via stickmount.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't use stickmount ([url="http://www.jocala.com/adbfire.html]adbFire[/url] uses its own disk mounting solution), but my powered Dlink hub does not interfere with the FireTV boot up. That's with 3 drives attached.
DEREKTROTTER said:
hi,
yes it is working perfectly.
here is what i bought: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131220799541
I have tested it with 3 HDD's attached
> 1TB portable (FAT32 formatted)
> 1TB portable (NTFS formatted)
> 2TB portable (NTFS formatted)
All plugged in at once and i could navigate them fully and play files. I tested a 7GB MKV on each and all played perfectly.
1 Downside:
The Amazon Fire TV fails to boot if the powered USB is plugged in on startup (hangs at amazon white logo)
I have heard someone else mention this also, would love a solution to this as they will then get mounted by stickmount automatically.
Currently got to boot without USB hub > connect hub > mount via stickmount.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the update. I suspected it will do that. I have the same problem when I want to boot from a powered hub. I can boot from the ssd plugged in directly in the aftv usb port, but not via hub.
The problem is I cannot plug in any other usb device like a keyboard or mouse or even my usb receiver. It's a pity the aftv does not allow any other bluetooth keyboard or mouse connected to it.
Maybe one of the guys can look into it to get a drive to be booted from a powered usb hub
jocala said:
I don't use stickmount ([url="http://www.jocala.com/adbfire.html]adbFire[/url] uses its own disk mounting solution), but my powered Dlink hub does not interfere with the FireTV boot up. That's with 3 drives attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can you link me to the hub you have? would like something i can keep plugged in and will boot up.
Also with the adbfire method, you still have to mount on every reboot with it right?
DEREKTROTTER said:
hi,
yes it is working perfectly.
here is what i bought: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131220799541
I have tested it with 3 HDD's attached
> 1TB portable (FAT32 formatted)
> 1TB portable (NTFS formatted)
> 2TB portable (NTFS formatted)
All plugged in at once and i could navigate them fully and play files. I tested a 7GB MKV on each and all played perfectly.
1 Downside:
The Amazon Fire TV fails to boot if the powered USB is plugged in on startup (hangs at amazon white logo)
I have heard someone else mention this also, would love a solution to this as they will then get mounted by stickmount automatically.
Currently got to boot without USB hub > connect hub > mount via stickmount.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have this problem. Using a Belkin 4 port USB 2 hub, but I only have one HD attached.
jmerrilljr2 said:
I don't have this problem. Using a Belkin 4 port USB 2 hub, but I only have one HD attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is that usb powered though? or mains powered
usb powered doesn't handle my 2tb HDD very well, but fine for flash drives.
DEREKTROTTER said:
is that usb powered though? or mains powered
usb powered doesn't handle my 2tb HDD very well, but fine for flash drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's powered. Running LaCie Rugged Mini 500gb.
DEREKTROTTER said:
can you link me to the hub you have? would like something i can keep plugged in and will boot up.
Also with the adbfire method, you still have to mount on every reboot with it right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. You can set your boot as persistent so you don't have to remount.
My Dlink is a few years old. I don't see it listed, only newer models.
jocala said:
No. You can set your boot as persistent so you don't have to remount.
My Dlink is a few years old. I don't see it listed, only newer models.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. Could you please provide the details of the adb mount method? Apologies, if it's a basic question... still new to AFTV.
I purchased a powered USB 2.0 hub to test things out. The connected USB sticks and the WD portable HD work great with the hub. Using StickMount, they're loaded at the time of boot, and when I pick Unmount to remove the WD HD, upon pulling the USB cable of the HD, USB sticks remain mounted (don't need to hit mount again).
With this particular powered hub FireTV boots fine when it's connected; seems like certain powered hubs block the boot sequence. I tried the boot sequence with just the USB sticks and USB sticks + WD HD, and it booted fine each time.
The only issue I have is that when I "map" the external drives, I give them names and they're listed under video sources. Unfortunately, StickMount doesn't load them in the same order every time, and the shortcuts point to invalid paths when there are more than one USB sources attached. I can create a root "USB" shortcut that lists all the sources and I can navigate to each drive, but that makes the process complicated for grandparents and kids. If there's a more "permanent" way to mount the attached drives (adb may be?), I'd like to try that.
Thanks!
tenderidol said:
Thanks for your reply. Could you please provide the details of the adb mount method? Apologies, if it's a basic question... still new to AFTV.
I purchased a powered USB 2.0 hub to test things out. The connected USB sticks and the WD portable HD work great with the hub. Using StickMount, they're loaded at the time of boot, and when I pick Unmount to remove the WD HD, upon pulling the USB cable of the HD, USB sticks remain mounted (don't need to hit mount again).
With this particular powered hub FireTV boots fine when it's connected; seems like certain powered hubs block the boot sequence. I tried the boot sequence with just the USB sticks and USB sticks + WD HD, and it booted fine each time.
The only issue I have is that when I "map" the external drives, I give them names and they're listed under video sources. Unfortunately, StickMount doesn't load them in the same order every time, and the shortcuts point to invalid paths when there are more than one USB sources attached. I can create a root "USB" shortcut that lists all the sources and I can navigate to each drive, but that makes the process complicated for grandparents and kids. If there's a more "permanent" way to mount the attached drives (adb may be?), I'd like to try that.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
adbFire provides two different ways to mount your drives and sticks: standard, by device name (/dev/block/sda1, etc) and by the drive's UUID, a unique identifier that each drive stick is given when formatted. Mounting by UUID guarantees that each drive is always mounted at the same mount point.
adbFire creates a script that is automatically run at boot to mount your drives. It uses the busybox run-parts command to run scripts which it places in /etc/init.d. It handles drives formatted with EXT?, ExFat, NTFS and VFAT. UUID is a work in progress, just introduced in the current version, v1.14.
adbFire has a topic here in the xda Fire TV forum. Feel free to ask further questions there.
just EXT?
so atm i cant mount my NTFS and FAT32 drives with that method?
DEREKTROTTER said:
just EXT?
so atm i cant mount my NTFS and FAT32 drives with that method?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look again. EXT2/3/4 NTFS,ExFAT and VFAT.
In my case I only have my external usb 3 ssd that I connect., which means there is no need to give it any priority. I have moved all the AFTV storage to the ssd and boot up from it. All I need is a usb 3 hub that is compatible with the external to boot my AFTV up. I can then connect anything else to the usb hub.
So frustrated, got a powered usb hub and connected 2TB HDD and its turned out a fail. XBMC freezes up / stickmount takes forever and sometimes not at all.
Got the fire tv mainly to play back my movie collection but seems it wont be done so easily.
I exchanged the 4 port hub with a 7 port hub and filled up all the ports with USB sticks and hard drives. FireTV boots while the hub and all the drives are connected, and everything works fine. If you don't need a USB 3.0 hub for other things down the road, you might want to give this one a try.
tenderidol said:
I exchanged the 4 port hub with a 7 port hub and filled up all the ports with USB sticks and hard drives. FireTV boots while the hub and all the drives are connected, and everything works fine. If you don't need a USB 3.0 hub for other things down the road, you might want to give this one a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the links... Will keep an eye out for them for BlackFriday. Since I am on the market for 3 ( 3 FTV's ). I was leaning on getting 3 Transcend TS-HUB3K Powered USB 3.0 - 4 Port Hub's But is not like the AFTV's will ever need USB 3.0. The price on the 7 port hub should cut my per unit price by half after coupons... Wonder how low can they go..
has anyone used a powered HDD with the fire tv directly? e.g a 4TB seagate
i would assume they would not need a powered hubbut not sure
Really frustrated as i have 2 portable HDD and both experience freezing and buffering with movie playback from them. I sometimes have to reboot the AFTV just to stop the freezing. I got a fire TV to replace a WD HDTV live as i was getting freezing on there and it seems to be still happening :/
Please post here the HDDs you use that play files perfectly.
Thanks

USB external hard drive on Shield 2017

I'm about to buy a 2017 Shield TV (NO PRO). I want to plug in an external 3.0 usb hard drive to it, where I store all my movies and TV series, to enjoy Plex server installed in the Shield.
My questions are:
1. Will the external hard drive be automatically recognized by the network too, like if it becomes some sort of network hard drive? In other words, will I be able to access to the hard drive from my iMac through the network in order to transfer other movies while it is still plugged into the Shield?
2. I will connect the Shield to my main TV through a regular HDMI cable. Since I have another TV with DLNA in another room, can I stream from the Shield to this other TV?
Sorry for the dumb questions, I really am a newbie here... Thanks in advance!

Fire HD 10 (11th gen) how to read / play from USB stick

On Fire HD 10 it is possible to play movie /transfer files etc. from a stick using the following combination (i am sure others are possible but this works for me). I did this after using the Fire Toolbox .
1) On Fire HD: a) Enable developer mode (find out how to do this on amazon or youtube). b) Open developer options. Open "Default USB configuration" (located in Networking). c) Activate "file transfer".
2) Connect your USB via a USB C to USB A cable with on-the-go functionality (OTG) [i am using a "USB C to Dual USB OTG" from Roxeley since this enables charging and file transfer, or file transfer from two different USBs; you can also choose a cable with USB 3.0 functionality in both ends or a cable with more splits]. When you connect the OTG cable, a USB icon will appear in the top left corner.
3) Download a suitable media browser / player [i am using VLC media player].
4) When you have the OTG cable connected with a USB you can see your files by choosing "explore". Activate the file / folder and slecet the files you want to play. [in my setup this means that VLC player is used].

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