Can I map the internal memory of Android to the drive letter on the PC?

Question

When the Android device is connected to the PC (via USB?), Is the internal file system mapped to the drive letter on the PC? So that you can copy files on Android and Android on Windows?

And, can an emulator simulate a situation when it is connected? How?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

You can connect the device via USB, but (at least in Win7) it does not have its own drive letter; rather, it was seen as a camera or other media device. It is not mounted automatically; you usually need to "enter" the notification area with something like "Turn on USB storage"

I do not know about emulators.

Answer 2

Yes, it can be mapped to a drive letter. It was a lot easier with something like Droid X (Android 2.3), as it displayed as a mass storage device (disconnecting the board from your phone in the meantime), but it is also possible on newer phones like LG G3, if you ready to install 2 free programs that you probably would like to have anyway.

ES Explorer - Remote Manager (FTP Server)

First, you need a file manager, not only because the built-in one is useless, but also because you need an FTP server. Install "ES File Explorer" on your Android device. Then, in the options, enable the "Remote Manager" option, which activates the FTP server and shows you its local address, for example, "192.168.1.3:3721". Now you can access your phone as an FTP site from your computer when the WiFi network is on your computer.

Net Drive - Remote Disk Mapping Utility

Further, all you have to do is install NetDrive: http://netdrive.net/ It is free and seems to be used by many companies because it allows you to map cloud storage to local drives. This will allow you to display your FTP server on your phone as a local drive.

Do not try to map the FTP site to Explorer. First, you may run into a problem that is apparently caused by Chrome, where you cannot even add an FTP network location. You will receive an unexpected error indicating that the format of the path is invalid. Interestingly, this is allowed by opening the registry editor, then in [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ ftp] add a key named "ShellFolder" with the string value "{E436EBB6-524F-11CE-9F53-0020AF0BA770}". The error will stop immediately, without restarting or any other actions. Just go back and add the ftp network location. However, this still does not allow you to match it with the drive letter, so you need NetDrive.

Answer 3

Starting with Android 4, the wise removed USB Mass Storage support to access the phone’s internal memory. Thus, you no longer receive direct blocked access (or the driver letter in the windows). You can usually choose between MTP or PTP (media / photo transfer protocols) on your phone, depending on which OS you have better support.

If your device has removable storage, it must support USBMS (with drive letter) for this partition. At least Android still supports this, but your Manufacturer or Carrier-ware may still not count you.

However, when it comes to phone memory, there is a trade-off in Honeycomb . Unified storage prevents unused space (no more separate storage for phone / data and the first filling and embarrassment of disappointed users trying to move applications to SD, etc.). A compromise requires that:

Android will no longer be able to release storage for the host computer right in front of the USB interface.

Initially for Mac and Linux, where MTP / PTP support was slower, you can use the FTP application on your phone. But now the number of desktop (PC / Mac / Linux ) applications that understand and support the MTP or PTP protocols is growing. You simply do not get access to the block, and therefore you cannot get the drive letter without any software for hackers / third-party developers.

Over the years, there have been hacks for FTP or WebDav or some other protocol to work behind the drive letter of Windows, and something like that can still work for these MTP / PTP protocols, but I have not seen it yet. so that such software is useful for windows.

If your Linux distribution does not include MTP support, gMTP seems pretty popular.

Answer 4

Using Eclipse, you can push files to the emulator using the DDMS perspective. Performing similar actions on a real device, iirc will require root access to the device, at least to access sensitive areas.

SDK tools also provide a way to push and pull through the command line.