Use Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as Mass Storage Device [Guide]
If you are a user of Samsung’s Galaxy 10.1 Android tablet, then chances are that you have already gone through exasperating moments trying to transfer files (be it documents, movies or anything at all) from your PC to your tablet. One of the major reasons people buy Android tablets rather than an iPad is the fact that you don’t have to rely on a software like iTunes for file transfer if you have an Android device. So, it is a bit disappointing to see an Android tablet going the same way as the iPad in terms of convenience for users. The main issue arises because of the lack of any clear-cut way of mounting and using your device as mass storage. However your days of painstakingly looking for ways to get your files to your desired destination are now over. Using your Galaxy Tab as a mass storage device is easier than you might think at first, and just about anyone can do it even without extensive rooting knowledge or technical know-how.
XDA forum member jhild352 has come up with a working and convenient solution to the problem presented above. The fix is easy to use, as will be explained below.
Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.
- First things first, get the USB drivers for your device downloaded from Samsung download center, and save them to your PC. If you have ever connected your tablet with your computer, without receiving an error message, then this step might not be necessary as the drivers are automatically installed in some cases.
- Go to the download location and install the drivers on your computer. This follows a simple procedure and will ask for a system reboot when finished.
- Restart your PC.
- Turn off USB debugging on your Galaxy 10.1. This is done by going to the “Settings” option in the menu accessing “Applications” from there and selecting “Development”. This will give you the “USB Debugging” option. Choose to turn off that setting from there.
- Now you are ready to plug in your device to the PC via a USB cable and use it like any other mass storage device.
This fix seems to have been working just fine for most of the users, but a few have complained of the situation remaining un-rectified. For further details and discussion on this fix you can visit the official XDA forum thread dealing with usage of Samsung Android tablets in mass storage mode.
How do I contact ectopic my android tablet to my xp which doesn’t recognize the or map it just says error unknown device. And I downloaded and bought nearly $800 worth of exercise files to install on my xp and I need to connect as mass storage but it won’t let me because it’s saying I have to basically jailbreak my brand new 600 dollar tablet to do it and that’s the biggest bull crappie I’ve ever heard?
hi guys,i accidentally factory reset my tab p5100 and lost some very important files including videos,is there a way to recover.i tried so hard but unable to succeed because i am unable to connect tab as MSM (mass storage mode)
thanks…works like a champ!
I can’t find the usb drivers on the link 🙁
It takes me to the user manual download page.
“USB drivers for your device downloaded on this link,”
Broken link => useless article.
The link seems to be opening fine on our end. Try clearing your browser’s cache.
Just installed the USB drives in my new Galaxy tab 10.1 from the samsung website as the link given here.Works perfectly.
So this obviously hasn’t been function checked; it doesn’t work on:
Android 3.1/3.2
Windows XP or Windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit checked for each)
Waste of time.
still wondering how transfer file from USB to Galaxy tab after debugging
Indeed, not sure if it’s Android 3 or Samsung’s choice, but it is so annoying.
Also, MTP seems buggy under Linux (maybe because of DRM handling: WTF ! Can’t download my pictures because od DRM???)
Play like Apple? It’s exactly what they are doing…
Very disapointed (also because of the proprietary cable: what a pain)
You cannot mount it as a drive in explorer (as a usb-stick) and that is problem..it means you cannot use normal sync software or backup software to put automatical files on the samsung tab..i cannot believe that samsung gives us users this big porblem
hi i have tried to connect my tab to my new samsung tv so it comes up as a storage device like my htc desire but all i get on my tab is mtp i cant even use allshare. Is there anything i can do? Thanks
It’s MTP not USB mass storage, like on every other honeycomb tablet, so annoying
The key here is to turn off the USB debugging. Otherwise it keeps on using the device’s memory for development/debugging purposes.
Nice share though!