Herbie
Rendezvous Conspirator
I've been trying to find a solution that let me back up my media with stuff I was already going to have along. I've finally got there. I can now use my (Rooted) Android phone to transfer media from an SD Card or other device directly to a portable HDD.
Explanation:
I like to travel light - both with my rig, and when doing air travel, etc. I also like to shoot lots of media - photos with a variety of DSLR and small point-n-shoot cameras (particularly for my "expedition" kite rig), and videos on my GoPro.
A particular sore on my backside has been managing GoPro videos when I'm out of town racing Formula Fords. I shoot with at least one video camera for every session I'm on track. It is entirely possible for me to fill several 32GB cards in the span of a race weekend. Getting good performance out of my camera requires using only the fastest SD cards, which are typically the most expensive. These two factors combine to make the practice of simply stocking up on cards a bit impractical (or at least expensive).
The obvious solution is to transfer the videos to a larger device and free up the cards for re-use. I have a portable HDD just for this purpose, but up until now, actually moving the videos has always required the services of an intermediate computer. I've lugged a tablet or notebook PC on several trips, but including up to 10lbs of device and requisite power brick, cables, etc. just for the purpose of moving media around always irritated me. Sometimes I've been able to borrow access to a laptop, or use a Hotel's "Business Center" machine, but moving 32GB+ of vids at the end of the day requires some time, and some Hotels lock their hardware down pretty well, so I was looking for ways to be more "self contained".
Back in the old days, you could buy a device that was basically a CD-burner with an attached card-reader. Plug in the card, press a few buttons, and it'd burn a CD backup of the card and you were free to do as you pleased. I haven't seen that exact system in a modern format, but there are a few devices that do something similar with a portable HDD. Some work for videos, some don't. Some allow previews to check the transfers, some don't. The cheapest I've seen was $150 or so, and they go way up from there. And in any case, you're still adding a device with it's own power adapter, etc.
Enter my solution:
Necessary Hardware:
Necessary Software:
Here's the summary and the list of issues:
Note that my main concern is "transferring" media, but most everything here also applies to "backing up" media, with the exception of the goal of freeing up space.
USB "On the Go" (OTG) cables are supposed to allow you to connect peripherals to your Android device with the Android acting as a USB HOST, instead of as a slave (as it operates when connected to a PC, etc.). For most recent Android devices, simply plugging in the cable and connecting a USB thumb drive works out of the box. This is a great way to expand your available storage capacity for stuff like movies/music. These smaller devices are typically formatted as FAT32 or extn partitions, and these are usually automatically.
The issue becomes one of file and partition sizes. First, my phone has 32GB of flash onboard, but only about 6GB is free on average. I could probably clean that up a bit, but maybe then I'd have 10GB free. Not really a solution by itself when I'm filling multiple 32GB cards with video. So, I could move stuff to the phone, then off to another USB thumb drive. This at least has the benefit of letting me move the files from expensive fast storage to slightly cheaper "slow" storage, but 32GB thumb drives aren't that much cheaper, plus you'd have to have manage multiple sticks if you're trying to free up space on your shooting cards, plus I'd have to sit through each of those lengthy file transfers TWICE, plus I'd have to do it in "parts" to fit the intermediate files on the phone.
The solution to the 2x file transfer and intermediate storage issues is to connect both devices to the phone and transfer directly from one to the other. This turns out to be the easy part.
The solution to the other issues is to use a larger device like a portable harddrive. Much cheaper per GB, and even a very inexpensive unit will hold days and days of video. Unfortunately, because of the 32GB limitation of the FAT32 file system, your portable HDD is going to be formatted as NTFS or exFAT, and these are NOT directly supported by Android currently. Additionally, non-Flash HDDs require a fair amount of current to run, so you can't usually power them directly from your Android phone.
The hardware part is relatively simple: You need a hub to connect more than one device, and you need external power. I already carry this D-Link powered hub as a regular part of my travel kit. When I'm solo with just a phone, it's a bit overkill, but on some trips I need to worry about feeding two phones, tablets for my wife and kid, and maybe a kindle and a camera or two, so seven ports is sometimes barely enough. Rather than switch back and forth and have lots of tangled cables, I took the time to "kit up" this hub into a dedicated case and wrap the wires, etc. so I can just pull out the power-brick and plug everything in. Additionally that unit has 2x High powered ports which will fast-charge our Android stuff in AC mode, rather than at the normal 500mA rate.
My GoPro, when powered on and connected to a USB host, will switch itself to mass storage mode and act like a USB drive, so I could theoretically move files from my GoPro directly to the phone. If your camera doesn't do this, you'll need to add a small USB card reader. These are cheap and tiny. If your camera supports very large removable media like Compact Flash or SDHC/SDXC cards, it may already be using a non-FAT file system format, in which case you'll run into the same NTFS/exFAT issues I mention below. You can determine the file system format by connecting it to any windows machine, right-clicking on the drive and looking at "Properties".
The slave port of the hub (that you would normally connect to a PC) connects to the OTG cable, which connects to the phone. Then the GoPro, HDD, or any thumb drives I want to use will connect to the hub (leave disconnected until software is ready). NOTE: Use one of the high-current ports for the HDD or you may get flaky behavior.
The software is a bit more tricky: You need root access to your phone. This is such a varied thing that I'll leave it as an exercise for the motivated reader, but I will say that if you have any of the devices supported by the Skipsoft Unified Toolkit, I HIGHLY recommend donating a couple of bucks to get the full unlocked version of that tool. It will do everything you need with only a few clicks and minimal tech knowledge on your part. Note that unlocking the device is usually equivalent to a factory reset, so make sure you've got everything backed up first (or do what I do, and Unlock/Root as soon as you get a new phone!)
Once you have root access, the dominoes start falling more quickly: Install the Stickmount app. It will request root permission, and you need to grant it. Follow the instructions for downloading and installing the necessary NTFS and/or exFAT binaries into the appropriate directory (this is a good time to get familiar with using the file management App you'll use to move files around later anyhow). At this point, you MAY be good to go, depending on your Android version. Try connecting your source media and using the "mount" function of the Stickmount app. Using your preferred File manager, browse to the location Stickmount says it mounted the drive to (it will flash on the screen), and copy a small file to your phone, just to verify everything is working. Now connect the portable HDD, browse to it, and try to paste the file from the phone. If this works, you should be ready to move files directly from the source media to the HDD. Astro lets me tag multiple files or folders, then copy or move them en masse, most file managers should have a similar function.
IF you get an error when you try to paste (write) to the NTFS or exFAT drive, you may be able to solve it with one more step. Disconnect the drives from the hub. Install the SELinux Mode Changer app and grant it root permission. Use the button to toggle the device into "Permissive" mode, then start reconnecting the drives as before. This was the final key for me. The Nexus devices always run the latest version of Android, and there were significant security improvements in 4.3 and 4.4 that had the side effect of making some file system Write permissions locked down. If you can now write to the HDD, you're good to go. If you're concerned about long-term security, you can set the SELinux mode back to "Enforcement" mode when you're done.
DISCLAIMER: I have described above several steps which involve unlocking, rooting, or otherwise doing non-standard things to your Android device. These are not risk-free activities and I cannot accept responsibility for any damage or loss of data you may suffer as a result of those steps. I was able to do all of this without issue, but you must assess your own risk tolerance before heading down this road.
Explanation:
I like to travel light - both with my rig, and when doing air travel, etc. I also like to shoot lots of media - photos with a variety of DSLR and small point-n-shoot cameras (particularly for my "expedition" kite rig), and videos on my GoPro.
A particular sore on my backside has been managing GoPro videos when I'm out of town racing Formula Fords. I shoot with at least one video camera for every session I'm on track. It is entirely possible for me to fill several 32GB cards in the span of a race weekend. Getting good performance out of my camera requires using only the fastest SD cards, which are typically the most expensive. These two factors combine to make the practice of simply stocking up on cards a bit impractical (or at least expensive).
The obvious solution is to transfer the videos to a larger device and free up the cards for re-use. I have a portable HDD just for this purpose, but up until now, actually moving the videos has always required the services of an intermediate computer. I've lugged a tablet or notebook PC on several trips, but including up to 10lbs of device and requisite power brick, cables, etc. just for the purpose of moving media around always irritated me. Sometimes I've been able to borrow access to a laptop, or use a Hotel's "Business Center" machine, but moving 32GB+ of vids at the end of the day requires some time, and some Hotels lock their hardware down pretty well, so I was looking for ways to be more "self contained".
Back in the old days, you could buy a device that was basically a CD-burner with an attached card-reader. Plug in the card, press a few buttons, and it'd burn a CD backup of the card and you were free to do as you pleased. I haven't seen that exact system in a modern format, but there are a few devices that do something similar with a portable HDD. Some work for videos, some don't. Some allow previews to check the transfers, some don't. The cheapest I've seen was $150 or so, and they go way up from there. And in any case, you're still adding a device with it's own power adapter, etc.
Enter my solution:
Necessary Hardware:
- Rooted Android Device (Phone or Tablet) - I use a Nexus 5
- Powered USB Hub (unpowered hub or no hub may be adequate for some flash-only transfers)
- Android USB OTG (On The Go) cable
- Portable Harddrive (for my application, USB sticks optional for photos other small media)
- Possibly an SD Card reader if your Camera doesn't operate as a mass storage device when connected to USB
Necessary Software:
- Stickmount App (requires root)
- NTFS or exFAT binaries (see Stickmount app description for links and where to put the files)
- Most likely also SELinux Mode Changer App (requires Root)
- Some sort of File Management App (I use Astro)
Here's the summary and the list of issues:
Note that my main concern is "transferring" media, but most everything here also applies to "backing up" media, with the exception of the goal of freeing up space.
USB "On the Go" (OTG) cables are supposed to allow you to connect peripherals to your Android device with the Android acting as a USB HOST, instead of as a slave (as it operates when connected to a PC, etc.). For most recent Android devices, simply plugging in the cable and connecting a USB thumb drive works out of the box. This is a great way to expand your available storage capacity for stuff like movies/music. These smaller devices are typically formatted as FAT32 or extn partitions, and these are usually automatically.
The issue becomes one of file and partition sizes. First, my phone has 32GB of flash onboard, but only about 6GB is free on average. I could probably clean that up a bit, but maybe then I'd have 10GB free. Not really a solution by itself when I'm filling multiple 32GB cards with video. So, I could move stuff to the phone, then off to another USB thumb drive. This at least has the benefit of letting me move the files from expensive fast storage to slightly cheaper "slow" storage, but 32GB thumb drives aren't that much cheaper, plus you'd have to have manage multiple sticks if you're trying to free up space on your shooting cards, plus I'd have to sit through each of those lengthy file transfers TWICE, plus I'd have to do it in "parts" to fit the intermediate files on the phone.
The solution to the 2x file transfer and intermediate storage issues is to connect both devices to the phone and transfer directly from one to the other. This turns out to be the easy part.
The solution to the other issues is to use a larger device like a portable harddrive. Much cheaper per GB, and even a very inexpensive unit will hold days and days of video. Unfortunately, because of the 32GB limitation of the FAT32 file system, your portable HDD is going to be formatted as NTFS or exFAT, and these are NOT directly supported by Android currently. Additionally, non-Flash HDDs require a fair amount of current to run, so you can't usually power them directly from your Android phone.
The hardware part is relatively simple: You need a hub to connect more than one device, and you need external power. I already carry this D-Link powered hub as a regular part of my travel kit. When I'm solo with just a phone, it's a bit overkill, but on some trips I need to worry about feeding two phones, tablets for my wife and kid, and maybe a kindle and a camera or two, so seven ports is sometimes barely enough. Rather than switch back and forth and have lots of tangled cables, I took the time to "kit up" this hub into a dedicated case and wrap the wires, etc. so I can just pull out the power-brick and plug everything in. Additionally that unit has 2x High powered ports which will fast-charge our Android stuff in AC mode, rather than at the normal 500mA rate.
My GoPro, when powered on and connected to a USB host, will switch itself to mass storage mode and act like a USB drive, so I could theoretically move files from my GoPro directly to the phone. If your camera doesn't do this, you'll need to add a small USB card reader. These are cheap and tiny. If your camera supports very large removable media like Compact Flash or SDHC/SDXC cards, it may already be using a non-FAT file system format, in which case you'll run into the same NTFS/exFAT issues I mention below. You can determine the file system format by connecting it to any windows machine, right-clicking on the drive and looking at "Properties".
The slave port of the hub (that you would normally connect to a PC) connects to the OTG cable, which connects to the phone. Then the GoPro, HDD, or any thumb drives I want to use will connect to the hub (leave disconnected until software is ready). NOTE: Use one of the high-current ports for the HDD or you may get flaky behavior.
The software is a bit more tricky: You need root access to your phone. This is such a varied thing that I'll leave it as an exercise for the motivated reader, but I will say that if you have any of the devices supported by the Skipsoft Unified Toolkit, I HIGHLY recommend donating a couple of bucks to get the full unlocked version of that tool. It will do everything you need with only a few clicks and minimal tech knowledge on your part. Note that unlocking the device is usually equivalent to a factory reset, so make sure you've got everything backed up first (or do what I do, and Unlock/Root as soon as you get a new phone!)
Once you have root access, the dominoes start falling more quickly: Install the Stickmount app. It will request root permission, and you need to grant it. Follow the instructions for downloading and installing the necessary NTFS and/or exFAT binaries into the appropriate directory (this is a good time to get familiar with using the file management App you'll use to move files around later anyhow). At this point, you MAY be good to go, depending on your Android version. Try connecting your source media and using the "mount" function of the Stickmount app. Using your preferred File manager, browse to the location Stickmount says it mounted the drive to (it will flash on the screen), and copy a small file to your phone, just to verify everything is working. Now connect the portable HDD, browse to it, and try to paste the file from the phone. If this works, you should be ready to move files directly from the source media to the HDD. Astro lets me tag multiple files or folders, then copy or move them en masse, most file managers should have a similar function.
IF you get an error when you try to paste (write) to the NTFS or exFAT drive, you may be able to solve it with one more step. Disconnect the drives from the hub. Install the SELinux Mode Changer app and grant it root permission. Use the button to toggle the device into "Permissive" mode, then start reconnecting the drives as before. This was the final key for me. The Nexus devices always run the latest version of Android, and there were significant security improvements in 4.3 and 4.4 that had the side effect of making some file system Write permissions locked down. If you can now write to the HDD, you're good to go. If you're concerned about long-term security, you can set the SELinux mode back to "Enforcement" mode when you're done.
DISCLAIMER: I have described above several steps which involve unlocking, rooting, or otherwise doing non-standard things to your Android device. These are not risk-free activities and I cannot accept responsibility for any damage or loss of data you may suffer as a result of those steps. I was able to do all of this without issue, but you must assess your own risk tolerance before heading down this road.