Tablets, micro SD cards and file transfer

[Jannyfox]

Just after a bit of advice really. Last week I treated myself to a Lenovo 7 tablet. It's something I'd been thinking about for a while purely as a handy way to show my photos to people without having to clog up my phone and them having to peer at a tiny screen. For £50 it was too good a deal to let go. I have a micro SD card for it however I can't transfer files off the computer direct to it via the usb cable. I popped a file on the internal memory to use as wallpaper no problem but although I see the card's file structure in Explorer, if I copy/paste a photo it just hangs. I have done everything I want to do by removing the micro card and popping it in the pc card reader in the adaptor, but it's so tiny and hard to get hold of it's not an easy task. Am I doing something wrong (given that even when I downloaded the 'user manual' for the tablet there is no mention of an SD card other than 'here's where it goes'...........), or is transfer of multiple full size jpegs going to be so slow via usb cable I'm doing it the best way anyway? Transferring files isn't something I'm going to be doing every day. Tablet is running Android 8 (I think, without looking it up), pc is Windows 10, micro usb is configured as a portable device.

 

[tijuana taxi]

You will probably need to tap something from the drag down box at the top saying you allow file transfers otherwise it will just charge when its connected by micro usb lead.
Just drag and drop your files onto the sd card you will see when expanding it on explorer

I use my tablet with 128gb card to back up photos when travelling via a card reader with a micro usb plug.
Not exactly speedy, but pretty quick considering its jpegs and raw files

Another way that does work is syncing it on Windows Media Player, believe you can use it for photos as well as music

 

[Jannyfox]

You will probably need to tap something from the drag down box at the top saying you allow file transfers otherwise it will just charge when its connected by micro usb lead.

Yes. There are a few options. First is MFT (think that's what it's called). Tried that and it just hung. Next one down is for when MFT isn't enabled and that doesn't expand the file structure on the card (and did absolutely nothing when I tried copy/paste). I have no idea how to sync with WMP but I don't think that's how I want to do it. I just want to copy the files direct from the pc hard drive to the tablet card, so maybe the way I've done it is the easiest and quickest way. I copied several hundred files earlier and it took a couple of minutes.

 

[ancient_mariner]

As I recall on older versions of android on had to enable USB debugging or something similarly named. On my Motorola it also required permission using the phone password every time it was connected, but your phone may not have that requirement.

 

[Jannyfox]

Not a phone, Toni. It's also Android 8, which AFAIK isn't old. The pc File Explorer sees the file structure on the card but just won't copy a file to it. It could of course be at the pc end. Windows 10 connectivity isn't all it's cracked up to be..................

 

[tijuana taxi]

Sounds like you are expecting too much of it, couple of hundred files in two minutes sounds about right.
From your original post I thought you meant it wasn't transferring at all, card in and out would undoubtedly be speedier albeit more fiddly

If you ever want to put mp3's on it I would strongly suggest using WMP and the sync facility.
Drops them straight into where they should be on the tablet and very quickly too

 

[Jannyfox]

Sounds like you are expecting too much of it, couple of hundred files in two minutes sounds about right.
From your original post I thought you meant it wasn't transferring at all, card in and out would undoubtedly be speedier albeit more fiddly

If you ever want to put mp3's on it I would strongly suggest using WMP and the sync facility.
Drops them straight into where they should be on the tablet and very quickly too

I didn't time it. It would have been even quicker if the directory structure I'm using on the tablet was the same as on the pc.................
No it won't transfer via the usb cable to the card but yes, for a large number of files it's much quicker via the card reader. I was hoping that for the odd file here and there I could just plug the cable in. Although tbh the 'odd file' will probably be a pdf, not a photo, that won't need to stay there so can go in the internal memory (which I can transfer to via the cable) then get wiped. Or maybe I can transfer it to the card once it's on the tablet. Confused? So am I. I'll stick to taking the card out to transfer photos. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. I will have another go, though. It could still just be my incompetence.
There'll be no mp3s going on it. The thing is purely for showing people my images away from home and internet browsing when I've got wifi but it's not convenient to have the laptop with me.

 

[tijuana taxi]

I didn't time it. It would have been even quicker if the directory structure I'm using on the tablet was the same as on the pc.................
No it won't transfer via the usb cable to the card but yes, for a large number of files it's much quicker via the card reader. I was hoping that for the odd file here and there I could just plug the cable in. Although tbh the 'odd file' will probably be a pdf, not a photo, that won't need to stay there so can go in the internal memory (which I can transfer to via the cable) then get wiped. Or maybe I can transfer it to the card once it's on the tablet. Confused? So am I. I'll stick to taking the card out to transfer photos. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. I will have another go, though. It could still just be my incompetence.
There'll be no mp3s going on it. The thing is purely for showing people my images away from home and internet browsing when I've got wifi but it's not convenient to have the laptop with me.

Just remembered that I had a similar problem a while back.
This might sound daft, but try a different USB cable, some only seem to work for charging, not data transfer.

 

[Jannyfox]

Just remembered that I had a similar problem a while back.
This might sound daft, but try a different USB cable, some only seem to work for charging, not data transfer.

Yes, worth a try. It's the one that came with it but that's no guarantee. I've got quite a few a few more. The other thing I can try is plugging it into the usb port in the pc, not into the hub. The hub doesn't usually cause a problem but it just eliminates another possibility.

 

[tijuana taxi]

Yes, worth a try. It's the one that came with it but that's no guarantee. I've got quite a few a few more. The other thing I can try is plugging it into the usb port in the pc, not into the hub. The hub doesn't usually cause a problem but it just eliminates another possibility.

Also some of my devices won't work on USB 3 ports, process of elimination to see what works

 

[zendog]

Try this

Turn the tablet on / unlock screen
Connect to computer
Finger swipe down from the top of the tablet screen
A drop down box appears.and below that another with "USB for charging".
Tap this and a radio button list appears. Check the one that says "File transfers"
Windows will then make that I've seen a USB device bing and you will then be able to transfer in explorer.

If you are using the USB cable that came with the tablet you should be fine but be aware that if trying any you
already have that quite a lot of them are power only and will not transfer data whatever you do.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Not a phone, Toni. It's also Android 8, which AFAIK isn't old. The pc File Explorer sees the file structure on the card but just won't copy a file to it. It could of course be at the pc end. Windows 10 connectivity isn't all it's cracked up to be..................

It doesn't really matter whether it's a phone or tablet - it's the Android bit that controls your file transfers, and I see similar behaviour between phones and tablets running Android, depending on version of course. I see now that you've managed to transfer files OK, so my advice wasn't needed.

 

[Jannyfox]

All advice is read and welcomed, everyone. I'd still like to be able to transfer one file here and there via the cable if I can - for one file it'd be a lot quicker. Reading everything here and elsewhere I should be able to do it, just I haven't been able to yet. I can transfer a file onto the card in my phone (also Android) no problem at all. The card in the phone of course isn't configured as a removable drive but it still uses MFT. I also used the cable that came with the phone, so I'll try the same cable with the tablet. But not now..................