How to Turn a Smartphone Into a USB Drive

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
Many smartphone devices have large amounts of internal storage

Smartphones come with large amounts of internal storage, space which often goes unused. Luckily, most smartphone operating systems include methods of attaching the phone to a computer and using the internal or memory card storage as a USB drive. Android and BlackBerry phones have this option embedded in the operating systems, while iPhone users will need third party software to facilitate USB storage.

Advertisement

Android

Video of the Day

Step 1

Turn on the phone and connect it to a computer using the included USB charging cable or another compatible USB cord. Wait for the phone to recognize the connection.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Tap the "Turn on USB storage" button and then press "OK." Wait for the loading icon to disappear.

Advertisement

Step 3

Navigate to the phone's storage on the computer. It appears as a drive on the desktop of OSX or in the "My Computer" menu of Windows.

Step 4

Awaken the phone and press the "Turn off USB storage" button to stop communication with the computer. Wait for the "Preparing SD Card" notification to disappear then unplug the phone from the computer.

Advertisement

iPhone

Step 1

Download and install an iPhone disk access program. Unlike previous Apple mobile devices, the iPhone has no "Disk Mode" and requires third party software to be used as a USB drive. DiskAid and iPhone Explorer offer this functionality and can be downloaded and installed on a computer. Discover installs on the iPhone directly and can be found in the iTunes App Store.

Advertisement

Step 2

Start the application on either the computer or the iPhone and plug the iPhone into the computer using the included connecting cable.

Advertisement

Step 3

Drag files between the application and the computer. Eject the iPhone from iTunes when finished to close communication.

Advertisement

BlackBerry

Step 1

Turn the BlackBerry on and connect it to a computer using the connecting cable included with the device.

Step 2

Open the BlackBerry options menu and select "Media Card." Change the "Mass Storage Mode Support" option to "On."

Advertisement

Step 3

Press the Menu button and select "Enable USB Mass Storage."

Step 4

Drag files into or from the BlackBerry's memory, located in the "My Computer" section of Windows or on the desktop of OSX.

Step 5

Press the Menu button to access the options and disable USB storage when finished. Unplug the phone from the computer.

Advertisement

Advertisement

references & resources

Report an Issue

screenshot of the current page

Screenshot loading...