Windows Phone 8 doesn't really have USB Mass Storage support, does it?

Connecting a Nokia 822 to Windows XP yields a USB Mass Storage drive letter, but it isn't browseable. You can get to the phone from explorer via "Windows Phone", but that's MTP, not USB Mass Storage. I tried this with two 822s and it had the same result. I don't think this is a phone-specific issue, see below.

Transfering music and pictures via USB storage mode is an epic disaster. Connect the device via USB and delete everything from your Camera Roll. Go into the phone and everything is still there (and can still be opened, I'm guessing they do some sort of local caching of images). Copy the Camera Roll back, every image is now duplicated from the phone's Camera Roll. Do this six or seven times and you see six or seven icons. The same thing is true of music transfers, the duplication shows in the music player's album and song lists (and there seems to be no way to correct it).

In my case, I became exposed to this issue when I bought a larger sd card. I copied everything off the phone via USB, stuck the new card in, and tried to copy everything back. The first bug is the phone won't let you create its special directories (like Camera Roll and Saved Pictures). It will disconnect the device. You have to actually shoot a picture and save a picture, so the phone can create those dirs, before you can copy your data back. And when you copy it back, you'll end up with two of everything. So before you copy it back, you have to go into the Camera Roll and delete all of the "ghost" photos. I don't know of a workaround for music. In any case, the USB storage implementation is a mess.

-Jeff

I can confirm that it is browsable in windows 7 and 8. Its also the easiest way to put media such as music, movies, and ringtones onto the device.

For what it's worth, I cannot recreate the issue you describe on my 820 with a Windows 8 Professional host PC (although I didn't try creating the base folders as they were already there).

I do know that if you have a security lock on your phone, you won't be able to browse it as a USB device if the phone is locked. If you have a security lock, maybe your problems are related to that.

*shrug*

Works fine for me too. Simple to transfer music over. I question why in the world you're still using Windows XP?

MANY people are still using Windows XP. Microsoft is still supporting it until April 2014 or so.

The Windows Phone desktop app is incompatible with XP/Vista. Only Windows Explorer can be used with XP/Vista. Move music, photos, and videos between my computer and my phone | Windows Phone How-to (United States)

I've got Windows 7. When I try to download the WP desktop app, it says I need the .NET Framework 4.0. Is this what you guys had to do?

Yes.

do I stick with 4.0 or go to the 4.5?

I always install what the app asks for... which means I always wind up with multiple versions of the .NET runtime on my machine. :)

Originally Posted by yeewiz

do I stick with 4.0 or go to the 4.5?

If you don't have any super critical apps that require 4.5, stick with 4.0. I updated to 4.5 with visual studio a bit ago, and it broke two things I need for work. Not overly related, just a friendly piece of advice.

it doesnt seem like a true mass storage device.

It didn't just plug in and show up as a drive on my friend's mac, and it doesnt show up as a drive in my car (usb sticks work fine)

Huh. It shows up as a drive on my iMac... don't have a car to test that, though.

peculiar.. fiddled with it for about a half hour and couldnt get it to show up on the mac

Very strange. This is a 21.5" i3 iMac running... 10.6.something, I think (it's my work machine, I'll check it on Monday for exacts). It came right up as a drive (two, actually, as I have an 820; one drive for the built-in storage, another for the SD card.)

Originally Posted by jjmurphy

If you don't have any super critical apps that require 4.5, stick with 4.0. I updated to 4.5 with visual studio a bit ago, and it broke two things I need for work. Not overly related, just a friendly piece of advice.

understand completely, just like the data access components versions years ago

Did you install .Net 4.5 ? If you don't, if does not work.

just finished installing 4.0 and tried to install WP app. No joy.

UPDATE: I had installed .NET Framework 4 Client Profile the first go around. Installed .NET Framework 4 Extended and now WP app installs and runs fine.

My 8X definitely doesn't show up as a drive on my MBA running Mountain Lion or my wife's iMac running Lion. I can connect to it using the windows phone app but when I connect via USB it doesn't recognize it at all as a drive.

Time to get a 2003 Windows Mobile 6 phone to go with your ancient operating system.

No issues with my rig see's it as a storage drive and am in the process of converting my second Blu Ray movie to the SD card using W7 no .net on x64 machine.

> The Windows Phone desktop app is incompatible with XP/Vista. Only Windows Explorer can be used with XP/Vista

That's what I am saying, though. If it requires a special app, then it isn't USB Mass Storage compliant. If it really supports USB Mass Storage, I should be able to plug it into any machine that I can plug a generic USB thumb drive or external hard drive into. I have a dozen of those combined, and this is the only device that doesn't present a browseable drive letter. It instead presents itself as an MTP device.

-E

Originally Posted by socialcarpet

Time to get a 2003 Windows Mobile 6 phone to go with your ancient operating system.

Seriously? A USB Mass Storage device should present itself as a drive letter on XP. I have a 98 box as well, want me to try it on there? I'm sure it will be fine on the Win 7 machine, but that's with the software installed. Just respond to the facts, please, which is that the device isn't presenting itself as a USB Mass Storage device, right?

-E

Where can anyone point to that authoritatively indicates that Windows Phone 8 supports USB Mass Storage vs USB MTP? And there is a fairly big difference...

What USB version are your ports? Just a thought.

Originally Posted by E Lizzle

> The Windows Phone desktop app is incompatible with XP/Vista. Only Windows Explorer can be used with XP/Vista

That's what I am saying, though. If it requires a special app, then it isn't USB Mass Storage compliant.

It doesn't *require* a special app. What... whoever you quoted in there is saying is that there is a special app available for it, but that special app doesn't run on XP/Vista. On XP/Vista you have no choice but to use the phone as if it were a USB thumb drive or external hard drive.

In my case I have OSX, an XP VM, and a Windows 8 VM. Under XP the phone was detected as a camera and it doesn't show up as a USB storage device. Under OSX it detects it but definitely not as a mass storage device, I can only browse files on it by using the Windows Phone app. In Windows 8 it mounts it immediately and I can browse contents with explorer.

Originally Posted by philxor

In my case I have OSX, an XP VM, and a Windows 8 VM. Under XP the phone was detected as a camera and it doesn't show up as a USB storage device. Under OSX it detects it but definitely not as a mass storage device, I can only browse files on it by using the Windows Phone app. In Windows 8 it mounts it immediately and I can browse contents with explorer.

I think you've pretty much nailed it. Windows Phone 8 doesn't do USB Mass Storage. My guess is it's using USB MTP (it's really the only other protocol available).

-E

Originally Posted by iamtim

Very strange. This is a 21.5" i3 iMac running... 10.6.something, I think (it's my work machine, I'll check it on Monday for exacts). It came right up as a drive (two, actually, as I have an 820; one drive for the built-in storage, another for the SD card.)

I stand corrected. It doesn't show up as a drive on OSX. It does show up as a drive on Windows 8 Professional running on that iMac via BootCamp. Sorry for the confusion I caused.

Ok guys im not sure but in my case you have to enter your phones pin and unlock the device for it to let the pc browse its contents.

Originally Posted by iamtim

I stand corrected. It doesn't show up as a drive on OSX. It does show up as a drive on Windows 8 Professional running on that iMac via BootCamp. Sorry for the confusion I caused.

it's ok. i'm glad i wasn't going crazy :D

it is disappointing though. i was hoping for USB audio output. the android and iphone devices have it. it seems like an important part of a phone considering how media oriented these devices are. It's all just software based anyway.

Some people's cars are recognizing the device as a usb thumb drive. My BMW i-drive does not, which is even more disappointing.

WP8 uses USB MTP mode just like the android 4 and newer versions. Yeah its not Mass Storage but i dont have any problems with deleting or copying new content.

we need something like this: [APP] USB Mass Storage for Ice Cream Sandwich & Jelly Bean [v.1.2.0-pre - 02.02.2012] - xda-developers

are there USB "adapters" that can convert to legacy signals of some sort? perhaps trick the car into thinking it's reading a thumb drive so you can basically connect any device to it and use steering wheel controls to change songs?

I found a "fix" for the issue (which I seem to be the only person that has) I mentioned in my original post, where songs were duplicating in the media player even though I only have one copy of the song on the card. I disconnected the card in Settings, went to the media player and "deleted" all of the songs, and then restarted the phone. When the media player was relaunched after restart, the lists were all correct with just one copy. Just putting this out there in case anyone else has the issue.

I think this may have happened because I kept getting disconnected while transferring the backup of my old card over to the new one. The disconnection happens if you try to copy a folder like Camera Roll before the phone itself has created the folder. Saved Pictures is the same way. YMMV, it seems to depend on how the host PC's OS handles MTP.

Originally Posted by tofu.

it doesnt seem like a true mass storage device.

It didn't just plug in and show up as a drive on my friend's mac, and it doesnt show up as a drive in my car (usb sticks work fine)

This is what I was trying to do as well and my stereo said that it was an incompatible device. it works just fine on Win7 and 8 though.

I was having this issue for a little bit, then I went in and force installed USB driver for wp8. I will try to remember where I found this stuff. Check device manager and see if there's any "other" devices. Also for music is use MusicMatch. Super quick and simple. Its from like 2003 like my XP too.

a download link I found
download link I foundDownload MusicMatch Jukebox 10.00.4015b


let me know if you try it or can't find the drivers

When I plugged my Lumia 525 into Windows 8, it appears as "Windows Phone" icon on My computer, as MTP.

Every time I open a folder with thousands of photo, it take forever to sync every single photo before I can transfer any file on it.

I can't find any way to connect my phone as "mass storage".

MTP is very INEFFICIENT way to transfer my file!