Accessing files on SD card. (WP8, Lumia 810)

[Optiplex330]

As far as the Search Engine question goes; one can go to Settings, swipe left to Applications, go to IE and then to Advanced. At this point you will be able to select to use Bing (default (of course)) or Google (glad the choice it there at least!).
Ben

I have an unlocked ATIV S without any updates and I don't have that option to select Google like you mentioned. Any idea why?

 

[Optiplex330]

1. Is there any way to just browse the file folders on the SD card from within the phone itself? I use my phone's SD card as storage for a lot of files (office documents, pdfs, etc.) and I want to be able to just dig through the file folders like in windows explorer. Android did this easily, and I just assumed that windows would let me look at file folders on the phone the way windows lets me look at file folders on the desktop. This just seems like a really odd functionality to be missing, and I'm hoping that I am just overlooking it, or at least there is an app that functions like explorer.
.

I know EXACTLY how you feel, coming from Symbian myself and that one has file manager. Because I am often in areas with no Internet connection, I need to have my documents in phone itself and I have a shock when I couldn't just copy & paste those document into my ATIV S. I nearly fainted.

To cut a story short, AFAIK, the only apps that could do some of the thing of file manager would be Pocket File Manager but it has a learning curve. What you need to do is:
1. Compress your document into rar
2. Copy the rar into your SD card
3. Copy your rar from SD card to phone memory
4. Unpack your rar.

Good luck.

And if anyone has a better idea, I would love to know and thank you in advance.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I have an unlocked ATIV S without any updates and I don't have that option to select Google like you mentioned. Any idea why?

You can only set Google as the search provider in IE only, you cannot set it as the search button on the phone unless you change your regional settings to Russian, or so I've been told.

Open IE go to Settings -> Advanced settings -> slide up -> Default search provider -> tap change to Google

 

[N_LaRUE]

I think we should just leave the file manger thing alone personally. This is Windows Phone, not Android. I understand the pain as I came from Symbian and I understand some people 'need' a file manager, however I don't see this being implemented personally. There are a lot of security issues surrounding this and MS is big on security these days. If anything does come in, expect it to be severally limited compared to Android. Unless they change the whole concept of WP and open the APIs more, there will never be a file manager like you probably want it.

There are so many people on this forum from Android and Symbian going on about this issue. You should have looked into what WP could do prior to coming on board and it's time we let this go. My suggestion is this, give it to WP8.1, if the features you're dying for are not implemented it will be time for you to move on.

That's my take on this.

 

[Optiplex330]

You can only set Google as the search provider in IE only, you cannot set it as the search button on the phone unless you change your regional settings to Russian, or so I've been told.

Open IE go to Settings -> Advanced settings -> slide up -> Default search provider -> tap change to Google

Nope, that option not in my ATIV S.

 

[Optiplex330]

I think we should just leave the file manger thing alone personally. This is Windows Phone, not Android. I understand the pain as I came from Symbian and I understand some people 'need' a file manager, however I don't see this being implemented personally. There are a lot of security issues surrounding this and MS is big on security these days. If anything does come in, expect it to be severally limited compared to Android. Unless they change the whole concept of WP and open the APIs more, there will never be a file manager like you probably want it.

There are so many people on this forum from Android and Symbian going on about this issue. You should have looked into what WP could do prior to coming on board and it's time we let this go. My suggestion is this, give it to WP8.1, if the features you're dying for are not implemented it will be time for you to move on.

That's my take on this.

I don't see any choice because I often need to open Office documents in rural areas with no Internet access. So no way to access Skydrive. If you could show me a way, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[docfreed]

You just opened the entire issue of cloud-based storage. The proponents of the cloud forgot that there is no universal access, internet is not always available or prohibitively costly (think cruise ship). Short of carrying portable storage or downloading your files in advance, there is no solution!

I don't see any choice because I often need to open Office documents in rural areas with no Internet access. So no way to access Skydrive. If you could show me a way, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[N_LaRUE]

You just opened the entire issue of cloud-based storage. The proponents of the cloud forgot that there is no universal access, internet is not always available or prohibitively costly (think cruise ship). Short of carrying portable storage or downloading your files in advance, there is no solution!

I'm not disagreeing with anyone with regards to the issues. I'm just pointing out the realities. Yes, cloud doesn't work for everyone, hell it's barely good for me and I live in the UK. Neither does broadband, mobile internet or having a computer. Unfortunately we're talking mainstream usage not fringe. Smartphones are unfortunately made for the western consumer first. iPhone has the same restrictions. Though their file manager app (which needs to be purchased) is a bit better.

You can store files on your phone via your computer. There's folders for you to do so. Both on SD and your phone memory. As long as there is a computer at the other end you can transfer those files to the other computer. So unless you're transferring files between phones via bluetooth, which is the 'only' reason you'd need a file manger for, I don't see why one is really needed. Any other situation will require wifi or usb connection. Am I missing something?

 

[Optiplex330]

You can store files on your phone via your computer. There's folders for you to do so. Both on SD and your phone memory. As long as there is a computer at the other end you can transfer those files to the other computer. So unless you're transferring files between phones via bluetooth, which is the 'only' reason you'd need a file manger for, I don't see why one is really needed. Any other situation will require wifi or usb connection. Am I missing something?

Please teach me how to transfer my Words, Excel and PDF files to my WP8 phone that can be opened by my Mobile Office. I would be very grateful. As far as I know, I could only do that for video and photos, not Microsoft Office documents.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Please teach me how to transfer my Words, Excel and PDF files to my WP8 phone that can be opened by my Mobile Office. I would be very grateful. As far as I know, I could only do that for video and photos, not Microsoft Office documents.

I apologise for misleading things a bit. On the SD card there is no way to view Office Docs or PDFs currently, hopefully they will add a Documents folder in the future. Not sure why they put that limitation. However, on the phone memory there is the Documents folder. If you put your documents and PDFs in here you can view them on your phone in Office Hub.

The main limitation to remember here is that you cannot use folders in the Documents folder. The files can only be in the Documents folder otherwise they will not be visible.

 

[detealin]

Why do you need to connect to Nokia suite? Are you gonna flash you phone? And for 2 what files are you trying to look for?

My bad. Didn't know that Suite is not for WP. I just assumed it was compatible and installed it, since with Windows app for desktop i couldn't solve my problem:
I have a backup of my contacts - an .spb file, which i need to get to this phone. So, any idea how i can do that?
Im thinking of transferring the file to an android, and try to send it from that phone to the Lumia.. but i think there might be a more simple and efficient way.
Thank you!

 

[detealin]

I have an .spb file thats a backup of my contacts. How can i get those contacts in a Lumia 520 runnin WP8?
Thank you!

 

[N_LaRUE]

I have an .spb file thats a backup of my contacts. How can i get those contacts in a Lumia 520 runnin WP8?
Thank you!

Not sure of your setup but the best way to do it is use Samsung Kies software to save it to a .csv file. Then import the .csv file in Outlook.com to your MS account email. The contacts will automatically sync with your phone.

 

[kreativmaestro]

The msg is out of topic @n_Larue, but just to help, don't export any file from Kies.

just sync all contacts with Gmail on android and take wherever u sync next device automatically...

in WP8 there is an option to sync with Gmail so all the contacts ate automatically imported from your Gmail server and hence are on both gmail and outlook...

anything more,ask...

 

[detealin]

The msg is out of topic @n_Larue, but just to help, don't export any file from Kies.

just sync all contacts with Gmail on android and take wherever u sync next device automatically...

in WP8 there is an option to sync with Gmail so all the contacts ate automatically imported from your Gmail server and hence are on both gmail and outlook...

anything more,ask...

You're right. I am a bit off topic, but just in case some noobie wonders off like me and lands here, here's how i solved it:
First i tried exporting from Kies as a .csv and then imported the file in Google. But the export done by kies was off and my contacts were altered. So I exported from Kies as .vcf and then dropped them in Outlook. Saved another *.csv from Outlook and this one was Ok when imported to Gmail. Synced google mail with the phone and the job was done.
That was the whole deal, thanks for the support and sorry for the short off-topic.

 

[N_LaRUE]

@kreativmaestro, two posts on the forum and you're now the enforcer? How nice. I was just being helpful, something they actually encourage on this forum.

@detealin, you didn't mention you were just putting the contacts into Gmail. That's a bit confusing, I thought you were using WP and Outlook. That was quite the roundabout way to do things.

 

[Quoc Wenn]

actually I was researching the same thing and stumble on something. Just dragr files..word doc, pdf from you pc to "documents" on you phone..and WALLA! there it is in office under "phone' (doc on your phone. that's it. it only took about 2 mos to figure simple task where microsoft "genius" gives you the run around.
Hope this helprly:

 

[sakthganesh]

i have music files in my SD card memory location.
i wanna enjoy this music in my Lumia 820 without changing its memory location.
How can i do it?????

 

[anon(5844482)]

Go to music+videos hub. You will find your music there.