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

[E Lizzle]

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

 

[lordofthereef]

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.

 

[iamtim]

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*

 

[slick5150]

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

 

[iamtim]

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

 

[Laura Knotek]

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)

 

[yeewiz]

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?

 

[iamtim]

Yes.

 

[yeewiz]

do I stick with 4.0 or go to the 4.5?

 

[iamtim]

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

 

[jjmurphy]

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.

 

[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)

 

[iamtim]

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

 

[tofu.]

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

 

[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.)

 

[yeewiz]

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

 

[Coolknight1968]

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

 

[yeewiz]

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.

 

[philxor]

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.

 

[socialcarpet]

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