NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
kturcotte
Oct 05, 2014Aspirant
Transferring files from phone
I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 running Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. I noticed that my ReadyNAS Ultra 6 has regular USB ports on the back. I connected my phone to one, and my phone is getting charged from it, but I'm wondering if there's anyway to transfer files back and forth this way? I can and have been doing it wirelessly, but I'd think a direct connection would be faster. My phone IS rooted if that helps.
11 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- vandermerweMasterI doubt it as the phone probably isn't formatted in a way that is recognisable by the readynas.
Does anything appear in the USB drive tab in Frontview?
If you browse to the nas from your PC, do you see the phone as a USB volume? - kturcotteAspirant
vandermerwe wrote: I doubt it as the phone probably isn't formatted in a way that is recognisable by the readynas.
Does anything appear in the USB drive tab in Frontview?
If you browse to the nas from your PC, do you see the phone as a USB volume?
Frontview? And don't currently have a PC, so can't see if the NAS sees it or not. - StephenBGuru - Experienced UserFrontview is the name of NAS admin web page - https://nasname/admin (or https://nasipaddr/admin)
You will need some control device if you want to transfer data to the phone - you can't do it from the NAS directly because it has no keyboard/mouse/display.
The phone needs to be connected to act as a USB thumb drive (which is an option on the unrooted galaxy - I also have an S4). But I don't think you can use the phone itself as a control device when you have it in that operating mode. Do you have anything else (a tablet perhaps?) - kturcotteAspirantThe phone is all I have. I couldn't do anything with ES File Explorer or an app?
- vandermerweMasterYou say you have achieved what you want wirelessly. What did you use for that? Can you see the nas with it?
- kturcotteAspirantES File Explorer. It only transfers files at around 1 MBps though, and I'm hoping a direct connection will be faster
- vandermerweMasterCan you not browse to frontview on your phone?
If you could you could see if the phone is visible as a drive and setup a backup job and program the backup button to run it.
You should find Frontview at the ipaddressofnas/admin. Presumably you must have setup the nas at some point in the past? - StephenBGuru - Experienced User
No. The NAS sees the phone as a thumb drive, but the phone can't access the NAS over USB - the standard USB drives aren't set up that way. So you have to manage the data transfer from the NAS, you can't do it from the phone.kturcotte wrote: The phone is all I have. I couldn't do anything with ES File Explorer or an app?
You could put the phone's SD card (if you have one) into a USB adapter, and plug that into the NAS. Then use the web interface of the NAS to transfer data (using the phone as the control device).
That's awkward - the admin UI does work on the phone, but the pages aren't designed for small mobile devices. And the SD card in the S4 isn't easily removed.
It's easier to just use ES File Explorer, and live with the wifi transfer speeds. - StephenBGuru - Experienced User
He can't see what the actual mount point turns out to be, because the phone display is locked out when you enable the USB connection mode. Even if you can swipe past that, some phone functions are disabled when it is in USB mode - and I think web browsing is one of them. So it would be hard to create the backup job (you'd need to guess on the destination name).vandermerwe wrote: Can you not browse to frontview on your phone?
If you could you could see if the phone is visible as a drive and setup a backup job and program the backup button to run it.
You should find Frontview at the ipaddressofnas/admin. Presumably you must have setup the nas at some point in the past?
Your method requires him to
(a) move the files he wants to transfer to the phone into a xfer share using the web ui
(b) connect the phone to the NAS, and enable the USB connection
(c) press the backup button
(d) guess when the transfer is complete, because there is no way to see that it is. (I think)
(e) disconnect the phone and migrate the data to the correct location in the phone with ES file manager.
I've run Frontview from my Galaxy S4 - it is not easy, because the UI was never designed for that screen size. You need to continually zoom up to make the controls large enough to touch, and then zoom down so you have enough context to see the screen. Running the http share interface (https://nasname/shares) is just as bad.
Anyway, if I were in his shoes, I'd use ES File Manager wirelessly, and get some coffee or something while it is copying. - vandermerweMasterYes I agree, far too cumbersome. The suggestion was for transfer off phone onto nas, in a similar way to plugging a USB drive and using the backup button to copy data over.
Do you know if the phone appears as a USB device in Frontview?
I would certainly struggle without wired access to Frontview on a big screen device.
Related Content
NETGEAR Academy

Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!