USB Connection to PC--Definitive Answer?

[galleherjazz]

A friend and I have recently purchased the Droid. I was able, through the Notification, to connect using the USB cable and then to access my files and folders and transfer everything I needed to the phone--music, ringtones, photos, wallpaper. I then dismounted the USB connection, and all was fine.

I instructed my friend on what to do, and he was able to access the DCIM folder from his PC via the USB cable. After putting some photos in the Droid connection (under the new folder heading Photos), the Droid showed no media under Gallery. So he dismounted the phone, after foolishly deleting the folder that the phone wasn't recognizing, and has tried, in vain, to get the PC to recognize the phone ever since. He's done numerous things: rebooted the phone, normally and by pulling the battery; he tried turning off his McAfee firewall (no difference). He tried using different USB ports. Each time the PC recognizes the Droid (briefly), even long enough for him to click and look for folders to import, then--in a moment--the Droid drive is no longer recognized. He has repeated this frustrating exercise numerous times.

From my reading, this would seem to be a not uncommon problem. Is there an answer to this? I told him he could always just remove the card and mount the card directly into the PC or through a card reader, but because it is a micro-SD card, he doesn't want to do this on a regular basis.

Are there any answer to this problem out there? Inquiring minds would like to know!

Peace

[hayaku]

only one device can use the sdcard at a time. you "mount" the card for the pc to use it. you "dismount" the card for the droid to use it. the droid cannot see the contents of the card while the card is "mounted"

[galleherjazz]

Thanks very much, hayaku, but that is not the issue. The issue is that once he clicks on mount, the Droid shows briefly on the PC, and then it disappears. He has not way of accessing the phone through the PC.

[bastosero]

It seems like he may have corrupted the SD card. I would try reformatting the SD card and once it's done he can test if it would mount again.

[hayaku]

not sure what the issue is with the pc, but once the card is mounted, the pc should be able to see it just fine. have him check out other methods like websharing (a http based file upload/download service from the phone), ftp server, bluetooth file sharing, etc...

usb is supposed to be the easiest method, but there are other methods as well...

[bastosero]

I'm guessing it might not be the computer. I think it's the SD card itself. Again, tell him to reformat the SD card then try it again.

[galleherjazz]

Interesting suggestion, bastosero. We thought of this, but it shows clearly (on the phone) that the SD card is in the phone. Also, he tried mounting his Droid to his Mac notebook and it worked like a charm. At work, he connected the phone to an XP computer, and it, too, worked just fine.

His home PC is a brand-new Dell Windows 7. Have any of you heard that Windows 7 presents a problem?

[papachach]

Just go into settings>applications>development and check debugging mode. That should fix it for the time being.

[bastosero]

Interesting suggestion, bastosero. We thought of this, but it shows clearly (on the phone) that the SD card is in the phone. Also, he tried mounting his Droid to his Mac notebook and it worked like a charm. At work, he connected the phone to an XP computer, and it, too, worked just fine.

His home PC is a brand-new Dell Windows 7. Have any of you heard that Windows 7 presents a problem?

Interesting...then that should rule out the SD card having the problem. I'm not sure what applications and programs your friend's computer came with or if he installed any recently, but have him check out that computer of his.

[galleherjazz]

Thanks, everyone, for your replies. What a great forum. And what a great phone. My friend took called Verizon and they are sending him a new phone! So, I will hold this thread open and unsolved till he tries it with his new phone. One thing that may have screwed it up was that when he dismounted the USB cable the first time, he did NOT use the app to dismount, the notification app. He had been successfully once in getting the phone to be recognized. Perhaps taking the cable out prematurely did some damage.
And by the way, he had tried to do the debugging mode papachach spoke it. It still wouldn't mount.
So, guys and gals, hold off for a bit: I'll get back to this thread in a day or two.
Many thanks, all!