Viewing files on a remote drive, on an Android device

September 27, 2014 11:23 AM

How do I set up the sharing of a folder on a USB disk drive so that files within the drive, which is attached to a Win7 PC, can be played on an Android device?

Cast of characters:

• A Windows 7 PC.
• A Moto G running Android 4.4.
• A USB drive plugged into the Windows 7 PC with video files on it.

Ideal situation:
I browse the drive on the Moto G, find the folder with the files in, open a file, and it plays.

Current situation:
I can browse the folder with the files in, and see the files, but they refuse to play, citing a network error. I've enabled sharing of the files, giving "Everyone" full control. The files can be seen, and they'll play if I drag them into the Public folder on the PC and play them from there on the Moto G. They just won't play from where they are.

What am I doing wrong?

posted by Solomon to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

It would seem you're doing it correctly, the mechanism by which the Public folder and the external drive are shared is essentially the same from the Moto's point of view -- my diagnosis would be that the USB connection to the external drive is either spotty or slow. The Moto G is able to see the folders, but it it starts trying to pull down the data at streaming speeds, it reaches a point where the end at your computer isn't able to supply data fast enough to play. The Moto may blame the network by default, but if you can stream from the "Public" folder, just not the external drive, then I would blame the external drive.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:49 PM on September 27, 2014

Use a simple streaming setup with a DLNA server on the PC and something like BubbleUPnP on the Android.
posted by rhizome at 1:46 PM on September 27, 2014

Response by poster: After some fiddling, not to mention some cursing and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I got it to work. I've had to set the permissions for each file individually to be Everyone, rather than just setting the folder. Why, I don't know. But it's working, which is what I wanted.

My next AskMe is going to be about exorcising the gremlins from my LAN.
posted by Solomon at 1:59 PM on September 27, 2014