Cannot get phone to recognize USB flash drive

[MaryE1]

I have a new 128gb PNY flash drive that I wanted to save photos onto directly from my phone. I got a new USB adapter from Anker to do this. Flash drive works fine on my computer and the drive as well as adapter works on a friends computer. However, I cannot get this my phone to recognize it. I plug it in and nothing pops up for me to utilize it. What am I doing wrong? 

[realaud]

Do you have the correct adapter? You would need to have an OTG adapter. You also have to make sure auto block is off so that the USB port can be used for data transfer.

[MaryE1]

Yes it's an Anker OTG adapter. 

I will look into the auto blocker though

[MaryE1]

I turned off auto blocker and turned on usb debugging and still no luck. 

This is the adapter that I got.

 

[realaud]

You actually didn't have to buy such a cumbersome adapter, but it's fine.  In any case, you may have to enable developer options and turn on the data transfer capability.

Open the phone settings, scroll down to "about phone", tap on Software information, then tap on the build number 10 times until you get the message that says "developer options now active".  Exit out of there and then go back to the settings.  At the very bottom of the settings list will be "developer options". tap that, scroll down to "default USB configuration" and then turn on "transferring files" or (your phone will still charge via USB, regardless which option you choose.). I believe if you choose "transferring images" only image files will be allowed, which would stop you from backing up other files, while "transferring files" will allow any type of file.  Oh, and please do not play with any other settings, unless you know exactly what you are doing.

[MaryE1]

Did this and restarted my phone and it still isn't showing up for me. I know the flash drive works because I've opened it on other devices. 

Is it possible that it's an issue with my phone?

 

[realaud]

Do you have another flash drive to try? I would actually return the adapter you have and buy this one. Could be a problem with the adapter. You could also buy a usb-c flash drive.
https://a.co/d/8Q2NoD5

[neilth]

It's quite possible that your flash drive is formatted with a file system not compatible with Android. This will prevent your phone from working with the flash drive. You can try formatting it on your computer and select the file system to use. You can try FAT32 or exFAT, one of those should work with the phone. This will provide you with a file system that both your phone and your computer can work with.

[realaud]

I didn't think of that when troubleshooting with the OP, but it could make sense.  I find, though, that most pre-formatted flash drives are formatted with FAT, since it's compatible with all systems.

[neilth]

I think that FAT and now even FAT32 are obsolete. They both have what are today very restrictive partition and file size limitations. The best option now is probably exFAT for both Android and Windows co-use.