Mi Box S not mounting external drives

by AussieCamo

Hi,

I’ve just bought a Mi box S which I primarily want to use as a media box to play video files stored on an external HDD whilst I’m traveling both domestically and internationally.

The box will be loaded with Kodi and VLC to play the video files from the HDD.

The trouble is, I’ve tried mounting various usb drives, ranging from 8gb through to 2tb and differing formats from NTFS, exfat and Fat32.

None of them are being read by the box, a notification is displayed top corner that reads “corrupted San disk usb drive tap to fix”

I’ve read that this was a problem with previous android releases, so I have updated and am running version 9

I’m now performing a system reset to factory settings and starting again.

Any pointers on where I may be going wrong please ladies and gentlemen.

Many thanks

Pwrch

I have no idea what parts are available in Australia. But here are a few more thoughts. Appears via searches this issue is common on Mi box.

You said a powered usb drive worked. So there are powered small usb hubs made. Also there are usb connection splitters for adding usb stick on one side and a cell phone style small battery pack. I use these on a tablet, a phone and firesticks. Cheap in US.

Also there were lots of mentions about using a good File Manager and usb plug shows up on manager. Lots of decent apps at play store. I use x-Plore app. Do not use ES File Explorer. Lots of bad press about it with new owners.

Also try inserting a NON Sandisk thumb 2.0 drive. Go to Mi settings, Device preferences, to Storage. See if listed there. Then you can try to install usb drive as internal shared storage. If that works you can add media in a variety of ways. However when you format shared storage device Mi will wipe drive clean. There are instructions on Mi S web site to.

Ignore the Sandisk warning if there and go to File manager and or storage device to see what they say.

If I can help with a spare part splitter or powered usb hub. I can see how hard it is to ship from US.

If I need to clarify or expand any of these suggestions, let know.

Have fun

https://imgur.com/5GN0LeT https://imgur.com/5GN0LeT , and https://imgur.com/2KA50JP

anonyfool

I had this happen to me with Mi Box S and it appears to come and go with different versions of Kodi? It was working for me for a long time but I have autoupdate on and the latest version of Kodi appears to have broken something. I bypass this by installing File Manager and clicking on the drive in File Manager and for some reason the file association works and it makes Kodi play it. When it works 100% the drive shows up in Kodi in the Files sections.

Pwrch

I had same issue with Shield a few years ago. exchanged it.

try this link for possibly trying the USB debugging option in developer mode.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/mi-box-not-showing-usb.3528609/

Looks to me you have tried all the options. Probably faulty usb connection.

Also did you try a powered external usb drive. Maybe it needs more power for usb.

Good luck, hope you can exchange it

HotLaksa

Try plugging in a cheap reliable USB thumb drive and seeing if this works. If it does, then you probably can rule out it being a hardware issue. The next most likely issue will be filesystem or power demand. I doubt NTFS will work, whereas FAT32 almost always works. Also try an externally powered HD to ensure it is not a power supply issue. I doubt the Mi Box can supply much power through its USB port.

Finally, if you want to play external media for Kodi / VLC, consider getting a cheap NAS drive, or running a Plex server. Either of these options allow you to stream media to other devices in your house without having to fiddle with USB plugs.

chicagoahu

I've had success with formatting the storage media with the device, though never tried with the Mi Box S. If the Mi Box S has a format option, try it.