USB 3.0 Flash Drive Not Working in TV?

PushItReelGood

Reputable
Jun 2, 2015
25
0
4,530
Good morning,

Basically I've been having some trouble with a new USB flash drive I purchased. The flash drive is a Grixx 64GB USB 3.0 - before this I had a Sandisk 64GB USB 3.0 and it worked fine, no problems at all. The Sandisk flash drive died on me so I purchased a new one.

I like to put movies/tv shows on my USB and watch them in my TV, however when I plug the Grixx USB into the TV a message pops up saying Hard Drive Not Compatible. The light comes on to show the USB is working fine, the USB works fine in my computer.

It's formatted to NTFS, but so was the Sandisk one, so I'm not sure why this would be a problem?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
 
Hey there.

It's a bit odd that basically everything seems to be the same (file system and capacity size), but you get this error. I'd recommend that you try reformatting it again with the NTFS files system, to see if it's recognized afterwards. If it still doesn't work, I'd suggest that you try with FAT32 and exFAT as well, to see if it's recognized with one of those files systems. Ultimately, if nothing seems to work, I'd recommend that you get in touch with the TV manufacturer's customer support and ask for assistance.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
 


I've tried that, I formatted it to FAT32 (using GUIFormat), loaded it up with different mix of files, and none of the video files show up on the USB when I plug it into the TV. Tried this on two different TVs as well. They show all the subtitle files, and show that there are folders on the USB, but it doesn't show the video files, I have a mix of files on there too, - .avi .mp4 .mkv etc, none show up.

Really confused.
 
Hmm this is pretty strange. Have you tried other flash drives with that TV, to see if they work OK with it? As for your flash drive and the other TVs, if they are the same brand it might mean that there's some sort of incompatibility issue. On the other hand if they are different brands, it might mean that the flash drive has a problem of some sort. Also have you tried with music files?
 


I've not tried with music files, however I have tried with multiple flash drives. The one I'm having problems with is a Grixx 64GB usb 3.0. Using a Corsair 32GB usb 3.0 formatted in NTFS works perfectly fine and a 4GB Sandisk usb 2.0 formatted to FAT32 works absolutely fine too.

That's why I don't understand this, as the other 2 work fine. I've Googled a bit to see if anyone else is having problems with Grixx but not come across anything yet.
 
Strange, and maybe it's a capacity issue? A 4GB worked, a 32GB worked, but a 64GB did not.....

It's really random, as most TVs should recognize up to around 1.5-2TB HDDs, but maybe there is a limitation with flash drives themselves?

EDIT: A Google search turns up quite a few people having issues with 64GB flash drive, when prior <32GB drives worked fine (although HDDs don't seem to have the same issue).

I'd suggest you create a partition on the drive, no greater than 32GB and see if the drive is recognized/compatible then. If it is, that'll at least identify it's a capacity issue (ie your TV isn't capable of reading 64GB via Flash). Maybe look into an external (USB powered) HDD.

External HDDs are pretty cheap these days. You can find a 1TB drive for around 55-60USD / 40-50GBP / 70-80CAD
 


Yeah, I think it is to do with the flash drive then, although the Sandisk I mention in the original post was 64GB and worked fine until it died, so that's why it's really confusing.

I'll try the partition when I finish work. Cheers bud.
 
Sorry, I read your post as a 32GB was your original - no idea how I managed that.

As another test - do you have anything else you can plug the drive into (other than a PC). Another TV? A dvd player? PS3/4 etc.

I've found that sometimes drives will work in one, but not another - I guess if we can establish it works as intended in something else, it might give us a better idea.