Android 14: This is how the use of external storage media should be simplified

• Android smartphones have problems with most storage media.
• With Android 14, that could change.
• Apparently Google is working on connectivity with NTFS drives.

With Android, it is not necessarily practical to transfer data to an external medium. Most of you first connect your cell phone to the PC and then transfer the data from the PC to a USB stick or hard drive, for example. That extra step could be a thing of the past with Android 14.

Google may be working on a solution

The direct connection of smartphones to storage media is not quite as simple as one might think. Apart from the classic memory card, which is also being used less and less in mobile phones, files can only be transferred from Android devices using the File Allocation Table exchange format (FAT). Although this file system is still used in many cases, it is now somewhat outdated.

The current standard for Windows and Co. is the New Technology File System (NTFS), which is faster and more secure and also has a higher data capacity. The only advantage of FAT is currently the versatile compatibility with smartphones, tablets and other devices. Currently, one has to follow several complicated steps to convert data from FAT format to NTFS format.

A tweet from the tipster Mishaal Rahman according to Google could now work on the compatibility of NTFS and Android. Namely, recently an NTFS read and write driver was installed on the Linux version on which Android is based. This is not a guarantee for the final implementation of the feature, but it is a possible indication.

Also interesting…

Should Google bring NTFS support to Android, external storage media with this formatting can be connected in the future without the need for special intermediary tools.