UPDATE: Since writing this post Sony have announced a USB memory card only about 1cm long that will plug into your Android device and into a USB port on a PC. This negates the need for the OTG cable in cases where you just need storage. If you want to plug in a mouse or keyboard etc. to your Android phone you’ll still need one.

See this link for details.

So, there is no microSD card slot in your Android device? That needn’t mean you can’t add storage. In fact, on most Android devices, with the addition of a cheap cable, you can add memory cards and hard drives so you can access the files stored on them.

A 2012 Nexus 7 with USB OTG cable and memory stick

This is especially true for Google’s Nexus line of phones and tablets because none of them feature expandable storage. For many people this is a deal breaker. I have owned several Nexus devices and still use a Nexus 7 (original) with 16GB of memory and my current phone, a HTC One, does not have expandable memory either. My phone has 32GB and my tablet has 16GB and I generally find that to be enough. When I am at home I am always on wifi so I have access to everything I need via “the cloud” but the problem comes when you are away from a wifi connection. Your data allowance is likely to have a cap that makes you very wary about how much data you gobble up. Some modern smartphones have 64GB of memory and I suspect most people would be very happy with that much. However, many devices are limited to 16GB and even 8GB in some cases. If you store a lot of music, a few films or shoot video often you will run out of storage very quickly.

Here is the solution – a USB OTG cable.

You will need what is called a USB OTG cable (On The Go). These are short cables with a microUSB male plug on one end and a full-sized USB female socket on the other. You can also get these without a flexible cable between the two ends but I would be worried about damaging the device’s socket with one of those due to the leverage that could be applied. USB OTG cables can be bought on eBay for less than £2. They really are a must-have at this price because they can also be used to connect USB mice, keyboards and even some USB cameras to most Android phones and tablets!

Some Android devices have all the software necessary in their ROM. My old Samsung Galaxy S3 and my current phone, the HTC One, both do. All I have to do is plug in a USB stick via the USB OTG cable and I can straight away access videos, photos and music using the built in players. My Nexus 7 does not have that functionality built in. If you know how to ‘root’ your device there are plenty of ROM’s out there that will bridge that gap. Otherwise, you will need an app called ‘Nexus Media Importer‘. This excellent app does not require your Android device to be rooted and is the only such app that I am aware of. It is brilliant value at just £2.62. Check out the developer’s instructions on Google Play at the link.

Once you have installed the Nexus Media Importer app and have the USB OTG cable plugged in you can copy photos, music and videos from USB flash memory or hard discs to your Android device’s memory or stream them directly.

So if you are going away for a while and need to keep your kids happy with films just take along your memory stick and OTG cable and watch them on your Nexus tablet!

Do you know of any alternatives? I would love to hear.