[Nexus 7 Themes and Apps] thenrik:
Expand the 16gb Nexus 7 Universe without Rooting—Nexus Media Importer $2.99

Nexus Media Importer 4.0 ​

Nexus Media Importer allows copying and/or streaming from a usb connected device via an otg cable without rooting. The developer started out with only Fat16 and Fat32 support and now has added NTSF, a smaller footprint and faster streaming.

I started out with a Palm TX, with a SD Card, a device I still use. I also have an Asus Transformer 101 tablet and dock, both with sd card slots, again a device I still use. I bought the Nexus 7 with great trepidation as an intentionally crippled device lacking expandability. It had most everything right: size, speed and portability. I'm not a cloud guy and don't believe we're at the point where streaming wifi speeds are ubiquitous enough to support streaming wifi media. I have a large ebook, image, music and video collection, a data hog, Fortunately, early on, I stumbled across Nexus Media Importer. It's made the Nexus 7 the portable tablet I take with me most places. I can access all of my data with or without a wifi signal. For me, Nexus Media Importer is one of the most important apps, making the Nexus 7 so much more than a toy.

You will need this App, Nexus Media Importer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.homeysoft.nexususb.importer

Refer to the Nexus Media Importer FAQ:

Nexus Media Importer: FAQ

An Oga Cable: There are a dizzying variety of vendors both domestic and foreign with a certain amount of controversy as to which types fit the best etc. Most all are made in China and they'll work or they won't.

USB OTG Adapter

http://www.nexustablets.net/forum/nexus-tablet-accessories/1504-usb-otg-adapter-search.html

[app]Nexus 7 External Flash Picture Viewer & Media Streamer

xda-developers - View Single Post - [app]Nexus 7 External Flash Picture Viewer & Media Streamer

I use:

SANOXY Micro USB Host Mode OTG Cable Flash Drive SD T-Flash Card Adapter 82 cents .Free shipping. Ships from Hong Kong and takes a couple of weeks. Fit's dead on.

Amazon.com: SANOXY Micro USB Host Mode OTG Cable Flash Drive SD T-Flash Card Adapter FOR Samsung GT-i9100 i9100 Galaxy S II 2 GT-N7000 Galaxy Note: Cell Phones & Accessories

If you need instant gratification, check out the following threads:

USB OTG adapter search

http://www.nexustablets.net/forum/nexus-7-accessories/1504-usb-otg-adapter-search.html

The USB OTG that Do and DO NOT work with Nexus 7 Thread

The USB OTG that Do and DO NOT work with Nexus 7 Thread - xda-developers

You can find other opinions and feedback on Nexis Media Importer and many other topics by browsing the following forums:

Nexus Tablet Forum

http://www.nexustablets.net/forum/forum.php

XDA Nexus 7

Nexus 7 - xda-developers

A flash drive, card reader or connected device formatted with Fat16 , Fat32 or NTSF:​

I've connected full size flash drives, micro flash drives and sd card readers without a problem in a variety of sizes and formats. I'm able to swap my NTSF formatted 64gb Class 6 MicroSd card between my Transformer 101 and my Nexus 7.

For a small footprint, you might consider a MicroSD card reader or a micro usb drive. I use the following MicroSD adapter, smaller than your thumbnail, $4.98, free shipping, it took five days to get from Hong Kong:

MR Micro SD SDHC TF Nano Mini USB Reader Adapter MR1 Netbook Mobile Car Black $4.98 Free Shipping

MR Micro SD SDHC TF Nano Mini USB Reader Adapter MR1 Netbook Mobile Car Black | eBay

An Amazon Prime eligible one:

elago Mobile Nano II USB 2.0 microSDHC Flash Memory Card Reader (Black) $9.52

Amazon.com: elago Mobile Nano II USB 2.0 microSDHC Flash Memory Card Reader (Black): Electronics

For me, I already have several inches of OTG cable dangling from my Nexus 7 so smaller is better for the flash drive or adapter. Here's an example of a MicroUSB Flash Drive.

SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB Flash Drive (SDCZ33-032G-B35) $15.99

Amazon.com: SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 32GB USB Flash Drive (SDCZ33-032G-B35): Electronics

Larger flash drives both in size and storage capacity work as well—a have a 64gb flash drive. They just pull the cable down a little further.

Keep in mind that the Nexus 7 complains about most every file format, scolding that it might not be compatible. Just ignore the warnings and copy your data.

MicroSD Card Issues​

Nexus Media Importer supports Fat16, Fat32 and NTSF—not exfat. Personally I use the SanDisk 64GB Mobile Ultra MicroSDXC Class 6 Memory Card. It can be formatted from ex-fat to Fat32 or NTSF. I can confirm that the following ebay vendor carries the card:

NEW SanDisk - Mobile Ultra 64GB microSDXC Class 6 Memory Card SDSDQY-064G-A11A $59.99

NEW SanDisk - Mobile Ultra 64GB microSDXC Class 6 Memory Card SDSDQY-064G-A11A | eBay

The new class 10 64gb MicroSD cards come with ex-fat and cannot be formatted to any other format on a computer. To the best of my knowledge they cannot be converted to NTSF. I successfully converted one to Fat32 with the following free utility from a Russian Site. I didn't get a virus or spyware:

ftp://dmitrykhn.homedns.org/For PC/soft/utils/HPUSBDisk.exe

Amazon Woes:​

I ordered and returned 6 64 Class 6 MicroSd cards from Amazon when I received Class 10 cards instead. Amazon lists vendors having Class 10 cards when they do not. Amazon sells none and of the third party vendors only BlueProton has the cards. Make sure you contact the vendor before you order. I have written confirmation that the following vendors don't carry the class 6 64gbcards: Jazzer Shack, USEcoZone, Digital Media, Ace. Stromboli and Mactechy. I complained to the Better Business Bureau but if you're Amazon you can do whatever you want.

What data does Nexus Media Importer support?​

Pictures: NMI currently only supports jpg anf png images and can stream them from your usb device.

Videos: NMI can stream videos in the following formats: mp4, mkv, avi, wmv, mov, ts, m2ts, m2t, mts, m4v, ogv, asf, srt, f4v, flv, rmvb. It currently cannot see mpg videos. NMI streamed videos will play in landscape or portrait.

Music: NMI can stream: .mp3, m4a, wav, oga, ogg and flac. Wma files are only supported currently in the classic player, see options, not in the current player. The developer hopes to have support for wma soon in the new player, a format that the Nexus does not support natively.

Docs: NMI can stream text files through the browser of your choice.

Nexus Media Importer can see and copy and share many other file types from the usb device of your choice to the tablet. The following file types do not support streaming but can be copied to a temporary location and streamed or shared: pdf, doc, xls, docx, xlsx,. Epub and Mobi ebook files can be copies to the Nexus 7 but not streamed. I have not tested cbr and cbz files.

**The above file types were tested with Dice Media Player, VLC, Quickpic, OfficeSuite, Adobe Reader, Cool Reader and FB Reader. There are as many choices as apps available but they are confirmed to work using the above apps.

How does it work?​

Connect your usb flash drive or SD/MicroSD reader to your OGA cable, plug the cable into your Nexus 7 and launch Nexus Media Importer if it does not open immediately.

Nexus Media Importer will display the following choices horizontally in landscape or vertically in a pull down menu in landscape: Photos, Videos, Music, Docs, Folders and Advanced.

By Menu

Photos​

Selecting Photos will give you two choices, All or Folders.

If you have a lot of files, I have 17,000 jpgs in my screen saver, and ask Nexis Media Importer to scan them all, it's going to tilt. Selecting Photo Folders will allow you to navigate to the Folder of your choice. Entering the Folder will display a list of thumbnails.

Selecting a thumbnail and then hitting the arrow in the upper left will allow you to scroll through all of the photos with a full-screen view of each. Alternately selecting the arrow in the box in the upper right enables the slide-show in full-screen mode. The Menu (three boxes) has an option for setting the time delay in seconds between each slide.

Videos​

Selecting Videos will display all of the videos on the drive in Alphabetical order. Select the Video of your choice and then the app you prefer to run it. Given the size of most videos, Alternately you can select folder view and select your videos via folders.

Music​

Selecting Music gives the user sort by Albums, Artists, Albums or Folders. Once again, if you have a lot of music you might overwhelm NMI and should use folders to go to the music of your choice. You should experiment and see which choice works best for you. Whether you choose folders or Artists, once you choose the artist, album or Artist you can multiple select songs to make a play list.

Docs​

Docs, pdfs, ebooks, spreadsheets etc., all fall into the Docs menu. With a large ebook library, pdfs etc., I access all these file types through the Folder menu. If you connect a flash drive with fewer doc files, then the Docs menu is for you. You can stream txt files through your browser, open a temporary copy of .doc, pdf, xls files by pressing the arrow, triangle on its side. Epub, Mobi and other files that do not support streaming can be downloaded to the Nexus 7

Pressing Share, the three point open triangle prompts the user to upload the selected file to the cloud app of your choice. Choices include Bluetooth, Box, Dropbox, Email, and Gmail.

Folders​

You'll need to access the Photo Menu button and the choose folders to access the full screen photos or the slide show. Likewise you'll need to access the Music button and choose folders to multi-select mp3s for a playlist. Anything else can be opened with the Folder icon. Navigate to the folder of your choice and open your file with the app of your choice. It's a must if you have hundreds of a particular file type.

Advanced​

The Advanced Menu provides a split-screen view of your external flash drive and internal memory on the Nexus 7. You have the option to delete files in internal memory.

What Apps are available for Streaming?
​

As the developer points out in his FAQ: Nexus Media Importer: FAQ , only apps registered with Android to handle the specific file type will work. I read all of my ebooks with either Cool Reader or FB Reader but neither are registered to handle epub or mobi files. As such, I can't stream any of my ebooks. I can copy them from the flash drive to my Nexus and then open them with Cool Reader. If you don't see the app of your choice when you press stream, you'll have to write to the developer of the app and request they register the file types.

Rooted Nexus 7 devices can read/write to USB devices with StickMount. Why can't Nexus Media Importer?​

Keep in mind that rooting voids your warranty. The developer really wants to support write, but it is a really dangerous proposition. *There are many comparisons to Nexis Media Importer with applications like StickMount, requires root. *These kind of applications use code already embedded in the Android kernel. Nexis Media Importer is completely different. *The developer has written code similar to what is in the kernel into an application. *This is how he can get around the "root" restriction. *This also means he can't use the tried and true Android file system code. *One miscalculation and it could wipe all your data. *Further, this implies a different write mechanism for each file system type. *Lots and lots of work. *If this does happen FAT16/32 would come first, then exFAT, then NTFS. Please be patient.