# Where's the stuff on my phone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 22, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498 "2013-11-22T06:08:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CastleAnthrax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@CastleAnthrax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CastleAnthrax)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498/1 "2013-11-22T06:08:08Z")

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I have a Samsung Reverb and I like it except one weirdness. When I hook it up via USB to my PC, I get a list of files, all of which are empty. I have lots of photos and some music on my phone. How do I see and load them onto my computer?

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498/2 "2013-11-22T06:54:40Z")

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You could try [installing their software](http://www.samsung.com/us/kies/), although annoying if you can’t through Explorer/Finder.

Also, make sure that there is just one drive letter, if you are poking around the phone when all your stuff is on external memory or vice versa.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498/3 "2013-11-22T19:22:55Z")

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Same thing with my Motorola. The phone doesn’t act like a “directory structure” device, the way, say, an external hard drive, or a memory stick, would.

And some bug or other prevents their software from installing properly! (Might be a conflict with my anti-virus. Hmph.)

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**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498/4 "2013-11-22T19:40:13Z")

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If its an android, put the phone into usb mode. Once you do that, see how many external drives you have. When i hook up my tab, i have to remember what drive is actually the one holding the pics and stuff.

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**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wheres-the-stuff-on-my-phone/674498/5 "2013-11-22T20:38:46Z")

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I have an app called, IIRC, “WiFi File Transfer”, which serves up files over FTP on your home network. Try that, it ought to have your files, and it’s a pretty handy app for other reasons.