How to use Windows Phone as USB Drive ( Copy Photos, Music and Videos )

Windows Phone, unlike Android and Blackberry does not have option where you can switch between USB storage i.e. Use it as File Explorer or normal phone mode to sync with Zune. This means if you want to copy photos, music and albums directly it is not possible . In fact even the Diagnosis mode used for tethering does not have that option.

Said that, if you still want to use your Windows Phone as USB Drive, there are few options available but here is my warning list :

  • Do not attempt to modify files directly into the phone i.e. like renaming folders etc.
  • Use it as Read Only i.e. Copy to your computer but not to your phone.

WP2USB  :

This application allows you to switch between the USB Storage mode and Zune mode so you can use best of both the worlds. Once installed, all you need to select Display Phones in explorer see your Phone listed under my computer. In case you have 2 or more phones, the application will turn them all into a USB storage device.

The only thing is you will see Two Entries for every phone of which one is like a Media Streamer but doesn’t work exactly. Your phone storage device can be accessed by any of them. However make sure you did read the warning above.

WIndows Phone to USB

When Inside the storage device, depending on what you have inside, you should see Documents, Music, Albums, Pictures etc. Dont be surprised if you see long random number folders also which are system defaults and never change them. Make sure Zune is closed.

My experience and suggestion would be to use this to copy files directly from your Phone to your computer and not put anything back to phone or even rename stuff. I am not sure what will happen.

When you want to use Zune, Make sure to click on Restore Default MS Settings which will make the phone disappear from My Computer.

Video Demo

Download WP2USB

The Painful Registry Hack :

It is possible to change some registry values to get the same effect. Unless you are very keen to mess with it or you are a power user, You can follow the method described by Juan @ Technet.

Windows Phone  7 GUID Folders

The advantage of this method is you can remove

  • Duplicate view of Windows Phone which appears in My Computer.
  • Possible to see Folders as named folders instead of GUID

WP7 Isolated Storage Explorer :

If you are a developer, there is this module available that you can use along with Visual Studio 2010 and with a custom application of yours to access Windows Phone as USB.

WP7 Storage Explorer

Download from Codeplex

Windows Phone File Explorer ( Concept Only )

On the similar line as above Den @ Dotnet DZone has this concept and probably a developer model ready which uses the Microsoft.Smartdevice.Connectivity class to access Windows Phone like any other file system.

Windows Phone File Uploader

You can read this about here