I'm trying to add storage to my Hisense 43A6H because the internal space fills up quickly and I constantly have to uninstall apps. I've tested about five USB drives, including 16GB drives, formatted in several ways from a Windows PC and through the TV's own menu. Every drive is reported as corrupted or rejected. Is USB storage actually supported for installing or moving apps on this model, and if so, what format and partition setup should I use?
3 Answers
The TV may be rejecting the format rather than the drives being defective. If the storage-expansion option is available, look specifically for something like “Format as device storage,” not just the option to format the drive for playing media. That setting is what would allow the TV to treat it as internal-style storage.
It’s possible that this model’s USB port is intended only for photos, videos, and other media, rather than expanding app storage. Many smart TVs don’t let you move applications to USB even when they can read a flash drive. If the TV never successfully offers adopted or device storage, an external Android TV or Google TV box with more built-in storage may be the more reliable solution.
For basic USB compatibility, try FAT32 or NTFS with an MBR partition table. NTFS is generally more practical for drives larger than 32GB, although your 16GB drives should work with FAT32. However, those formats may only support media playback and do not necessarily make the drive usable for installing apps.
I’ve tried the device-storage option several times, but the TV still rejects the drives.