I'm trying to add storage to my Hisense 43A6H because I keep running out of space and have to uninstall apps. I've tested about five different USB drives, including 16GB models, formatted as FAT32 and NTFS from a Windows PC. I also tried formatting them through the TV's settings, but every drive is reported as corrupted or rejected. I'm mainly wondering whether this TV supports using a USB drive as adopted storage for apps, or if the USB port is only meant for playing media files.
3 Answers
It may simply not be possible on this model. Many televisions allow USB drives only as external media storage and don’t let Android or Google TV install applications there. An external streaming box may be a more practical workaround, since some models offer more built-in storage and better support for expandable storage.
The file system may not be the real issue here. FAT32 and NTFS should generally work for USB media, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the TV can use the drive as internal or app storage. Check whether the storage menu specifically offers “Format as device storage.” If it only lets you format the drive for media, the TV probably doesn’t support moving apps to USB.
Some information lists FAT32 or NTFS support, with NTFS usually being preferable for drives larger than 32GB and an MBR partition table. However, that normally refers to reading videos, photos, or music—not expanding the space available for installed apps. Since even 16GB drives in both formats fail, this is likely a limitation of the TV rather than a collection of bad USB drives.
I did try the device-storage option several times, but the TV still rejected the drives.