How To: Use your Allte Razr V3m as a USB Mass Storage Device

[Cincyball]

Hey everyone,

kernelpanic over on HoFo posted this. I have tested it and it works, so I figured I would share it.

Sick of using MPT to transfer music/ringtones/etc.?

You can use your Alltel firmwared V3m as a USB hard drive with just a few simple steps. Here's how-
1. download these modified menus from http://rapidshare.com/files/18353336...SB-hd.zip.html
2. unzip and using either p2kcommander or efs explorer put mma_ucp and mma_dcp in /a/motorola/system
3. Edit seem 2742 (bytes 0, record 1) offset 009b. check bit 5
4. Reboot your phone.

You should now have a new icon called USB Settings under Settings->Connection
Change this from modem/com to USB drive to transfer files to/from your MMC on the phone...

Note- this has only been tried on the V3m with Alltel firmware!!! You're welcome to experiment and post results with other devices (V3c?) or firmwares (Verizon?) But backup your original menu files first!!! If in doubt, only copy the mma_ucp file to your phone. That way a master reset will restore your menu. Good Luck!

Enjoy,
kernelpanic

This is a nice find. I guess it comes standard on the Alltel v3m??? If it does, go into Settings->Connection, and see if it lists USB Settigns in there. if it does, you are good to go. If it doesnt, then you can do this process as well. But either way, this is handy. It will reset your home key shortcuts, but u can go back into Personalize and set them back the way u had them before. It allows access to your memory card like it is a mass storage device. So, you can add music or ringtones to the audio folder (mp3 format). You can add pics/wallpaper to the picture folder (jpeg format). You can add videos (3gpp format) to the video folder. Just remember, if u plan on using any of the mp3 files as ringtones, or the pics as caller id pics, you must go in and move them to the phone's memory before doing so.

This eliminates the need for MPT if u havent purchased it. It removed the need of buggy programs like BitPim and P2Kcommander that take forever to transfer files. It removes the need to buy a bluetooth dongle to transfer files. It treats it liek a true flash drive.

I havent been able to test it out on any other kind of phone, but my guess is it MIGHT work. If yo uhappen to try, please let us know. And before doing so, just back up your mma_dcp, mma_ucp, and 2742 seem before changing anything so if u need to go back, u can.

[Cincyball]

I came across something very cool in adding music to the tf card. Instead of just throwing all the mp3's onto the card and having them all unorganized on in the audio folder, add the FOLDER with the music IN the folder to the card.

FOr instance, I loaded up Fallout Boy, Panic at the Disco, and Incubus folders into the audio folder. I then added music into their respective folders. When u go to the audio folder in the phone, it will show all the songs by alphabetical order. BUT, if u use the */# to scroll thru categories, it will actually scroll thru the folders and show just that artist. So the first screen u see all the songs listed under Sounds. Then hit the # and it will go to Unfiled (and probably wont show any songs). Then # again and it will go to the first FOLDER/ARTIST alphabetically. And so on, until you get back to the Sounds menu where it displays all the songs.

So in essence, u can create your playlist in the main menu and use shuffle to mix it up. Orr, if u want to listen to a particular artist, just scroll thru til u get to it. Im sure u could add allll of your music, and then go in and add them to user-created folders, but when loading music from scratch, u can already have it done. Most people say they dislike this audio player compared to the verizon one, but I think knowing how to set up categories will make it much better.

This is also nice for if u want to delete a certain artist from the phone, when u load up the shared/audio folder, since u originally added the folders, u can find it easier, rather than trying to locate the 10 files randomly placed in the folder.

[JackHallin]

2 Questions:

1. I think it is obvious, but does this violate the Alltel ToS?

2. Could you please translate the following into english:

" 2. unzip and using either p2kcommander or efs explorer put mma_ucp
and mma_dcp in /a/motorola/system
3. Edit seem 2742 (bytes 0, record 1) offset 009b. check bit 5"


I have no idea what steps 2 and 3 mean, much less how to do them.


Thanks,



Jack

[Cincyball]

1. It doesnt void any kind of TOS. Technically, it could void your warranty since it is considered a hack to the phone, but they wouldnt know unless you mess up. This is all reversible.

2. If you dont understand what these terms mean, the hack might be a little extreme for you. I suggest you do some searching for "seem edits" and using p2kcommander. These are typical programs to do file manipulations and editing factory settings from your provider.

This will shed a little light on seem edits: http://mark.cdmaforums.com/V710_SeemEdit.htm

[crashy]

This works great! Although, It took two phone reboots to get it working right...

[bigleonard]

i just got a v3m razr from alltel yesterday. my friend's got his razr tweaked out with chuck noris ring music and other stuff (not sure of his provider), so i thought i'd try to get mine connected up

does the original post say that i should be able to just plug the phone into the back port usb and it come up as a mass storage device without any driver installation or anything? i tried using the DriverTool-421a but it didn't seem to come up in My Computer like my flash drive does. In my "connection" menu, i have the usb on the far right and it's set to "USB Drive"

is there something i'm missing? oh and p2kcommander can't find my phone either so i can't go in to tweak the settings (i might not have that totally mastered though)

Edit: i don't have a microSD card plugged in, i think i just found a post from cincyball saying you needed one *goes and finds a nice card to buy*

[bigleonard]

i just plugged in a kingston 2gb stick into my alltel v3m razr. the software version on my phone is

NCR_02.0A.00R

when i plug the phone into my computer's back usb ports, it comes up with the mass storage device just like a flash drive, but when i double click, it says "Please insert a disk into drive F:"
this was after i formatted it into fat32 on my mom's computer which has a microsd slot, then formatted it again on the phone, back into fat i guess. the first time i had the phone plugged in it said "This device is not formatted, would you like to format now?" ...yes... "This device cannot be formatted" which is why i went with the fat32 format which didn't help, so i formatted it on the phone again.

i plugged the card into my mom's laptop again and dumped a song onto it and the razr found it with the mp3 player song search feature. it also played the song from the memory card without issue.

any suggestions? i have the usb setting set to "USB Drive" already like the tutorial above said

[bigleonard]

problem resolved:

use a 1gb stick, makes the phone work just like a plain old flash drive WOOT!

[sgtdraino]

I have an Alltel phone, and this is indeed awesome.

I was confused at first, because it seemed like I'd drop files onto the USB, and they'd just disappear. finally I realized that the phone (except when you have the mp3 player on) can only look at one storage device at a time, the phone's memory, or the SD card.

Now that I've got it sorted out, I have true drag-and-drop for just about anything I wanna put on my phone: ringtones, music, pictures, and video. Fan-effing-tastic.

[devonhlibichuk]

-Confused-

ok my V3M already has the USB options and i plugged it in to the back of the computer, a little window came up and said it installed the drivers. but how do i access the phone to add music through my computer? Do you [u]need[u] to have a mini sd card? if anyone could help it would be appreciated

[Izzyd]

When you plug you phone into the comp do you see a removable device listed in My Comp or is it listed in device manager as a " Motorola USB modem"?

[devonhlibichuk]

No it doesnt show up as a removable disk but there are 4 removable disks in My Computer and when i click on any of them it says Please insert disk. It does show up as a "Motorola USB Modem" in the device manager.

[Izzyd]

Okay then.

When you go into your menu, then settings, down to connection is there a USB settings icon? If so have your phone unplug and change it from modem/com to USB drive. After which time cycle the power on the phone, go back in and make sure it stayed as the USB drive, if all is good plug the phone in and see if you can now access it as a removable drive. If that does not work then you need to do the steps to your phone that Cincyball has at the top of this post, after which time you should then be good to go.

Just keep in mind tho if you eve need to use let's say MPT or BitPim...etc which work off of the moto usb modem drivers you'd have to go back in and change the USB setting back to modem/com from the USB drive.

[devonhlibichuk]

It already was on USB.

[Izzyd]

Have you check the seem edit listed above to make sure it was set correctly? Also I'm assuming you have a TF card in the memory slot. If not that could be your problem. I know I tried this edit on my flashed v3c and it would not work because it does not have a TF card. When I did it to my sons flashed v3m tho same thing until I put the TF in it.

[devonhlibichuk]

Hmm no I don't have a TF card, that could be the problem well I ordered one off the net a few days ago so I'll see what happens then, I'll update after I try it out, thanks