How to Display All Files of a USB Attached Portable?

[Neophile]

I have an Android smart phone that connects to my PC through a USB port. It shows on My Computer as a Portable Device. Under its drive icon there is a directory named Phone. The phone Properties is similar to any hard drive's, but win only one tab with Used space, Free space and Capacity values.

When I select all the directories on the right hand side of Windows Explorer, right click and choose Properties, the difference from the above values is quite great, as opposed to what happens with other drives or USB flashes, where we find a little more on the right side set (directories and files).

Obviously, there are lots of hidden software. Unlike a USB flash, the phone does not show up on Disk Management. On Divice Manager, it appears Under Portable Devices, just as any USB flash. However a USB flash drive is listed as a hard drive under My Computer.

The problem is that we can list the files of a USB flash on a command line window just with a shift +right click, and then Open commend window here, like with any hard drive, but that selection does not exist for the phone drive. I also can't get to the phone on a command window because we cant go to My computer there.

My question is: – How can I see the hidden files, please?

 

[whs]

Depends what files you want to see. With Android, you'll see all files and most are system files. I doubt that those interest you. You have to look for 'Documents' or 'Pictures. These will contain use data. Then just double click on the folders and the files should display - at least that is the way it works on my Android tablet.

 

[Neophile]

Thanks for the reply, vhs.

I do not want to access Documents or Pictures because that I can already do by USB with the ADB Android drivers installed on the computer. I want to access system files and mostly those applications that are useless for me but cannot be uninstalled on the phone without rooting. I do not pretend to root it because of the new functions of Knox (I think this is out of scope here). I could do this if I could get access from the PC.

With some Android applications on the phone we can see those directories and files on it, but those files do not appear on the computer side because they are hidden type. I have the computer set to see hidden files, but that does not work with files on the phone seen through USB, AND I don't know how to set the computer to seemshows on the computer to see the files as per my starting post.

I believe this restriction is owing to how the PC looks at the the phone and connects to it (please se my first post). I believe that if I could make the PC look at the phone as a normal drive or USB flash, it would show the hidden files as it does with those drives. How can I do this, please?

 

[whs]

I do not have my tablet right now at this location - so I cannot check. But my guess would be that the Android system files have file extensions that are unknown in Windows. Then they would not open.

 

[Neophile]

vhs, we know that Windows always shows any file on Explorer, whatever the extension or none at all, even with the hidden attribute on if we set it to show hidden files. We can even see APK (Android applications) files. That is why I guessed the cause for not showing hidden phone files on PC – even when we can see them on the phone with some Android apps – has to be on Windows side. If we can see them on the phone, why not on the PC? This is why I posted here and not on a phones forum.

 

[Neophile]

Hello,

Someone to help, please?

 

[logicearth]

You cannot do what you want without Rooting the phone. The reason Windows cannot see anything other then what you currently see is because the phone is controlling what it sends to Windows. Windows has nothing to do with it.

 

[Neophile]

Do you mean that rooting the phone I can see the files on the computer as if it were a USB flash? Or Can I see the files on the phone only, as I already see them now? I think I see them all because I can see some that i recognise as system files, like the hosts fils abd others under directories like act, dev, etc, persdata, vendor and others. I can open some files, too, but I am, not sure that I can see them all. Not really investigating, waiting because I wanted to do thid from the computer side.