Samsung tv stopped reading usb drives

[Chrislsk]

I have a Samsung UE55NU7023 i was playing back content just fine today and after i ejected my usb stick and insterted after 10 minutes without doing anything that would cause trouble my tv stopped loading anything from the usb port. It kep loading the usb forever when i tried to access it. I tried multiple usb sticks and it did the same thing. But when i had a single folder with a video in one usb drive the tv prompted me as always to play the video without opening the files and it played the video just fine, but when i tried to access the files after that i couldn't. What is going on? The port clearly works, what should i do? 

[Leesm]

Hi no I haven't.  I really can't be bothered stuffing about which is why this has peeved me off so much.  I have a media player so now using the usb in that but it doesn't recognise all files.  It's infuriating this is obviously a common problem and Samsung have no remedy.  My tvs are under 18 months old.  

[Fedaykyn]

I had the same problem.
For now I fixed it but turning off the TV for a couple of minutes (I mean unplugging it)

[LauraAS]

Hi, My TV gets unplugged every night and the Samsung person I was talking to online did reset the HDMI/USB ports so I'm guessing it was the last firmware/software update that is the culprit.  Someone further up this thread tried to downgrade it but without success.  All the comments on google play (Samsung Smart View app) seem to suggest this as well??   I will have another go and turning off and back on though! 

[JesseW]

Hey folks, 

Perhaps it will stop working again--but as if by magic, my USB drive has started working again. I didn't download anything either, which makes me think it was an automatic update (my TV is connected to the internet). Perhaps everyone's complaints on here spurred Samsung to a solution? If so, well done, all!

[Leesm]

Just tried mine again and it's working! 

[wtaylor6790]

Mines working again as well. Hopefully will continue to work. 

[Leesm]

Well that was short lived. Was working, went to watch something today and getting the spinning wheel of death while nothing loads AGAIN.

Not sure what is up with these Samsung tv's, not really impressed at all.

[ELewsley]

I have exactly the same problem and samsung smart view stopped recognising tv @ the sametime , its done it before and will return but glitching out is not a good look samsung and you should be ashamed , i also will not be purchasing or recommending your products again , vote with your feet guys Dont go apple though lol 

[RaF68]

I am disappointed in Samsung too .. My 4-year old 65" 4K UA65JS9000WXXY Samsung TV been having this problem with reading the USB sticks / external drives just recently .. I did tried everything with No luck .. sometimes it reads the USB stick and will continue for the night, but the minute you switch off the TV, you are done! .. its then a hit and miss whether it will read it again or not.
Tried different USB drives (about 5), even switching the TV's power from the outlet, resetting the TV to default setting ..
Almost tried everything! .. I am going to try one last trick of updating the firmware, despite the TV says it has the latest # 1530 firmware , however I just downloaded the 1.5GByte firmware 1530 file from Samsung Australia website, and will put it on a USB stick (!!!!! that's assuming it will read the ***** stick anyway :D) and will see if it works ..
I am over this issue with Samsung, and will consider selling the TV cheap and go LG OLED if the firmware does not work.

[Etham]

Anyone with direct link to samsung person to fix my tv. It wont read or load usb drives on all ports. But tv recognises device is connected. But wont load or open. My tv is is less than 2 years old. I hardly use it

[Merino-Noir]

Etham,

read the posts on this forum for the last month.  All your questions answered.

Power the TV off at the wall socket, wait 10 minutes then power on - all should then be working, but unfortunatly the issues you have will return within a day.

Please tell us all how it went for you.

thanks

[LauraAS]

PS My Macbook AIr connects and is recognised but a bit inconvenient

[johnboeing]

Hello from Brazil. My 65" QLED Samsung Q80R is doing the same and Samsung Concierge just couldn't help me with it. Sending the whole tv to the warranty just because of this would be so weird and difficult! I've tried to reset the tv, reset the smarthub, upgrade the tv, tried different models e formats of USB and HDD and... nothing... just the "loading spinning wheel of death" logo... BTW: my TV is just one month old. Samsung never more!

[JesseW]

Hi all, 

So, after it fixed itself, my TV is once again not reading my USB drive. However, this time it seems like the TV is just not reading the one drive formatted with ExFAT (the other FAT32 drive seems to work). Anyone else having this problem?

[RaF68]

JesseW .. this is not a fix! ... There is a good reason why recent USB drives are formatted in NTFS and ExFAT , and not FAT32 !
FAT32 has a limitation of maximum file size of 4 GBytes only ... While with NTFS, the maximum file size is 16 TBytes, and with ExFAT its even bigger with 16 EBytes (Exabytes).
The FAT32 is OK if all your movies are low resolution 720 or low 1080p ... but with a 4K UHD 2160p movie you will likely exceed the 4GB limit of the USB drive and you will not be able to copy it in the first place.

[Adam43]

Mine like your says "No content found". After trying EVERYTHING, mine also magically worked with an NFTS formatted drive but NOT an eXFAT formatted drive for a bit. Now it's back to "no content found". I've tried everything- clearing/deleting other connected devices EVERYTHING. The only CONSTANT that has always worked is if you only have ONE video file on the entire USB drive. Then, after plugging it in, the prompt asks "would you like to PLAY the following video file....". If you select YES, it will play that one file at a time. But as soon as you add more than ONE file, it says "no data found". AGAIN. This is OBVIOUSLY a common problem- a fix would be great SAMSUNG! I shouldn't have to watch videos one FILE AT A TIME!

ajvas54

[John_John]

---

@Adam43 wrote:

The only CONSTANT that has always worked is if you only have ONE video file on the entire USB drive. Then, after plugging it in, the prompt asks "would you like to PLAY the following video file....". If you select YES, it will play that one file at a time.

---

Ha, I also do the same this works for me too with just 1 video file and you hurry up to select play from the pop up / top notification.

Seems like Samsung doesn't care and this is the new normal.

Funny how 'it is the mainboard' never heard of so much selective hardware issues so again it points out to a bad software update in that last years firmware that is still messing us up.

[kadous]

Hi,
I have TV Samsung UE40F6400 with the same problem with USB as Chrislsk in begin of this blog.
I have TV with latest firmware T-MST12DEUC_2126.0.
In my case help me this:
1. Turn off TV (not only with button, but I pulled TV out of the energy socket).
2. Wait more about 30 minutes (this is very, very nessesary step!).
3. Turn on TV again.
4. Goto to the "menu, support, auto diagnostics, refresh.
Thats all, my USB ports are now OK again.

I hope I helped you !

[ixixi]

Well, Hello everybody,

Same problem here, out of nowhere. I have UE55JU7000, software version 1530. The drive is recognized, but stuck on “Loading...” forever. It works fine on UE32J5200, which is usually slower.

Big thanks to kadous, following the steps actually helped. #2 is true, I tried waiting for about 10 minutes first, the usb loaded, but wouldn’t display all of the files and only play mp4 and avi files (none of mkv). Then I unplugged it for a whole hour just to be sure. It still doesn’t display the content properly (mostly it’s just white space), but I’m able to watch what I wanted (I have to skip blindly looking for the right file, though, because the titles aren’t showing). I’m hoping Samsung is fixing it soon. 

[JesseW]

Hey folks, 

So I think this may continue to be a recurring issue unless Samsung takes care not to release updates without addressing it first. My USB issue once again solved itself, so I'm assuming they just don't check for this particular issue after updating, and then patch it afterward. Which is irritating, of course, but at least--for me, at least--it seems to get fixed eventually. (And yes, I'm able to watch very large exFAT files again...)

[ixixi]

Update: 

After making it work by resetting to factory settings, it stopped working the next time I tried to use it. Really annoying.