USB Drive: Use your Jailbroken device as a normal USB memory stick, with some caveats

Since the iPhones (and their cousins iPod Touches…) were first released, one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from those who have them (myself included) is that unlike the previous iPods Apple had released, the iPhone could not be used as a USB drive to store and transfer files. Even with the advent of jailbreaking, all of the solutions to this that I’ve found up until now have required that you have iTunes on the device- something that isn’t feasible for people like me whose work computers are solidly locked down such that iTunes cannot be installed on it (and even if it could be installed, there would be trouble if there were an audit of the computers). USB Drive from Dmytro is the first true solution to use the iPhone (or presumably a similarly jailbroken Touch) as an honest-to-goodness USB storage device.

In reality, USB Drive has been been around since November of last year- but versions previous to the 1.1 that was released a week and a half ago were time-limited and set to expire. The new 1.1 version, which can be downloaded through Cydia after adding the apt.dymtro.me repository, drops this restriction as well as fixing some issues previous versions had.

First, the good news: USB Drive works exactly as advertised. Using it, I’ve largely been able to stop using my conventional USB stick to transfer things back and forth from work to home (usually in the form of documents like this one…) and simply use the iPhone, which I have with me at all times anyway (though you do, of course, need to have a USB cable to connect it to the computers…). The computers (both my work PC and my PC/Mac at home) mount the drive as a normal removable media and read/write to it without any problems. I’ve also noticed that at least with my work PC, it doesn’t complain when it gets removed without being unmounted- something which has been good for me since I’ve regularly forgotten that I should be unmounting it since it’s just not been an issue in the past.

However, it’s not all sunshine and roses or particularly simple, unfortunately- using USB Drive does take a bit of care as well as setup and rebooting of the device numerous times depending on the application you’ll be using it for or the kind of computer you hook it up to.

First off, USB drive works by in effect (or quite literally…) creating a new partition on the device that is completely separate from the filesystem that the device normally runs on. When you first run the app, you define that partition size and create it- you can later change things, but I’m pretty sure that involves reformatting the partition. This has the effect of lowering the available storage space for the device itself- so if you have a 32GB iPhone and create a 2GB partition for USB Drive, you only have 30GB available for movies, songs, pictures, and apps (OK, yeah- you’ve got less due to system files and such, but you get the idea…). There’s also no way at the moment for the iPhone OS to see the new partition- it literally is like you’re carrying a seperate USB drive with you that happens to be built into the case of your iPhone/Touch. I didn’t expect that this would be possible so it doesn’t bother me- but if you were hoping to use it as a way to transfer files from your apps to your computer over USB, for the time being you’re still out of luck.

Secondly, it’s a bit complex at times to set up and use. The app has three different modes that it can be set to fun in: Default, iTunes+Drive, and Drive Only- and changing this mode setting requires a reboot of the device. The Default setting is your normal state of the device if it wasn’t using USB Drive- it can be synced with iTunes normally, and iPhoto can import pictures normally on Macs or PCs (well, good luck using iPhoto on a PC I suppose ). iTunes + Drive is the mode that most Mac-only users are likely to keep it in pretty much all the time if you don’t need to be importing pictures into iPhoto. You see, something in the way USB Drive works is such that if you have the device enabled as a USB storage device, you can’t sync and import photos to iPhoto. In this mode, you can still sync normally with iTunes for backups and media/app transfers as well as use the device as a USB drive. Drive Only mode is where mine spends most of its time while at work where I just have a Windows PC- in order to get the device to mount properly as a USB storage device under Windows, USB Drive has to change the USB identifier for the device, which obviously (why HELLO, Palm Pre…) breaks its abiltiy to sync with iTunes. This means Windows users (or those of us who use both regularly) will be rebooting their devices a lot more than usual. There have also been reports that deleting the partition and reclaiming the space can be a bit of a task at times should you decide that you no longer want to use the USB storage capability. It sounds like though it’s just a matter of being able to follow the instructions properly- I’ve not myself actually tried though since I’m quite happy with the setup I have it using now.

Finally, one interesting thing that I’ve found in using it that I’ve not seen mentioned elsewhere- it seems that when running in Drive Only mode you can’t pair the device up over Bluetooth. I’ve found that if I forget to switch the mode from Drive Only to Default or iTunes + Drive when I leave work, my car’s stereo Bluetooth just won’t connect up to the iPhone until I switch the mode away from Drive Only. This for me mainly just means I have to remember when I start heading out to my car from work to switch the modes so the device is rebooted and ready to use when I’ve reached my car, which is wise anyway so it’s in a mode that will let it sync with iTunes when I get home.

Overall, I’ve been very happy with the additional functionality USB Drive gives me with my iPhone, and consider the effort and time it takes to switch modes to be worthwhile for the usefulness of not having to worry about forgetting to take my USB drive with some important notes home with me as I’ve been known to do in the past (far too often). If you have a jailbroken device and are interested in using it as a USB storage device, I definitely recommend reading up on the description and instructions as well as comments on the site for the app. I think it’s very definitely worth the effort, but also think that everyone should know exactly what they’re getting into first.

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