How to fix Android not mounting as a drive
This is for Android 4.4+ devices that were mounting as a drive, and then something changed. There are other reasons an Android device might not mount as a drive, but that’s a different piece.
A few days ago, a very grabby baby got a hold of my phone (HTC One M8 Google Play Edition Android 5/Lollipop). I didn’t fight her for it, as generally the worst that she’s capable of doing is dialing someone or archiving an email or two, but hours after I had retrieved it I attempted to copy off some work data that was sitting on the external SD card.
Plugging my HTC One M8 into the computer made the USB-connected badunk noise, but there were no drives or media devices that showed up on the computer. I of course blamed the computer, rebooted, had the same issue. Disgusted, I went down to the laptop and discovered the same problem there.
Rebooting the phone did nothing. I could ADB into the phone and push and retrieve files, which is what I did to get the work day ended, but the little option for what to do when plugged in never showed up.
The problem was the USB computer connection selection under “Media device (MTP)” had been disabled by little hands, and when there’s nothing checked there the USB computer connection option doesn’t bother to show up in the status bar any more. It also doesn’t bother to have an easy-to-find reconnection options.
The option for what to do when you’re connected to a computer doesn’t even display anywhere as a tappable item. It can be found in settings, storage, then hit the menu key or 3 dots in the top right of the storage config, and the only option displayed will be “USB computer connection.”
From there tap it, check the MTP option, and done. You’re back to the way your phone was before a rampaging baby got a hold of it.