Piktures, an Android gallery app, opens the photos and videos of a USB stick or drive connected to the phone, as albums next to the phone's own, and copies photos between the two. The drive must be formatted in FAT32, and the USB drive is a feature of the Premium and Prime plans, not of the free plan.
Can an Android gallery app show the photos on a USB drive?
Yes. With Premium or Prime, Piktures reads a USB stick or drive connected to the phone and shows it in the Storage tab, under PHONE, as USB Drive. Its folders appear as albums in the Albums tab, the same way the phone's folders do, with every sort order the phone's albums have.
Two limits, from the way Piktures reads the drive:
- the drive must be formatted in FAT32. Piktures can't read other formats, such as exFAT or NTFS;
- Piktures reads the first drive connected, and only its first partition.
How do I open a USB drive in Piktures?
- Open Piktures, then connect the drive to the phone.
- Android asks whether Piktures can access the USB device. Allow it.
- In the Storage tab, under PHONE, tap USB Drive.
Without Premium or Prime, Piktures opens the Upgrade screen instead. If you tap USB Drive with no drive connected, the Hard drive access screen opens; its MORE INFO button leads to the Piktures website. The details are in USB Stick & Drive.
What can I do with the photos on a USB drive?
- Browse and view the drive's folders as albums.
- Copy or move photos to the phone. Select them on the drive, tap the move icon, or ⋮ → Move or Copy, and tap an album of the phone. A USB drive offers all three, like the phone itself.
- Copy or move photos from the phone to the drive. Select them in a phone album, tap the move icon, tap Current drive, choose USB Drive, open a folder, and tap Move here or Copy here. See Copy and move between drives.
- Restore a backup from the drive. In the Albums tab, ⋮ → Restore copies every photo and video of a folder on the drive into Pictures/Piktures Restore on the phone. A USB drive can't be a backup destination, though: automatic backup goes to a cloud or a network drive. See Back up and restore your photos.
A transfer between the phone and a USB drive shows a Please wait… window with its progress, whatever your plan.
Piktures and USB drives: the facts
| App | Piktures, by Diune, for Android 11 or later |
| Plan | Premium, a one-time purchase, or Prime, a monthly subscription. Not in the free plan |
| Format | FAT32 only. No exFAT, no NTFS |
| Drives | The first drive connected, and only its first partition |
| Where it shows | In the Storage tab under PHONE, as USB Drive, then as albums in the Albums tab |
| Sort orders | Every order, as on the phone |
| Drive to phone | Copy or move |
| Phone to drive | Copy or move |
| Backup | Not to a USB drive. Restore from one works |
| Transfers | A Please wait… window shows the progress |
| Permission | Android asks once whether Piktures can access the USB device |
| Account | None. No Piktures account |
Questions
Why doesn't Piktures read my USB drive?
Check the format first: the drive must be FAT32, and Piktures can't read exFAT or NTFS. Then check that it is the first drive connected and that your photos are on its first partition. Without Premium or Prime, tapping USB Drive opens the Upgrade screen rather than the drive.
Is the USB drive free?
No. Piktures is free, with a few ads, for the phone, the SD card and one cloud or network drive; the USB drive needs Premium, a one-time purchase, or Prime, a monthly subscription. Both also remove the ads. See In-app purchases.
Can I back up my phone to a USB drive?
Not automatically: a USB drive can't be a backup destination. You can copy or move albums to the drive yourself, and Restore brings a folder of the drive back into Pictures/Piktures Restore on the phone.
What about the SD card?
The SD card needs no paid plan: Piktures shows its albums with the phone's, and can move photos to it. See Moving photos to the SD card.