Samsung TV Media Play (via USB) has suddenly stopped working.

[Ninsuhn]

Hi,

I have a Samsung TV (UH-58H5200) that's been working fine to watch media via USB. But suddenly it's stuck on the folders view. So to be clear, the USB drive loads up fine. I can slect to access it, and I can select from the options of Photos, Video or Music. But when I get to the folders (no matter which media choice I select), I get stuck with a screen full of folders that has just frozen. Can't select any further. (See image below.)

I've had the TV for 2 years, using it the same way every day to access the drive, and have never had any problems.

Can anyone help, please? Thank you.

[amaipaipai]

Look at your TV manual how to hard reset the TV (reset back to factory defaults), make sure you take notes of your settings first.

[Ninsuhn]

Look at your TV manual how to hard reset the TV (reset back to factory defaults), make sure you take notes of your settings first.

I've done that a couple of times.

[amaipaipai]

Try to format your USB drive, try another one with a single file.
Is this USB drive is a hard drive or a thumb/flash drive?

Some people uses a portable HDD with USB connection in the TV, if the TV doesn't have support for it, you can damage the TV power supply because USB 2.0 port is limited to 0.5 mA and USB 3 ports are limited to 0.9 mA, this portable HDD's uses or need up to 2 A to operate properly.

[Ninsuhn]

Try to format your USB drive, try another one with a single file.
Is this USB drive is a hard drive or a thumb/flash drive?

Some people uses a portable HDD with USB connection in the TV, if the TV doesn't have support for it, you can damage the TV power supply because USB 2.0 port is limited to 0.5 mA and USB 3 ports are limited to 0.9 mA, this portable HDD's uses or need up to 2 A to operate properly.

It's an external 1TB hard drive. I don't currently have another external drive or USB stick to try. I'll do so when I get one.

I've been using the drive the same way for over 2 yrs and have never had a problem. So I'm not sure I understand the suggestion about the different power issues.

[teodz1984]

hdd could be going bad

[amaipaipai]

It means that the TV USB port will get damaged in the long run and probably your USB is busted already. Looking in your TV manual, your TV doesn't support external hard drives, you need to send your TV to be serviced.

This is why is important to read the manual first.
http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/201506/20150604125114309/ENG-US_NMATSCH-1.107-0528.pdf

[amaipaipai]

This is a common mistake people make this days and I've fixed my family TVs because of that. If you want to play media on your TV try a DLNA server or use a HDD case that has his own or build in power supply instead.

[Ninsuhn]

Try to format your USB drive, try another one with a single file.
Is this USB drive is a hard drive or a thumb/flash drive?

Some people uses a portable HDD with USB connection in the TV, if the TV doesn't have support for it, you can damage the TV power supply because USB 2.0 port is limited to 0.5 mA and USB 3 ports are limited to 0.9 mA, this portable HDD's uses or need up to 2 A to operate properly.

It's an external 1TB hard drive. I don't currently have another external drive or USB stick to try. I'll do so when I get one.

I've been using the drive the same way for over 2 yrs and have never had a problem. So I'm not sure I understand the suggestion about the different power issues.

[teodz1984]

connect external hdd to a, pc ans do a, check disk

[johnmeyer]

There are a lot of strange suggestions being made.

Let's go through this a step at a time.

It is my understanding that this 1 TB disk drive is the ONLY thing you have connected to the TV to play movies. The obvious first step is to use something else. A 16 GB USB thumb drive costs less than $5, so that is a really cheap way to make a test.

The fact that it freezes when it gets to the folders is a tip off. TV sets are very unsophisticated in their ability to deal with file systems on drives, and if your Samsung is like my Samsung, it doesn't officially support actual disk drives (even though you can get it to work). Because the TV set's interface to disk and thumb drives is so primitive, any little glitch or change on the drive may give you the problem you are having.

This brings me to my main point. You have a drive that has been working with your TV, but now it is not. While the TV might have changed, I sincerely doubt that, because external disk drives have far more ways to fail. To test this theory, why don't you connect the drive to your computer, do the following two things and then report back.

The first thing you should do is (if you have Windows) is right-click on the 1 TB hard drive's letter and select Properties. Read how many MB or GB has been used and how much is left. Write those down and then post them here. One possibility is that your TV, which may not be fully able to handle hard drives, may be choking once the hard drive reaches some limit that exceeds what the TV is able to handle. 256 GB or 512 GB would be likely thresholds. You can test this theory in another way by temporarily offloading all your recently-added files to another drive, thus freeing up space on your 1TB drive, and then connecting again. I think there is a good chance that it will start working again.

The other thing you should do is to connect the drive to your computer and then use the built-in Windows utilities to scan and correct any disk errors. This is what teodz1984 suggested in the previous post. This has NOTHING to do with disk fragmentation, and please don't bother with that waste of time. While fragmentation is never the answer to any problem, what can be an issue, especially with a removable disk drive, are lost clusters and other damage that is done if the drive is removed while still being written to. This is an incredibly common problem, especially if you have not been diligent in using the "safely remove" feature in Windows to disconnect your drive, rather than simply pulling the USB plug.

Here's a description of how to do this in Windows 7, but the same steps probably apply to Windows 10. If you have a Mac, someone else will have to tell you how to do this.

Check-your-hard-disk-for-errors-in-windows-7

[lingyi]

My money's on the drive's USB interface gone bad. Try a different cable and make sure it's secure (i.e. doesn't jiggle around) on the drive end. Even if it works, plug it into the PC to double-check and run Crystaldiskinfo to check the drive status. If anything is yellow or red, the drive is bad and will fail sooner than later.

If the drive is still acting up, all is not lost as you may be able to remove the drive from the case and use it with a SATA to USB adapter. I like and use this one because it allows you to add an eternal power source, even when using 2.5" drives (though it's not required) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HZWVGK/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@Ninsuhn

What type of drive is it? Portable (with a single cable for connection/power) or a desktop external with it's own power supply?

[crjackson]

My 65” Samsung 4K UHD TV says the following about the USB ports/files/devices. This is directly from the user manual:

Limitations on use of photo, video, and music files

● The TV supports MSC (Mass Storage Class) USB devices only. MSC is a class designation for mass storage devices. Types of MSC devices include external hard drives, flash card readers, and digital cameras. (USB hubs are not supported.) These kinds of devices must be connected directly to the USB port. The TV may not be able to recognize a USB device or read the files on the device if it is connected with a USB extension cable. Do not disconnect USB devices while they are transferring files.

● When connecting an external hard drive, use the USB (HDD) port. We recommend that you use an external hard drive with its own power adapter.

● Certain digital cameras and audio devices may not be compatible with the TV.

● If there are multiple USB devices connected to the TV, the TV might not be able to recognize some or all the devices. USB devices that use high-power input should be connect to the USB [5V, 1A] port.

● The TV supports the FAT, exFAT, and NTFS file systems.

● After sorting files in the Folder view mode, the TV can display up to 1,000 files per folder. If the USB device contains more than 8,000 files and folders, however, some files and folders might not be accessible.

● Certain files, depending on how they are encoded, may not play on the TV.

● Certain files are not supported on all models.

● UHD Video Pack contens is not suppoted with 2017 Samsung UHD TVs.

[johnmeyer]

● After sorting files in the Folder view mode, the TV can display up to 1,000 files per folder. If the USB device contains more than 8,000 files and folders, however, some files and folders might not be accessible.

Ahha, that's one I'd forgotten about and I think that is even more likely than the two things I posted. The OP, when getting that information from the Windows Properties dialog should also write down the total number of files. 8,000 would obviously be a huge number of movies, but if the OP is also storing music and photos on this drive, it would be easy to get to that number.

This limitation also confirms the primitive nature of Samsung's file system.

[Ninsuhn]

OP here.

Months later, but just wanted to close out this thread -- I solved the problem. Thanks for all the suggestions, but none turned out to be right: nothing wrong with HD / cable / etc. As I'd been saying all along, the HD works fine when plugged into my laptop.

I used some deductive reasoning until I got to the answer: it was just a corrupted folder. The TV wasn't responding well to it suddenly. I deleted it and problem solved. I can access all my folders fine now.

[sneaker]

If you had followed this you should have had it working as well.

Try to format your USB drive, try another one with a single file.

[Ninsuhn]

The problem with such suggestions is the assumption that people everywhere have the resources, computing space and time to reformat a 1TB HD. Am I to get another 1TB HD? How much does that cost where I live? Do I have the space on my laptop to transfer all those files from 10 yrs of collection? Or can my laptop even handle such a task.

I didn't need to try another one with a single file because other folders were opening fine until selection got to a certain point. So the issue was masked and using a single file from another HD wouldn't have uncovered it.

We're here to solve problems in real world situations, not enforce static out-of-the-manual answers. It's never an easy prospect for people to put heads together, but at least we can cut the attitude.

[sneaker]

The problem with such suggestions is the assumption that people everywhere have the resources, computing space and time to reformat a 1TB HD. Am I to get another 1TB HD? How much does that cost where I live? Do I have the space on my laptop to transfer all those files from 10 yrs of collection? Or can my laptop even handle such a task.

So we have to assume people asking have no time, money or knowledge? It's a forum. Member A makes a suggestion, member B (the one who asked the question) can then answer if he can implement it or not and make follow-up questions. Problem is if B simply ignores the suggestion.