Everyone would say that today it is not necessary to deposit anything USB for watching on TV, Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that there can be many and very different reasons for keeping old habits like the one at hand, and in case you need it, here’s a quick tip on how to do it.

The thing is, almost everyone already pulls content online, which is much more convenient if all goes well. No one denies it. But from time to time, and even usually, you will need to download little things from the Internet and put them in a bottle and plug it into a TV, normal or “smart” to see them there. And until now there were no problems, because everything was very simple: format in FAT32 and run.

But 4K and FAT32 arrived and its 4GB file limit dropped, very short. This, coupled with the fact that smart TVs are really stupid on more occasions than desirable – almost always due to manufacturer error – makes it worth it to format the drive yourself and not trust the device, although there are a few things that need things more than anything else , for knowledge and time saving.

Things like that even though the vast majority of TV systems you’ll find will be Android, which is Linux after all and because Linux almost always uses the Ext3/Ext4 file system, depending on the model and its antiquity. But don’t go and format the USB in Ext3/Ext4 because it won’t work for you. The same happens with automatic formatting: it depends on the model and its features, but there are still TVs that format USB to FAT32 and not to exFAT, supported since Android 4.1…

How to format USB for your TV or Smart TV

In short, you save time and trouble by doing it yourself… how? For example, with our old friend Rufus. You download it, run it, insert a skewer…

And in “Boot Option” you select “It is not self-starting«.

In the “Partition Scheme” option, select “GPT» just because you don’t have to worry about where you put the USB.

And in “File System” option select “exFAT“, although it was most likely selected automatically.

You format the USB, plug it in and insert the required files. Once you use it, you will see that it has restored the typical Android directories on your Smart TV with Android TV, so you can use them for better organization if you want. And that’s all.

Bottom line, nonsense because of the basics, but the rage you’ll save yourself knowing ahead of time.