Use a USB Drive for Recordings

Plug a USB stick or external SSD into your Android TV and point TIVRA at it — no need to format it as Android "adoptable storage". This is the recommended option for users who don't have a NAS but want recordings off their TV's internal storage.

Setup

1. Plug the USB drive into a free USB port on your TV.
2. Android pops up a dialog: "USB drive detected — how do you want to use this?". Pick "Use as portable storage". If that dialog doesn't appear, format the drive on a computer to FAT32 or exFAT and re-plug.
3. Open TIVRA › Settings › Storage › Recordings.
4. Pick the USB drive chip. Android's folder picker opens.
5. Browse to your USB drive (usually shown at the bottom of the device list). Pick a folder on the drive where recordings will live — e.g. create a new folder called tivra.
6. Hit Use this folder › Allow when Android asks for permission.
7. TIVRA runs a quick write-test on the drive (a few KB to the folder you picked). On success the chip stays selected and shows Recording to: <your drive>. On failure you'll see a snackbar — try a different USB port, or reformat the drive as exFAT in portable mode.
8. Optional: tap Verify storage speed for a 5-second throughput probe. Useful to confirm the drive sustains a recording's bitrate before you actually record onto it.

Format requirements

The USB drive should be formatted as one of:

• exFAT — recommended for drives 32 GB and larger. Supports files over 4 GB (a 4K recording can easily be > 4 GB).
• FAT32 — fine for smaller drives, but individual files are capped at 4 GB. Long high-bitrate recordings won't fit in a single file.
• NTFS — works on most Android TV boxes but read-only on some. Avoid unless you know your device supports NTFS writes.

Format on a computer (Windows: Disk Management, macOS: Disk Utility) before plugging in if you want to be sure.

Drive recommendations

• USB flash sticks — fine for occasional recording. Most cheap sticks have low sustained write speeds (10-20 MB/s) which can struggle with multiple simultaneous recordings.
• External SSD (USB-C / USB 3.0) — best option. Sustained writes 200+ MB/s, plenty for any IPTV bitrate. SanDisk Extreme Portable, Samsung T7, Crucial X6 are all good.
• External HDD (spinning) — works but can spin down between writes; a recording starting up may stall for 1-2 seconds. Fine if you don't mind that.

Why not "adoptable storage" / "internal storage"?

Android TV offers a tempting "adopt this drive as internal storage" option when you plug in a USB drive. Don't pick it for TIVRA. Here's why:

• Android starts installing apps onto the USB drive instead of internal flash.
• App data (SharedPreferences, databases, caches) also moves to USB.
• USB flash is much slower than your TV's built-in eMMC — every UI tap, every database write, every cache lookup goes over the slower bus.
• Your whole TV gets visibly sluggish, not just TIVRA.

Portable storage avoids all this. The drive is used purely as a target for the files TIVRA writes — apps and OS data stay on the fast internal storage.

Recovery: I already formatted the drive as adoptable storage

1. Unplug the USB drive (TV will warn this is unsafe — that's fine; just unplug).
2. On a computer, open Disk Management (Windows) / Disk Utility (macOS). The drive will look weird (encrypted Android partition).
3. Reformat the drive as exFAT. This wipes all the Android-encrypted data on it.
4. Plug it back into the TV. This time when prompted, pick "Use as portable storage".
5. Follow the setup steps above.

If your TV's general sluggishness doesn't clear up after this, it's because Android installed apps (including TIVRA) onto the USB drive and they need to be moved back. In Android Settings › Apps › TIVRA › Storage, change the storage location back to internal.

Troubleshooting

USB drive not appearing in the picker

• Drive isn't mounted — try unplug + replug.
• Drive is formatted with a filesystem your TV doesn't support — reformat as exFAT.
• USB port is power-limited — try a different port, or use a powered USB hub for high-power external SSDs.

Recordings work but are slow / drop out

• USB stick's sustained write speed is too low. Test by copying a large file from internal to the USB drive with a file manager — if that's slow, the drive is the bottleneck. Upgrade to an SSD.