Read and write Windows USB drives on Android.

Android ships without an NTFS driver. Most phones can mount a FAT32 drive and many handle exFAT, but NTFS - the format Windows uses for nearly every external hard drive - is simply not supported by the operating system. Plugging one in usually produces a "corrupt or unsupported" notification, or the drive is ignored entirely. NTFS Reader carries its own NTFS engine and its own USB mass-storage stack, so it reads the drive itself rather than waiting for Android to do it.

No. NTFS Reader talks to the drive through Android’s standard USB host API, entirely in user space. Nothing is mounted at the system level, so there is no root, no custom kernel, no unlocked bootloader and no ADB setup involved.

No. Everything happens on the phone or tablet. You do not need a PC to mount, unlock, read or write the drive - that is the whole point.

The app is free to install, and reading is free on every supported format. Full read and write on exFAT and FAT32 is also free, including exFAT and FAT32 drives locked inside BitLocker or LUKS. Writing to NTFS and to Linux (ext2/3/4) drives is the one paid capability: it unlocks with a single one-time in-app purchase - no subscription, and no second app to install. There are no ads at any tier.

You can write. After the one-time unlock you can create folders, rename, move, delete, and copy or upload files onto NTFS drives and SSDs, in place - the drive you are already looking at becomes writable immediately. The same unlock covers write access to NTFS-formatted BitLocker drives, and to Linux ext2, ext3 and ext4 drives, with no extra purchase.

A phone or tablet running Android 8.0 or newer that supports USB OTG (USB host mode), and a way to connect the drive: plug a USB-C drive in directly, or use a USB-OTG adapter for USB-A drives. Large bus-powered hard drives sometimes need a powered hub, since phones supply limited current.

Through a USB card reader, yes - an SD or microSD card in a reader appears just like any other USB drive, with free read and write on exFAT and FAT32. It does not use your phone’s built-in SD card slot for this; that slot is handled by Android itself, and NTFS Reader can browse it through its phone storage view.

Yes. BitLocker To Go drives unlock with your password or 48-digit recovery key, with no Windows PC needed, and open whatever filesystem is inside - NTFS, exFAT or FAT32. This covers volumes created by Windows 8 and later using AES-XTS or AES-CBC. Older pre-Windows-8 volumes that use the "Elephant diffuser" are declined rather than opened.

Yes. ext2, ext3 and ext4 drives open like any other - a Linux PC’s external drive, a Raspberry Pi card or a Steam Deck microSD card in a USB card reader - and reading them is free. Writing to them uses the same one-time unlock as NTFS, and follows Linux’s own rules, journal included, so a drive pulled out mid-copy comes back the way Linux would leave it. LUKS1 and LUKS2 drives, the kind an encrypted Ubuntu or Fedora install makes, unlock with their password or key file and open the ext2/3/4, NTFS, exFAT or FAT32 volume inside. LVM volumes open too, LVM inside LUKS included. Unlocking a LUKS drive can take up to a minute on a slower phone, because Linux makes password checks slow on purpose. A drive Linux did not eject cleanly is shown the way Linux will show it after its own recovery, without the app writing to it.

Writes are crash-safe by design. The drive is flagged "needs check" before a change begins and the flag clears only after data is truly flushed, so an interrupted write leaves the drive in a recoverable state rather than silently corrupted. The next computer that sees it runs its normal repair pass - chkdsk on Windows, ntfsfix or fsck on Linux. As with any write to any filesystem, keep a current backup of anything you cannot lose.

Yes to both. Drives above 2 TB work, and multi-partition drives are enumerated so you can pick the volume you want.

No. There are no ads, no analytics, no crash reporting SDKs and no account system, and nothing about your files, file names, folders or drives is ever transmitted. The app’s only network use is Google Play Billing, for the optional one-time purchase, plus Google’s optional "rate this app" prompt - both handled by the Play Store app on your device. Your unlock status is stored only on your device, and nothing about your purchase reaches the developer.

Nowhere. The password, 48-digit recovery key or key file you use is held in memory only, on your device, and used to decrypt the drive for that session. It is never transmitted, and never written to disk unless you choose to have the app remember it (Settings > Encrypted drives > Remember drive passwords, off by default). A remembered password stays on your device, encrypted with a key held in Android’s Keystore, so the drive unlocks without retyping next time; you can require your fingerprint or face before it is used, and turning the setting off deletes it.

No. If you bought the separate NTFS Reader Pro app, you get write support in this app at no extra charge. The app detects it by checking whether that app is installed and verifying its signing certificate, entirely on your device - no information about your installed apps is collected or sent anywhere.

Android 8.0 (API 26) and newer, on phones and tablets. The app targets Android 16 (API 36).