How to use usb tethering and usb storage at a same time

Pdanet+ is a really handy tool that you might already have used for installing drivers for your Android device. If you don't know yet, Pdanet can install device drivers for any Android smartphone (and even tablets). Yet, you might have forgot the very purpose for which the pdanet+ app was made for: Tethering!

One of the few things that I always wanted to have in my Android phone was the capability to use USB Tethering and USB Storage at the same time. When I figured out how, I decided to share it with my readers. This little tip will let you use USB Tethering as well as USB Storage (i.e. mount your SD card) at the very same time!

Why you might want this?

A large portion of Android users use their smartphones to connect their laptops/desktops to the internet. And when we download some file on our pc, say an apk for an application not available on play store, then we have to turn USB Tethering off and then enable USB Storage. Thus going offline for a few seconds, missing out a few messages on Facebook and probably interrupting anything that requires good internet connection.

Also, it is quite frustrating to toggle USB Tethering and USB Storage every time you want to transfer a stupid little file (or a ridiculously big movie!). Sometimes, we feel lazy about this toggling stuff and postpone the copy/pasting stuff for later on (and then forget what we had to copy to our phone). So, this tip is quite nice to know to have things work in a more easier way, the way it should normally work.

The sacred little tip to enable USB Tethering and USB Storage simultaneously:

Use Pdanet+.

Download Pdanet+ for Android on your PC as well as on your Android device. Open pdanet+ on your device and touch "Enable USB Tethering". Then, on your system, in the taskbar, right click the pdanet icon and select connect to get connected to the internet. Now, enable USB storage/ Media the way you normally do. On my phone, the option to do so is present in the Status bar.

Important Tip 1: Make sure that the Pdanet+ app isn't moved to the SD Card as the app won't be accessible if it is moved, once we mount the SD card.

Important Tip 2: US Debugging must be enabled. To do that, go to Settings > Applications > Development if you are running Android 2.3 or below. Otherwise , go to Settings > Development. I would recommend you to keep this option enabled forever.

Did you find the tip to be of any use? It is very useful to me, at least. Share this story with your friends to let them know about this short yet nice tip.