If you own a Samsung TV and want to learn about the external USB storage it supports, or if you’re wondering why certain files on your flash drive or hard drive are not visible, here’s what you need to know.
Starting with models released in 2021, Samsung TVs support USB flash drives of any capacity, allowing you to use even a 5TB drive with your TV. However, there are important limitations to consider to ensure your TV can properly read and display your files.
USB Drive Limitations on Samsung TVs
- Supported File Systems: The TV supports FAT, exFAT, and NTFS file systems. While FAT32 is also supported, it is outdated and limits individual file sizes to 2GB, which is inadequate for modern movies.
- File and Folder Limits: Samsung TVs can recognize up to 1,000 files per folder and a maximum of 8,000 files or folders on the entire drive. If these limits are exceeded, some files may not be detected or displayed.
- File Format Compatibility: Not all file types or codecs are supported. For instance, Samsung TVs do not recognize files with DivX or DTS codecs, meaning these files will not be displayed when browsing your drive.
List of file extensions supported by Samsung TVs
Below you can see a table of file extensions that the Samsung TV can read from the flash drive.
| Images | Audio | Video |
|---|---|---|
| *.jpg | *.mp3 | *.avi |
| *.jpeg | *.m4a | *.mkv |
| *.png | *.mpa | *.asf |
| *.bmp | *.aac | *.wmv |
| *.mpo | *.flac | *.mp4 |
| *.heic | *.ogg | *.mov |
| *.wma | *.3gp | |
| *.wav | *.vro | |
| *.mid | *.mpg | |
| *.midi | *.mpeg | |
| *.ape | *.ts | |
| *.aif | *.tp | |
| *.aiff | *.trp | |
| *.vob | ||
| *.svi | ||
| *.m2ts | ||
| *.mts | ||
| *.webm | ||
| *.rmvb |
In fact, the TV can still read some files that are necessary to update the operating system via USB, but they are not used when watching videos
