{"id":248288,"date":"2026-05-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/i-plugged-a-3-5-inch-floppy-disk-reader-into-my-android-phone-and-it-just-worked\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:15:07","slug":"i-plugged-a-3-5-inch-floppy-disk-reader-into-my-android-phone-and-it-just-worked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/i-plugged-a-3-5-inch-floppy-disk-reader-into-my-android-phone-and-it-just-worked\/","title":{"rendered":"I plugged a 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Android phone, and it just worked"},"content":{"rendered":"

I plugged a 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Android phone, and it just worked<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.xda-developers.com\/i-plugged-3-5-inch-floppy-disk-reader-into-my-android-phone-it-worked\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-18 08:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.xda-developers.com<\/a><\/p>\n

This is one of those situations where I take a second to think about how I got here.<\/p>\n

As part of my job at XDA, I buy a lot of cables for various things, whether it’s an extra USB 3.1 cord or a few spare HDMI 2.1 cables for an HDMI switcher story I’m working on. It seems like my Amazon recommendation algorithm knows I’m into cords, because a few days ago, it suggested I buy something very strange \u2014 <\/strong>a $20 USB 3.5-inch floppy disk reader. Naturally, since I’m a sucker for nostalgia, I had to buy it, just to see if I could make it work with my smartphone and hear the sweet sounds of its physical disk being read. I also had no clue USB 3.5-inch drives were even a thing.<\/p>\n

My expectations were low; I thought maybe I’d be able to get it up and running on my Windows 11 desktop PC and, after installing a few ancient drivers, on my MacBook Pro, but to my surprise, it also worked with my Pixel 10 Pro. I opened the Chuanganzhuo 3.5-inch Floppy Disk Reader and slid one of the colorful 3.5-inch floppy disks I had purchased into it (the fact that 3.5-inch floppy disks cost $30 in 2026 is wild). A flood of memories surrounding the positively ancient storage format instantly hit me.<\/p>\n

\n I’m surprised the 3.5-inch floppy disk reader worked right away
\n <\/h2>\n

\n All I needed to do was plug it in
\n <\/h3>\n

Whether it was school-related projects, storing ZSNES and SNES ROMs, various DOS boot disks that let me play Indiana Jones and the Fate of the Atlantis on my parent’s aging Windows 3.1 PC, a pirated copy of Commander Keen, or an OG Doom shareware disk, I have a lot of 3.5-inch floppy disk-related memories, and that grinding noise the storage format makes when it’s being read seems to have been stored away in a special part of my brain. To me, the 3.5-inch floppy disk is more than just a save icon.<\/p>\n

After plugging the 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Pixel 10 Pro…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I plugged a 3.5-inch floppy disk reader into my Android phone, and it just worked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static0.xdaimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/wm\/2026\/05\/35-inch-floppy-pixel-10-pro-header.jpg?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-248288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","tag-pixel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248290,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248288\/revisions\/248290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}