Guide: Access your RG350 data via USB

Last updated 08SEP2020 (see Changelog for details)

The easiest way to access the internal microSD card (“TF1”) on your RG350 device is to simply pull it out of the device and plug it into a Linux computer. But what if you have the original RG350, and you don’t want to remove its backing to get at the internal firmware card? Or what if you don’t have a Linux computer, but still want to access the file system?

This guide will walk you through accessing your RG350 microSD cards through the USB connection. This process is mostly essential if you have the original RG350, and can also save you time if you are using the updated RG350M or RG350P models.

Table of Contents:

Before we begin
Configure your RG350's "network settings"
Navigating your RG350
Accessing your SD cards on a Windows PC
  - Access via Windows Explorer
  - FTP via WinSCP or FileZilla
Accessing your SD cards on a Mac
  - Access via Safari/Finder
  - FTP via Cyberduck of Forklift
  - SSH through Terminal (advanced)
Navigating your RG350 using DinguxCmdr

Changelog

Before we begin

• You cannot use a USB-C to USB-C cable to access your RG350. So if you have a USB-C input on your PC or Mac, awesome, but you need an ordinary USB-C to USB-A cable. Some users experience issues using the cable that comes with the device for data transfer, so if you have a higher-quality USB-C cable, use that if you’re having connection issues.
• When you plug the USB-C cable into your RG350, plug it into the right USB-C input (the same one you use to charge the device), like in the picture above.
• Your RG350 will need to be powered on in order to access its files. When you load and delete files via USB, they will happen in real time. You may be tempted to mess around with your RG350 while it’s still plugged into your computer. My advice is to disconnect the connection before you start touching the RG350 itself, much in the same way that you don’t want to play the RG350 while it is charging.
• Sometimes, even after you have done all the steps below, your RG350 may disconnect from its USB connection at random times. If this happens to you, I recommend you install the drivers for your computer. PC instructions are here, and Mac instructions are here (note that with Mac, if you are using High Sierra or Catalina, you will need the updated driver described in this link). For example, my RG350M would disconnect after about 30 seconds every time I plugged it in, and installing the PC drivers fixed it.

Configure your RG350’s “network settings“

The use of “network” in this context is misleading: you are not connecting the RG350 to a network, but rather you are “networking” into your RG350 via a USB-C cable. There is no magical network card or antenna that appears on your RG350 if you follow these steps.

1. Go to the “Settings” tab on your RG350, then select the “Network” app (confusing, I know). There you will see the window in the picture at the top of this post. Make note of the IP address associated with your device (likely 10.1.1.2), and the username (likely “root”). If your Network app says “(no network active)”, then you should be able to connect using the default 10.1.1.2 IP address.
2. Next, go to the setting “Allow login without password” and press A. A note will appear that says “Anyone on the network can log in!”. Remember, there is no network for nefarious hackers to access, just the USB-C cable.
3. Okay, you’ve got your IP address, username, and can log in without a password. Good to go.

Navigating your RG350

The RG350’s file management structure is a little confusing, so before we actually access your RG350, let’s walk you through the three main folders you’ll see when you first connect.

• The “apps” folder is a shortcut to where your apps are stored. It’s just a shortcut to media > data > apps folder on your firmware microSD card, which you can also navigate to from the media folder on the bottom of the image above.
• The “home” folder is also a shortcut, to the “root/home” folder on your firmware, which you can find via media > data > local > home. This mostly contains hidden files which are essential for tweaks certain apps, like SimpleMenu. In this folder you will also find any screenshots you have taken on the device (press START + X at any time on the device to take a screenshot).
• The “media” folder gives you access to both your firmware/internal microSD card and your data/external microSD card. If you want to add or remove games from your device, you’ll click on this folder, and see your data/external SD card folder there.

Okay, now that you are familiar with the file management structure of your RG350, let’s discuss how to actually access your SD cards.

Accessing your SD cards on a Windows PC

There are two ways to access your RG350 on a Windows PC. One is very simple, but has limited functionality; the other is a bit more involved (you have to install a free program), but gives you full access to everything.

Access via Windows Explorer: Open up Windows Explorer (the Yellow folder icon), and in the “Computer” ribbon near the top, select “Map network drive”. At the bottom you’ll see a link that says “Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures”, click the link, hit Next, and then “Choose a custom network location”. On the next screen, type “ftp://10.1.1.2”, or whatever your IP address was when you configured your RG350 network settings in the steps above. Click Next, then uncheck “Log on anonymously” and type “root” as the username (leave the password blank). Click through the rest of the menu (you can name this “network” if you’d like). From now on, you should see this folder as a network location every time you plug in your RG350.

Note that this access is limited: you can add and remove files from your SD cards, but you cannot access the hidden files within your internal firmware card. To get full access, you’ll want to use a client like WinSCP.

FTP via WinSCP: When I need to work on my RG350, WinSCP is my default application — it gives you full access to your RG350 cards. To start, you’ll need to download this free software from their site, then install it to your PC. Once you open up the program, go to Options > Preferences in the menu bar, and go to the “Panels” menu; from there, make sure that “Show hidden files” is checked. Hit OK to get back to the program, then click on the button that says “New Session”. Create a new FTP session, with the host name of 10.1.1.2 (or whatever your RG350 IP address is), and “root” as the username (leave the password blank). Click on “Login”, and you are now good to go. It may prompt you for a password, just leave it blank.

Note that WinSCP isn’t the only FTP client in town, it’s just the one I prefer. You could also use FileZilla.

Accessing your SD cards on a Mac

Believe it or not, accessing your SD cards on a Mac is basically the same process as it is for Windows. You can use Finder to make a quick connection to your RG350, but you will be limited to what you can see, and you cannot add/edit files, only download them from your device.

Access via Safari/Finder: There are two easy ways to access your RG350 through Finder. The first way is to access it through the Safari browser. Open a new tab and type in “ftp://10.1.1.2” in the address bar, and a window will pop up asking for your username and password. Use the username “root” (or whatever showed up in your network settings on your RG350 earlier), and leave the password blank. Bam, a Finder window pops up, like what you see above.

The other way to access through Finder is to click on the Finder icon in your dock, then select “Go” in the menu bar, then “Connect to Server…” (or just press CMD+K) and type “ftp://10.1.1.2”. At this point you can also save it to your “Favorite Servers”. Press the Connect button, and it will prompt you for a username and password again; yep, it’s “root” and don’t put a password in. A Finder window will pop up, and you can go to town.

Like I mentioned before, this method is imperfect. Most notably, the files will be read only — you can access and download the files, but you cannot add anything to them. For that, you will need to use the option below. Additionally, you cannot see the hidden files that are in your “root/home” folder (basically, everything that has a period (.) in front of the file name. Even if you enable Finder to show hidden files (CMD+Shift+Period) they won’t appear. This is a bummer, but the process below will enable you to see everything.

FTP via Cyberduck or Forklift: Cyberduck is a dedicated FTP client. It’s free if you download it directly from their website, but costs $24 if you buy it through the Mac App Store. Download and install the app, then open it up. Press the “Open Connection” button, select the FTP option, and add your IP address (10.1.1.2) as the Server, and “root” as the username; leave the password blank. Press the “Connect” button, and then navigate to the “Browser” icon on the left to see the display you see above. This client will work just like Finder, except that you will be able to add and edit files. Initially I was unable to see the hidden files stored in media/data/local/home/, but at some point, after connecting and disconnecting a couple times, they popped up for me, and have been there ever since. Be sure to check the “Browser” tab in the Preferences Pane to make sure that “Show hidden files” is checked. Note that I haven’t been able to connect to my RG350 via SFTP with this client, but I have been able to with the client featured below.

Forklift is a similar FTP client for the Mac, which has a nice two-pane viewing system in case you want to do all of your work through the app itself (i.e. have your Mac’s hard drive on one side, and the RG350 on the other, and move files between the two panes. Forklift will also allow you to access the root folder files if you connect via SFTP instead of FTP; this is especially important if you need to access certain advanced-level folders, like usr or sbin. This client has a free version, and the full version will cost you $30. In order to see the hidden files in media/data/local/home, be sure to go to the Menu Bar and select View > “Show Invisible Files” (a little dramatic, but hey, it works).

SSH through Terminal (advanced): Finally, you can also use Terminal to SSH directly into the RG350. To do so, open Terminal and type “ssh root@10.1.1.2” (or whatever your username and IP address is) and it’ll open right into the RG350. But to be honest, I have no idea what kind of Terminal/Unix gibberish you have to type after that to see and modify your data, so if you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you probably know more about this than me.

Navigating your RG350 using DinguxCmdr

DinguxCmdr is an application that is pre-loaded on the RG350. It’s a little clunky, but it can allow you to access all of the files and folders on your system without plugging it into your computer. Its most useful feature is that you can copy/move folders from one location to another.

DinguxCmdr works in a two-panel display, like you see in the picture above. You can navigate between these panels by pressing left or right on your d-pad. The buttons in this application are a little counter-intuitive: the “X” button is your action button, allowing you to copy, move, rename, or delete a file. The “A” button confirms your actions, and the “B” button serves as a “back/cancel” button. The “Y” button is what you need to press in order to quit the application.

The trick to this app is to treat each of the two panels as a different location; one panel is the source, and the other is the destination. I like to think of the left side as my source side, and that’s where I pull files from, and place them into the right panel, my destination. Once you get that idea down you can treat this program like you would Explorer on a PC, or Finder on a Mac.

So to give you an example, open up each panel to where you want them to be: the panel on the left has the file you want to copy, and the panel on the right shows the folder you want to copy that file to. Select the file on the left by navigating to it and pressing the “X” (action) button on your RG350, and then select “Copy >” from the menu. Press “A” to confirm, and the file should be copied, and you can then see it on both panels. That’s it! Just follow this process to copy or move your files to where you need them.

Changelog

In this section I’ll provide a quick summary of any updates I make to this guide.

08SEP2020
– Added info about “(no network active)” status in Network app

04SEP2020
– Added drivers information

Hopefully this guide will make it easier for you to access your RG350 files directly from your computer or the RG350 itself. If you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them below!