Confirm that the USB device is visible to the system
An attached USB drive and an indexed local video collection are different things. When Nova on NVIDIA Shield shows no videos from a drive, first inspect whether Android recognizes the storage at all. Keep the drive connected normally and identify the actual Shield model and software version.
Choose one known video file on the drive and verify its existence through the system’s supported file-access route. Avoid formatting the drive as a first response to a player’s empty library. Formatting changes the storage itself and is a much larger action than checking the media-indexing setting that this documented case concerns.
Inspect the Shield-specific media-scanning control
Check Android settings, Device Preferences, Storage and Scan for media automatically. Record the current state before changing it. For an original discovery example, use one clearly named file at a known location on the connected drive. Compare that same file after discovery rather than adding several renamed duplicates.
Enable that option if it matches the intended use and allow the system to perform its normal media discovery. Keep the drive and test file unchanged during the observation. The option concerns Android’s discovery route; it is not a video decoder switch or a way to supply a missing media file.
Compare system discovery and Nova presentation
Return to Nova and inspect the local collection for the known file after discovery has had an opportunity to complete. Record whether the file appears by filename, under a matched title or under an unexpected library grouping. A metadata mismatch is different from the system never exposing the file to the app.
If the file appears but fails to play, preserve that later-stage result and inspect the file, selected tracks and hardware support. Do not keep toggling storage indexing as a decoder remedy. If Android itself cannot access the drive, continue with the storage-system diagnosis rather than assuming Nova’s library database is the cause.
Keep an alternative source route explicit
If you choose to investigate a network-share alternative, treat it as a separate configuration with its own documented access requirements. Preserve the local indexing result first. A different source route can help a later task, but silently changing from local storage to a network reference removes the original comparison.
The expected outcome is an identified local discovery path for the real Shield installation. Retain the software version, indexing state and one known file’s result. This procedure does not certify every USB filesystem, powered enclosure or video format, and it does not claim that an attached drive has been independently backed up.
Questions answered
What evidence distinguishes indexing from playback failure?
Record whether the known file appears in the app before attempting playback. A discovered item that will not open is a later-stage result.
Should I format the drive to fix an empty collection?
First establish system visibility and the documented indexing state. An empty player collection does not by itself justify changing the storage format.
Sources & further reading
Official references for the subjects discussed. Service terms and device software can change.