Connecting Android 4 device to Ubuntu via MTP

Posted by sky | Tags: Android , Linux , Mobile , Open-Source , Personal , Ubuntu , installation , mtp , testing

It seems for newer Android 4 devices, we can no longer connect them to PCs as USB mass storage devices.

Refering to Connecting Samsung ICS to Ubuntu using MTP, and following the steps in my Ubuntu 12.04 will result in some connection error:

    $ mtpfs -o allow_other /media/MyAndroid
    fuse: bad mount point '/media/MyAndroid': Transport endpoint is not connected
    

Then, refering to How To Properly Mount Android 4.0+ Devices In Ubuntu Using Go-mtpfs, this time it works!

To mount and connect the MTP device, use:

    $ go-mtpfs /media/MyAndroid
    2013/01/27 09:17:32 compiled against libmtp 1.1.5
    Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=6860) is a Samsung Galaxy models (MTP).
    2013/01/27 09:17:32 found device Samsung: Galaxy models (MTP) (04e8:6860) @ bus 1, dev 5
    : 
    2013/01/27 09:17:32 storage ID 65537: Phone
    2013/01/27 09:17:32 backing data /tmp/go-mtpfs189058148
    2013/01/27 09:17:32 starting FUSE unknown
    

The device sdcard is mounted to /media/MyAndroid/Phone.

To unmount it, use:

    $ fusermount -u /media/MyAndroid
    

Though, after installing go-mtpfs, the mtpfs command will also work. The reason, probably has to do with the libmtp version. The original Precise libmtp version is 1.1.3, and it is updated to 1.1.5 after installing go-mtpfs.

Copying files with go-mtpfs can cause error which results in disconnection.

Copying files with mtpfs works. But it is slow, and it always copies all the files to the sdcard/Music folder regardless of where I copy to. Even after I move the files on the Android device, I cannot see the changes in mtpfs. (nautilus file manager)

Somewhat unrelated:

Nexus 7 - Root your tablet with Ubuntu Linux (by Nicolas Bernaerts)

27 Jan 2013

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