Hey Heather, it's me again.

Hey Heather, it's me again.

Why is it sooo hard connect my phone to a computer to transfer files?! It’s infuriating. Hmm? I wonder if infuriating is the right word.

Definition:

making one extremely angry and impatient; very annoying.

Yupp!

I’m all for offering the option as a service. But it seems like every company is just obfuscating things we can do with technology. You know, like move a file. Everything is cloud this. Cloud that. CloudCloudCloud. They chose the right word for it though.

Definition:

1. a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground.
2. a state or cause of gloom, suspicion, trouble, or worry.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. But every time I need to connect my phone, it’s such a hassle. So this post is me talking to my future self for when I inevitably have to do it again.

Steps

1. Make sure you’re using the correct cable. Some cables are only used for charging and won’t work for data transferring. You will think that they’re the same. They are not. Fortunately, there’s only 2 cables so you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right
2. Access Developer Mode on your phone. You switched it off. To access it again, go to Settings > About phone > Software information and quickly tap on Build number seven times
3. Enable transferring files by going to Settings > Developer options > Default USB configuration (under Networking) > Transferring files
4. Run # jmtpfs /mnt/phone/
   If you get the message: No mtp devices found.
   Double check you are using the correct cable, then run the command again. You should get something like Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=1234) is a Phone model (MTP).
5. To disconnect run jmtpfs -u /mnt/phone/
   Oh. Has that randomly started and continued to give you an error message because of $reason??
   Then try fusermount -u /path/to/where/you/connected/

Other useful commands that may or may not be relevant:

$ lsblk
$ mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/xdisk
$ ls /mnt/xdisk/

resources consulted:

• Ask Ubuntu: My MTP capable device is not detected?
• Arch wiki: Media Transfer Protocol

gl;hf