MTP
Related articles
MTP, or the Media Transfer Protocol, is a USB device class which is used by many mobile phones (all Windows Phone 7/8/10 devices, most newer Android devices) and media players (e.g. Creative Zen).
Contents
Installation
Functionality
Linux MTP support is provided by installing the libmtp package. It can be installed on its own and used to access devices. However, a number of packages are available that use it as a dependency and add additional convenience (e.g. filemanager) functionalities and compatibility with particular device types - which includes improving transfer access speeds.
These packages to choose from all implement a Wikipedia:Filesystem in Userspace:
- mtpfs
- jmtpfsAUR - is reported to work well for newer Android 4+ devices
- go-mtpfs-gitAUR - is reported to work well for newer Android 3+ devices
- simple-mtpfsAUR
- android-file-transfer - MTP client with minimalistic UI
All of them aim at better functionality and performance over libmtp
. Since there are a lot of different USB devices, you might want to research first which one looks most suitable for yours.
Integration with file managers
To view the contents of your Android device's storage via MTP in your file manager, install the corresponding plugin:
- For file managers that use GVFS (GNOME Files), install gvfs-mtp for MTP or gvfs-gphoto2 for PTP support.
- For file managers that use KIO (KDE's Dolphin), MTP support is included in kio-extras (dependency of dolphin).
After installing the required package, the device should show up in the file manager automatically and be accessible via an URL, for example mtp://[usb:002,013]/
.
Usage
It might be required to create a mount-point directory first. The directory ~/mnt
is used as an example below. Also do not forget to unlock your phone's screen before connecting it to the computer.
libmtp
Detect your device:
# mtp-detect
If an error is returned, see troubleshooting libmtp.
Connect to your device:
# mtp-connect
If connection is successful, there are several switch options to use in conjunction with mtp-connect to access data on the device. You might want to use some stand alone commands:
mtp-albumart mtp-emptyfolders mtp-getplaylist mtp-reset mtp-trexist mtp-albums mtp-files mtp-hotplug mtp-sendfile mtp-connect mtp-folders mtp-newfolder mtp-sendtr mtp-delfile mtp-format mtp-newplaylist mtp-thumb mtp-detect mtp-getfile mtp-playlists mtp-tracks
simple-mtpfs
List MTP devices:
$ simple-mtpfs -l
Your list of device(s) may look like this:
1: AsusZenfone 2 (MTP)
To mount the device with index 1 in the list to ~/mnt
:
$ simple-mtpfs 1 ~/mnt
Unmount device mounted on ~/mnt
:
$ fusermount -u ~/mnt
jmtpfs
Mount device on ~/mnt
:
$ jmtpfs ~/mnt
Unmount device mounted on ~/mnt
:
$ fusermount -u ~/mnt
Make this cohere to the rest of Linux (use regular mount/umount commands) by doing two steps
$# ln -s <actual mount command's path/name> <a name consistent with Linux's mount convention> $ ln -s /sbin/jmtpfs /sbin/mount.jmtpfs
add this line to /etc/fstab;
#jmtpfs <mount path> fuse nodev,allow_other,<other options> 0 0 jmtpfs /home/sam/run/motog fuse nodev,allow_other,rw,user,noauto,noatime,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0
Now mount the device and see if the options "took"
$ mount /home/sam/run/motog Device 0 (VID=22b8 and PID=2e82) is a Motorola Moto G (ID2). Android device detected, assigning default bug flags $ mount ... jmtpfs on /home/sam/run/motog type fuse.jmtpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000,allow_other,user=sam)
go-mtpfs
Install android-udev, which will allow you to edit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
and apply to your idVendor
and idProduct
, which you can see after running mtp-detect. To the end of the line, add your user OWNER="<user>"
.
Mount device on ~/mnt
:
$ go-mtpfs ~/mnt
Unmount device mounted on ~/mnt
:
$ fusermount -u ~/mnt
mtpfs
First edit your /etc/fuse.conf
and uncomment the following line:
user_allow_other
Mount your device on ~/mnt
:
$ mtpfs -o allow_other ~/mnt
Unmount device mounted on ~/mnt
:
$ fusermount -u ~/mnt
Android File Transfer
- FUSE interface
Mount your device on ~/my-device
:
$ mkdir ~/my-device $ aft-mtp-mount ~/my-device
If you want album art to be displayed, it must be named albumart.xxx
and placed first in the destination folder. Then copy other files. Also, note that fuse could be 7-8 times slower than ui/cli file transfer.
Unmount device mounted on ~/my-device
:
$ fusermount -u ~/my-device
- Qt user interface
Start the application, choose a destination folder and click any button on the toolbar. Available options are: Upload Album, Upload Directory and Upload Files. The latter two are self-explanatory. Upload album searches the source directory for album covers, and sets the best available cover.
Media players
You can also use your MTP device in music players such as Amarok. To achieve this, you might have to edit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
(the MTP device used in the following example is a Galaxy Nexus).
Run:
$ lsusb
Search for your device. It should be something like that:
Bus 003 Device 011: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II], GT-P7500 [Galaxy Tab 10.1]
And entry to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
will be this:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666", OWNER="[username]"
Also reload udev rules:
# udevadm control --reload
gvfs-mtp
The gvfs-mtp is available in the official repositories.
With lsusb
you can get information about your device where Bus and Device numbers can be used with gvfs-mtp
and device ID for creating of an udev rule.
Bus 002 Device 018: ID 04b7:88a9 Compal Electronics, Inc. (...)
To see detected device with enabled MTP
Use gvfs-mount:
gvfs-mount -li | grep -e ^Volume -e activation_root
Volume(0): MT65xx Android Phone activation_root=mtp://[usb:002,018]/
Use lsusb:
lsusb -v 2> /dev/null | grep -e Bus -e iInterface -e bInterfaceProtocol
(...... ......) Bus 002 Device 018: ID 04b7:88a9 Compal Electronics, Inc. bInterfaceProtocol 0 iInterface 5 MTP (...... ......)
To mount all available connected MTP devices use inline script
gvfs-mount -li | awk -F= '{if(index($2,"mtp") == 1)system("gvfs-mount "$2)}'
To mount or dismount from a command with gvfs-mtp use Bus and Device numbers, e.g. to mount gvfs-mount mtp://[usb:001,007]/
and to unmount gvfs-mount -u mtp://[usb:001,007]/
. The mounted device will be available in a directory that begins with mtp:host= and is located under /run/user/$UID/gvfs/.
Disable automount of MTP devises with gvfs you will need to change value true to false for variable AutoMount that is located in /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/mtp.mount
.
If your device isn't showing up in the file manager then the libmtp is missing a native support and is not currently available in the list of the supported devices. If you will try to mount by using command line you may also get an error
Device 0 (VID=XXXX and PID=XXXX) is UNKNOWN. Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team
The workaround to make it shown in the file manager is to write an udev rule for the device but it is no guaranty that you will be able to mount it with by using MTP connection.
Use ID number that represents by pattern vendorId:productID,e.g. 04b7:88a9, and make an udev rule by creating a configuration file
/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04b7", ATTR{idProduct}=="88a9", MODE="0660", GROUP="uucp", ENV{ID_MTP_DEVICE}="1", SYMLINK+="libmtp"
Reload the udev rules.
# udevadm control --reload
The file managers with support for gvfs will be able to show MTP devices and mount them if supported by libmtp but if has no support and cannot be opened then change settings in the phone to PTP and install gvfs-gphoto2 for having access at least to the photos, command line mounting of PTP is a little similar to mounting of the MTP devices: gvfs-mount gphoto2://[usb:002,019]/
.
Troubleshooting
libmtp
Unable to enumerate USB device
If you see a message like this in system log (journalctl
)
usb usb4-port2: unable to enumerate USB device
You can try following temporary workaround
# modprobe -vr uhci_hcd # modprobe -va ohci_hcd # modprobe -va uhci_hcd
If it works you should create /etc/modprobe.d/usb_hci_order.conf
with following content
# create a dependency on ohci for uhci, which fixes problems # with external usb devices not showing up # softdep uhci_hcd pre: ohci_hcd
jmtpfs
Input/output error upon first access
Symptoms: jmtpfs successfully mounts, but as soon as one attempts to access files on the device (e.g. via ls
), an error is reported:
cannot access <mount-point>: Input/output error
This appears to be a security feature: MTP does not work when the phone is locked by the lockscreen. Unlock the phone and it should work again as long as the cord remains connected.
kio-mtp
If you are not able to use the action "Open with File Manager", you may work around this problem by editing the file /usr/share/apps/solid/actions/solid_mtp.desktop
.
Change the line
Exec=kioclient exec mtp:udi=%i/
To
Exec=dolphin "mtp:/"