Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

prairie_dad · 2017-10-05 21:52:19

I've gone to Preferences->Advanced->Configure and asked that hot-mounted devices be connected automagically, but it's not happening. I can use gtkam just fine to download photos, so the connection is there, but if I wanted to drag other files, say text docs into Thunar, I'd be out of luck. gThumb doesn't see the camera either, as far as I can tell..."Import from removable media" doesn't show the camera at all.

What am I missing?!

thx!

MountainDewManiac · 2017-10-06 00:26:23

Perhaps your cell phone is misconfigured, and isn't set up with the right {MTP / PTP / USB Mass Storage} choice. I had assumed that all modern-era cell phones and tablets did this automatically, both because mine does (and it's considered to be a "budget" priced item - at least by idiots that spend $500+ on their phones, lol roll ) and because people have been connecting their portable devices to their home computers, stereos, et cetera for YEARS now. But... they can even be formatted with the ext4 journalling file system now, AFAIK, so... IDK. It could be something on your (desktop/laptop/television/etc.) computer's side, I suppose.

I do hope you get it figured out, because it isn't always convenient to pull the memory card from the device, grab the adapter, and insert it into the desktop/laptop computer. Bluetooth and emailing files back and forth each have their own hassles. For speed, convenience, and security, a direct cable connection is the way to go, IMHO.

Regards,
MDM

Last edited by MountainDewManiac (2017-10-06 00:30:29)

prairie_dad · 2017-10-06 03:03:23

MountainDewManiac wrote:

Perhaps your cell phone is misconfigured, and isn't set up with the right {MTP / PTP / USB Mass Storage} choice. I had assumed that all modern-era cell phones and tablets did this automatically, both because mine does (and it's considered to be a "budget" priced item - at least by idiots that spend $500+ on their phones, lol ) and because people have been connecting their portable devices to their home computers, stereos, et cetera for YEARS now. But... they can even be formatted with the ext4 journalling file system now, AFAIK, so... IDK. It could be something on your (desktop/laptop/television/etc.) computer's side, I suppose.

Nope, this isn't the issue...if it were, then gtkam wouldn't see it and be able to download the pics. The phone is set to default to "charging" when plugged into USB, but when I make the manual change to "Media Transfer" I get a notification (five times, in fact!) that a camera is now connected. And if I set the Thunar preferences to "automatically download photos when a camera is connected," and designate gtkam as the app of choice for that action, Thunar will start issuing error messages that it can't reach the appropriate directory. (I have to do that manually in gtkam, no big deal.) So Thunar "knows" the device is there, but it doesn't show up under devices, and I can't open it within the file manager...grrrr.

...it isn't always convenient to pull the memory card from the device, grab the adapter, and insert it into the desktop/laptop computer. Bluetooth and emailing files back and forth each have their own hassles. For speed, convenience, and security, a direct cable connection is the way to go, IMHO.

Two extra problems here...the Nexus 5 has no removable SD card...it's internal only. AND, my old Vostro 1015 hasn't got a slot for plugging SD into anyway. Yeah, I could get an adapter, but...not with the current phone, no.

Anybody got a notion of what is happening in Thunar that keeps that device from appearing where it should?

Thanks to all.

k-3.14 · 2017-10-06 05:52:41

I use the AirDroid App on my smartphone to have access from my computer.

Have a look.

sixsixfive · 2017-10-06 17:44:42

you need to have the gvfs mtp plugin installed on debian based distros the package is called gvfs-backends( https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gvfs-backends ) there are also some cli alternatives: https://wiki.debian.org/mtp

MountainDewManiac · 2017-10-06 19:34:45

prairie_dad wrote:

when I make the manual change to "Media Transfer" I get a notification (five times, in fact!) that a camera is now connected.

Yeah... I'd be totally lost, then. Mine automatically shows up as a removable USB device - which, at that point, it is, lol, and I can copy files (photos, text files, eBooks, auto files, videos, et cetera) back and forth between the removable USB device (aka "cell phone") and the laptop. I have no idea how you'd set it up as a camera and then try to move/copy obviously non-camera type files.

Therefore, I'll just back out of the discussion. Maybe I'll be able to learn something about the newer tech; perhaps it'll come in handy if I ever get a newer device than my third-generation Moto G and it won't act like a flash drive, hard drive, cell phone, or other removable USB device, lol. I just don't know the fancy new ways of doing things.

Good luck on solving your issue!

Regards,
MDM

prairie_dad · 2017-10-07 02:54:12

sixsixfive wrote:

you need to have the gvfs mtp plugin installed on debian based distros the package is called gvfs-backends( https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gvfs-backends ) there are also some cli alternatives: https://wiki.debian.org/mtp

Thanks for this pointer, indeed, backends was not installed, but is now. Unfortunately, it still didn't work...but I am wondering if it has to do with the phone's directory structure as much as anything else...the photos are not stored at the phone's root, and that is what gtkam wants to mount, at least at first. CLI alternatives are nice, but I was hoping Thunar would do the trick. I am considering jettisoning my Mac for good (very old) and going 100% Linux, and am working on finding alternatives to everything I do on the Mac now...photos are handled so nicely by Apple et al, and less so here, I find (so far...still digging.)

I will investigate further...I've tinkered with LInux and Xfce for years, but never on the desktop as a replacement for all other OSs/DEs...just servers of various kinds, so mostly no DE at all.

regards, and oh yeah, love your .sig about gnome! (and agree...else I wouldn't be here.)

sixsixfive · 2017-10-07 12:37:21

did you restart your pc(or at least the gvfs deamon and thunar after insalling the backends?) maybe you are missing some extra thunar dependencies (have a look at your package manger and check if you are missing some recommended or suggested packages for gvfs and thunar)

the filesystem stucture sholdn't matter, since there are some google rules how devices must be made to ship them with android.

ComputerBob · 2017-10-07 15:23:41

sixsixfive wrote:

you need to have the gvfs mtp plugin installed on debian based distros the package is called gvfs-backends( https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gvfs-backends ) there are also some cli alternatives: https://wiki.debian.org/mtp

I gave up, a long time ago, on trying to get my Tracfone android phone to connect via USB to my Debian (currently Stretch) computer, for file browsing, transfer, etc. No matter what I tried, the android was invisible in Thunar. I could only access in the not-very-friendly, non-gui gMTP program -- so I've always chosen to manually remove my phone's SD card, put it into an adapter, etc.

But after reading your suggestion, I installed gvfs-backends (and its recommended stuff), shut down and restarted my computer, opened Thunar, and THERE WAS MY ANDROID PHONE, all ready to browse and transfer files, from both the phone itself, and from its SD card!

Thank you very, very much for that information!

Last edited by ComputerBob (2017-10-07 15:34:51)

alcornoqui · 2017-10-07 19:22:48

These days, connecting the phone directly via USB is my third option. What I used to do is to use an Android SSH server app (Primitive ftpd) [1] and mount it through a bookmark with Gigolo [2], the Xfce way!

But now I use KDE Connect [3-4-5], which works, has a lot of interesting features, and doesn't pull a lot of KDE dependencies despite the name.

Just my two cents... good luck!

[1] https://f-droid.org/packages/org.primftpd/
[2] https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/application … se/gigolo/
[3] http://www.webupd8.org/2017/01/integrat … -with.html
[4] https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+arc … kdeconnect
[5] https://f-droid.org/packages/org.kde.kdeconnect_tp/

MountainDewManiac · 2017-10-07 19:56:17

alcornoqui wrote:

These days, connecting the phone directly via USB is my third option. What I used to do is to use an Android SSH server app (Primitive ftpd) [1] and mount it through a bookmark with Gigolo [2], the Xfce way!

Do you know if there is a how-to for doing this? A sort of "Idiots' Guide to...," as it were? Or, if not, would you consider writing one? This thread might not be the most appropriate place (unless, that is, prairie_dad is either interested in knowing how to connect the two devices using this method or at least does not mind, of course), but somewhere on this forum? I might not be the only person who is interested.

I really am remarkably ignorant about all of this "under the hood (bonnet)" stuff, being basically just someone who uses their computer without understanding how and why anything actually works. But I have gotten to be pretty adept at the art of copying and pasting, lol.

Does the above method encrypt things before transmitting them, since it is done wirelessly? I vaguely recall using Gigolo back in the "GNOME 2.x days," and while it was somewhat annoying (IIRC, the old Windows XP desktop computer that I connected to via WiFi from my (Xfce) laptop kept changing its IP address, so I'd routinely have to try three or four different guesses before actually getting connected), it was certainly workable. I cannot afford to replace either my cell phone or my laptop, and while I do try to be gentle when connecting/disconnecting cables... accidents happen.

- - - - - - - - - -

BtW, my cell phone is using Android 5.1, I think. I do not know if this applies to all versions of Android, but in Settings / Storage, if I tap the three stacked dots on the upper right corner of the screen, there is only one option. It is titled "USB computer connection." If I tap on that, I see:

Connect as

Media Device (MTP) Lets you transfer media files on Windows, or using Android File Transfer on Mac (see www.android.com/filetransfer)

Camera (PTP) Lets you transfer photos using camera software, and transfer any files on computers that don't support MTP

It turns out that these two options are mutually exclusive (checking the box beside one removes the checkmark in the other option's box), but it is possible to uncheck both at the same time.

These are the only options I could find that were related to (USB) file transfers between the cell phone and another device. Might it be useful to the OP if he were to try cycling between checking the first option box, checking the second option box, and clearing both option boxes - attempting to get his file transfers to work each time? I don't know; the options I saw listed seem like they might be relevant, though, so I decided to mention them.

Regards,
MDM

alcornoqui · 2017-10-07 23:48:59

MountainDewManiac wrote:

Does the above method encrypt things before transmitting them, since it is done wirelessly? I vaguely recall using Gigolo back in the "GNOME 2.x days," and while it was somewhat annoying (IIRC, the old Windows XP desktop computer that I connected to via WiFi from my (Xfce) laptop kept changing its IP address, so I'd routinely have to try three or four different guesses before actually getting connected)

Yeah, I have a static IP for every familiar device in my local network and that makes the SSH+Gigolo method easier, but with KDE Connect you don't need static IPs or anything. Both methods use good standard encryption as far as I know, and should be fine in that regard.

I'd say if you're going to be transfering files often, i.e. daily, KDE Connect is the way to go, with SSH+Gigolo (or SSH+Thunar, as you'll see) being a bit more rough and featureless, but if you're just going to need it, say, once a week, you'll be fine.

MountainDewManiac wrote:

Do you know if there is a how-to for doing this? A sort of "Idiots' Guide to...," as it were? Or, if not, would you consider writing one? This thread might not be the most appropriate place

Per your request, I've started another thread titled "How to access your Android device wirelessly with Thunar"

MountainDewManiac · 2017-10-08 02:06:54

alcornoqui wrote:

MountainDewManiac wrote:
Do you know if there is a how-to for doing this? A sort of "Idiots' Guide to...," as it were? Or, if not, would you consider writing one? This thread might not be the most appropriate place
Per your request, I've started another thread titled "How to access your Android device wirelessly with Thunar"

Thank you. I will bookmark it, against future need.

Regards,
MDM

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#1 2017-10-05 21:52:19

Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#2 2017-10-06 00:26:23

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#3 2017-10-06 03:03:23

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#4 2017-10-06 05:52:41

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#5 2017-10-06 17:44:42

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#6 2017-10-06 19:34:45

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#7 2017-10-07 02:54:12

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#8 2017-10-07 12:37:21

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#9 2017-10-07 15:23:41

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#10 2017-10-07 19:22:48

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#11 2017-10-07 19:56:17

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#12 2017-10-07 23:48:59

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

#13 2017-10-08 02:06:54

Re: Android smartphone (Nexus 5) doesn't show up in Thunar under devices

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