Accessing Android phone files

[greengeek]

I am interested to know what software, or which Puppies, or which file manager people use to get access to photos and general files on their Android phones.

What is your goto Puppy (out of the box) to do this?

Or what software or pet or file manager do you load (and to which puppy) in order make it work.

I know this is a general request and there is huge variation between Puppies, software packages, and the Android phones themselves - but I really want to know who has found a reliable solution for their gear and what is your secret recipe.

The ideal goal is: mount an Android phone and reliably read/write files of all types to microSD card and/or internal storage.

But even if you are part way to this goal - let's hear what you do.

(I can do this with a degree of reliability but not with the confidence and repeatability I would like. I find i need to use different puppies for different phones, and also have trouble with Pupcamera getting in the way. Just keen to find out who has a good stable recipe)

EDIT: See the following threads:
- Camphonetab: viewtopic.php?t=872
- Other options: viewtopic.php?t=5630
- Other options well worth a read: viewtopic.php?t=5218

This method allows you to use Android as a hotspot connected to the PC (no lan or other router) and upload files from the phone to the PC:
viewtopic.php?p=57051#p57051

This method also allows you to do two-way transfers to/from Android hotspot (controlled from phone):
https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... e0#p415132
(Refer to the second part of that post - the 'puppy machine' part)
(Latest version of pet here: viewtopic.php?p=57311#p57311)

[OscarTalks]

I hardly ever use an Android phone so I'm probably not the best person to comment, but I did find PupMTP by mistfire to work OK when I tried it. Looks like you got involved in discussion on the old forum many moons ago. https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... lit=pupmtp
Anyway I have this installed in my everyday Wheezy and Stretch Pups. I know that some other of the more recent Pups have a different program for this purpose.

[Geek3579]

In the past I used pupmtp, but my current Android device does not seem to connect with it, so I installed Filezilla on the Android phone and PureFTPd on any Puppy to move files off the phone - mostly photos.

[greengeek]

I did find PupMTP by mistfire to work OK when I tried it. https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtop ... lit=pupmtp
...I have this installed in my everyday Wheezy and Stretch Pups. I know that some other of the more recent Pups have a different program for this purpose.

I get variable results with different phones and different pups unfortunately. For some reason my wifes Huawei behaves differently to my Samsung. Wifes phone almost never connects (but sometimes does...). Mine usually connects after a few tries but even when pupmtp works i see problems with pupcamera jumping in and the phone appearing to go offline after a period of time.

Hoping I will be able to pick up on what everyone is using and spot some common themes to get me to next base.

My results are so variable I dont want to waste peoples time trying to troubleshoot what I have - especially since I use older pups mostly. Maybe the newer pups just work perfectly in this department.

@Geek3579

In the past I used pupmtp, but my current Android device does not seem to connect with it

Yes I have similar trouble. I think the newer phones are more restrictive on what connection methods they allow.

[tallboy]

I have a Huawei Mate 20 Pro.
The MTP connection program in tahr64 has never worked for me.
Connecting with a cable from USB C on the phone to the USB port on the PC, automatically start the phone's charging process, but dragging down a menu on the phone, lets me choose an access to the photo Gallery on the phone. The access to files choice does not work, it only mounts a disc icon with Windows access programs on it.
By choosing the photo Gallery, a dialog window pops up on the PC screen, and by following the short instructions, the Gallery opens and let me dowload the photos to the PC - but not always; sometimes it won't cooperate at all, no matter what I do. I have the impression that a fully charged phone, with all open apps closed down, will allow a connection more often.
When it doesn't work, I simply send the phone photos as attachments in an empty email to myself, and open the email in the PC and download photos from there.
I don't have a Google account, so I use other repos to update or test an app. (I have very few) I sometimes have to download an app's .apk file to the PC, and load it onto a memory stick. Android don't read Linux files, so I use an OTG cable between a vfat memory stick and phone, and download the .apk file to the phone, and install it. In such cases, the apps cannot be set to automatic updates, a new version has to be downloaded the same way.
It's funny it doesn't work to transfer Linx files more easy, after all, Android is built on Linux!

tallboy

[JASpup]

What is your goto Puppy (out of the box) to do this?

XenialPup 32, in the Filesystem category. I just ran the app for mtpdevice in X-Tahr manually but it's not in my menus.

Xenial 64 needs big dependencies, go-mtpfs after another package before (at least we get a notification). If Fossa lacks that is a big miss.

[Barbara]

Try this way: Open up the Google Play Store on your Android device; search for KDE Connect; locate and tap the entry by the KDE Community; tap Install; allow the installation to complete.

[wiak]

Try this way: Open up the Google Play Store on your Android device; search for KDE Connect; locate and tap the entry by the KDE Community; tap Install; allow the installation to complete.

Oh wow, that is fantastic. At first I read your post and thought - that's probably just for heavy KDE Plasma type distros, but actually if you are already using some KDE apps (which I am - okular), KDE-Connect is not a big download/install to local computer. On my pretty basic WDL_Arch64 (on which I use KDE Okular) I installed KDE Connect a minute ago with:

Code: Select all

pacman -Sy kdeconnect

Note @rockedge kdeconnect is also available from Void repos - probably some big dependencies when used with default KLV-Airedale, but as I say once you have one KDE app then the rest often don't add much extra bloat, so whilst maybe not best for default release it is worth keeping in mind for those who want to later install such great convenience.

Then I installed the app on my android phone and paired them without needing to understand what I was doing. I thought it must be using bluetooth, but wonderfully it seems to be using wifi (!) so don't need bluetooth working on my old computer - though it can do actually. Interesting... must already be in the much larger ManjaroKDE distro I was playing with today, but didn't notice since never heard of it before your post. KDE really has a lot going for it and even just if installing the KDE apps without putting on relatively heavy desktop manager Plasma.

Okay, so not everyone on this forum will find a use for KDE Connect (and use instead simpler mechanisms), but really it works amazingly well (and feels so 'modern') and with many unexpected extra features (including 'find my phone' and even send a ping) - file sharing mechanism is great in either direction and no cable connection required. Still don't have other things working - Multimedia control and so on, but I'll look into what that means...

There is also GSconnect for GNOME (basically seems to integrate KDE connect for gnome use), so might prove more relevant for some distros here.
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1319/gsconnect/
I can't find any pacman package for it as yet though (ah, it is in the Arch AUR repo; looking at the AUR page I suspect actual KDEconnect is the better bet).

[gychang]

I am interested to know what software, or which Puppies, or which file manager people use to get access to photos and general files on their Android phones.

What is your goto Puppy (out of the box) to do this?

Or what software or pet or file manager do you load (and to which puppy) in order make it work.

I know this is a general request and there is huge variation between Puppies, software packages, and the Android phones themselves - but I really want to know who has found a reliable solution for their gear and what is your secret recipe.

The ideal goal is: mount an Android phone and reliably read/write files of all types to microSD card and/or internal storage.

But even if you are part way to this goal - let's hear what you do.

(I can do this with a degree of reliability but not with the confidence and repeatability I would like. I find i need to use different puppies for different phones, and also have trouble with Pupcamera getting in the way. Just keen to find out who has a good stable recipe)

I am a photo buff and I use google pixel 4 and connect to my desktop FP64 using gftp on daily basis. Quick and easy without dangling wires. Here is a video:

[mikeslr]

As solutions have been proposed and are of general value without regard to which Puppy is being used, I've echoed the information of the last few posts to the Network/Server "Tip Section": viewtopic.php?p=50196#p50196. I suggest that other solutions be posted there.

[greengeek]

Note: Also see this thread:
- Other options: viewtopic.php?t=5630

and camphonetab is here:
viewtopic.php?t=872

[cobaka]

In the past (for a short time) I had access the image files on my mobile phone. By this I mean that my mobile appeared as any other device in the Rox file manager, allowing me to view image files and perform common operations (such as move & so on). Then for no apparent reason, that stopped.

Now, to move (or copy) files from my Aspera (android) mobile I reboot, using menu-option "RAM only" and move the files to sda2 (but it could be any storage device).

My CPU: 64 bit.
My OS: uPupBB32 i.e. Distro: BionicPup32 19.03
(Yes, I'm using a 32-bit Puppy on a 64-bit machine.)

Same procedure applies to a regular camera. Boot without the save file and everything is honky-dory.

Собака

[Jasper]

I compiled the most recent simple-mtpfs binary in FossaPup64-95. It required an additional file Libmtp to be compiled.

I did overwrite the existing binary file and added the additional Lib.

On testing it did not write to my device without errors.

If anyone wants to test it themselves I have uploaded the files here:

simple-mtpfs-0.4.0
libmpt-1.1.20

Approx 2mb:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/q1dw26ll ... ar.gz/file

[BarryK]

EasyOS uses multiple methods. One of those uses "adbfs", scan down this page:

"EasyShare, super easy network file and printer sharing"
https://easyos.org/apps/easyshare-super ... aring.html

...also, near the bottom of the page, describes screen sharing with "scrcpy", which allows file transfer.

Right now I'm working through EasyShare, found some bugs, but hopefully that Android connectivity still works.

Easy also supports MTP, like the pups.
And bluetooth file transfer, via the bluetooth icon in the tray.

[Jasper]

Wow, just read the article.

It all looks so simple to use and intuitive.

I will be honest, I have never looked at EasyOS. In my mind, I thought it was a Raspberry Pi OS, no idea as to why I believed this to be so.

Thanks for the share

Digressing from the topic .............. if you want to do this the other way around ie Linux on an Android device.

FDroid host an application named Termux:

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/