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This has gotten worse over time as well. It used to be you could mount your phone's storage as a mass storage device, but now (as far as I can tell) MTP is the

This has gotten worse over time as well. It used to be you could mount your phone's storage as a mass storage device, but now (as far as I can tell) MTP is the only option.

leephillips 10y ago
Yes, it's MTP with my current phone and linux installation. Is there a problem with this? After I figured out where the filesystem was mounted (a bit of a pain), I could use it like a normal mount, as if it were an external USB drive.
- zeveb 10y ago
  > Yes, it's MTP with my current phone and linux installation. Is there a problem with this? For the longest time MTP & Linux was terribly painful, verging on unusable, while mass storage worked perfectly. It bit when I upgraded my Nexus phone and discovered I couldn't get to the files stored on it. Fortunately, all seems to work well now.
  - ansible 10y ago
    The reason for implementing MTP instead of mass storage was clear, because you couldn't / wouldn't be able to access the files from the phone while the computer was accessing them. So I understand why they went in that direction. But oh my goodness! MTP support on Linux was terrible for a while, and even on Windows it wasn't fast and reliable. It was easier at the time to just use a service like Dropbox to transfer files to/from the phone, than to use USB.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  MTP is a bit of a mess. First off, file access is mediated via software on the Android side. What you are seeing is a database representation of the device FS. And this database can be incorrect (people have in the past deleted folders they thought were empty only to lose files) or used to implement DRM. Second, it is bloody slow.
  - leephillips 10y ago
    Interesting. Is there a way to bypass this and mount the phone as an ordinary filesystem, as in the old days?
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Depends on the device. Some offer it, some don't. And those that offer it run into the issue of having partitioned internal storage. The one benefit of MTP is that Android do not have to unmount the FS you are trying to access.
    - Natanael_L 10y ago
      You need a Linux kernel that offers the feature over the USB port
odbol 10y ago
My HTC One M8 lets me choose between mounting as a drive, MTP, or just charging. Maybe that's a general Marshmallow feature but it's great.

This has gotten worse over time as well. It used to be you could mount your phone's storage as a mass storage device, but now (as far as I can tell) MTP is the only option.

leephillips 10y ago

Yes, it's MTP with my current phone and linux installation. Is there a problem with this? After I figured out where the filesystem was mounted (a bit of a pain), I could use it like a normal mount, as if it were an external USB drive.

zeveb 10y ago
> Yes, it's MTP with my current phone and linux installation. Is there a problem with this? For the longest time MTP & Linux was terribly painful, verging on unusable, while mass storage worked perfectly. It bit when I upgraded my Nexus phone and discovered I couldn't get to the files stored on it. Fortunately, all seems to work well now.
- ansible 10y ago
  The reason for implementing MTP instead of mass storage was clear, because you couldn't / wouldn't be able to access the files from the phone while the computer was accessing them. So I understand why they went in that direction. But oh my goodness! MTP support on Linux was terrible for a while, and even on Windows it wasn't fast and reliable. It was easier at the time to just use a service like Dropbox to transfer files to/from the phone, than to use USB.
digi_owl 10y ago
MTP is a bit of a mess. First off, file access is mediated via software on the Android side. What you are seeing is a database representation of the device FS. And this database can be incorrect (people have in the past deleted folders they thought were empty only to lose files) or used to implement DRM. Second, it is bloody slow.
- leephillips 10y ago
  Interesting. Is there a way to bypass this and mount the phone as an ordinary filesystem, as in the old days?
  - digi_owl 10y ago
    Depends on the device. Some offer it, some don't. And those that offer it run into the issue of having partitioned internal storage. The one benefit of MTP is that Android do not have to unmount the FS you are trying to access.
  - Natanael_L 10y ago
    You need a Linux kernel that offers the feature over the USB port

odbol 10y ago

My HTC One M8 lets me choose between mounting as a drive, MTP, or just charging. Maybe that's a general Marshmallow feature but it's great.