# MTP

MTP is the "Media Transfer Protocol" and is used by many mp3 players (e.g. Creative Zen) and mobile phones (e.g. Android 3+ devices). It is part of the "Windows Media" Framework and has close relationship with Windows Media Player.

## Installation

MTP support is provided by libmtp, installable with the libmtp package from the official repositories.

KDE integration is provided by the kio-mtp package.

Integration for GVFS using software (most GNOME applications, as well as Thunar) is provided by gvfs-mtp.

## Usage

After installation, you have several MTP tools available. Upon connecting your MTP device, you use:

    # mtp-detect

to see if your MTP device is detected.

To connect to your MTP device, you use:

    # mtp-connect

If connection is successful, you will be given several switch options in conjunction with `mtp-connect` to access data on the device.

There are also several stand alone commands you can use to access your MTP device such as,

Warning: Some commands may be harmful to your MTP device!!!

     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

If you see a message like:

    Device 0 (VID=XXXX and PID=XXXX) is UNKNOWN.
    Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team

You should check whether your device has been already in this list: [Supported devices list[1]] If it is not, you should report it to the development team. If it already is, your libmtp might be slightly outdated. To allow it to be properly used by libmtp, you can add your device to:

    /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/69-libmtp.rules

## Using media players

You can also use your MTP device in music players such as Amarok. To do this you may have to edit `/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules` (the MTP device used in the following example is a Galaxy Nexus): To do this run:

    $ lsusb

and look for your device, it will be something like:

    Bus 003 Device 011: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9100 Phone [Galaxy S II], GT-P7500 [Galaxy Tab 10.1]

in which case the entry would be:

    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTR{idProduct}=="6860", MODE="0666", OWNER="[username]"

Then, reload udev rules:

    # udevadm control --reload

Note: After installing MTP you may have to reboot for your device to be recognised

## mtpfs

Warning: The following is likely to not work and you might have to resort to gphoto2 or a file manager with gvfs support like PCManFM.

Mtpfs is FUSE filesystem that supports reading and writing from any MTP device. Basically it allows you to mount your device as an external drive.

Mtpfs can be installed with the packge mtpfs, available from the official repositories.

- First edit your `/etc/fuse.conf` and uncomment the following line:

    user_allow_other

- To mount your device

    $ mtpfs -o allow_other /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT

- To unmount your device

    $ fusermount -u /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT

- To unmount your device as root

    # umount /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT

Also, you can put them into your ~/.bashrc:

    alias android-connect="mtpfs -o allow_other /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT"
    alias android-disconnect="fusermount -u /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT"

Or, with sudo

    alias android-disconnect="sudo umount -u /media/YOURMOUNTPOINT"

Note: if you want not be asked for password when using sudo, please refer to USB Storage Devices

## jmtpfs

jmtpfs is a FUSE and libmtp based filesystem for accessing MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices. It was specifically designed for exchanging files between Linux systems and newer Android devices that support MTP but not USB Mass Storage. jmtpfs is available as jmtpfs in the AUR.

Use this commands to mount your device:

    $ jmtpfs ~/mtp

And this command to unmount it:

    $ fusermount -u ~/mtp

## go-mtpfs

Note: Go-mtpfs gives a better performance while writing files to some devices than mtpfs/jmtpfs. Try it if you have slow speeds.
Note: Mounting with Go-mtpfs fails if external SD Card is present. If you have also external SD Card please remove it and then try mounting again.

If the above instructions do not show any positive results one should try go-mtpfs-git from the AUR. The following has been tested on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus GSM, Asus/Google Nexus 7 (2012 1st gen model), Samsung Galaxy S 3 mini and Google Nexus 4. (This is the only mtp software which worked for me on Nexus 4. Settings are usb debugging enabled, connected as media device.)

If you want do it simpler, install go, libmtp and git from the official repositories. After that install go-mtpfs-git from the AUR.

As in the section above install android-udev which will provide you with "/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules" edit it to apply to your vendorID and productID, which you can see after running mtp-detect. To the end of the line add with a comma OWNER="yourusername". Save the file.

- Add yourself to the "fuse" group:

    gpasswd -a [user] fuse

- If the group "fuse" does not exist create it with:

    groupadd fuse

Logout or reboot to apply these changes.

- To create a mount point called "Android" issue the following commands:

    mkdir Android

- To mount your phone use:

    go-mtpfs Android

- To unmount your phone:

    fusermount -u Android

You can create a .bashrc alias as in the example above for easier use.

## gvfs-mtp

Philip Langdale implemented native MTP support for gvfs. The weaknesses of gphoto2 and mtpfs are listed in his blog post.

- The native mtp implementation for gvfs has been merged upstream and has been released in gvfs 1.15.2.
- You can grab the stable gvfs-mtp package from extra. You may want to reboot your PC to make it actually working.

- Devices will have gvfs paths like this

    gvfs-ls mtp://[usb:002,013]/

## simple-mtpfs

This is another FUSE filesystem for MTP devices. You may find this to be more reliable than mtpfs. simple-mtpfs is available in the AUR or can be built from source. Remember do not run the following commands as root.

- To list MTP devices run

     simple-mtpfs --list-devices

- To mount a MTP devices (in this example device 0) run

    simple-mtpfs /path/to/your/mount/point

- To un mount run

     fusermount -u /path/to/your/mount/point

## KDE MTP KIO Slave

There is a MTP KIO Slave built upon libmtp availiable as package kio-mtp.

Using KIO makes file access in KDE seamless, in principle any KDE application would be able read/write files on the device.

### Usage

The device will be available under the path mtp:/

### Workaround if the KDE device actions does not work

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:/"

## GNOME gMTP

gMTP is a native Gnome application used for MTP access.

gmtp is currently located in the AUR .

## Workarounds for Android

- HTC Phones automatically enter usb debugging mode on usb connect. Manually turn it off once connected to give libmtp access to the device.

MTP is still buggy and may crash despite the best efforts of developers. The following are alternatives:

- AirDroid - an Android app to access files via your web browser.
- FTP client on Android - If you run a local FTP server on Arch (such as Vsftp), there are many FTP clients available on the Play Store which will give read/ write access to your device's files.
- FTP Server on Android. Note: since FTP client using passive transfer (server connect to client) do not forget to disable firewall or adding rules for allowing FTP server connect to your PC.
  - Ftp Server (by The Olive Tree) app in Play Store acts as FTP server on Android and allows RW access to pretty much all your storage.
    - Pro: Does not require root and just works!
    - Cons: Does not work with tethering network.
  - FTPServer (by Andreas Liebig) - Just work.
  - ES File Explorer
    - Pros:
      - Does not require root
      - Can connect to a network or create an hotspot
      - Can use a lot of clouds (download, upload, edit) without download all files to your device.
- SSH server on Android.
  - For example, SSHelper, available on the Play Store, just works without requiring root access. Assuming SSHelper is listening on port 20 and the phone's IP address is 192.168.0.20, the following command will synchronise a local directory with the external SD card of the Android device:

     rsync --rsh="ssh -p 20" --modify-window=1  ~/local_files  192.168.0.20:/mnt/extSdCard/remote_files

Note the `--modify-window` option, which is often used when rsyncing to a FAT filesystem (such as the one used by Android devices for their internal memory and external SD cards).

- Samba - an Android app to share your SD card as a windows fileshare. Pros: Your desktop apps work as before (since the SD card appears as a windows fileshare). Cons: you need to root your phone.
- adb - Part of the Android development kit is adb android debug bridge. It can be used to push and pull files from an Android device.
  - The device need USB debbuging to be active and later connected to the computer with usb.
  - To send a file to the device use `adb push /what-to-copy /where-to-place-it`
  - To receive a file `adb pull /what-you-want-to-copy /where-you-want-it`
    - Pro: Stable, can be used for a lot more then just copy files back and forth.
    - Cons: Can be somewhat slow.

## Security features on Android

If you use Android 4.x please unlock your phone (screen unlock) and then connect phone to USB.

If you don't unlock you will get an error message like "No Storages found. Maybe you need to unlock your device?" or error 02fe in console.

Category:

- Sound