File transfers - how do you do it?

[jules22]

Hi e/os user forum.
I am running the latest e/os on my Motorola Moto G7 Power XT1955-7 and i must say I am really impressed.

Today I tried to connect the phone to my Linux Mint 22.1 laptop to transfer some files. I clicked on the USB charging notification to allow USB file transfers and thats as far as I got.

On working through the problem with my not so favorite AI we established that ‘modern’ MTP file transfers work well under Windows but are flaky under Linux.

After killing the MTP processes we tried JMTPFS which actually worked - however the file transfer rate was abysmal - 4.7mb/s on USB3!!

I then tried to install a Samba server and then an FTP server on e/os neither of which worked at all.

And finally i looked for a good Samba client or file manager that recognises my NAS on my LAN but I am having little luck finding anything that approaches being usable.

So my question is what method do you use to transfer files and pics from your phone to other PCs or NAS on your network (without using the cloud).

Windows users using USB cable - yes we know ‘it just works’ for you. Thanks. lol Its us poor old linux people this seems to be a problem for…unless I am mistaken?

Thanks for your recommendations.

Jules

Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/OS the unGoogled mobile OS and online services

[linux_fangirl]

I use a usbc pen drive to transfer files from my phone to my laptop. I have also used a usba pen drive with a usba to usbc adapter and that works as well.

[Jets]

With the phone connected to laptop/PC go into setting and Search USB, then select USB controlled by, then select File Transfer. That should work, you will now see the internal file system of the phone.

[winkman]

I use an USB OTG adaper to connect my phone to an external usb drive.
Works only for phones with otg of course.
Linux Mint over usb works fine too, i connect and on the phone appears a dialog asking for only loading or file access.

[urs_lesse]

While I transfer files from and to a Mac, perhaps this is still helpful:

For ages, transferring files between Android and Mac has been painfully unstable (transfers of a large number of files keep aborting out of the blue). One helpful workaround to ease that problem is to first create an “archive” (zip file) out of the individual files. From experience, transferring that large file does not suffer from the many connection interruptions that transferring a large number of individual files does.

[tcecyk]

are you missing some gvfs dependencies for mtp to work? see “other options” for what transfer methods you can use via cable or wifi:

Data transfer FP5 Murena to Ubuntu pc

the Mate ubuntu should be able to pickup MTP when gvfs-backend is installed Settings → Connected Devices → USB → File Transfer (de: Einstellungen → Verbundene Geräte → USB → Dateiübertragung) and then just mount the device in the file browser. Other options for cable are plain adb pull or adb push. For simple networked file transfer there’s localsend, for continually syncing (involving a bit of setup) syncthing is alright.

[Taurus]

I use Linux Mint, too, and when I connect my phone to the computer with a data cable, if the phone is in File Transfer mode, the internal drive and the microSD card both mount on the computer, no problem.

Other methods I regularly use:

• USB drive
• sftp (I use the SimpleSSHD app from F-Droid to make this easy.)

I’ve also used Mint’s Warpinator. There’s an unofficial but apparently Mint-approved build on F-Droid, and of course it’s available for computer in the Mint repo.

[JustinKnol]

I have a good working setup using syncthing on MacOS and syncthing-fork on e/OS and other android devices on my local network. I haven’t tried it personally but assume syncthing on Linux would not be too tricky…

[cstouvenot]

Syncthing work fine on Ubuntu

[cstouvenot]

I use recently KDE-Connect, it’s very useful

[cstouvenot]

There is a review of main apps on the website of Warpinator (I don’t try it)

Best Warpinator Alternatives for Cross-Platform File Sharing - Warpinator

and also a subject on the French forum : Échanges entre PC Linux et /e/OS
… and certainly others …

[irrlicht]

Mostly SFTP with the device as server (the app is called primitive FTPd). Then you can connect any SFTP client you have on your PC. - This solution with SFTP requires no cable and protects the tiny USB socket.

There are also apps providing a HTTP server. You can then connect any simple browser to it and download and upload files over HTTP.

[jules22]

Thank you all for all of your suggestions. This is exactly what I needed. I tried KDE connect but found it would only allow single file transfers from the PC to the phone. I have ordered an OTG adaptor (although i must have one somewhere) so I can try that method. I did cleanup my Mint install and re-tried connecting with a cable and found the phone did indeed mount using lsusb. And to my surprise it then magically appeared in Nemo file manager. Copying files gave me around 11mb/s - perfectly adequate as an infrequent operation. I do want to use Syncthing in the future but on all my devices around the house so not sure it is appropriate here. Warpinator looks good. I will try that now. I tried Primitive FTP but couldn’t get it to work properly - probably because i am impatient.

So to summarise yesterday i was disheartened with my new (old) e/OS phone and its file transfer options, and 24 hours later thanks to this Forum and you kind people I have a couple of working methods and a couple to try.

Thanks for your help. Best wishes from Southern France.