Hello, everyone!
I have an issue with transferring files. So, when I connect my phone with my PC, the phone detects PC, but not the other way around. Although when I try to use adb, it sees my phone as a connected device. I have tried switching cables and ports, but nothing seems to work. And the funny thing is that it worked before, but it just suddenly stopped working. Any help is highly appreciated!
PC is on Linux Mint 22.1 Phone is Pixel 8 Pro on GrapheneOS.
Thanks!
Do you get the pop-up about on your phone about having plugged in a device to your phone? Have you tried a different, seemingly less preferable option?
I remember I had a phone where I had to choose an option that didn’t seem like the right one at all for my PC to see it.
Also, do you have another PC/OS installed? Just to see if you can eliminate variables.
Yes, my phone sends me a notification that tells me my phone is connected to a PC and shows the controls what to do with it.
Could you tell me more about the option?
I don’t have another OS installed on my PC currently, but I could install another OS to the virtual machine or just dualboot to some other OS on PC.
Thanks!
It’s this menu, accessible through the notification. Honestly I just try each of them in order even if they don’t seem to make sense for what I’m trying to do.
I don’t remember which one works, but I know it’s not always what I expected.
Huh? I tried them out in order and it just randomly started working. Now even on the file transfer mode. Dang it’s confusing.
Although it works now, I still learned valuable info from others about network based software I should use, which I will.
Thanks for the help!
It shows some errors while tranferring. So it still doesn’t work.
It’s really messy. I’ll just use network based solutions for that.
Good luck !
So this worked on Mint before?
If so, what’s changed on either end since then? Had there been an update to either Graphene or Mint since the last time it worked? Maybe Graphene improved a security feature or you need to reset the approval on the phone (maybe toggle the USB debugging setting).
I don’t bother with MTP for file transfer any more - at best it’s clunky and tedious, at worst it’s unreliable. Better to use network.
Setup a share on your PC, and use Mixplorer or any other network-capable file explorer on Android.
Even better, use an app like Syncthing or Resilio, and you’ll never think about file transfer again.
I have a Syncthing sync pair/folder for every folder on my phone to my home server, so I can manage files there and the changes sync back to my phone. This also provides a first step to backing up my phone. (Use Syncthing-Fork for finer control of each sync folder).
There’s one folder I specifically setup for that random file I want to send to my phone. It syncs over any network, under any charge condition, so files show up nearly instantly (at most a minute later). I could tweak that sync folder to scan more frequently, but it’s responsive enough.
Alternatively, using Resilio Sync you can selectively sync files from your PC, from the phone itself. The “Selective Sync” option is something Resilio has that Syncthing doesn’t.
Both of these have an a phone and PC app. Install on PC, Select folders to sync and they’ll index those folders. Install on phone, and select the local folder to connect to the sync jobs (folder) in the app.
I’ve found Resilio is hard on memory for the phone because it keeps the index in RAM, so I only run it when I want to grab files from my home pc. If you only sync a couple small folders, this isn’t an issue. I use it for selective sync of my media folder (which is terabytes), so the index is large. This way I don’t sync my entire media folder but can grab any music or movie file, from anywhere, and then I close Resilio.
Note: I had USB Debugging on for ADB. But yeah, it did work on Mint before. I’m suspecting the issue may be PC side due to an update, but I lack info to check if it’s true.
I’d rather move files through USB due to its speed and my network can get at most 11MB/s. Moving bigger files (10GB+) with that speed would a pain in the ass, but there probably is no other option.
I was aware of Syncthing, but I didn’t bother setting it up back then. The other tools I’ll check out and see which work the best.
Thanks for the helpful information!
I’ve found speed via USB/MTP is awful because of the instability of MTP, especially with larger files. It’s so unstable that wifi with a sync tool like Resilio is faster in the end (and I don’t have to watch it).
You can try to use samba. That way it will emulate windows filesharing.
I don’t really know about Winows filesharing, but I’ll check it out.
Thanks!
