I ran into a problem today, trying to mount my Nexus 7 to my laptop, which is equipped with Ubuntu 12.10. When I plugged in the Nexus 7, I expected it to just work. I thought the device would appear on the desktop and in the Nautilus sidebar and just be accessible for file transfers over MTP. The device didn't show up.
I spent a good hour or so scouring the web for any help or hints I could find on how to mount a Nexus 7, running Jelly Bean, to Ubuntu. I found over a dozen convoluted work-arounds, updates, middleware installation guides, and other recommendations - all of which I tried (the free ones, anyway) and none of which made any difference at all. Using the work-arounds and various third-party software, I was able to determine that Ubuntu 12.10 could see the device, and obtain vendor and product ID information from it. But the device could not be mounted using MTP to transfer files. I got a variety of errors and warnings, which I followed up with Google searches that resulted in even more searches and fixes and updates and work-arounds, and another hour later, the device still wouldn't connect over MTP.
Scratching my head, I moved the Nexus 7 to my PC, a 64 bit Windows 7 machine. I plugged in the Nexus and it appeared in my Windows Explorer sidebar under the name I had given the device, but it was not expandable and the file system couldn't be accessed. I went into the Windows Control Panel and the device appeared there, under the correct name and in the right location, but again, couldn't be accessed. Flabbergasted, I started the whole search / update / word-around routine from scratch, this time on Win7. Again, to no avail.
I checked that the USB setting for the device itself was set to MTP, and it was. I tried restarting Ubuntu. I tried restarting Windows. I tried restarting the Nexus. I tried restarting them in varying orders. Nothing!
In desperation, I went into the USB connection setting on the Nexus 7 and switched it from MTP to PTP (the Camera protocol). I did this with the device plugged into the Windows PC, and this prompted the installation of new drivers for PTP. The device was now fully available as a media storage device, and gave me access to the part of the Jelly Bean file system where picture files are normally stored (DCIM, etc). Ah-hah! The device's file system capacity and available free space appeared, and were accurate. Ah-hah!
I switched back to MTP. No new installation of drivers, no pop-ups asking me what I wanted to do with the device, nothing changed on the surface. But when I accessed the device by name in Windows Explorer again, I now had access to the entire file system. Voila! I made some changes, moved things around, used the device some, and the file system disapparated from Windows yet again. Why?!
I repeated the steps again, did some testing (my QA experience played a role in this process), and ultimately came to the discovery that the Android device would only give Windows access to its file system when the device's "USB computer connection" settings menu was in focus, with MTP selected. Ugh!
Cliff's Notes:
To use an MTP connection between my Android 4.2 / Jelly Bean device and my computer, I must navigate to the "USB computer connection" menu on the Android device, make sure "Media device (MTP)" is selected, and leave that menu on-screen until I am done transferring files.
I want to note that I still can't get the device to mount on Ubuntu. I get a wholly new error, something about "Transport endpoint is not connected." But I have seen blog posts and articles about this error, as well. I'm sure I can spend another hour or two chasing wild geese around until I figure that one out, too. For now, I'm just glad I figured out how to knock some sense into the device itself!
Thanks for reading!
- Steven Kitzes
No comments:
Post a Comment