When you plug in your phone to usb on your computer, does your file system mount on Windows 10?

[ultred ragnusen]

When you plug in your phone via usb to your computer, does your file system
magically mount on Windows 10?

1. I just plugged in a circa 2014 Android 5.1 Moto G to Windows 10 and the
MTP drivers automatically installed and the phone shows up as "XT104".
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104_a.jpg

2. Clicking on that device shows the storage space available on the phone.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104b.jpg

3. Clicking on that, opens the phone in Windows.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104c.jpg

The reason I ask is that I've been using a circa 2012 Samsung Galaxy SIII
on Android 4.3 which is rooted and highly customized, such that when I plug
in that S3 to my Win10 computer, the file system does not mount
automatically on Windows 10.

To mount the entire file system (since it's rooted, the whole file system
will mount), I go to the Windows 10 "Add a network location" of anonymous
"ftp://192.168.1.5:2121" - and that opens up the Android file system in the
Windows explorer.

Since it was surprising to see the MTP "just work" with the Motorola Moto
G, I wonder if that's how the newer phones work or if that's specific to
the Moto G?

[Andy Burns]

ultred ragnusen wrote:

> When you plug in your phone via usb to your computer, does your file system
> magically mount on Windows 10?

I don't care much about what out-dated or rooted devices do. Current
android devices, will default to charging only, and you have to select
MTP or PTP modes if you want to do transfers.

The original mass-storage mode is unavailable now because it required
exclusive access to the file system by the PC, hence android apps needed
to be stopped to allow un-mounting it from android, you might be able to
still enable it if you're rooted.

[ultred ragnusen]

Andy Burns <use...@andyburns.uk> wrote:

> I don't care much about what out-dated or rooted devices do. Current
> android devices, will default to charging only, and you have to select
> MTP or PTP modes if you want to do transfers.

Thanks for that information as I was surprised how easy it was in that I
did nothing except plug in the phone, and voila!, the file system mounted
as a USB drive on Windows.

From what you said, does that still work on the newer Android devices, only
with an extra step to select MTP mode?

> The original mass-storage mode is unavailable now because it required
> exclusive access to the file system by the PC, hence android apps needed
> to be stopped to allow un-mounting it from android, you might be able to
> still enable it if you're rooted.

That makes sense. All I wanted to do was copy files so it worked for me to
use MTP mode. I didn't know it was so easy to mount Android on Windows that
it's automatic.

[Andy Burns]

ultred ragnusen wrote:

> I was surprised how easy it was in that I
> did nothing except plug in the phone, and voila!, the file system mounted
> as a USB drive on Windows.
>
> From what you said, does that still work on the newer Android devices, only
> with an extra step to select MTP mode?

Yes, you get a notification in the pull-down shade to enable transfers
instead of just charging ... you don't want to risk public charging
sockets poking viruses onto your phone do you?

You could use a USBcondom to "cut" the data lines, but what about a
charger containing a USB killer?

[Big Al]

I just got a Moto G5 plus and it plugs in and I get two drives. The
internal memory and the sd card. And can transfer files etc easily.
On both Windows 10 and Linux.

[Paul]

If the rooting method prevents MTP from working, then
another means might be needed.

For Windows, MTP is "Media Transfer Protocol". It's a protocol that
works at a file-by-file level, so you're not dealing with a file system
as such. All it does, is provide a means to read() or write() a
particular file. And do it in such a way, as devices at either end
don't have to stop doing anything, to use the protocol. (USB Mass storage
on the other hand, only allows one agent to write to storage at once, so
the processor on the other end effectively has to stop doing what it
wants to do, in order for USB Mass Storage to be possible via an external
device. This is why, when my Digital Camera mounts, the processor in the
camera is effectively shut down.)

Windows supports IFS (Installable File System). That allows software like
EXT2IFS to actually mount an EXT (possibly Linux) volume, right from Windows.
I used to run that at one time, but it supports a very early version of EXT
and that has consequences. It would have needed further development work
to stay up-to-date.

In the thread here, I get the impression that *some* utility exists for
working with an Android, when MTP is out of the picture. But it does
not amount to actual mounting. The utility may allow reading or
writing with the utility itself, but without the Windows File Explorer
showing the device graphically.

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/89501/windows-mount-android-file-system

http://www.guidingtech.com/16174/mount-android-windows-root-file-system-access/

[I think these are supposed to be Windows utilities...]

http://android-commander.en.lo4d.com/

http://de.codeplex.com/ <=== Is CodePlex still up ??? Dunno.

On Windows, MTP is likely to be seamless on Windows 10, but is a
royal PITA on WinXP. It's installable on WinXP, but a lot of people
have trouble with that, getting the details right.

When you root your device, you should be consulting the README as
to what the side-effects will be. What new comm channels will open,
and what other methods will be shut. Rooting, in a minor way, is
almost like an ecosystem change, and is worth studying before you
do it. I don't own any brand of SmartPhone, and cannot do any sort
of test here for this. And bodging a test via other methods (VMs,
emulators) would totally invalidate the testing, and only tell you
how an emulator behaved.

Paul

[Frank Slootweg]

ultred ragnusen <ult...@ragnusen.com> wrote:
> When you plug in your phone via usb to your computer, does your file system
> magically mount on Windows 10?
>
> 1. I just plugged in a circa 2014 Android 5.1 Moto G to Windows 10 and the
> MTP drivers automatically installed and the phone shows up as "XT104".
> http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104_a.jpg
>
> 2. Clicking on that device shows the storage space available on the phone.
> http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104b.jpg
>
> 3. Clicking on that, opens the phone in Windows.
> http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/02/21/xt104c.jpg

What you describe/show isn't *mounting*, it's just offering
*file-access*.

If the Android filesystems were really mounted, they would have a
Windows drive letter. (Nope, your FTPUSE method doesn't mean mounting.)

If they were really mounted, you could use 'DOS' commands in a
'Command Prompt' window to access them and you could 'cd' to the root
directory of the mounted filesystem. But you can't do any of those
things.

Somewhat closer, but still not 'mounting' is if you could access the
Android file systems as a Network Share, i..e. with a path like
\\XT1034_Internal_Storage\Android. But you can't do that either.

> The reason I ask is that I've been using a circa 2012 Samsung Galaxy SIII
> on Android 4.3 which is rooted and highly customized, such that when I plug
> in that S3 to my Win10 computer, the file system does not mount
> automatically on Windows 10.
>
> To mount the entire file system (since it's rooted, the whole file system
> will mount), I go to the Windows 10 "Add a network location" of anonymous
> "ftp://192.168.1.5:2121" - and that opens up the Android file system in the
> Windows explorer.

Also that isn't mounting, but file-access.

I find it really strange that you don't seem to know the difference,
because the 'mount' concept also exists in UNIX/Linux and is quite
different from - for example - FTP, which offers only file-access.

> Since it was surprising to see the MTP "just work" with the Motorola Moto
> G, I wonder if that's how the newer phones work or if that's specific to
> the Moto G?

That's not how newer phones work, that how all Android phones work
(well at least for the last three or so years).

[ultred ragnusen]

Frank Slootweg <th...@ddress.is.invalid> wrote:

> That's not how newer phones work, that how all Android phones work
> (well at least for the last three or so years).

It wasn't how my older Android 4.3 phone worked, at least the MTP part
didn't work as well as it does now with Android 5.1, as shown below today.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_usb_on_windows.jpg

The network location does work the same with Android 4.3 as 5.1 though.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_ftp_on_windows.jpg

[ultred ragnusen]

Paul <nos...@needed.invalid> wrote:

> In the thread here, I get the impression that *some* utility exists for
> working with an Android, when MTP is out of the picture. But it does
> not amount to actual mounting. The utility may allow reading or
> writing with the utility itself, but without the Windows File Explorer
> showing the device graphically.

Hi Paul,

Just now I needed to bring over some ringtones from the C:\Windows\media\
directory over to the Android /sdcard/Alarms/ directory on a Moto G so that
I could set the notification sound to be different.

All I did was click on the "Moto G" icon in the Windows 10 Network
Neighborhood, and voila, the Moto G was accessible to Windows over Wi-Fi.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_alarm_01.jpg

I was instantly able to slide Windows media files over the Android using
the normal file explorer on Windows, without adding anything to Windows.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_alarm_03.jpg

This network neighborhood method worked both on Android 4.3 and Android 5.1
on Windows 10.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_ftp_on_windows.jpg

But the MTP method via the USB cable didn't work for me on the Android 4.3
phone but it works great with the Android 5.1 phone.
http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/android_usb_on_windows.jpg

[ultred ragnusen]

Big Al <Big...@invalid.com> wrote:

> I just got a Moto G5 plus and it plugs in and I get two drives. The
> internal memory and the sd card. And can transfer files etc easily.
> On both Windows 10 and Linux.

What's interesting is that I only get one drive, but maybe you have an
external SD card in that thing?

Mine has no external sdcard.

BTW, I just burned the entire visible file system of Android to DVDs using
this method, which makes it really easy to back up your phone to DVD
without needing to install /anything/ on Windows.

http://wetakepic.com/images/2018/03/04/back_android_to_dvd.jpg