Cannot connect phone

[gustavo1998]

When I had Budgie installed on the same laptop I could connect to my phone via USB. Now with kubuntu I get:

"No storage media found. Make sure your device is unlocked and has MTP enabled in its USB connection settings."

But my Fairphone with Android 12 has no setting called "MTP". What am I missing? Thanks

[bweinel]

It's likely to be a phone issue. While I'm not familiar with your specific phone, on android 12 you should be able to set file transfer mode (MTP mode) in the settings menu under (settings>connected devices>USB). On other phones, the setting location may be in a different place. You can check google for specific phone settings.

cheers,
bill

[gustavo1998]

It is highly unlikely to be phone issue since I can connect to other laptops, just not to Kubuntu. Here is a screenshot of the setting that works for Ubuntu:


And this is what Kubuntu sees as the phone. It even states "mtp" but still would not read the phone:

[claydoh]

It is highly unlikely to be phone issue since I can connect to other laptops, just not to Kubuntu. Here is a screenshot of the setting that works for Ubuntu:

That depends. Are Ubuntu and Kubuntu the same exact release? They use the exact same MTP ("File transfer" option) implementation, since they are the same exact OS.
MTP is not known to be consistent or reliable, unfortunately. I see a number of complaints about file transfers on Fairphone's forums in multiple OSs, including Windows - this does not mean it is the phone itself, but probably just crappy MTP, among other things.

It may be worth checking out Android File Transfer, which is available in *buntu as an alternative GUI tool.

So it could be the phone, it could be the OS, or the desktop environment, or a combo of all of them.

I had no issues with this on my A12 phone, since replaced for an A13 one. Nor on my A10 and A8 backups I still have.
I had similar issues with my A8 phone in the long past, but it was happening on every Linux OS for a while. It stopped at some point, but I can't remember when, exactly, as I am a long time KDE Connect user. This satisfies my file transfer needs about 95% of the time.

it may be a long shot, but swapping cables might be worth trying if you haven't already. That has solved issues for me on more than one occasion over the years.

[gustavo1998]

Thanks. Tried different cable, Android File Transfer, still no luck. Dolphin does at least see the FP3 and says it is "empty", KDE Connect does not even know the phone is connected to the laptop.

[bweinel]

I had similar issues with my A8 phone in the long past, but it was happening on every Linux OS for a while. It stopped at some point, but I can't remember when, exactly, as I am a long time KDE Connect user. This satisfies my file transfer needs about 95% of the time..

Yeah... I also had issues here too on my old Samsung S8 a few years back with Kubuntu... but it mysteriously resolved itself after an Android OS update on the phone. I also don't remember exactly when that happened. I just remember that it started working after a phone update.

You might also try looking at the output of the "lsusb" command to see if kubuntu is showing all the USB ports expected to be available on the hardware.

sudo lsusb

Another thing to check would be to go to "settings>system settings>removable storage>removable devices" and check to see if attached storage devices are set to "automount on attach".

cheers,
bill

[jlittle]

KDE Connect does not even know the phone is connected to the laptop.

KDE Connect uses IP. To use it the laptop and the phone have to be on the same subnet, which usually means on the same LAN with the phone connecting through wifi.

IMO, using a cable and MTP is awful. I gave up on it a long time ago.

[gustavo1998]

sudo lsusb:

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0c45:6d14 Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 18d1:4ee1 Google Inc. Nexus/Pixel Device (MTP)
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp. AX201 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 27c6:533c Shenzhen Goodix Technology Co.,Ltd. FingerPrint
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

"automount on attach" is on, still no change.

KDE Connect on Kubuntu does not see the phone and KDE Connect on the phone does not see the Kubuntu laptop. They are in the same wifi network.

[GreyGeek]

Does "sudo lshw" show anything while the phone is connected using a USB cable?

[gustavo1998]

"sudo lshw":

*-usb:1
description: Generic USB device
product: FP3
vendor: Fairphone
physical id: 2
bus info: usb@1:2
version: 4.09
serial: A209PA8C0201
capabilities: usb-2.00
configuration: driver=usbfs maxpower=500mA speed=480Mbit/s

[gustavo1998]

It seems that any product from Jetbrains screws up my Kubuntu, observed an two different laptops. Seems they are more concerned about planting their licenses deep into the system instead of making their software actually work.

My workaround for the time being is:
1. connect phone via USB
2. switch phone to "File transfer"
3. logout/login of Kubuntu
4. phone is now connected