Where for Android phone advice?

[John Stumbles]

Just bought a cheap Samsung Galaxy pocket phone and trying to get up to speed on Android. Any good groups (comp.mobile.android seems to be moribund) or other places to get decent info on things like sharing files between the droid and my (Linux) PCs (tried the USB cable but the PC just thinks it's a camera and there's no option I can find on the phone to make it appear like mass storage.

I could also do with basic things like how to organise audio files to use it as an MP3 player, how to arrange icons more usefully on the desktop, how to remove apps I don't want ... yadda yadda

[Andrew May]

If it doesn't need to be Usenet then

seems pretty good. They have general Android and device specific forums.

[Scion]

John Stumbles put finger to keyboard:

Get a PC with a decent OS, like Windows ;-)

I've found Googling specific Android 'wants' to be fine.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Umm my camera appears as a mass storage devive on Linux...

[HarpingOn]

Android uses mtp these days, not mass storage.

I use Open SuSE 13.1 and that has mtp baked in. It can of course be added to any distro, with work.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I just looked in my distro (Mint 14) and it has MTP so probably any ubuntu/mint system will have it as a straight package.

There seem to be various utilities that allow 'idiot level' organisation of mp3 and other data.

No knowing your exact distro I cant help mote than that.

In Mint there is something called 'MTPFS' which makes an MTP attached music system look like a filing system under /playlist for example

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 22 January 2014 13:20 John Stumbles wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Which model, exactly?

If it's newer, it should present as an MTP Media Transfer Protocol device rather than mass storage - this allows android and the PC to access storage simultaneously.

Mine presents the whole "sdcard/" storage to my linux laptop. Not sure how it presents under windows or if you might need some drivers?

Personally, I find the USB cable a hassle - I am using "FolderSync" app which can connect back to a share on my PC (via sftp, but many protocols are supported including SMB, FTP and loads of common cloud providers).

The nice thing is you can effectively use this as a way to do semi automated backups of various folders in case your phone goes byebye.

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 22 January 2014 15:11 Tim Watts wrote in uk.d-i-y:

And (just noticed) when you plug the USB in, pull down the notification bar and touch the "Connected as..." line.

You should get an options screen that offers either MTP (you want this) or "Camera (PTP)" - perhaps you have the wrong setting?

[Andy Burns]

It's a recent(ish) group, it may be fairly quiet but if things get asked, they generally get answered ...

[curious]

I use the app airdroid where both devices are on the same network works just like a file explorer for transfers etc.

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 22 January 2014 20:15 curious wrote in uk.d-i-y:

?

[dennis]

Hmm, my camera appears as mass storage or a camera with remote operation on windows and not at all on linux.

[John Stumbles]

I took a quick peek earlier and the latest messages seemed to be from December. I don't know what was going on there: I'm seeing current threads now. Thanks.

[John Stumbles]

Samsung Galaxy pocket, GT S5310

[John Rumm]

I find ES file explorer on the phone is very easy to use to shift stuff to other networked devices (never bother with USB). It can speak SMB/CIFS and hence see NAS devices or any other network device that is windows or can run SAMBA.

However you fancy really - in folders of artist then album works for me.

touch and hold, then drag.

Settings, apps uninstall button.

[Bob Martin]

If you have local Wifi then I recommend AndFTP. Will transfer files and directories easily and quickly.

[John Rumm]

Older versions also used to offer mass storage in the same place...