'Seeing' Android phone from Windows PC

Earlier versions of Android presented as USB removable storage so would look like an external drive to a PC, but newer versions use MTP or PTP instead, so the phone doesn't have to unmount the storage to allow the PC to mount it.

Win98(!) doesn't come with MTP drivers, you might be able to find some and install them, e.g.

Yes, it should just pop up as an external drive - providing you tell the phone to act as external storage. When you plug the USB in, does it come up on the screen asking what to do? Charge, storage, both?

That's probably your problem, right there. An OS that was released 17yrs ago and replaced 20yrs ago...

Have you opened remote manager in ES File Explorer and used the address there on your PC? That works in XP and Windows 7 but I've no idea if Windows 98 will cope

See

You are The Doctor and ICMFP :)

I don't know what you mean...

I can see the shared folders on my W7 computer from my Android Moto G phone when running ES File Explorer - but not the other way round.

In order to see files on the phone from the PC, I have to physically connect them via USB. The phone then appears as an external drive on the PC.

Can't guarantee this will work on W98 though!

It took me a while to discover the way see the files from Windows over a network as the setting is not obvuous in ES but IMO it makes it much easier to manage files. See

Time inversion.

OK - first mistake!

You are supposed to get the best on contract yourself and 2 years later, pass it onto him as a cast off!

;->

Good - the S3 is still perfectly serviceable.

Stick an SSH server on the phone:

and use SFTP from the netbook (using typically WinSCP as you said Windows, or Cyberduck from a Mac).

You need to choose an ssh port number on the phone (22 is not permitted unless you root the phone, pick a random memorable number >=1024 and

Should just play, then.

Check the preferences on the phone, that it's not been set to default to charge-only. Does it play nicely if you plug it in to a different PC?

I never use the bl**dy thing. PAYG and a tenner will last me years. Most of the top ups I buy die after six months, long before I've used the credit. Seriously. Having got this latest one alive and kicking, I must remember to use it twice a year, just to keep it going.

Thank you. I'm going to read all that slowly at least six more times, then have a go.

I'm having a bad morning :-)

When I connect the phone to my Netbook (running XP!) via USB lead, I can see it and access it as an attached device,just like a USB stick, camera etc.

When I connect the two wirelessly, via the home network, I can 'see' the Netbook from the phone, and access shared files.

What I cannot do is see the phone from the Netbook wirelessly, through My Network Places, Entire Network etc. That is what I hope to achieve, not because I need to, but just because I think it should be possible.

More to the point, my son who is, like all teenagers, a World Gadget Expert, told me he thought I couldn't.

Yes - that's what happens with my Samsung here.

Think it's more a Windows thing. My smart TVs see any Windows computer on my LAN - but not the other way round.

If you download My Phone Explorer to both the PC and phone, you'll be able to share stuff pretty easily both ways via Wi-Fi without using a cloud. It's one of those 'free' progs where they prompt you to make a donation.

(Thanks to Dave Liquorice for the heads up on this prog - it does exactly what I wanted)

Well, you'd think.

Welcome to Android. Where f*ck all "just works".

You need the phone to act as a server to the Netbook. Either via SMB (Samba - Windows stylee) or FTP.

It may be possible to crowbar the bluetooth OBEX stack into the equation. But Androids version of bluetooth is even more sucky than Windows - which is saying something.

Forgot (shows I'll always be a windows kid at heart) SSH - although another poster has flagged it up. TBH it would be my first choice, as it's secure *and* lightweight.

OK.

That's because the PC is acting as a file server, and ES explorer is acting as a CIFS client.

Your PC is a CIFS client, but Android doesn't act as a file server. That's why people have suggested mounting over SSH etc.

Or the other way around - possibly enabling a share on the netbook.

I think he's got that working, and it makes sense for the phone *NOT* to be a server, sucking up battery power just in case someone wants to access it, far more sense to have the PC with its mains power be the server, ready for the occasion when then phone wants to access it, you can pull or push files using the phone after all ...