Hooking up a phone to the PC
 

Hi,
I hope to get an answer, thanks in advance.
I have a Samsung Galaxy mini and would like to download the accumulated material (photos, Watsapp messages and such) to my PC for backup. I run Manjaro Linux (Xubuntu on an other PC), and the phone did come with the reuired cable.
Is it a simple question of hooking up the phone to the PC and browsing the "device"? What will that do to the data on the phone?
Thanks for an answer, any answer, all answers are welcome, even the zany ones...
By the way, I did post this one at androidquestions as well, but I assume the low traffic may keep an answer from emerging ;)
Thor

AFAIK, the required cable is always a USB cable for all manufacturers (at least in India).

Once you plug it in, it will always pop up an option whether to act as a mass storage device to the computer or not.

So, straight forward. Be sure to properly unmount the device before unplugging.

OK

Thanks!
And, yes, the UNmounting is an issue. The reason for my post is two fold: to have a backup and because the phone crashes once in a while...unless this thing too needs an update once in a while... XD
Thor
Edit - did'nt find the phone, the phone is charging tru the USB though, talk about silly :/

You can try the android SDK package. Two tools that I use are adb (command line) and ddms ( GUI ) to transfer files both ways.

Two other methods that uses wifi are: Airdroid and File Expert HD.

Airdroid uses your wen browser as the interface.

File Expert HD has a bruit-in ftp server and many other tools

All methods are FREE

You probably have to enable mass storage somewhere in the phone settings; probably under "Storage". (My Xperia has this setting in its own submenu, so I'm not sure where yours has it).

The most recent versions of Android have removed the USB storage option so they will only show on the PC as a media device or Camera but most linux distros have support for either already built in.

USB mass storage was great and simple. MTP is not linux friendly. I once even tried mtpfs and it was buggy and worked sometimes.

Right now my only means of adding my files to the device is android sdk, Airdroid and/or file expert HD.

BTW, does anyone know why they replace usb mass storage with MTP?

They didn't replace USB mass storage they removed that option, MTP and PTP were the other two options. They removed USB mass storage because it requires the storage to be unmounted by the Android OS to be mounted by the pc. The other annoying trend is the removal of removable storage, many new phones are missing the MicroSD slot.

much appreciated :)

Anyway, I wonder if people had protest this issue to the google/android developers that MTP is not linux friendly and should return the UMS option if a microsd slot is present.

Many people complained to Google about the maps update but they have yet to fix it. Many have complained about the removal of SD card slots but they are not putting them back in. They don't appear to be listening to their users.

That's sad...


I guess customer satisfaction is not an option for them.

The ES File Manager for Android allows you to browse and copy files to and from network shares.

Many file managers do but I prefer the other way around unless you can rsync on the android
What I did was setup a couple simple script on my laptop that would rysnc stuff over to the phone once it was mounted.

Thanks all ...
Did'nt get on the Net for a while...st?ff at home that keeps me busy :(
I hooked the thing up and it started charging, rarther fast, so, I assume that this is not the best way...fast charging...how good can that be for a battery...
Thor
Edit - of course, the path I can go (dont wanna) is to remove the SD card, put that in a reader and soak it's contents off...but, a USB/OTG adapter...now that's nifty...

As has been previously mentioned Android now doesn't support the old USB mass storage mechanism, however, there's other options available.

• Go down the "cloud" route and use Dropbox / Google Drive to transfer your files, with the added bonus that they'll still be on the cloud as a backup too.
• Get a "zip" app like winzip and create a passworded zip file of your content and then e-mail it from your phone.
• Use a cheap USG OTG adaptor and plug a standard USB key (or any USB external HD) in to the phone and transfer your data to that and then on to your PC.
• If the mini supports a microSD card then you can use that and an appropriate adaptor.