I’ve had a Jolla Phone for a few weeks and took some photos. I want to copy them to my computer, but I can’t do it. When connected to the computer (Linux, but Windows too), the phone is detected as a mass storage device with no media inserted. I have set the phone’s USB mode to MTP. What else am I doing wrong?
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did you unlock your phone?
if you activate developper mode scp is a nice method to transfer data
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Hello
To eliminate other sources, have you try with another usb cable? Have you tried to plug in another usb port?
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Agreed, it takes two minutes to set up and makes life much easier. On the phone:
- enable developer mode
- enable ‘Remote connection’
- set up a password (can be anything)
- write down the WLAN IP address
On the computer:
- open your file manager
- enter the following in the address bar:
sftp://ip.address.goes.here/home/defaultuser - save it as a bookmark, save the credentials if you want
Done!
Now you never need to fiddle with physically connecting your phone anymore. Everything goes over your local network, which should be pretty fast.
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gvfs-mtp installed? Maybe missing packages? Another cable could also help
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Thanks for all replies.
I tried a number of USB cables and computers. The physical connection is established, Linux machine shows proper /dev/sda after I plug USB. As a last resort, I’ll try a WLAN connection. I don’t understand why MTP isn’t working, even though the phone itself indicates that the option is available. Has anyone actually managed to establish such an MTP connection?
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I transfer every thing via Sailfish Connect (Jolla C2) and KDE Connect (PC).
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Do you use a USB cable for this connection?
I also use Sailfish Connect. It’s not needed. You just have to be connected to the same network as your computer
KDE Connect runs on the local network as well. If you use GNOME instead of KDE, use GSConnect instead. It’s the same, just for GNOME. Highly recommended either way, because it also mutes your computer volume automatically when you call someone with your phone, alongside other goodies.
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I’e just tried with my Jolla Phone 2026 (5.2.0.18) and it works as expected. I can see two devices: the mas storage and the sd card.
In ‘settings >USB’ have you checked the ‘default usb mode’?
I’d recommend setting up Syncthing on the PCs and on the phone, so there will be no need to fiddle with cables. Of course Syncthing keeps folders in sync on all endpoints by default, so if you want to just shoot the photos to the PC and then copy them somewhere else, you can set the synced folder to one way only.
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If you don’t have huge amounts of photos, an option could be LocalSend. LocalSend exists as apps on most devices and operating system, such as SFOS, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, Linux and Android. I use LocalSend quite a lot myself and find it very useful.
You also can install rsync and use cron to sync nightly 
.
did you use USB3 cables only or did you try with USB2 as well?
as I notice that I have issues connecting with the USB3 (even SSH doesnt work)
If you see phone device /dev/sda on Mint, the phone is not MTP-mode. If MTP-mode is on, there is phone shortcut on desktop.
You can use Warpinator to transfer files, or FileZilla:
I use Only WLAN for this
“If you see phone device /dev/sda on Mint, the phone is not MTP-mode.”
Exactly. I tried MTP mode and “Always ask” with no result.
phklrz wrote:
“I’e just tried with my Jolla Phone 2026 (5.2.0.18) and it works as expected.”
I have 5.2.0.17, maybe this is the reason?
Additionally - I have only USB 3.0 ports. I must try with 2.0, when I have the opportunity.
If you happen to have a USB 2 hub handy that you can beg, borrow or steal, that might save you the problem of finding another PC. Those cheap dongle things are surprisingly helping in solving/diagnosing this kind of issue.
I have done all my transfers with the version 5.2.0.17. Actually, I haven’t tried the transfers with the version 5.2.0.18 yet.
