Syncing with MTP devices

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

F16 fully updated.

I've been trying to sync music with my Galaxy Nexus, connected by USB
cable. Fedora recognizes the device, but none of the apps I've tried
will sync to it. So far I've tried:

Amarok: on copying an album, at most a random 2 or 3 tracks succeed,
then the UI freezes for a long time.

Rhythmbox: copying even one track gets an error popup about not being
able to determine free space.

Banshee: can't see the device

Mtpfs (a FUSE filesystem for MTP): can see the phone's file structure
but won't copy anything to it. No errors, just doesn't do anything.

Ironically, one of my reasons for moving from iPhone to Android was the
hope of better Linux support ...

poc

[Tom Horsley]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:07:41 -0430
Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:

>  Ironically, one of my reasons for moving from iPhone to Android was
> the
>  hope of better Linux support ... 
Personally, I use wi-fi and rsync with my android. There is an
rsyn app available for android.

[Todd Zullinger]

Tom Horsley wrote:
>  On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:07:41 -0430 Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>
> > Ironically, one of my reasons for moving from iPhone to Android was 
> > the hope of better Linux support ...
>
>  Personally, I use wi-fi and rsync with my android. There is an rsyn 
>  app available for android. 
Indeed.  The MTP support in linux pretty much sucks.  If it was the 
only option, I'm sure more of us would try to work on improving it.  
But, like Tom, I just use other methods of transfering files.  I 
installed QuickSSHd on my Galaxy Nexus and use sshfs and rsync for 
most of my syncing.

The thread I'd point at for various options is:

     http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2012-March/415247.html

but I see that Patrick commented in that thread, so I wouldn't be 
telling him anything new. :)

It would be nice if the default tools worked better out of the box.  
But I'm not sure that MTP is better than the various wireless options 
available, even if it worked perfectly.  At least not for me.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Fri, 2012-04-27 at 20:17 -0400, Todd Zullinger wrote:
>  Tom Horsley wrote:
>  > On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:07:41 -0430 Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>  >
>  >> Ironically, one of my reasons for moving from iPhone to Android was 
>  >> the hope of better Linux support ...
>  >
>  > Personally, I use wi-fi and rsync with my android. There is an rsyn 
>  > app available for android.
>  
>  Indeed.  The MTP support in linux pretty much sucks.  If it was the 
>  only option, I'm sure more of us would try to work on improving it.  
>  But, like Tom, I just use other methods of transfering files.  I 
>  installed QuickSSHd on my Galaxy Nexus and use sshfs and rsync for 
>  most of my syncing. 
Thanks Todd (and Tom). Looks like MTP is not worth the effort for now. I
guess I'll try one of the WiFi options.

>  The thread I'd point at for various options is:
>  
>       http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/users/2012-March/415247.html
>  
>  but I see that Patrick commented in that thread, so I wouldn't be 
>  telling him anything new. :) 
I did comment, but at the time it seemed that MTP was working for me
(the music already on my phone proves it), and now it really isn't.

>  It would be nice if the default tools worked better out of the box. 
>
>  But I'm not sure that MTP is better than the various wireless options 
>  available, even if it worked perfectly.  At least not for me. 
I guess if it worked it would be better integrated with the Linux music
players, e.g. more automatic syncing etc. Maybe some future version will
work better.

Thanks again.

poc

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Fri, 2012-04-27 at 20:17 -0400, Todd Zullinger wrote:
>  Tom Horsley wrote:
>  > On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:07:41 -0430 Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>  >
>  >> Ironically, one of my reasons for moving from iPhone to Android was 
>  >> the hope of better Linux support ...
>  >
>  > Personally, I use wi-fi and rsync with my android. There is an rsyn 
>  > app available for android.
>  
>  Indeed.  The MTP support in linux pretty much sucks.  If it was the 
>  only option, I'm sure more of us would try to work on improving it.  
>  But, like Tom, I just use other methods of transfering files.  I 
>  installed QuickSSHd on my Galaxy Nexus and use sshfs and rsync for 
>  most of my syncing. 
Installed the free SSHDroid and it worked (after a good deal of futzing
around with the SSH login). However the new music didn't show up in any
music apps on the phone. Then I had a brainwave and installed SDrescan,
which forces a rescan of the /sdcard filesystem, and lo! it now works.

Presumably this is something else an MTP connection would take care of,
but never mind.

poc