How to mount an MTP device as a drive

[ZenChick]

The exact procedures may depend on your Linux distro, but if your distro supports Fuse (like Ubuntu 7.10 and later), then you can easily mount your MTP device (such as a Vision:M) as a drive.

First you will need to ensure you have libmtp, mtptools, and mtpfs installed. If not, then you will need to install them. I strongly recommend using your distro's repositories in order to ensure all dependencies are met.

$ sudo apt-get install libmtp mtptools mtpfs

Once all of that is installed, you will need to create a mountpoint for your device.

$ sudo mkdir /media/MyZen
$ sudo chmod 775 /media/MyZen

Next, plug in your player and mount it:

$ sudo mtpfs -o allow_other /media/MyZen

Your player should appear on your desktop as a regular drive. Be aware that, depending on the device, access might be slow.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT DISCONNECT YOUR DEVICE WITHOUT UNMOUNTING IT FIRST!

$ sudo umount /media/MyZen

If you get a message stating that the device is busy, then give it a minute or two and try again.

If anyone figures out how to create a permanent entry in fstab, please post it here.

[CrowdAds]

[skidaddy]

thanks zenchick you were my only hope.

really i have been using gnomad to transfer files to my zen player
and it has been driving me nuts. it had decided only to transfer one file at a time or it would lock up or just exit you would have to unplug the player and wait a while then plug it back in and restart gnomad.

thanks for the mount tip and now if i can just remember to unmount it....

[aetherguy881]

I'm having an issue with this now. It worked before, but it was only a little sketchy.

First I was only able to transfer about 8 media files to the player before I got an endpoint error (see below).

Now I can't even open the directory after I've mounted the player.

I'm running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy on a 64x system. The media player is the Creative Zen X-fi

The error message is as follows:

Couldn't display "/media/myZen".

Error: Error stating file '/media/myZen': Transport endpoint is not connected
Please select another viewer and try again.

It mounts and un-mounts fine, it's just that error when I try to access the drive.

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

[theAdmiral]

ZenChick,

What if it doesn't mount? I followed the directions to the letter.

theAdmiral

[andybleaden]

thanks for that guide. I had to use konqueror to view my zen in /media/ but it really works...cheers

[andybleaden]

The files you need to download are mtp-tools not mtptools

Hope that helps

[theAdmiral]

This cannot be the end of my MP3 enjoyment, can it? I can always go back to using my MP3 player with my Dinwoze partition, but I really don't want to start going through that kind of hassle. I would prefer to stay away from my Dinwoze install as much as possible. So, in this interest, and believing that I have tried every possible permutable approach to get my Kubuntu install to cooperate with my Zen Microphoto, to no avail, what next. I have tried Konqueror, Dolphin--the damn OS keeps dropping the mount. I downloaded "mtp-tools", too. Thought that would help, and it seemed to a little bit. But, not much. What is a Kubuntu-loving audiophile to do?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

theAdmiral

[ZenChick]

When posting about problems mounting the device, please include all bash output relevant to the mounting problem - eg. any errors or warnings that come up. This makes it easier to determine the problem and possibly come up with a solution.

Please also indicate if you are running a 32- or 64-bit version of your Linux install. I cannot test 64-bit-specific problems, but I can at least see if the architecture has anything to do with the issue (lots of things still don't work reliably on x64 architecture).

As of right now, the latest mtp-related packages needed to mount an MTP device are (at least in the Ubuntu repos):

Package name . Version
mtpfs 0.8+svn11
mtp-tools 0.3.0
libmtp8 0.3.0

Other recommended packages:
python-pymtp - allows Python-based applications (eg. Exaile) to interact with MTP devices.
qlix - a simple, GUI-based MTP transfer manager. Works reasonably well, but does not handle UTF filenames well.

Exaile users: There is currently a version mismatch between libmtp and pymtp that breaks Exaile's ability to sync with MTP devices. This is explained at the bottom of this Launchpad entry.

[theAdmiral]

Hi, ZenChick.

I am trying to clear out my Music directory on my Zen. All files and directories within it are chmod 777. I am getting an error in bash reading "Operation not permitted". I am trying to remove the files and directories through Konqueror. Getting error messages reading that the files could not be read. What would you do?

Thanks,
theAdmiral

[ZenChick]

I was just playing around with the MTP mount myself just a bit ago, and encountered similar issues.

First, I'm assuming that you are using a mountpoint (likely in /media or /mnt), and that the mountpoint itself has all the necessary permissions.

What I think is happening is that, once you transfer something to your player through this mountpoint, the player itself takes the file and stores it as it sees fit. Unfortunately, it may not report back to the host, and as a result, what you see in Konquerer (or Nautilus for us Gnome buffs) may be out of sync with what's actually going on in the device. Remember that, what you see in Konquerer or Nautilus is not the player's actual filesystem, but how the player presents its database to your computer. For example, I dropped an MP3 file into my player's root directory, then thought better of it. I tried to delete it, but it reported back that the file could not be found. I refreshed Nautilus, and - sure enough, the file was no longer there. The player had moved the file to MyZen/music. I was able to delete it from there. A similar issue with an empty folder tree within MyZen/music, where I tried to delete it, and found it later within a newly-created MyZen/lost+found folder.

When situations like that arise, it is best to refresh your folder view. If this doesn't solve it, unmount and remount the device.

Hope this helps!

[theAdmiral]

ZenChick,

I unmounted the player then tried remounting it and had the following error:

/media$ sudo mtpfs -o allow_other MyZen
fuse: bad mount point: `MyZen': Transport endpoint is not connected

I tried a different usb port and I tried reconnecting the jack at the player several times but I still got the same error over and over again. What should I do? Do you think I should format the player drive?

Thanks,
theAdmiral

[ZenChick]

It means the player is not accepting connections. Either it is not powered on, or is not in a state where it can accept connections. Try resetting the player and ensuring it is fully booted up before attempting to remount.

It's also important to note that, even after you unmount, you still need to physically disconnect the player from the laptop so that the player can go back to a ready state.

If all of that fails to bring back connectivity, then booting the player into recovery mode and performing a cleanup may be required.

It is also worth verifying that you are in the FUSE user group (by default, you are not).

[theAdmiral]

ZenChick,

How do I verify that I am in the Fuse user group?

Thank you,
theAdmiral

[ZenChick]

Go to the System menu and select "Administration", then select "Users and Groups". Click "Unlock" and enter your administrator password. Then click "Manage Groups". Scroll down to "fuse", select it, and click "Properties".

[theAdmiral]

I am sorry ZenChick, but what KDE version are you using? Your instructions do not apply to my version. I am using the next to the latest. The latest is a beta. I am using the one before that, whatever it is. If that doesn't help you, no worries. I will just go into the Kubuntu forum and find out how to find out my version number, then get back to you.

I really appreciate how dedicated you have been to helping me out with this.

Best regards,
theAdmiral

[theAdmiral]

ZenChick,

It just dawned on me that you are not using KDE--you are using Gnome. Do you know of a way to get to the Fuse settings for KDE?

Thanks,
theAdmiral

[ZenChick]

Doh! I never realized there was that much of a UI difference between KDE and Gnome! You are correct, I use Gnome. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with KDE to be able to guide you any further. You should be able to find what you need in the Ubuntu forums, though.

Best of luck!

[pybcu]

Originally Posted by theAdmiral

It just dawned on me that you are not using KDE--you are using Gnome. Do you know of a way to get to the Fuse settings for KDE?

Why not use the way that works everywhere? I.e. on the commandline/terminal.
the "groups" command will show you the groups you're a member of. For most distributions this would either be a "users" group and/or a group that has the same name as your login.

Alternatively have a look at the /etc/group file. (as administrator (root) you can manually edit this file to add your username to a group)
You can also modify the groups as admin without manually editing the file with the "usermod" command like this:

usermod -a -G fuse <yourusername>

(for example usermod -a -G fuse bugsBunny)

[theAdmiral]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Still the same error. Checked /etc/group and my username is listed under fuse.

[ZenChick]

Have you tried booting your player into Recovery Mode and running the Disk Cleanup utility?

If that doesn't fix it, then I'm afraid I'm out of ideas.