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[ncjay]

Not precisely an MC problem, but it's a roadblock for me...

I have acquired my first Android handheld, a Vastking M10 tablet running Android 11.  It's nice and was quite inexpensive.

I "became a developer", required under Android 11 for USB file transfer.  It mounts right away in the Windows 10 File Explorer, and MC's "Sync Handheld" kind of works (I'll post a separate thread about that in the Windows forum).

However, the same tablet is not recognized by MacOS 11.6.  Not in Finder, not in the list of USB devices in the "About This Mac" system report, and not in /var/log/system.log.  The Web offers up a few solutions, none of them particularly up to date except perhaps for OpenMTP (https://github.com/ganeshrvel/openmtp) - is this even appropriate to enable interoperability with the MacOS version of MC28?

How have the JRiver developers, or others, overcome this obstacle?

Thanks
ncjay

[bob]

Not precisely an MC problem, but it's a roadblock for me...

I have acquired my first Android handheld, a Vastking M10 tablet running Android 11.  It's nice and was quite inexpensive.

I "became a developer", required under Android 11 for USB file transfer.  It mounts right away in the Windows 10 File Explorer, and MC's "Sync Handheld" kind of works (I'll post a separate thread about that in the Windows forum).

However, the same tablet is not recognized by MacOS 11.6.  Not in Finder, not in the list of USB devices in the "About This Mac" system report, and not in /var/log/system.log.  The Web offers up a few solutions, none of them particularly up to date except perhaps for OpenMTP (https://github.com/ganeshrvel/openmtp) - is this even appropriate to enable interoperability with the MacOS version of MC28?

How have the JRiver developers, or others, overcome this obstacle?

Thanks
ncjay

It looks like you could use OpenMTP to move files to and from the device. That wouldn't involve MC at all.
You might look to see if you can enable mass storage support on your tablet. If you can't does it have a removable SDcard you could put in to a reader and configure MC to use as a handheld.

[blgentry]

As far as I know, almost all versions of Android now require "Android File Transfer" to move files back and forth between the Android and a Mac.

https://www.android.com/filetransfer/

I haven't done this in years as I no longer use an Android device.  Back when I did it, I had to do a handheld sync to a folder on my hard drive.  Then, once that was complete, I would use Android File Transfer to copy the contents of that folder (on the Mac) over to the Android device.  It's two steps and not nearly as elegant as direct.  But it worked.

Good luck.
Brian.

[bob]

As far as I know, almost all versions of Android now require "Android File Transfer" to move files back and forth between the Android and a Mac.

https://www.android.com/filetransfer/

I haven't done this in years as I no longer use an Android device.  Back when I did it, I had to do a handheld sync to a folder on my hard drive.  Then, once that was complete, I would use Android File Transfer to copy the contents of that folder (on the Mac) over to the Android device.  It's two steps and not nearly as elegant as direct.  But it worked.

Good luck.
Brian.

That's a great tip.
Also, I tried that OpenMTP and it's really nice.

[ncjay]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, but none of this worked for me.

Is the root of the problem here that the Android's storage needs to mount in the finder to be detected as a handheld by MC, the way that it shows up in Explorer on Windows (and is then easily found by MC)?

If so, then I'm not sure there's any way to make this work, at least not with "internal storage" on the Android.  (I have another SD card arriving tomorrow that I'll format as "portable storage" to see of that helps.).  Whether or not OpenMTP is running, or Google's Android File Transfer, or if I remove the SD card and physically mount it on the Mac - it's not going to be read by MacOS (in fact I get an explicit message about that when physically mounting it), since when it's formatted as "internal storage" it's an encrypted ext4 filesystem.

If I'm thinking this through the right way, then there's no real way to get the device recognized by MC.  Unless the "portable storage" option I mention above works, or someone else has another idea.

Thanks
ncjay

[bob]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, but none of this worked for me.

Is the root of the problem here that the Android's storage needs to mount in the finder to be detected as a handheld by MC, the way that it shows up in Explorer on Windows (and is then easily found by MC)?

If so, then I'm not sure there's any way to make this work, at least not with "internal storage" on the Android.  (I have another SD card arriving tomorrow that I'll format as "portable storage" to see of that helps.).  Whether or not OpenMTP is running, or Google's Android File Transfer, or if I remove the SD card and physically mount it on the Mac - it's not going to be read by MacOS (in fact I get an explicit message about that when physically mounting it), since when it's formatted as "internal storage" it's an encrypted ext4 filesystem.

If I'm thinking this through the right way, then there's no real way to get the device recognized by MC.  Unless the "portable storage" option I mention above works, or someone else has another idea.

Thanks
ncjay

OpenMTP should work with the device internal storage unless it's not MTP compatible. Note that the device can be seen as a MTP device or Camera device or a few other choices. You device should ask you when you plug it into USB how it should be seen.

OpenMTP doesn't depend at all on what the filesystem is. It's basically a separate app that provides a finder like experience to drag and drop files onto the device.

Neither the android SDK or OpenMTP will provide a finder mountable device on a Mac so it can't be used as a handheld device directly with MC.
blgentry suggested you manually create a pseudo handheld device in MC pointing to a folder on your Mac, then you could use OpenMTP to move files from there onto the device.

As far as external storage is concerned, MacOS can't read ext4. You need to format the external storage as Fat or ExFat for MacOS to be able to read/write it and hope that the device supports one of those (it sure ought to).

This BTW is how I get files from MacOS onto my Pono which is a android device with an external SDCard slot. The external card is formatted ExFat and I treat that card (in a USB reader) as a handheld device on my Mac in MC28.

[blgentry]

Does Android File Transfer allow you to move files to the Android where the music files are supposed to be?  If so, my way will work.  If not... then it won't.

Note, my way will NOT allow the Finder to see the drive.  Android eliminated that a while back, which is a pain.

Brian.

[bob]

Does Android File Transfer allow you to move files to the Android where the music files are supposed to be?  If so, my way will work.  If not... then it won't.

Note, my way will NOT allow the Finder to see the drive.  Android eliminated that a while back, which is a pain.

Brian.

I believe it's supposed to give a file manager type way to copy the files like MTP does. The android file transfer is pretty heavily dissed online though.

[ncjay]

Just getting back to this.  The method suggested by bigentry, syncing to a temporary folder on the Mac, then copying over to the handheld, works fine if a bit inelegantly.

I don't mind syncing from the Windows version, though, and that's much more straightforward.  Just testing everything out here and had the question.

I've learned a *lot* about Android storage in the last week, thanks to all of you and to various net resources. 

Thanks
ncjay