Android Files are Seen in Dolphin but Nothing Under /run/user/$USER/gvfs

English Hardware
#1

Hello all,

I’m trying to copy files from Android using the terminal / Konsole. I can see the files just fine under Dolphin but if I do an ls under the following directories there is nothing shown:

/run/user/1000/gvfs
/var/run/user/1000/gvfs

It is there as I can see it with **mount **(and under Dolphin as previously mentioned)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100)

as well as lsusb
Bus 001 Device 011: ID 22b8:2e82 Motorola PCS XT1541 [Moto G 3rd Gen]

I can’t find the mount point from Dolphin either. If I right click on Internal Storage it says the location is /Moto X Play (mtp). Likewise, using Open Terminal from the wanted folder doesn’t work, it just opens to my Home directory.

Here is what I found before posting:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/342319/where-are-mtp-mounted-devices-located-in-the-filesystemhow to access my Android phone from my terminal?
How to traverse MTP mounted devices (phones) from the terminal?

I didn’t troubleshoot the installed packages on my as of now up to date Tumbleweed, on the assumption that if Dolphin can see the files then it is not a matter of a having the wrong fuse package installed.

Any ideas?

#2

For me Dolphin has an address bar and that lists when things are mounted:

https://paste.opensuse.org/images/53717962.png

So for me (Tumbleweed) things are mounted under /run/media/$USER

#3

Thanks Marel! I see the following:

https://paste.opensuse.org/77828126(using the insert image icon doesn’t seem to work for me unfortunately)

Unfortunately neither screen cap seems to provide the info required. To access via terminal one needs something along the format of:

cd /run/user/1000/gvfs/mtp\:host=%5Busb%3A001%2C006%5D/

Anyways, I just used copy and paste in Dolphin. I wanted to learn how to get past this obstacle for the future but at least this didn’t block me from accomplishing what I needed to do.

#4

If this is a mounted file system, then you can see what is mounted where with

mount

Remember that mounting in /run/user/<UID>/<filesystem-identifier>/ is something internal to the desktop, which means that it not a defined/fixed interface to the user. The GUI user uses his GUI tools (like Dolphin, or others that are offered in the pop-up when connecting the device). This “mounting by the desktop for use by the end-user in the seat” was never designed for a CLI user (but it can be done when the user knows where and how to look).

#5

And looking at your image where the address starts with mtp:, it could also be that this is not mounted at all. That will make my post above (which says "If it is a mounted file system) of nil value for your case.

It seems that a special protocol (denoted by that mtp) is used. which means that the device is used outside the concept of the Unix/Linux directory tree. And only programs using that protocol will have access. There may be a CLI tool for that, but I do not know of one.

#6

Yes, storage “mounted” via the Media Transfer Protocol are also for me not automagically mounted.

To do that, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Media_Transfer_Protocol

For my Android phone and my parents Android tablet I uses ssh to access things, just run on a SSH server on Android and connect via WiFi.

#7

me too use an sftp or ftp://addressofandroid launching an ftp server on android and connecting to a wifi network

#8

IIRC, Dolphin can handle MTP devices (and present as a virtual file system)…

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Media_Transfer_Protocol#File_manager_integration

#9

Thanks marel, pier_andreit and deano_ferrari! I wasn’t aware of that Arch wiki post (which are always very well written), nor had I thought of using SSH or FTP! Great stuff! :slight_smile: