A useful tool for mounting your smartphone on Linux

If you’re struggling to mount your Android phone on Ubuntu you might want to give Android File Transfer for Linux a try.

Related Story How to Connect Android to Ubuntu, Wirelessly

Effectively it’s a clone of Google’s Android File Transfer app for macOS. It’s built with Qt, and has a super simple UI that makes it easy to transfer files and folders to and from your Android smartphone and your Ubuntu machine.

Now, chances are a few of you will be scratching your head wondering what this app does that Nautilus, the default file manager in Ubuntu, doesn’t — and the answer is nothing.

When I connect my Nexus 5X (and remember to select the MTP option) to my Ubuntu machine I can browse, open and manage it using Nautilus, just like my phone was a regular USB drive thanks to GVfs:

But some people experience issues with this, and other MTP implementations, such as directories not loading, directory creation that doesn’t “stick”, and issues using their device inside a media player.

And it’s for those people whom Android File Transfer for Linux is designed. Consider it an alternative to other methods of mounting MTP devices on Linux. If what you use currently works a-ok, you probably don’t need to try this out (unless you really like trying things out).

The app features:

A straightforward user interface

Drag and drop support (Linux to Phone)

Batch downloading (Phone to Linux)

Transfer progress dialogs

FUSE wrapper

No file size limits

Optional CLI tool

Install Android File Transfer on Ubuntu

That’s enough waffle about this alternative way to mount your Android phone, on to the nitty gritty of installing it.

A PPA is available for users on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and 16.04 LTS.

To add the PPA to your list of software sources run this command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:samoilov-lex/aftl-stable

Then, to install Android File Transfer for Linux on Ubuntu, run:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt install android-file-transfer

Using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or later, or a different Linux distribution entirely? Download the following App Image:

Download Android File Transfer for Linux (.appimage)

App Images provide a ‘standalone’ runtime that does not need to be installed. To run it:

How to use an App Image

Before running Android File Transfer do make make sure that no other devices (such as Nautilus) mount your phone first.

If you phone is mounted via another method the app will report “no MTP device found”. To fix, unmount your device from Nautilus (or whichever app is using it) then relaunch Android File Transfer.