A review of the ways we've got today on Linux to access photos from a camera or a phone like files on a filesystem, many of which involve using FUSE.
- Since Mac OS X 10.10.3 released, Apple Company showed Photos for OS X, but for iPhoto users, it would not be that happy. Like who get used to Aperture, Photos for OS X do lack of some functions. As well, for Windows users who cannot use iPhoto, is there any way to satisfy the need of those PC & Mac users?
- My girlfriend always used Picasa to import photos from the camera, but since upgrading to OS X 10.11 El Capitan that doesn't work anymore. Using Photos.app, she is able to import the photos, but they're hidden away in a Photos Library file which Photoshop cannot open, meaning she cannot add photos as a.
The Picture Transfer Protocol – PTP – and Media Transfer Protocol – MTP – are some of those I wonder why they even have to exist. Why can't cameras and phones just make it possible to mount their filesystem and access their files so we can work e.g. with the photos with take? It's just flash memory with usually a FAT filesystem which any system can read, after all.
Anyway, in the early 2000s, some thought it'd be a good idea to hide the filesystem behind this kind of transfer protocols. Luckily, some other people decided to go full circle and hide PTP and MTP behind a filesystem again. This post is a review of the offering on Linux, tested on FUSE 7.19.
If the name PTP refers to Pictures, its scope has become much broader which smartphones and it's now also used to access in essence any kind of files that your phone will make accessible. From its name, it's tempting to think that MTP replaced PTP in every way to access Media. Yet, PTP implementations seem to work more better in practice. Either way, it appears that having comfortable means to use PTP and MTP is becoming more essential than ever.
GPhotoFS is based on FUSE and uses
libgphoto2
which, in my mind, is the standard on Linux to access photos over PTP. GPhotoFS is fast, easy to use, well documented. Plug your device in, and run:.. to mount your filesystem. Unmount it involves using the standard FUSE command:
The GPhotoFS manual page will tell your that it doesn't know how to add or remove directories. Surprisingly, it really can, though. When you think about it, why would it not have been able to, anyway? PTP, MTP and
libgphoto2
do support it after all. The basic gphoto2
command does come with the --mkdir
and --rmdir
command-line options which do exactly this too.Jun 06, 2019 The Leica Q2 is an impressively capable fixed-lens, full-frame camera with a 47MP sensor and a sharp, stabilized 28mm F1.7 Summilux lens. It's styled like a traditional Leica M rangefinder and brings a host of updates to the hugely popular original Leica Q (Typ 116) that was launched in 2015.
What's disturbing however is that I've had the case with GPhotoFS 2.9.4 that some files which I know were were there were not listed.
Photos For Os X Download
Interestingly, mounting the phone over MTP instead of PTP will show you at least one top-level directory but descending into it yields an I/O error. Fair enough, GPhotoFS wasn't advertised to support MTP.
I once described how to mount a FUSE filesystem over PTP/MTP with GVfs:
The question arises whether you'd prefer your device to present to you the PTP or MTP protocol. It doesn't seem to matter too much in practice. Unmounting is carried out this way:
Overall, it feels rather dodgy. It will take several attempts to mount before succeeding. Listing all the files often raises several I/O errors. But when it doesn't, it's interesting to see that it will find those files which GPhotoFS also should have found but didn't.
Remarkably, finding all the files over PTP will result in the same list as GPhotoFS. It appears that there's something wrong with whichever underlying component there is to use PTP. This is GVfs 1.28.1.
Written in Go, Go-mtpfs feels slower, easily hits time-outs and seems rather flaky. On one device, listing the files yielded I/O errors left, right and centre. It behaved a bit better on another device. This was a 20150802 git snapshot. Unlike GVfs, mounting and unmounting is fairly straightforward:
This is really intended for MTP only, no PTP support there. Download bitlord for mac os x 10 11.
It seems that jmtpfs is a bit picky on the device too. Some will work, some other ones won't as of version 0.5. No particular drama otherwise when listing the files. Mounting and unmounting is fairly straightforward here too:
Photos For Os X Ptp 2
I naively tried PTP too, but jmtpfs is really only meant for MTP, as the name suggests.
https://heavenlyschools702.weebly.com/whatsapp-for-mac-os-x-105-8.html. I've never been able to get it to work on any device. Mounting seemed to be working, as did unmounting. But trying to access anything under the mount point kept yielding the Transport endpoint is not connected error message.
Photos For Os X Ptp 7
I naively tried PTP too, but MTPfs is really only meant for MTP, as the name suggests. Or so it would be if it worked in practice.
The two smartphones are of different makes, have different Android version and different file sets. I attempted to list all the files with the
find
command and measure how long it took. These times are reproducible:Samsung | Acer | |
---|---|---|
GPhotoFS | 35 s | 2 s |
GVfs (PTP) | 38 s | 2 s |
GVfs (MTP) | 37 s | Doesn't work |
Go-mtpfs | I/O errors | 10 s |
jmtpfs | Doesn't work | 35 s |
MTPfs | Doesn't work | Doesn't work |
It really appears to be a messy business overall. Hardware support varies, mounting often takes several attempts before it works, plugging/unplugging the cable is often needed, there are I/O errors when listing files, some of which undetected, and I didn't even get to the point of writing anything. We may still be at a stage where it's just better to use SD Cards to exchange data between devices or simply use a cloud service to do so over the network.
How do you connect your Android smartphone or tablet to your computer? Generally speaking, older Android devices support USB Mass Storage for transferring files to and from your computer. Modern Android devices use the MTP or PTP protocols. So that you can choose different USB connections according to your Android device.
Wifi: Transfer files by connecting Android to PC wirelessly
UMS: Connect Android to PC via USB Mass Storage
MTP: Connect Android to PC as MTP/PPT
Review: Review of MTP/PTP and USB Mass Storage connection modes
Connect Android to PC?via USB Mass Storage (UMS)
USB Mass Storage (also known as USB mass storage device class) is the standard protocol used by flash drives, external hard drives, SD cards, and other USB storage devices to transfer files between the host computing device and the USB devices. It was an older way for Android users connecting Android device to a computer.
When you connect your Android phone or tablet to your computer, you’d have to specifically tap a “Connect storage to PC” button to make the Android device’s storage accessible to the computer over USB mass storage. When disconnecting it from the computer, you’d have to tap a “Turn off USB storage” button.
Connect Android to PC as MTP/PPT
MTP stands for “Media Transfer Protocol”. This kind of protocol is part of the “Windows Media” framework and thus closely related to Windows Media Player, allowing the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media players, as well as personal information on personal digital assistants.
When Android uses this protocol, it appears to the computer as a “media device”. In practice, MTP functions a lot like USB mass storage. For example, an Android phone or tablet shows up in Windows Explorer so you can browse and transfer files. If you are a Mac user, you can use Google’s Android File Transfer (a simple MTP client) to transfer files back and forth on a Mac.
Photos For Os X Release Date
PTP stands for “Picture Transfer Protocol”. It was designed to be a standard protocol for communicating with digital cameras. When Android users this protocol, it appears to the computer as a digital camera. Any software program that supports grabbing photos from a digital camera will support grabbing photos from an Android phone when you select the PTP mode.
PTP works similarly to MTP. In this mode, your Android device will work with digital camera applications that support PTP but not MTP. Apple’s Mac OS X does support PTP, so you can use PTP mode to transfer photos from an Android phone or tablet to a Mac over a USB connection without any special software.
Review of MTP/PTP and USB Mass Storage connection modes
It’s true that connecting an Android phone or tablet via USB Mass Storage is convenient, but there was an issue with this method of accessing files. When the computer was reading files stored on the SD card, these files was unavailable to the Android device itself. System files was separated within two folders “/data” for system storage and “/sd card” for USB storage on the same memory support. Usually the installed apps and system files goes to “/data” and the user data along with too little space for downloaded apps. These partitions couldn’t be resized without interfering with the Android system itself (rooting the device). Therefore, modern Android devices use different USB connection protocols, MTP and PTP.
Many Android devices now use the Android Operating System Jellybean (4.x) or newer. These Android OS 4.x and newer have been updated to now support the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) and PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) connection type?instead of USB Mass Storage Mode. In MTP mode, the Android device controls the input/output to the filesystem, so there is no risk of data loss because of cold disconnecting the device from USB. MTP allows you to use the SD card from both the Android phone and the computer at the same time, even to any desired number of them. With USB Mass Storage Mode, you only can do it from a device at a time, meaning that you have to unmount the SD card from the Android to view it on the computer, stopping apps, etc.