Anthony via luv-main <luv-main@luv.asn.au> writes:

Depends on the phone, but newer devices these days generally do not present a mass storage device. They instead expose storage at file level via MTP (Media Transfer Protocol), as block storage access requires exclusive lock on partition, and that means background processes using the storage on the phone must be halted and/or may crash.

I recently tried MTP to backup my sdcard data before performing a factory reset and sending my Pixel XL phone in for warranty (microphone not working, seems like a common problem). I found it kept crashing repeatedly after transferring several files, requiring disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable each time. I eventually gave up trying with USB, and backed up the files with a SSH based sync program instead, over wifi. A bit slower, but at least it worked. This with with a Debian/stretch based system with Gnome installation. -- Brian May <brian@linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/