Mounting Phone to Computer

onehuman

Hello team

Is there a way to mount the Pinephone with UBPorts to the computer to view the files and folders inside of it?

It's an essential feature to have available without a lot of finangling

Keneda

I believe for now you have to stick to SSH to do this.
MTP not already on.

zubozrout

Either SSH, but that could be problematic with WiFi not working when the phone goes to sleep + also more difficult SSH setup than on other devices (and please let me know if there is a working way to enable SSH automatically after reboot).

Or boot into "recovery" while holding the volume up + power button and connect your Pinephone to your computer via USB. You will then be able to mount all the filesystems on the device with the last (most probably 10th) partition being userdata which is the one you are most probably interested in. That way you can transfer music, documents, etc. Not the most user friendly or quick way I must admit, but certainly the fastest one as SSH is not as performant for me with Pinephone (on those occasions I am lucky to be connected to WiFi) as for instance with Meizu MX4.

nogoogle

@onehuman If you are only interested in file transfer, what works well for me is the wifi-transfer app from openstore (https://open-store.io/app/wifitransfer.costa). It sets up your phone as a temporary ftp-server with single-use password and you can connect with your preferred ftp client (e.g. Filezilla) from your PC.

adeliepenguin

@onehuman said in Mounting Phone to Computer:

Is there a way to mount the Pinephone with UBPorts to the computer to view the files and folders inside of it?

In principle, you could connect it via USB, set up ssh as others have mentioned, and access it via ssh. (There are also some file managers that support ssh if you prefer drag&drop.)

BUT due to a hardware bug in the Braveheart and UBports CE versions, their USB port cannot do anything else but charging. (If you are very good at soldering, you could fix it. Sadly, I'm not.)
https://www.pine64.org/2020/07/15/july-updatepmos-ce-pre-orders-and-new-pinephone-version/
(long post, search for "elephant")

Luckily, there is an optional serial connection via the Audio port(*). Pine64 is selling cables, or you can build one yourself. The folks over at postmarketOS list the specs:
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/PINE64_PinePhone_(pine64-pinephone)

(*) Enable via dip switch