Thanks all for looking into my problem.
I think you are all correct it does seem to be the micro usb port on the phone. I have eliminated all other cable issues and computer usb connectors by flashing a table to UBports.
I have ordered a new phone usb board which I hope will fix the hardware problem.
I feel a little less Ignorant now!

Thanks for that info.
All my USB ports are 2.0 on a Think Pad T410. I have 4 of them which I have tried.
I have tried multiple cables so I doubt that is the cause.
Your comment that it sounds like a USB problem though has started me thinking it could be dirty contacts. I am not sure how to clean them but I may try some contact cleaning spray with the phone switched off.
I did seem to get a different result the last time I tried to flash the phone. No failure outputs but the process ended with <waiting for device> and then the phone booted itself into yet another new copy of the OTA 15. I still have <waiting for device> on the terminal with no additional output.
I am beginning to wonder if the OTA 15 is the only version on the Magic-device-tool and there is no UBport version there at all. I choose the only options it offers except back to main menu which is Legacy.

Using the first method I get the following terminal output:-

Detecting device

75HABLL6L4CS fastboot
Device detected !

Flashing legacy channel

Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 738197504
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 7520
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 2816
Label:
Blocks: 180224
Block groups: 6
Reserved block group size: 47
Created filesystem with 11/45120 inodes and 5847/180224 blocks
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 1.041s]
sending 'cache' (13424 KB)...
OKAY [ 5.735s]
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 1.035s]
finished. total time: 7.811s
Creating filesystem with parameters:
Size: 838860800
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 7328
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 3200
Label:
Blocks: 204800
Block groups: 7
Reserved block group size: 55
Created filesystem with 11/51296 inodes and 6651/204800 blocks
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 1.040s]
sending 'userdata' (14952 KB)...
FAILED (data transfer failure (Protocol error))
finished. total time: 4.777s
rebooting into bootloader...
FAILED (command write failed (Protocol error))
finished. total time: 0.101s

sending 'recovery' (13704 KB)...
FAILED (command write failed (Protocol error))
finished. total time: 0.000s
2017/09/09 22:46:36 Device is |arale|
2017/09/09 22:46:36 Flashing version 10 from ubports-touch/legacy channel and server http://system-image.ubports.com to device arale
can't flash recovery image

Move to your device to finish the setup.

Cleaning up..

Exiting magic-device-tool. Bye Bye
phil@phil-ThinkPad-T410:~/magic-device-tool$

The phone says:-

=> Fastboot....
Erase EMMC Time 31ms vol:23812822KB/s
USB Transferring...
USB Transmition OK Time 5675ms Vol:2422KB/s
cashe Writing Flash....
write Flash OK Time 451ms Vol:30480KB/s
EraseEMMC Time 428ms Vol:9690753KB/s
USB Transferring....

At which stage I will leave it over night and have a re install of OTA 15 Ubuntu Touch.

What am I doing wrong?

Hi
Using the second method I get the following terminal output:-

2017/09/09 22:01:19 Device is |arale|
2017/09/09 22:01:19 Flashing version 1 from 15.04/stable channel and server http://system-image.ubports.com to device arale
can't flash recovery image

On the phone I get:-

read USB error

I have also used the first method without success.

That doesn't happen to me. I just get a message, unable to mount MX4.

I think it's a computer thing but I am not sure.

Thanks for the reply.
The reason for the multiple post is that the questions are different. As yet the question for"how to mount the phone" hasn't been addressed.
In answer to your questions.
I have tried multiple cables which mount other phones like my Nokia N9
On the subject of previous post, I have tried both porting methods.
My phone has been in developer mode as per instructions.

I need a method to make the computer see the phone, it does occasionally does see it for say 1% of the time. I have looked on other Ubuntu forums for an answer to this and there are some alledged fixes but none have worked for me.

Going back to the porting problem, do the commands on the UBports website work on a Windows computer as well as a Linux one.

Thanks for looking into my problem

Regards

I

Hi
Is there anyone out there who knows of a solution to the problem of an MX4 Ubuntu phone being unmountable on a Ubuntu computer.
This seems to be the problem stopping me port my phone to UBports version of Ubuntu Touch.

Thanks for the replies.
No Logo on start up and still OTA15 so I am still on the old Ubuntu Touch I guess.
Maybe I'll try using a Windows computer instead unless anyone can tell me how to get my Ubuntu 17:04 to mount my phone.

Hi
My MX4 Ubuntu Edition won't mount on my Ubuntu 17.04 laptop. When I tried to port to UBports I seem to have just reinstalled Ubuntu Touch. I can't see any sign that my new install is the UBports version.
I then tried to install the UBports store but this failed because the device couldn't be detected.
I think the reason is down to my failure to mount the phone in the first place.
I have gooled the problem and tried a couple of fixes when I can understand them and nothing seems to work.
Any advice would be nice.
As my name implies I am not much of a computer buff so please don't assume I have much knowledge.

Hi Stefan
Thanks for the answer, I can't see any logo so I guess no upgrade just a reinstall. I have the problem that I can't mount my MX4 which is probably why it didn't upgrade. I guess I must fix that problem before moving onto another attempt to upgrade.
I can't install the UBports store which I assume is another sign that I have been unsuccessful.