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Olga Weis
Jan 18, 2023
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Older Android devices support USB mass storage mode for transferring files from and to a computer whereas modern devices use Android MTP transfer mode. Since MTP has become part of modern devices, it would be nice to find out all the nuances. In the article we will try to understand as much as possible about “What is an MTP connection on android?”, and how to work with it. So let’s start with the beginning.
MTP stands for Media Transfer Protocol. If you enable MTP on Android, the latest appears to the computer as a multimedia device. The Media Transfer Protocol has been widely advertised as a standardized protocol for transferring audio files to digital music players using Windows Media Player and similar applications. Android MTP mode was designed to allow other media player companies to compete with Apple's iPod and iTunes.
The Android MTP protocol works very differently from a simple USB stick. MTP does not work at the file level but at the file system of your Android device. Your Android device does not share your entire Windows storage device. Instead, when you connect a device to a computer, the computer asks for the device, and the device responds with a list of files and directories it offers.
If the computer wants to download a file, it sends the file to the device, and the device decides to save it. When you delete a file, your computer sends a “please delete this file” signal to the device, and the device can delete it. Android can select the files it gives you and hide system files so you can't see or change them. If you try to delete or edit a file that cannot be changed, the device will reject the request and you will see an error message.
When you connect your phone via a USB cable most likely you will get charge only mode. To enable on Android file transfer MTP mode, you need to follow these simple steps.
On your phone, tap “Connected as ...” on Android 4.4–6.0 or “USB Charging” on Android 7.0–9.0.
Select the line "Media device (MTP)" or "File transfer" according to your version of Android.
MacOS is a standalone solution that doesn't include MTP support at all making it impossible to connect your Android devices to your computer without third-party apps. So how to make friends between Android MTP Mac?
To deal with this issue we recommend you – Commander One. It is undoubtedly a very functional file manager for Mac computers, the key feature of which is connecting Android and iOS devices to Apple computers for subsequent file exchange. So how to connect your Android to Mac via Commander One? Follow this simple instructions:
Download Commander One and launch the program.
Enable MTP on Android (File transfer mode) by switching from charging mode to it.
In most cases, MTP is the best mode for transferring digital music as it is optimized for transferring media related files, including metadata. In fact, Android MTP transfer mode doesn't allow anything to be synchronized, which simplifies the user experience.
