Galaxy Nexus (MTP, phone) and Xoom (MTP, tablet) don't show up in Banshee

[Martijn vdS]

I have a new phone, but it doesn't show up in Banshee. I've even recompiled libmtp to add the device ID, but that didn't help.

As the same thing happens with my Xoom tablet (also an Android device), which is included in the "unpatched" libmtp, I think this is a Banshee bug.

The MTP plugin is enabled.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: banshee 2.2.1-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-13.22-generic 3.0.6
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Nov 25 19:45:32 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Alpha amd64 (20110803)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=nl_NL.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: banshee
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

Strange, it looks like Banshee's MTP extension doesn't even notice your phone getting connected.

[Robin Sheat (eythian)]

I have the same thing with rhythmbox on the galaxy nexus. I can manually mount it using mtpfs just fine, but the rhythmbox MTP plugin doesn't notice that it's there.

[Martijn vdS (martijn)]

That problem disappears once the Galaxy Nexus is added to libmtp's device list. But as far as I understant it, Banshee has code that should pick up any device that's picked up by mtp-detect.

[Felipe Castillo (fcastillo.ec)]

Is there a workaround for this while a patch or a fix gets in its way? I really want to sync my phone with Banshee...

[Christian Kampka (kampka)]

@6
Adding the phone to libmtp is not the solution because libmtp is not really the problem.
Just put your phone into USB Debug Mode. That changes the device ID and libmtp will detect is as a Galaxy Tab 10.1, but banshee still does not know it. The problem seems to be with GIO which doesn't seem to recognize the phone as a new device.

[Shannon VanWagner (shannon-vanwagner)]

To have banshee see your Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Android):
Close out of banshee completely.
Plug in your phone and open the root folder (select open folder on plug-in prompt)
Create an empty file, rename it to ".is_audio_player" (no quotes)

Works for me...

Credit: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/01/banshee-doesnt-show-android-fix/

Also, if you're looking to open your Samsung Galaxy Nexus with gMTP, checkout this link:
http://www.humans-enabled.com/2011/12/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-nexus-mtp.html

[Omega (atrauzzi)]

This affects me, Galaxy Note in Canada. Plug in, no phone in Banshee.

[Martin Stjernholm (msub)]

I have these symptoms, but the .is_audio_player suggestion does not work for me. libmtp 1.1.2, banshee 2.2.1. The banshee debug log does not say anything useful:

[1 Debug 18:55:30.868] Delayed Initializating Banshee.Dap.DapService
[1 Debug 18:55:30.872] Dap support extension loaded: Banshee.Dap.MassStorage
[1 Debug 18:55:30.872] Dap support extension loaded: Banshee.Dap.AppleDevice
[1 Debug 18:55:30.873] Dap support extension loaded: Banshee.Dap.Mtp
[1 Debug 18:55:30.874] Delayed Initializating Banshee.Daap.DaapService
[3 Debug 18:55:30.879] Refreshing any podcasts that haven't been updated in over an hour
[4 Debug 18:55:31.007] DAAP Proxy listening for connections on port 8089
[1 Debug 18:55:31.882] Finished - Startup Job

mtp-detect shows the device just fine.

[Phillip Whelan (pwhelan)]

Will this ever get dealt with? Support for Galaxy Nexus tables and android phones is abysmal right now on Ubuntu because of libmtp. When will this get fixed. Has anyone even looked into the code to see what is happening?

[Chow Loong Jin (hyperair)]

On 28/02/2013 06:22, Phillip Whelan wrote:
> Will this ever get dealt with? Support for Galaxy Nexus tables and
> android phones is abysmal right now on Ubuntu because of libmtp. When
> will this get fixed. Has anyone even looked into the code to see what is
> happening?

It's fixed in raring. You can test it by using the backported gvfs and libmtp
packages in http://launchpad.net/~langdalepl/+archive/gvfs-mtp. No changes in
Banshee are needed.

The issue with Banshee is that it requires raw libmtp access to the phone, but
the gphoto backend automatically grabs hold of it and doesn't let it go even
when told to unmount. The new mtp backend in gvfs fixes that. Additionally, a
bug in libmtp resulted in libmtp not being able to reopen a device that was
released without physically unplugging and plugging it back in. The new libmtp
fixes that.

You'll also find that after upgrading, you will be able to access your phone
storage via nautilus.

  affects ubuntu/banshee
  status invalid

  affects ubuntu/gvfs
  status fixreleased

  affects ubuntu/libmtp
  status fixreleased

--
Kind regards,
Loong Jin