Unable to import photos from Samsung Galaxy Note 3

[Michael Sharman]

I'm having trouble accessing photos or files on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phone.

Plugging in phone and using Shotwell, then clikcing on the SMASUNG_Android camera cause a "Could not claim USB device (-53)" error, which when dismissed just displays a "Starting import please wait" message indefinitely.

In an attempt to figure out what is going wrong I've been using the mtp-detect command as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/1314556

So this is a log of what I've done:

(running kernel is 3.19.0-20-generic)

1. Unplug and plug in Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and get dmesg output:

[ 25.386168] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 2
[ 28.245983] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 28.375245] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=6860
[ 28.375247] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 28.375249] usb 1-2: Product: SAMSUNG_Android
[ 28.375250] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
[ 28.375251] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 2410ba56

2. Kill any gvfs processes that might interfere with with mtp-detect

msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ killall gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ killall gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor

3. Make sure phone is unlocked and run mtp-detect:
msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.
libmtp version: 1.1.8

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=6860) is a Samsung Galaxy models (MTP).
   Found 1 device(s):
   Samsung: Galaxy models (MTP) (04e8:6860) @ bus 1, dev 4
Attempting to connect device(s)
PTP_ERROR_IO: failed to open session, trying again after resetting USB interface
LIBMTP libusb: Attempt to reset device
LIBMTP PANIC: failed to open session on second attempt
Unable to open raw device 0
OK.

4. Check dmesg output:
msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ dmesg | tail
[ 28.375250] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
[ 28.375251] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 2410ba56
[ 88.552728] usb 1-2: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 88.681995] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731348
[ 88.681999] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731300
[ 88.682000] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731390
[ 217.756010] usb 1-2: reset high-speed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[ 217.885218] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731348
[ 217.885227] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731300
[ 217.885230] xhci_hcd 0000:00:14.0: xHCI xhci_drop_endpoint called with disabled ep ffff8800b8731390

It looks like there could be an xhci related kernel bug?

So I tried using a newer mainline kernel: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v4.0-vivid/linux-image-4.0.0-040000-generic_4.0.0-040000.201504121935_amd64.deb

With this kernel I get different dmesg output but the mtp-detect still fails (following the exact same procedure as above but I'm just showing the differences here)

(running kernel 4.0.0)

msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ mtp-detect
Unable to open ~/.mtpz-data for reading, MTPZ disabled.
libmtp version: 1.1.8

Listing raw device(s)
Device 0 (VID=04e8 and PID=6860) is a Samsung Galaxy models (MTP).
   Found 1 device(s):
   Samsung: Galaxy models (MTP) (04e8:6860) @ bus 1, dev 4
Attempting to connect device(s)
PTP_ERROR_IO: failed to open session, trying again after resetting USB interface
LIBMTP libusb: Attempt to reset device
inep: usb_get_endpoint_status(): No such device
outep: usb_get_endpoint_status(): No such device
libusb_open() failed!: No such device
LIBMTP PANIC: Could not init USB on second attempt
Unable to open raw device 0
OK.

msharman@laptop-msharman:~$ dmesg | tail
[ 212.229605] usb 2-2: Product: SAMSUNG_Android
[ 212.229608] usb 2-2: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
[ 212.229610] usb 2-2: SerialNumber: 2410ba56
[ 215.164011] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, device number 2
[ 215.503911] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 215.634182] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=6860
[ 215.634189] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 215.634193] usb 1-2: Product: SAMSUNG_Android
[ 215.634196] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
[ 215.634198] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 2410ba56

So upgrading to kernel 4.0 has done something it's fixed the xhci_hcd related errors but the mtp-detect is still failing (I've tried gphoto2 -L as well and got similar results).

But issue still remains.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: mtp-tools 1.1.8-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-20.20-generic 3.19.8
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Sun Jun 14 16:49:17 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-21 (966 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Beta amd64(20120926)
JournalErrors: Error: command ['journalctl', '-b', '--priority', 'warning'] failed with exit code 1: No journal files were found.
SourcePackage: libmtp
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to vivid on 2015-06-11 (2 days ago)