[Banshee-List] Bonus Banshee Bit for Nov 4th 2011 - So your MTP device isn't showing up in Banshee

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Bonus Banshee Bit for Nov 4th 2011 - So your MTP device isn't showing
up in Banshee.

(This assumes you are using Linux as Banshee currently does not have
support for MTP devices on OS X or Windows)

What is MTP?

MTP is one of three common protocols used by portable players such as
mp3 players or modern phones to communicate with applications such as
Banshee. The other two being MSC, USB Mass Storage where your device
shows up in the same manner as if it was a USB stick and AppleDevice
which is only used by Apple devices. While MSC is currently the most
used protocol as of Android 3.0 it is the default protocol used by
Android devices and is thus expected to see increased use in the near
future.

How do I know if my device uses MTP?

Typically your device will have a setting to select MTP which is a
darn good indicator, another great way is to use the mtp-detect
utility typically found in the mtptools package on your Linux
installation. Another great way is by exclusion, if your device is
made by Apple it is using Apples own protocol and if it shows up like
a USB stick would when plugged in it is very likely using MSC.

How do you categorize your MTP problem?


There are generally 3 categories of MTP issues. Banshee being locked
out from accessing the device by gvfs-gphoto, libmtp doesn't know your
device and finally It's Banshee's fault.

Determining if gvfs-gphoto is at fault.
-----------------------------

1) Quit banshee
2) Plug the MTP device in
3) Wait 10-15 seconds for it to be auto-mounted (assuming your system does
actually automount MTP devices)
4) Start banshee up
5) See if your device shows up in Banshee

If your device which previously did not show up in Banshee now does
you are affected by the following gvfs-gphoto bug and there is nothing
the Banshee developers can do to help you.

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=627698
The only way your device is ever going to work properly is if the
gvfs-gphoto developers fix that problem. Sorry, not our fault.

Determining if libmtp knows your device
-----------------------------

1) Quit banshee
2) Plug in your MTP device
3) Run the "mtp-detect" command which is normally part of the "mtp-tools"
package
4) See if it correctly detects and accesses your device. If it does, start up
banshee now and see if the device works.

If your device is not correctly detected your only hope is to file a
bug against libmtp and sorry there is nothing the Banshee developers
can do to help you till libmtp supports your device.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=158745&atid=809061

Defaulting to, it's actually Banshee's fault.
-----------------------------

If your device is known by libmtp and it still does not show up in
Banshee this is (most likely) Banshee's fault. In this case you are
requested to file a bug (www.banshee.fm/file-bugs). Please do include.

1) A Debug log (https://live.gnome.org/Banshee/CommonQuestions/Logs)
2) The output of udevadm info --export-db
3) The output of gvfs-mount --list
4) The exact make and model of your device

These same instructions are useful for filing bugs where Banshee does
not function as expected with your MTP device, e.g. music not being
correctly transferred when synchronizing your device.

With thanks to Alan McGovern who has spent many hours fixing portable
devices on Banshee and who provided the initial outline for this Bonus
Bit.