How do I access MTP devices on the command line in Windows?
up vote
60
down vote
favorite
Most MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices show up in Windows File Explorer under their device name or a GUID, but they don't have a drive letter assigned.
How can I access the files on such devices from the command line? Using either cmd.exe or PowerShell.
windows command-line mtp
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
add a comment |
up vote
60
down vote
favorite
Most MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices show up in Windows File Explorer under their device name or a GUID, but they don't have a drive letter assigned.
How can I access the files on such devices from the command line? Using either cmd.exe or PowerShell.
windows command-line mtp
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
2
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
2
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08
add a comment |
up vote
60
down vote
favorite
up vote
60
down vote
favorite
Most MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices show up in Windows File Explorer under their device name or a GUID, but they don't have a drive letter assigned.
How can I access the files on such devices from the command line? Using either cmd.exe or PowerShell.
windows command-line mtp
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
Most MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) devices show up in Windows File Explorer under their device name or a GUID, but they don't have a drive letter assigned.
How can I access the files on such devices from the command line? Using either cmd.exe or PowerShell.
windows command-line mtp
windows command-line mtp
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
edited Apr 16 '17 at 1:16
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
asked Dec 20 '11 at 19:52
Peter Hahndorf
8,53453658
8,53453658
2
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
2
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08
add a comment |
2
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
2
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08
2
2
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
2
2
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
up vote
24
down vote
accepted
Unfortunately, APIs exposed by MTP are very different from a normal filesystem APIs. Therefore exposing MTP device as a read/write filesystem is not possible. The main reason:
Wikipedia says:
Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.
Your common file copy program just opens a source and a target file, and copies data in chunks from the source file to the target. This won't work with MTP, since you need to use MTP special functions, and generic filesystem primitives (read, seek, write) are not available.
There are also other limitations. For example, the number of files that can be read or written simultaneously on an MTP device is severely limited. The device simply does not behave like a filesystem.
I suppose read-only filesystem driver for an MTP device might be possible, but because of the problems outlined above, it will be of very little use, so nobody bothered to create it.
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
You may be able to cobble something together with the MTP porting kit's MTPMon.
Alternatively, PowerShell can create COM objects and call their methods, so you may be able to use the APIs that Windows Explorer is using (for example, GetDeviceInfo() and GetObjectInfo()).
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
There is a proprietary (but still nice) program: MTP Drive (http://www.mtpdrive.com/index.html ) which allows you to "mount" MTP devices as drives in Windows. With some reasonable limitations it does the great job!
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
24
down vote
accepted
Unfortunately, APIs exposed by MTP are very different from a normal filesystem APIs. Therefore exposing MTP device as a read/write filesystem is not possible. The main reason:
Wikipedia says:
Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.
Your common file copy program just opens a source and a target file, and copies data in chunks from the source file to the target. This won't work with MTP, since you need to use MTP special functions, and generic filesystem primitives (read, seek, write) are not available.
There are also other limitations. For example, the number of files that can be read or written simultaneously on an MTP device is severely limited. The device simply does not behave like a filesystem.
I suppose read-only filesystem driver for an MTP device might be possible, but because of the problems outlined above, it will be of very little use, so nobody bothered to create it.
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
add a comment |
up vote
24
down vote
accepted
Unfortunately, APIs exposed by MTP are very different from a normal filesystem APIs. Therefore exposing MTP device as a read/write filesystem is not possible. The main reason:
Wikipedia says:
Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.
Your common file copy program just opens a source and a target file, and copies data in chunks from the source file to the target. This won't work with MTP, since you need to use MTP special functions, and generic filesystem primitives (read, seek, write) are not available.
There are also other limitations. For example, the number of files that can be read or written simultaneously on an MTP device is severely limited. The device simply does not behave like a filesystem.
I suppose read-only filesystem driver for an MTP device might be possible, but because of the problems outlined above, it will be of very little use, so nobody bothered to create it.
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
add a comment |
up vote
24
down vote
accepted
up vote
24
down vote
accepted
Unfortunately, APIs exposed by MTP are very different from a normal filesystem APIs. Therefore exposing MTP device as a read/write filesystem is not possible. The main reason:
Wikipedia says:
Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.
Your common file copy program just opens a source and a target file, and copies data in chunks from the source file to the target. This won't work with MTP, since you need to use MTP special functions, and generic filesystem primitives (read, seek, write) are not available.
There are also other limitations. For example, the number of files that can be read or written simultaneously on an MTP device is severely limited. The device simply does not behave like a filesystem.
I suppose read-only filesystem driver for an MTP device might be possible, but because of the problems outlined above, it will be of very little use, so nobody bothered to create it.
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
Unfortunately, APIs exposed by MTP are very different from a normal filesystem APIs. Therefore exposing MTP device as a read/write filesystem is not possible. The main reason:
Wikipedia says:
Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.
Your common file copy program just opens a source and a target file, and copies data in chunks from the source file to the target. This won't work with MTP, since you need to use MTP special functions, and generic filesystem primitives (read, seek, write) are not available.
There are also other limitations. For example, the number of files that can be read or written simultaneously on an MTP device is severely limited. The device simply does not behave like a filesystem.
I suppose read-only filesystem driver for an MTP device might be possible, but because of the problems outlined above, it will be of very little use, so nobody bothered to create it.
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
edited May 12 '12 at 6:33
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
8,326166184
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
answered Jan 10 '12 at 20:08
haimg
16.7k1568110
16.7k1568110
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
add a comment |
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
3
3
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
The read-only filesystem driver seems to exist now: ptpdrive.com
– Arne de Bruijn
Sep 12 '13 at 12:25
4
4
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
Actually, it's not "not possible". When you consider that I've got gphotofs and mtpfs as FUSE filesystems on Linux that're COMPLETELY Read/Write- its' quite possible to accomplish this as a "drive letter" under Windows...they've just not made it available or easy.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
You may be able to cobble something together with the MTP porting kit's MTPMon.
Alternatively, PowerShell can create COM objects and call their methods, so you may be able to use the APIs that Windows Explorer is using (for example, GetDeviceInfo() and GetObjectInfo()).
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
You may be able to cobble something together with the MTP porting kit's MTPMon.
Alternatively, PowerShell can create COM objects and call their methods, so you may be able to use the APIs that Windows Explorer is using (for example, GetDeviceInfo() and GetObjectInfo()).
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
You may be able to cobble something together with the MTP porting kit's MTPMon.
Alternatively, PowerShell can create COM objects and call their methods, so you may be able to use the APIs that Windows Explorer is using (for example, GetDeviceInfo() and GetObjectInfo()).
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
You may be able to cobble something together with the MTP porting kit's MTPMon.
Alternatively, PowerShell can create COM objects and call their methods, so you may be able to use the APIs that Windows Explorer is using (for example, GetDeviceInfo() and GetObjectInfo()).
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
edited Dec 11 '13 at 19:57
Peter Mortensen
8,326166184
8,326166184
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
answered May 12 '12 at 8:08
Arnshea
1193
1193
add a comment |
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
There is a proprietary (but still nice) program: MTP Drive (http://www.mtpdrive.com/index.html ) which allows you to "mount" MTP devices as drives in Windows. With some reasonable limitations it does the great job!
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
There is a proprietary (but still nice) program: MTP Drive (http://www.mtpdrive.com/index.html ) which allows you to "mount" MTP devices as drives in Windows. With some reasonable limitations it does the great job!
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
There is a proprietary (but still nice) program: MTP Drive (http://www.mtpdrive.com/index.html ) which allows you to "mount" MTP devices as drives in Windows. With some reasonable limitations it does the great job!
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
There is a proprietary (but still nice) program: MTP Drive (http://www.mtpdrive.com/index.html ) which allows you to "mount" MTP devices as drives in Windows. With some reasonable limitations it does the great job!
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
answered Oct 19 '17 at 15:19
barbalion
212
212
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
add a comment |
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
1. Can that synthetic MTP drive be feed to a common drive data recovery tools like EASEUS/Recuva/R-Studio and data be recovered effeciently? 2. Can I use robocopy/other fast data transfer tools to transfer data from that drive to windows native drives(C/D etc.) efficiently?
– SIslam
Aug 27 at 13:44
add a comment |
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2
The fact that the Linux MTP compatible implementations such as gphoto2 have a way to script uploading suggests that this should be possible on Windows somehow, assuming that Windows Media Player doesn't somehow block any other software from accessing the USB MTP interface... I too would like to know if this is possible.
– Mokubai♦
Dec 20 '11 at 22:00
2
I gave up trying to find a solution for this with my Android MTP device and ended up installing a WebDAV server on my device. This could be mounted as a network drive, albeit slowly.
– Mark Booth
Oct 14 '12 at 13:25
WebDAV...ugh... That's painful. It would work decently enough though. It's...surprising...to me that Windows can't seem to manage what Linux does out of box effortlessly. Oh, well.
– Svartalf
May 9 '14 at 19:57
@MarkBooth I tried the WebDAV server but it seems most of the files I transfer are corrupt (over 90%)...
– Michael
Dec 24 '16 at 18:20
Other solution for Android going the other way round, tweaking the connected device: 1, 2, 3.
– Frédéric
Jul 5 '17 at 11:08