Dtyjlui

New problem with ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS only since upgrade of attached phone to Android 9 pie.

I run unbuntu on a desktop.

Occasionally I attach my phone via USB3 to copy photographs from the phone to be stored on ubuntu for editing etc.

Copying pictured worked fine with previous Android8, but seems to spin/loop since Android9 upgrade.

On the telephone, Android9 reacts to connection via USB by displaying "Allow Access" prompt, I choose Allow.
The phone USB settings are to use the USB for file transfer.

Recently the phone updated itself to Android 9 pie and since then when I attach the phone via USB to ubuntu, I am unable to copy anything. What happens is that the attaching of the phone causes the ubuntu launcher to show an icon that looks like a phone, with label 'Android'. The right-click menu for this icon shows 4 options: Open, Android, Unlock from launcher, Unmount. But if I choose either Open or Android the result is that the mouse-pointer changes into a spinning circle for around 20 seconds, and no message and no window appears. The spinning circle then disappears.

Notice that this issue only impacts my ubuntu, there is no issue if I use a Windows7 desktop instead, although I rarely use Windows and seek some workaround to allow Ubuntu to work again to copy photographs from the phone to ubuntu.

The phone is not rooted.

The cause may be suggested by the /var/log/syslog entries that appear when I attach the phone to a ubuntu usb3 port, although it's unclear why it would work with Android8 and fail with Android9.

Error 1: Get Storage information failed.

usb 3-2: USB disconnect, device number 27

usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 28 using xhci_hcd

usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=0fce, idProduct=01f1

usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3

usb 3-2: Product: Android

usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Sony

usb 3-2: SerialNumber: .........

mtp-probe: checking bus 3, device 28: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-2"

mtp-probe: bus: 3, device: 28 was an MTP device

org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[9794]: PTP: reading event an error 0x02ff occurredDevice 0 (VID=0fce and PID=01f1) is UNKNOWN in libmtp v1.1.10.

org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[9794]: Please report this VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team

org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[9794]: Android device detected, assigning default bug flags

gnome-session[9913]: (nautilus:19424): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_interface_skeleton_unexport: assertion 'interface_->priv->connections != NULL' failed

gnome-session[9913]: (nautilus:19424): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_interface_skeleton_unexport: assertion 'interface_->priv->connections != NULL' failed

After some time passed, the issue disappeared, which may be due to a combination of operating- system-update and whatever fixes came with ubuntu 16.04 .

The symptom disappeared after the manufacturer (in my case Sony) issued a software update to Android9, which I applied to the phone. However, many fixes had also arrived for Ubuntu so I cannot say which was decisive in fixing the issue.

A key detail is that the /var/log/syslog still shows the following (at current date), but Ubuntu 16.04 lets me open photographs on the Android9 device regardless of this error:

Jan 28 12:36:23 host mtp-probe: checking bus 3, device 7:
"/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb3/3-2"

Jan 28 12:36:23 host mtp-probe: bus: 3, device: 7 was an MTP device

Jan 28 12:36:23 host org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[7066]: PTP: reading event an
error 0x02ff occurredDevice 0 (VID=0fce and PID=01f1) is UNKNOWN in
libmtp v1.1.10.

Jan 28 12:36:23 host org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[7066]: Please report this
VID/PID and the device model to the libmtp development team

Jan 28 12:36:23 host gnome-session[7187]: (nautilus:30509):
GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_interface_skeleton_unexport: assertion
'interface_->priv->connections != NULL' failed

Jan 28 12:36:23 host gnome-session[7187]: (nautilus:30509):
GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: g_dbus_interface_skeleton_unexport: assertion
'interface_->priv->connections != NULL' failed

Jan 28 12:36:23 host gnome-session[7187]: (nautilus:30509):
Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_icon_theme_get_for_screen: assertion
'GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed

Jan 28 12:36:23 host gnome-session[7187]: (nautilus:30509):
GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

Jan 28 12:36:23 host gnome-session[7187]: (nautilus:30509):
GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_object: assertion
'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

Jan 28 12:36:23 host org.gtk.vfs.Daemon[7066]: Android device
detected, assigning default bug flags

In addition, I had reported to the lipmtp folks, the unknown VID/PID as suggested by the message above, and I was informed that the ID was in libmtp v1.1.14 (but my libmtp is still v1.1.10 in ubuntu 16.04), so there's more than one factor involved than the missing VID/PID.

In any case, check for updates to Android9 from the manufacturer, and check libmtp version.