Help File Transfer Mode - where is it?

[Michael David]

My new Samsung S10 Plus (Android 9 - 2 days old) seems to be in an odd state. I work on a Mac and used the Android File Transfer app to access memory on my old Samsung S7 edge, but the Android File Transfer app seems unable to find the new phone at all. I assume that the usb setting is in the wrong state and I have been looking for the setting to change it to File Transfer Mode, but have been unable to find it anywhere in setup.

Typically on the S7 I would plug the phone into the Mac, tap on the resulting "charging" notice and that would open a dialog box for me allowing me to set the mode but I do not get the same "charging" notice on the S10 Plus and when I do press the notice that I get I do not get any way to set the transfer mode. How can I set the mode to File Transfer?

I have been thinking that I might need to reset the phone and start all over, but would prefer to not have to do that.

 

[Michael David]

My new Samsung S10 Plus (Android 9 - 2 days old) seems to be in an odd state. I work on a Mac and used the Android File Transfer app to access memory on my old Samsung S7 edge, but the Android File Transfer app seems unable to find the new phone at all. I assume that the usb setting is in the wrong state and I have been looking for the setting to change it to File Transfer Mode, but have been unable to find it anywhere in setup.

Typically on the S7 I would plug the phone into the Mac, tap on the resulting "charging" notice and that would open a dialog box for me allowing me to set the mode but I do not get the same "charging" notice on the S10 Plus and when I do press the notice that I get I do not get any way to set the transfer mode. How can I set the mode to File Transfer?

I have been thinking that I might need to reset the phone and start all over, but would prefer to not have to do that.

UPDATE:

I turned Developer Mode on and was able to set the default usb setting to File Transfer, but I still can not get my Mac to see the Android 9 device. It is not acting anything like my Android 8 (or Android 7) device before it and I do not know if even resetting the device would help. I guess I will try using a PC and see if that makes any difference.

 

[Hadron]

It might be worth checking that you have the latest Android File Transfer. After years of neglect Google updated it the other year, and once I updated my Pixel to Android 9 it would not work with the old version any more. The current version does with with 9.0 though.

 

[n0tall0wed]

I don't know if it's identical on Galaxy 10+ plus on my Note 9 I have to pull down the notification bar tap on usb connection and switch to another state and back to usb to grant Mac and Pc access to the files on my phone.

 

[Michael David]

It might be worth checking that you have the latest Android File Transfer. After years of neglect Google updated it the other year, and once I updated my Pixel to Android 9 it would not work with the old version any more. The current version does with with 9.0 though.

My current Android File Transfer app tells me this: Version 1.0.12 (1.0.507.1136)

What version are you using?

 

[Michael David]

I don't know if it's identical on Galaxy 10+ plus on my Note 9 I have to pull down the notification bar tap on usb connection and switch to another state and back to usb to grant Mac and Pc access to the files on my phone.

That is how it worked on my Samsung S7, but the S10 Plus is Android 9 and it does not allow me to do the same thing. When I plug in the phone I no longer get the same "charging" notification and, when I press the notice that I do get, all I get is an expanded changing notice. No dialog box that allows me to set the usb mode.

 

[Hadron]

My current Android File Transfer app tells me this: Version 1.0.12 (1.0.507.1136)

What version are you using?

Hmm, the same one. And I've just checked, that is the latest.

 

[n0tall0wed]

That is how it worked on my Samsung S7, but the S10 Plus is Android 9 and it does not allow me to do the same thing. When I plug in the phone I no longer get the same 'charging' notification and, when I press the notice that I do get, all I get is an expanded changing notice. No dialog box that allows me to set the usb mode.

Odd Note 9 is also on Android 9 and I still get it.

 

[Michael David]

Odd Note 9 is also on Android 9 and I still get it.

OK. Then there is not much left. Either my usb-c cable is not a data cable or there is something in the hardware that is causing an incompatibility or there is some odd setting on the phone itself.

I will order a new usb-c cable that I know is a data cable and I will reset the phone and start all over. Perhaps someone somewhere (and that includes me during the setup) changed some phone setting and a factory reset should take care of that. It will mean that I have to do all of the app installation again, but I do want this to work. As it is I can not even see the phone on my wife's PC so something is odd.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Michael David]

A soft reset fixed the issue. Apparently some setting was off and I could not figure out what or how to reset it, but a soft reset left all of my apps and data and I can not access the phone with Android File Transfer.

A lesson I have learned - be careful about changing settings.