• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Android File Transfer for Mac

red66charger

Android Expert
Mar 1, 2011
793
384
Belleair Bluffs, FL
Apologies if this has been addressed previously, I did search for a solution first and had no luck.

My main computer at home is a Mac Pro running OS X.6.8 (Snow Leopard). It seems I had no issues using Android File Transfer with my Razr Maxx, but with my Droid Maxx connected to my Mac all of the files on the entire device have the same creation date - 12/31/69. Makes it very difficult copy specific files to the Mac.

Does anyone know if there is a fix for this issue? (other than dumping the Mac, that is ;))
 
The same time stamp problem is happening on my Mac running Lion (10.7.5). Maybe this is a KitKat issue with the phone?

I rarely connect my Mac to my phone (this is the first time since probably last October, and I really never paid attention to the timestamp of files before; that's why I wonder if it is a problem that started with KitKat.) There are many ways to connect the phone to the Mac other than by direct connection - Dropbox definitely support proper time stamps on files. (I use an app called Dropsync on the phone to set up two way and one way syncs from specific folders to my Dropbox account.)

Dropsync also has a service that works with Google Drive called Autosync for Google Drive.

Another method is to use the app AirDroid to connect to your computer using WiFi rather than USB.

Dropsync: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.dropsync
Autosync for Google Drive: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ttxapps.drivesync
AirDroid: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.airdroid

AirDroid may be your best bet, actually. That's what I would use, anyway. That Android File Transfer app is a kludge anyway. The old pre-ICS direct access method, where storage just mounted to the Mac as a removable device, was much much better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: red66charger
Upvote 0
I just tried BT connection from the Macbook to the phone. While that's another way to transfer files, you still get no visibility of file or folder timestamps. At least they're not set to zero time (that's the 12/31/69 date... Unix zero time is midnight Jan 1, 1970, at UMT, so they show 12/31/69 8:00:00 pm local time for me.)
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones