Samsung Galaxy S8 Phone device on PC has no contents "this folder is empty"

[YouCanCallMeMO]

When I plug my phone into my PC, a device labeled "SAMSUNG-SM-G955U" is displayed along with the disks under "This PC", but when I click on the Samsung device's icon, it says "this folder is empty". What can I do to get it to display the phone's directory structure?

 

[YouCanCallMeMO]

Follow up: The Samsung support page said to install and run an app called SideSync on my phone. Once I did that, I was able to see my phone's files. I used to have a Samsung Galaxy S5 Active, and running an app to connect to a PC wasn't necessary.

 

[JAy3001]

It sounds like you needed to simply select the correct connection type when you connected your phone.

Normally the first time you plug your phone in Windows detects it and installs the driver for it, once complete it will notify you.

Once this is done, if you simply let it connect all you will see is the root folder that appears to be empty. (As you saw)

To resolve this make sure your phone is unlocked before you connect it. Once connected pull down the status bar on your phone and select file transfer or the like under USB settings.

Now with my S8+ I no longer have to pull the menu down as (if my phone is unlocked) a popup will display in the center of my screen asking if I wish to share my files, a quick touch on ok and my phone is connected.