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When connecting Android 3.0+ devices to Ubuntu 13.04 file transfers usually work fine in Nautilus but using the command line is not at all obvious. No filesystem mount point is apparent and Nautilus displays the "location" (usually the mount point) as something like mtp://[usb:002,003]/ if it displays at all. You can also see the location by executing gvfs-mount -l. Under the covers, Ubuntu uses gvfs for mounting the mtp filesystem that Android exposes. A gvfs mounted mtp share should be accessible from /run/user/<username>/mtp:host=<encoded string>. However, a gvfs bug in 13.04 (and likely earlier versions) will display indecipherable numbers instead of file objects at that location. A newer version of gvfs fixes this problem. Execute

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

In Nautilus unmount and remount your mtp share. The listing under /run/user/<username>/ should now list with proper filenames.

Hat tip to bessman for Where are MTP mounted devices located in the filesystem?. I filled in some steps that beginners may not know about.

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  • Not sure I went about this correctly since it was really an answer to an unasked question. Oct 16, 2013 at 20:22
  • I'm facing the same issue with my ASUS FonePad7 tablet & Ubuntu13.04 laptop. Your post is a solution to that. I will try & hope it works. Thank you!
    – Ravi
    Apr 20, 2014 at 20:00
  • I ran the 3 commands you listed on my Ubuntu1 3.04 but to no avail. I unmounted & remounted but still showing numbers rather than names for the files.
    – Ravi
    Apr 26, 2014 at 7:24
  • I wish I could help you with this but I really did not know what I was doing. I assume you rebooted. 13.10 is out now so if you can upgrade it may be a better solution. Apr 27, 2014 at 8:07
  • No I didn't reboot. I simply unmounted & remounted. O.K. I will again check. I'm shortly upgrading my O.S. to either 13.10 or 14.04
    – Ravi
    Apr 27, 2014 at 9:14

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