Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

OK, I can't believe that this issue hasn't been raised before, but searching threads and checking the Wiki haven't helped, so I must not know the correct vocabulary for what I'm experiencing. Apologies and thanks in advance for bearing with me.

When I connect the N810 via USB to my MacBook, I get an "untitled" drive mounted in my laptop's finder. This untitled drive contains what appears to be the "internal memory card" (folders = backups, map, tmp and video)

What I would have *expected* to be able to browse, however, is my "snokia" volume which includes the Audio clips, Documents, Games, Images, video clips. Hubby suspects it might have something to do with the folder naming convention that uses a "." before the file name.

I am in the process of fixing the "file corruption issue" with my internal memory card, so I had thought I could just connect the USB to my laptop and move the (few) files I have stored over. I'm finding, however, that I can't browse to those folders from my laptop. I just did a backup to my Kingston memory card, and I can browse to *that* from the laptop when connected via USB (and I can physically eject it of course and then read the memory card directly in the laptop). I can also send my files to the laptop via blue tooth successfully.

So, I don't believe I'm in danger of losing any files and I have several options. It's just very confusing and unexpected that I can't navigate to my documents folder from the laptop through finder, since that's where most of the "meat" on my n810 resides.

Am I doing something wrong? Any suggestions would be appreciated. In the meantime, I'm backing up to the SD card, and to the internal card (just to be safe) and each of those backups I can see in finder to copy to my MacBook, so it's all good.

But, for just wanting to grab a single file or two, I'm finding it impossible via USB. Am I missing something? Is USB a "passe" way to move files, and I should instead be using SD cards and blue tooth?

Thanks! :)

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

you could try doing this:
1. open Terminal
2. type "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE" (without quotes)
3. type "killall Finder" (without quotes) to restart finder


Edit: scratch that, I bet you're trying to to see what is stored in flash. I'm on windows XP but I'm sure you could do the same.

I installed OpenSSH (server and client) on my N800 and then I just connect to my N800 using Filezilla (FTP client) using SFTP. (connect as root and use the password you typed when you installed openSSH). That way I dont have to use the usb cable at all, and I can easily browse the entire filesystem. By the way, the documents folder is: /home/user/MyDocs/.documents/

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

Thanks for that! (That's what hubby couldn't remember off the top of his head.) :)

Hmm.. doing that I do get a couple of extra folders appearing (.apt-archive-cache and .Trashes and .DS_Store) but strangely, not the documents etc.

Still plugging away at this...

I'm also noticing this, which maybe is going to be a "duh" revelation when someone tells me why it works this way, but right now doesn't make sense:

If the USB cable is connected, then in File Manager I can't see the "internal memory card" nor my SD card ("Kingston") As soon as I disconnect the USB, these two show right back up in File Manager.

What's the good reason for this that I'm not seeing? :)

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

The N810 has 256MB of onboard flash, where most files get stored. It also has a 2GB of additional flash (the internal memory "card"), where the maps get stored. The 256MB part is not normally accessible via USB.

To transfer a file off via USB, put it on the internal memory "card" first.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

It is correct that with the usb connection you can only see what is on the sd card, and that isn't where your home folder, i.e. the 'documents' 'images' folders etc. are. Do I understand it right that you backed up your documents on the sd card? If so just copy the backup to your Macbook and copy them back when you fixed the SD card.

Like Massiv says, if you want to access your 'documents' on the Tablet from your Macbook without the hassle of copying back and forth to the SD card, then install openssh on the tablet and connect by sftp. I don't know which applications on the mac support sftp though.

An easier method is to make a shared folder on your Macbook and access that from File Manager on the Internet Tablet via wi-fi.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

As Ace says, the USB cable only lets you see what's on the tablet's internal and/or external memory card, not on the smaller internal memory. (Internal memory is totally separate to the internal memory card, despite their similar names.)

If you want to put stuff onto a computer, move the files onto one of the cards using the file manager, THEN connect the tablet to the computer, and then it will be visible to the computer.


It's because they're in use by the Mac when you have them connected by USB. The tablet prevents you accessing them because the Mac is currently accessing them. When you disconnect the Mac, the tablet lets you use them again.

Really the USB cable only lets you access the cards, you're never accessing the tablet itself.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

Thanks everyone. It just didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to browse to the area where the documents are naturally stored. (I know I can change that when I save them, so that is another way to get around the problem.)

As I said, I can certainly get the files where they need to go in a variety of ways, just not in the way I was expecting it to work. Good to know this so that I at least stop attempting to navigate to those folders!

Thanks for entertaining this newbie question!

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

Cyberduck does. Well, others do to, but it has the right combination of usefullness and freeness.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

I use Transmit for SFTP on my mac. I think it's in the $30 range.

Always good to know of free backups, though! :)

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

It is a bit weird that the tablets behave this way, lots of people (myself included) made this same mistake when first using them.

Weirdly, Nokia's phones DO let you browse their internal memory when you connect them by USB cable, but that's probably because they use a special application called PC Suite that you can install on your computer. There's no similar app for the tablets though, and they don't work with PC Suite, so they effectively just act as memory card readers.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

given how the tablet unmounts the cards when you plug in the cable, its likely to be some limitation in linux.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

Nah, not a Linux limitation, mostly a spec, time, implementation and testing sort of deal. Nokiaprobably did't see it as a feature worth investing a lot of time in at this point. Which isn't unreasonable, as the implementation isn't particularly simple, and there isn't a lot of space to do thing with on internal, anyway.

Besides, there are plenty of ways to get to the rootfs without involving a USB cable, sftp or sshfs and FUSE are two very good options.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

Because Linux was not written for phones, it has to unmount the cards. This is because sane people do not want two OS's to write different data to the same place. So, the best way would be through sftp, because this is wireless (aka over WiFi), and its easy after you set it up. After installing OpenSSH on the tablet, I think you can use the built in "Connect to Server" dialog in OSX. Not very sure, because I have not used a Mac since school ended. In Ubuntu, the "Connect to Server" has sftp support, so probably OSX does as well.

Note: I know that you want to connect over USB, but this is over WiFi.

What I said is basically the opposite of this. You can use your Mac to access the tablet, instead of the tablet accessing the Mac.

Re: Connecting to laptop (mac os x in my case) via USB to browse files
 

When the tablet is hooked up to a PC via USB, it presents the memory cards as USB mass storage devices. That means the PC gets raw device access, below the filesystem level. So, the N8X0 cannot write to the card while hooked up via USB, since it'd confuse the attached PC and lead to data corruption.

It's conceivable that the N8X0 could maintain read-only access to the memory cards while hooked up via USB, but I expect it'd require a fair amount of programming, since two computers (N8X0 and PC) would be accessing the same raw device.