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Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,055
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
Most of the newer Android devices now require the use of MTP to transfer stuff to and from the device and the Android File Transfer program is a PITA to get working for some. So I'll show you how I handle it.

Setup

First off, you'll need to enable the Development options on your phone:

Gingerbread (Android 2.3):

Settings> Applications> Development> USB Debugging

Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0):

Settings> Developer Options> USB Debugging

Jelly Bean (Android 4.1):

Settings> Developer Options> USB Debugging

Jelly Bean (Android 4.2):

Scroll to the bottom and find your About Phone page. Scroll down to the Build Number and hit it 7 times and it should tell you that Development is now enabled.

On the Kindle Fire HD, it's under Security> Enable ADB

Next, you'll want to download the Android SDK tools here:

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

Scroll down and click USE AN EXISTING IDE and download the package. Unzip it, and then drag the folder into your Documents. Rename it to "Android SDK".

To finish, you'll need to add it to your path:

Open the Terminal app (it's under Utilities in your Application folder if you don't know) and type:

Code:
open -a TextEdit .bash_profile

(If it's not there, "touch .bash_profile" will create it)

This will open up TextEdit and the .bash_profile file. You'll want to type:

Code:
export PATH="/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Documents/Android SDK/platform-tools/":$PATH

Change YOURUSERNAME to whatever your home folder is.

After you've quit and restarted Terminal, try and see if it works by simply typing:

Code:
adb

It should come up with a bunch of commands and such and NOT "-bash: adb: command not found".

Usage

You'll get used to the commands very quickly. :D I usually just drag the file in so I don't have to change directories beforehand.

To install an app, it's just install:

Code:
adb install yourapp.apk

To push a file or folder, use push:

Code:
adb push whateveryouwant /sdcard/

If you want to pull photos or backups, you'd use pull:

Code:
adb pull /sdcard/Pictures/

And this is how to do a screenshot:

Code:
adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png
adb pull /sdcard/screen.png
adb shell rm /sdcard/screen.png

It takes it, pulls it to your home folder, and then deletes it from your SD card.

Common Structure

And finally, here are the common media folders:

Code:
/sdcard/Music/
/sdcard/Podcasts/
/sdcard/Ringtones/
/sdcard/Alarms/
/sdcard/Notifications/
/sdcard/Pictures/
/sdcard/Movies/
/sdcard/Download/

If you're paranoid about someone being able to plug your device in and mess with the settings, well don't, because it was easy enough for anyone to do it anyway. :D But you can easily turn it on and off if needed.
 
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