General help accessing Android phone

[jcravenw]

First off I apologize if this is the wrong forum to use; please let me know where to go if this isn't right.

I just bought a new MacBook Pro (a 2022 model, not sure which off hand) and a few weeks ago got a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE. I'm trying to get my new computer to be able to see my phone so I can access it's storage, but no matter what I try I can't get my Mac to recognize it.

I tried Android File Transfer but it just says there was an error reading the device, or something to that effect. I tried SideSync and that just seems to have backed up my data but ultimately didn't serve my purpose.

I made sure to choose the right USB option on the phone itself when I connected it, and through the limited success of SideSync I know the two devices are talking to each other, just not in the way that I want.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. As a really extreme case the only option I can think of offhand is to use something like VMWare (if that's still a thing, I hadn't used a Mac in like 7+ years until this week) and connect it via Windows.

Thanks in advance,

Jon

 

[flowrider]

I've always used AirDroid👍 Never had issues with it.

Lou

 

[zarmanto]

Step one: buy an iPhone...

Kidding, kidding. (Well... mostly.)

First off, exactly what data are you attempting to get synced from your phone to your computer? Because my first instinct is to suggest that you just log into your Google account in a web browser; much of the Android's account based data is already being synced to Google's cloud services, and can be accessed through their web apps.

Secondly, yes: VMWare Fusion is still a thing, as is Parallels Desktop -- though you should probably try Oracle's VirtualBox first, as it's the non-commercial option. And if your MBP is a 2022 model, that means it's an M-series computer, so you're going to need to grab the ARM version of Windows if you decide to go down that path.

 

[jcravenw]

Step one: buy an iPhone...

Kidding, kidding. (Well... mostly.)

First off, exactly what data are you attempting to get synced from your phone to your computer? Because my first instinct is to suggest that you just log into your Google account in a web browser; much of the Android's account based data is already being synced to Google's cloud services, and can be accessed through their web apps.

Secondly, yes: VMWare Fusion is still a thing, as is Parallels Desktop -- though you should probably try Oracle's VirtualBox first, as it's the non-commercial option. And if your MBP is a 2022 model, that means it's an M-series computer, so you're going to need to grab the ARM version of Windows if you decide to go down that path.

Thanks for the reply. Overall I find there are very few differences between iOS and Android (at least with regards to my usage and needs) but the deciding factor has been expandable storage. I can buy a 1TB SD card for my Android for $160ish, and you can't do that on an iPhone lol. And I doubt you ever will be able to.

Basically it comes down to music, both in terms of why I want an Android and that storage, and what I'm trying to access/transfer. I'm trying to migrate music off my old PC and on to my Mac, which is easy enough via external drives, but to sync stuff to my phone and/or manually manage my internal storage and SD card is where the complication lies. On my PC I can just plug my phone in, it shows up like an external drive, and away I go. My Mac will charge my phone, with SideSync or whatever I can back stuff up, but I can't access the internal storage.

Another user suggested AirDroid or whatever the app was called. I haven't had a chance to play with that yet, but overall that's my end goal. I believe I was able to do it eons ago when I had a 2009 MacBook and my Mac Mini a few years after that, but after the MacBook died and my Mini was stolen, I just bought a cheap Dell to get me by lol. I prefer Macs by far, except when it comes to the limitations of iOS as mentioned.

 

[NoBoMac]

AFT has been a bit hit or miss on Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/android-file-transfer.2247336/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/problem-with-android-file-transfer-big-sur.2286338/

 

[zarmanto]

Well, a quick google search seems to suggest that there are quite a few software tools out there which attempt to fulfill the precise need you've described... which of course implies that direct file access without a third-party tool isn't going to happen, as neither Apple nor Samsung has any incentive to make it easy for you.

You've obviously already done a bit of searching on your own; maybe try some more of the options on this list, and see how far that gets you? Bearing in mind of course that the top option is developed by the company which posted the page... so maybe take their bias into account as you go about trying the other free options first.