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just got a lg g4 and need some help learning to do a few things.

steve knight

steve knight

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
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this is the first android device I have owned and I m getting it but somethings I have not worked out. I can't get my mac mini to see it or the free tablet that came with it. I have done searches and so far no go.
I have a bunch of audiobooks that I used attains to sync to my iPhone and used audible to listen to them. but without being able to access the phone on my mac I don't know how to get the audio files onto the phone and then to listen to them. I have google drive, dropbox, I can get them onto my windows machine at work then get them on the phone from there? I don't have to use audible to play them
 
so best to just stick with windows then? where do the books need to go to be able to have the apps find them? they will be on the sd card.
 
I don't use audible but with Mac or windows you can just drag and drop to whichever folder you want on your phone and the app will recognize the file automatically. You don't shouldn't have to do anything.
 
cool. I was trying to transfer my imessags to the android but I could never get my mac to find the phone. so pretty much gave up on that. most of the apps seems fine the one I use for bus schedules the one I used on my iPhone is really good compared to the android versions. but for the most part thats been about it.
 
Download Android File Transfer from Google.

It will allow you to drag and drop content on your Mac to your phone.

https://www.android.com/filetransfer/

Install, plug in the phone and hey presto it opens up in a window and displays the content of your device which you can drag & drop to and from. :)


---

After using Android for a while things will click into place. First few weeks can be both intimidating and most fun as you experiment with launchers / icon packs / widgets and so forth .... Eventually you'll find a setup that works for you and hopefully most apps will give similar experience between iOS/android. Enjoy :) remember - the grass may not be greener on the other side, but a change of grass/diet never did anyone any harm :)
 
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I did download the transfer app but it won't work because the Mac can't see the phone. Seems this is a issue a lot of people have
 
When plugging the phone into the computer, does a notification pop up asking what to do with USB connection? I think the default is to be used for File Transfer, but can also be set to act similar to a camera.

Have you seen whether this is just an issue with the G4 or an overall Android problem?
 
No notification that it's there same on my wife's mono dies it's with the tablet I got with the phone it seems a lollipop and current osx issue
 
steve knight said:
No notification that it's there same on my wife's mono dies it's with the tablet I got with the phone it seems a lollipop and current osx issue
Click to expand...
No I have three lollipop devices here right now (not Lg however) and they all work with Android File Transfer on both my MacPro and MacBook Pro. So it's not lollipop.

Can you try a different USB cable ?
 
Seems to be an issue with LG G4 and Mac.

Found this as a recommended solution

http://airmore.com/connect-lg-to-mac.html

And another poster suggests :-

Hi, If you're using a Mac and want to use android file transfer, i've find a solution to this issue with this soft and the LG G4... I am using OS X Yosemite and the LG G4 ... to allow Android File Transfer to access your smartphone, you need to go at the system preferences - login items - android file transfer agent (tick the box) and then restart your mac! Android file transfer should work after that :) hope this help
 
MRU said:
Seems to be an issue with LG G4 and Mac.

Found this as a recommended solution

http://airmore.com/connect-lg-to-mac.html
Click to expand...
ya thats what it seems I got the app but it won't show my sd card. not sure why I don't want to dump all the books on my phone memory. I can use dropbox to get the book onto the sd card but audible does not show it. does it need to be in the right directory? though they are mb4 files wonder if thats the issue?
 
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ok found out m4b is not a native format though I found a player that works with it. but it may be better to convert them and when I make more make them in the right format. when I plugged the phone into my windows computer I got a usb popup and was able to choose it to access files on mac and pc. so that may fix it I will check it when I get home.
 
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steve knight said:
ok found out m4b is not a native format though I found a player that works with it. but it may be better to convert them and when I make more make them in the right format. when I plugged the phone into my windows computer I got a usb popup and was able to choose it to access files on mac and pc. so that may fix it I will check it when I get home.
Click to expand...

Keep us posted. Could be useful for others who have a similar issue and go searching for an answer here :)
 
MRU said:
Keep us posted. Could be useful for others who have a similar issue and go searching for an answer here :)
Click to expand...
is there a way to access usb settings on the phone? glad I never bought ibook audiobooks.
 
steve knight said:
is there a way to access usb settings on the phone?
Click to expand...

Not sure on the LG. on HTC M9, Moto X 2014, Nexus 6 and Galaxy S6e you normally get an option in settings to change between PTP (camera mode) and MTP (media mode). This usually pops up in notification area automatically so I'm not sure why the G4 doesn't do this. I've only ever had an LG tablet not a phone, and the GPad 8 did this too.

One thing you could try is enabling USB debugging. Settings, about device, tap on build number till developer mode is enabled. The go into developer mode and turn on USB debugging to see if it makes any difference.
 
MRU said:
Not sure on the LG. on HTC M9, Moto X 2014, Nexus 6 and Galaxy S6e you normally get an option in settings to change between PTP (camera mode) and MTP (media mode). This usually pops up in notification area automatically so I'm not sure why the G4 doesn't do this. I've only ever had an LG tablet not a phone, and the GPad 8 did this too.

One thing you could try is enabling USB debugging. Settings, about device, tap on build number till developer mode is enabled. The go into developer mode and turn on USB debugging to see if it makes any difference.
Click to expand...
I did the debugging thing and that did not help. I never got the popup when plugging into the mac like I did not the pc. but now that it is set I will see what happens.
 
steve knight said:
I did the debugging thing and that did not help. I never got the popup when plugging into the mac like I did not the pc. but now that it is set I will see what happens.
Click to expand...

Yeah you won't get a pop up on your mac about it - but google android file transfer is supposed to auto launch and detect the plugged in device. :(
 
ok after changing the usb setting when plugged into my windows computer now the android app popped up on my mac and the usb settings on the phone. though I may have missed the usb message in my ignorance because it popped up on my tablet too now.
 
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steve knight said:
ok after changing the usb setting when plugged into my windows computer now the android app popped up on my mac and the usb settings on the phone. though I may have missed the usb message in my ignorance because it popped up on my tablet too now.
Click to expand...
As long as it's opening on both we won't worry about that :)
 
s0nicpr0s said:
When plugging the phone into the computer, does a notification pop up asking what to do with USB connection? I think the default is to be used for File Transfer, but can also be set to act similar to a camera.

Have you seen whether this is just an issue with the G4 or an overall Android problem?
Click to expand...
Lg g3 works fine on a iMac..
 
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