MTP issues with Fenix 5 Plus on Debian

Which Debian version(s) did you use?

Using Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 4, I was able to successfully copy three albums (in three separate folders) folder of music to my fēnix 5 Plus.

This is a more-or-less default install of LMDE4 and libmtp-common, libmtp-runtime and libmtp9 are version 1.1.16-2 but mtp-tools is not installed. (LMDE 4 is running in a VMware Workstation VM on a Windows 10 Pro 20H2 host.)

Hi Scillonian

So far I tried this on a Debian Stretch and Buster. Everything used to work perfectly (although slowly) on my Stretch distrib with an outdated libmtp  1.1.13.1 and jmtpfs

Last weekend I tried about every option to copy files to my fenix then gave my brand new Buster distrib. With or without mtp-tools installed, I was never able to copy any mp3 to my Fenix 5 using jmtpfs.

All I was able to do was to copy a MP3 file at the root of the music folder using mtp-tools but I couldn't choose either a filename or location.

What software are you using to copy files to your watch ? Is it mounted as a drive or used directly in some music management software ?

Thanks for your help

Hi toitoinou

LMDE 4 'Debbie' is based on Debian 10 'Buster' and uses the Cinnamon desktop environment.

toitoinou said:

What software are you using to copy files to your watch ?

I used the Cinnamon default file manager Nemo. I have the music source folder open in one tab and the destination Music folder on the watch open in another tab. I just drag-and-drop between source and destination. (Copy speed is around 2.6 megabyte/second.)

toitoinou said:

Is it mounted as a drive or used directly in some music management software ?

The watch appears to mount as USB mass storage device but the OS is aware that it is an MTP device. LMDE 4 uses gvfs to handle MTP devices. The mount path shown in Nemo was something like mtp://<device-id-string>/primary/Music from memory.

This was the first time I have ever connected the watch to Linux. Normally I only connect the watch to the PC for manual beta firmware updates and about once a month for a backup. I rarely use audio on the watch — either directly copied using Windows Explorer or the Amazon Music app.

Hi Scillonian

Thanks a bunch for your input. I'll look into gvfs

Looking at all the dependencies, I gave up trying to install it.

It seems like this is the way to go

I'm using Ubuntu and gmtp works very well, it is available for Debian too. Mostly I use the Thunar file manager though, easier to create directories. (desktop env is Xfce).

Hi toitoinou

What desktop environment are you using?

Is your Debian box a different machine to your Windows box?

Do you use the same watch USB cable for both Windows and Debian?

Out of curiosity I just tried the watch with the current stable Debian 10.5 Cinnamon and Mate Live Install ISO images in a VMware Workstation VM and was able to copy media to the watch.

Hi Scillonian

So far I tried two native linux boxes, one installed with debian stretch and the other with buster. I don't use any GUI, only commandline.

jmtpfs used to work perfectly in the past. Now only mtp-tools will allow me to copy a file (I tried everything else) but the chosen name will not be taken into account.

I tried two different cables and both work on windows

I tried installing the latest mtp libs and binaries (1.1.17-3)  from the repo but I still get the input/output error

My guess is that there is an issue with the way the watch closes the transfer (copying the temp file stored on the watch to its final destination)

The only thing I haven't tried so far is to factory reset the watch but I prefer waiting one more firmware before trying that.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for your help. Now I'm sure I elliminated every possible option and I need to focus on the fenix itself

Hi toitoinou

toitoinou said:

My guess is that there is an issue with the way the watch closes the transfer (copying the temp file stored on the watch to its final destination)

I think this may be a command line specific issue.

While charging the watch last evening connected to an old Dell laptop, that can boot both Windows 10 Pro (20H2) and LMDE 3, I did some testing. From Windows 10 [GUI] Explorer, things worked as expected. From LMDE 3 [GUI] file manager Nemo, things worked as expected.

However, using a terminal windows from the Cinnamon desktop the only operations I could perform on the watch were to create a folder (mkdir <folder-name>), rename a folder (mv <folder-name> <new-folder-name>), and delete a folder (rm -r <folder-name>). Any operations to create new files or rename existing files would result in an error message (mostly of the permission denied or object does not exist type).

Next time I'm charging the watch from the laptop I'll boot from a Parted Magic USB key that has a boot to command line only option and if the watch mounts and what I can do with it.

toitoinou said:

The only thing I haven't tried so far is to factory reset the watch but I prefer waiting one more firmware before trying that.

If it is the MTP itself that is not implemented properly on the watch, then I doubt a factory reset will help.

Thanks again Scillonian for all your help

This weekend I'll try to find my old raspberry and install a brand new distribution and make some tests. If this is indeed a command-line specific issue then this may be related to fuse and I may be able to tweak its config.

Have a nice evening

This doesn't help solving your problem, but I'm using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed and KDE. There I just plug in my Fenix 5+, let the normal device notifier mount my 5+ and use Dolphin (the KDE file manager) to copy files to and from the watch (and delete them). I've never had any problems, and it's even quite fast. Just yesterday I copied a map file size of several gigabytes in a couple of minutes.