Moto G3 folder empty when connected to PC: how to fix?

[AC Question]

I've connected my phone to the PC.
The Motorola icon appears when I open the PC folder, but when I click on it, it says it's empty. This problem appeared after doing the system update. My phone is MotoG3.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Do you have MTP enabled?

 

[bafare]

I'm assuming you are running the lastest Android 6.0 Marshmallow. After you connect your phone to the computer, swipe down from top of the screen to get the notifications menu and you will have the option to tell the phone what to do (transfer files, transfer photos, or charge only) before the new update it was plug and play but now yu have to tell the phone what you would want to do before you see any files on the computer screen. That's probably something that would get fixed in a future update.

Posted via the Android Central App on Moto G3 16/2 on $35 Cricket wireless plan.

 

[acejavelin]

There is also the issue of it not being recognized after connected after an upgrade... it is quite common and has been mentioned multiple times.

First, disconnect the USB cable, then go to Settings->Apps and click the little overflow menu (3 dots in upper right) and select Show System, then find External Storage and Media Storage and Clear Data on both of those apps. Then reboot and wait 5 minutes after full boot for the media databases to rebuild. Not connect the USB cable and grab the pull-down and select USB and change it to MPT, should be good to go from now on.

 

[David Alfredo]

any news regarding Google Play Music not storing offline songs in the SD card (formatted as external, portable storage in Marshmallow) ?

 

[rlridgeway]

I had a issue of my chromebook not recognizing my phone's filing structure. I received an auto-update to the Chromebook today (to version 48) and the phone is now fully recognized by the chromebook. The issue seems to be resolved.

 

[Droidsilvs]

There is also the issue of it not being recognized after connected after an upgrade... it is quite common and has been mentioned multiple times.

First, disconnect the USB cable, then go to Settings->Apps and click the little overflow menu (3 dots in upper right) and select Show System, then find External Storage and Media Storage and Clear Data on both of those apps. Then reboot and wait 5 minutes after full boot for the media databases to rebuild. Not connect the USB cable and grab the pull-down and select USB and change it to MPT, should be good to go from now on.

I tried this and it ruined my phone it won't show up on my computer I waited 5 minutes and rebooted it never restored the caches and not my phone won't work properly if I grab the pull down it just says notifications and nothing more.

 

[David Alfredo]

I tried this and it ruined my phone it won't show up on my computer I waited 5 minutes and rebooted it never restored the caches and not my phone won't work properly if I grab the pull down it just says notifications and nothing more.

Acejavelin suggested rebooting then waiting 5-10 minutes, not waiting without rebooting... anyways, as always, you got to be careful with unofficial fixes... I preferred rolling back to 5.1.1 than having to apply "fixes" every 2-3 days due to Marshmallow being buggy in Moto G3, I guess you need to perform a factory reset now to put your device in order.

 

[acejavelin]

Acejavelin suggested rebooting then waiting 5-10 minutes, not waiting without rebooting... anyways, as always, you got to be careful with unofficial fixes... I preferred rolling back to 5.1.1 than having to apply "fixes" every 2-3 days due to Marshmallow being buggy in Moto G3, I guess you need to perform a factory reset now to put your device in order.

FYI... I did that fix once over 2 months ago, hasn't failed since and I use it several times per week.

I see you recommend to people to rollback to 5.1.1 quite a bit... I get that sometimes that is the best answer, but I would caution making that the "go to" answer for every problem. Motorola does not officially support downgrading, and there is potential of bricking the device, although it is minimal if you read and do the procedure correctly.

 

[David Alfredo]

FYI... I did that fix once over 2 months ago, hasn't failed since and I use it several times per week.

I see you recommend to people to rollback to 5.1.1 quite a bit... I get that sometimes that is the best answer, but I would caution making that the "go to" answer for every problem. Motorola does not officially support downgrading, and there is potential of bricking the device, although it is minimal if you read and do the procedure correctly.

if asked... I would suggest staying on 5.1.1.

I'm with you, downgrading is potentially risky so it's better to get a good read about Marshmallow be it general reviews or Moto G3 users feedback before upgrading, well that's common sense I guess. Sorry if you find my classic "5.1.1 is so good !" stance a bit too much while browsing these forums, I maybe need to easy a bit, it's just that the difference is so night and day in favor of 5.1.1 that I cannot forget about it when replying to some post, my fault I guess.

Also it's great the fix worked for you consistently, it also worked for me for some days and I thanked you for your help but regretfully I found no way to make the fix stick even with different devices (1 GB RAM and 2 GB RAM) different SD Cards... nothing, nada.

How is your "battery life" doing btw ? did you try another carrier for a couple of days ?

 

[Harshal AT]

my moto g3 connected wifi but why not
access internet

 

[vvlnmurthy]

Moto G3 folder empty when connected to PC: how to fix?

 

[acejavelin]

Moto G3 folder empty when connected to PC: how to fix?

Did you try post #4 in this thread?

http://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?p=4970202

 

[QwarkDreams]

my moto g3 connected wifi but why not
access internet

This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

 

[Patibandla_n]

Awesome. This worked for my Moto G4 Plus. Thanks

 

[acejavelin]

Awesome. This worked for my Moto G4 Plus. Thanks

Hmm... So Moto/Lenovo obviously hasn't fixed this either, awesome. I was only marginally impressed with the G4, this just bumped it down a notch.

 

[Chalky_white]

swipe down from top on phone and choose MTB option works for me, thanks! Strangely, in developer options, it's already set to that, perhaps it's connection specific? Moto G 3rd Gen with internal 16Gb storage

 

[acejavelin]

swipe down from top on phone and choose MTB option works for me, thanks! Strangely, in developer options, it's already set to that, perhaps it's connection specific? Moto G 3rd Gen with internal 16Gb storage

It is not connection specific... we really don't know why that setting is in Developer Options, as it doesn't seem to really do anything... since Marshmallow you must change the connection to MTP each time as a security measure, it is by design and clearly documented by Google in the AOSP source code.

 

[paininthenuts]

I'm assuming you are running the lastest Android 6.0 Marshmallow. After you connect your phone to the computer, swipe down from top of the screen to get the notifications menu and you will have the option to tell the phone what to do (transfer files, transfer photos, or charge only) before the new update it was plug and play but now yu have to tell the phone what you would want to do before you see any files on the computer screen. That's probably something that would get fixed in a future update.

Posted via the Android Central App on Moto G3 16/2 on $35 Cricket wireless plan.

I have tried that myself, but what ever folder I look in, it is always empty

 

[acejavelin]

I have tried that myself, but what ever folder I look in, it is always empty

The database is out of sync... MPT doesn't directly access the file system, it looks at the External Storage and Media Storage databases, they need to be rebuilt.

Disconnect USB then Go to Settings - Apps and tap the overflow menu and enable System Apps, find External Storage and Media Storage and clear data and cache on each one and reboot your device. Once it is fully booted, wait 10 minutes for the databases to be rebuilt and connect USB, then pull down the notification shade and change USB to MPT, should clear it up.