Since 2014, any time my phone fills up with photos/videos, I dump them as-is with no curation onto my PC. I name the folder "Phone Dump X, mm dd yyyy (phone model)" for archival reasons. This begins with "Phone Dump 1, 01 17 2015 (Galaxy S3)."
Today, I attempted another dump, titled "Phone Dump 12, 10 17 2025 (Galaxy Note 24)." However, because the files on my device were being "sync'd" according to Windows, the images/videos would transfer at rates between 8 mbps down to 10 kbps, and would eventually become totally unresponsive and stop during transfer.
What happened? The appeal of my android device was that it used to function as a flash drive. I could plug it into my PC and transfer files as quickly as my PC storage + USB-C cable would allow. But now, it feels like I'm stuck in the mud of several software layers whose intended purposes are a MYSTERY to me, truly, and whose implementations make my life much harder rather than better in any way.
To solve the slow data transfer speeds, I did the following:
(1) Disconnected and reconnected the cable [this was not sufficient]
(2) Ensured that I was using MTP (enabled by unlocking the phone during its USB-C connection and selecting "Transferring Files / Android Auto" under the USB settings) [this was not sufficient]
(3) Disabled "Link to Windows" on my Note 24 Ultra [this was not sufficient]
(4) Restarted my PC and reconnected the USB-C cable to my phone [this was not sufficient]
(5) Removed my phone as a linked Android device from my Windows PC [this was not sufficient]
(6) Enabled developer mode on my Note 24 Ultra so that I could change the default USB setting to 'Transferring Files / Android Auto' [this was not sufficient]
(7) Restarted my PC a second time and reconnected my phone after having followed each of these steps [this was not sufficient]
(8) Restarted my phone after having followed each of these steps [this was finally sufficient]
Only after I did all of those things was I able to access the file system of my phone as though it were a flash-drive rather than as though it were some sync'd cloud save. That ridiculous process frustrated the hell out of me and left my phone disconnected from Windows, all just to transfer files between two storage devices as I've done for years and years without issue... I've been an Android diehard for over a decade and this is an extremely discouraging development. If file transfer is going to be this difficult and convoluted in the future, I will swap platforms and will encourage others to do the same. I consider myself a reasonably savvy user - but imagine having to walk your aging parents or grandparents through this kind of nonsense just so they can preserve their taken photos/videos.
I further recommend that everybody avoid connecting your phone to your windows PC, as there are practically NO benefits but there are empirically several downsides to doing so. I created my account here just to post about this because I don't see the problem being discussed enough. Seriously, why the hell are we making accessing our own files more difficult?? Maybe somebody can help me understand whether this is due to oversight from Android or whether this was a shoddy experience delivered by Windows?
Today, I attempted another dump, titled "Phone Dump 12, 10 17 2025 (Galaxy Note 24)." However, because the files on my device were being "sync'd" according to Windows, the images/videos would transfer at rates between 8 mbps down to 10 kbps, and would eventually become totally unresponsive and stop during transfer.
What happened? The appeal of my android device was that it used to function as a flash drive. I could plug it into my PC and transfer files as quickly as my PC storage + USB-C cable would allow. But now, it feels like I'm stuck in the mud of several software layers whose intended purposes are a MYSTERY to me, truly, and whose implementations make my life much harder rather than better in any way.
To solve the slow data transfer speeds, I did the following:
(1) Disconnected and reconnected the cable [this was not sufficient]
(2) Ensured that I was using MTP (enabled by unlocking the phone during its USB-C connection and selecting "Transferring Files / Android Auto" under the USB settings) [this was not sufficient]
(3) Disabled "Link to Windows" on my Note 24 Ultra [this was not sufficient]
(4) Restarted my PC and reconnected the USB-C cable to my phone [this was not sufficient]
(5) Removed my phone as a linked Android device from my Windows PC [this was not sufficient]
(6) Enabled developer mode on my Note 24 Ultra so that I could change the default USB setting to 'Transferring Files / Android Auto' [this was not sufficient]
(7) Restarted my PC a second time and reconnected my phone after having followed each of these steps [this was not sufficient]
(8) Restarted my phone after having followed each of these steps [this was finally sufficient]
Only after I did all of those things was I able to access the file system of my phone as though it were a flash-drive rather than as though it were some sync'd cloud save. That ridiculous process frustrated the hell out of me and left my phone disconnected from Windows, all just to transfer files between two storage devices as I've done for years and years without issue... I've been an Android diehard for over a decade and this is an extremely discouraging development. If file transfer is going to be this difficult and convoluted in the future, I will swap platforms and will encourage others to do the same. I consider myself a reasonably savvy user - but imagine having to walk your aging parents or grandparents through this kind of nonsense just so they can preserve their taken photos/videos.
I further recommend that everybody avoid connecting your phone to your windows PC, as there are practically NO benefits but there are empirically several downsides to doing so. I created my account here just to post about this because I don't see the problem being discussed enough. Seriously, why the hell are we making accessing our own files more difficult?? Maybe somebody can help me understand whether this is due to oversight from Android or whether this was a shoddy experience delivered by Windows?
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram