But as a matter of fact, it’s the only method to implement Filesystem driver by now. Recently Apple declared Kernel-extensions obsolete. It extends the capabilities of macOS to understand different types of filesystems, e.g. It does not matter what a filesystem is, it is organized as a Kernel extension (or sometimes called driver), something like a plug-in for macOS kernel. It can be a filesystem on disk, a network filesystem, or like MTP some virtual filesystem (there are plenty of them, and they may provide different structured information in form of files and folders). There are a few variants of what is a filesystem. What is a filesystemĪs far as we talk about files and folders(directories), the place for their leaving is a Filesystem. Probably this is the reason why Apple hasn’t implemented the MTP driver in macOS. Later Google added its extensions to this protocol that let them use it already as a complete filesystem.Įther Google and Microsoft is hard could be called friends of Apple. And the main goal for this protocol was the upload of music files on different MP3 players. With the MTP extension, it was generalized to transfer any files and folders. It was used for the picture transfer from scanners and some other devices.
This protocol was developed in Microsoft as an extension over protocol PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol).
Since Android version 3, that protocol was chosen by Google for file transfer from and to devices.īut origins of MTP were not in Google. In general, all functions your application does with files and folders. That is a protocol over USB that lets two MTP compatible devices to interchange information about the filesystem. Sounds unrealistic? Just try it! What is MTPĪs already said, MTP stands for Media Transfer Protocol. And yes, you don’t need an internet connection! Load them right into your favorite sequencer directly. Or maybe you are a musician and recorded some interesting sounds on your phone. Browse photos, or even Photoshop them directly on your Android. You can listen to music that is on your phone on Mac. Now you are not limited by just copying files in and out. Since the device is “mounted” to your filesystem, all your Mac applications have access to files and directories on it. On phone connection, it negotiates with an Android device and adds it as one more drive to your system (or more if you have SD cards on the device). The heart of the product is a filesystem driver of MTP protocol.
To solve such a task, one has to have a full bag of tricks. Enable File transfer on the phone (that is inevitable for security reasons).Īlthough all these requirements were quite idealistic and very strict, we managed to satisfy them all.The only actions required to have files from Android available on Mac are: It lets you use the native macOS applications of your choice. That is why there are no pictures with the product’s user-interfaces. No actions on Mac should be required (connected device should appear immediately in the system).
MTP for Mac is an Android file transfer solution. So that how I could solve this problem was clear for me. Probably uploading files to the cloud and downloading them on Mac just isn’t something you want to do.īy this time, I already had many years of experience in filesystems development as the lead-developer of Paragon’s NTFS for Mac, Ext for Mac, and other kernel software for macOS. Moreover, we live in a world with giant corporations controlling, mining, selling, and sometimes irresponsibly disclosing your data to third parties. Uploading files to the cloud then to the phone or visa versa is too much work and consumes too much time. It’s impossible with Android File Transfer either!
Let’s say you want to have a look at the photos on a high-resolution display. Even a simple preview of what is available to copy is missing. Copying a few files can easily turn into a disaster, even with the bar set pretty low (in fact, the lowest it can be) in terms of core features. This application is famously known for its instability. The only functionality it has is to copy files by MTP to Mac or visa verse. Google provides an application called Android File Transfer. That is the protocol that USB devices, including Android ones, use to transfer files.
But what is the reason? It turns out that macOS (or formerly Mac OS X) knows nothing about MTP (Media Transfer Protocol). The same story happened to many Android and Mac users.