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Is there a way to mount my Android phone on my Mac Air desktop in order to transfer files like images and music?

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Use Android File Transfer, created by Google itself, and it gives you a Finder window to at least transfer files via USB connection. I noticed, however, that you have to use the Samsung cable they provide to power the phone, and not some cheap knockoff USB cable.

It would be nice to have a way for the icon to mount on the desktop via a Bluetooth connection -- but that's just not possible yet.

There is also the free Handshaker application in the Apple Store that is more full-featured and intuitive than Google's Android File Transfer. So far, it's looking like my best option and I don't see quirks except that I had to enable Android Developer Mode and then turn on USB Debugging on, as well as uninstall Android File Exchange because it conflicts with it.

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    Android File Transfer doesn't actually give you a Finder window. It has its own window that looks like Finder, but isn't. Normal Finder interactions do not work: You can't, for example: Get Info; See folder size; ... and most other stuff you would expect to be able to with Finder.
    – AdamAL
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 9:24
  • With my Android 10, I can only see the SD card and not the internal phone memory (tested with Àndroid file Transfer` and Handshaker). I enabled developer's mode on the phone but cannot see the internal memory from that apps.
    – рüффп
    Commented Dec 8, 2020 at 19:32
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It is possible to use "Android debug bridge" (ADB) command line tool. It is intended to use it for testing and deploying apps under development, however it enables users/developers to run commands like adb ls to list all files and adb pull sdcard/DCIM/Camera ~/Documents/ will copy all the files in the sdcard/DCIM camera folder to Documents. Read more on how to install and use the tool here. Note adb requires the phone to have enabled developer mode and USB debugging. Read more here; https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb.html

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Still, if there was another app to accomplish this, it would be much better as this official app hasn't been updated in over 5 years. Also, handshaker has recently broken. (At least for the time being)

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  • Welcome to Ask Different. Please don't add comments in the Answer field as this is for answers to questions. If you have a different question, ask it by clicking on Ask Question. Once you have enough reputation you can also add a bounty to get more users interested in the question. You can also read how to ask a question to improve your chances on getting a good answer.
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 6:28
  • Handshaker is no longer in the Apple store. I had to download it from their Hong Kong website I think and the chars were in another language. I think I clicked EN or something to see it in English. I then downloaded and it worked just fine. I backed up my old Android and got a new Android. That was last month (April 2017).
    – Volomike
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 16:41

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