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Subject: Re: Access files on Android phone via Cygwin?
To: cygwin@cygwin.com
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Organization: WiseMo A/S
Message-ID: <668aac5e-ea04-2588-3510-3c558c111e4f@wisemo.com>
Date: Wed, 6 May 2026 17:31:25 +0200
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From: Jakob Bohm via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com>
Reply-To: Jakob Bohm <jb@wisemo.com>
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On 06/05/2026 15:34, Annihilannic via Cygwin wrote:
> On 06/05/2026 13:46, Jonathan Clark via Cygwin wrote:
>> I have a Windows11 box and an Android phone. If I stick a USB cable
>> between the two then the phone filesystems show up on the PC in File
>> Explorer, but *not* as a mount point. No mount point means no access for
>> Cygwin processes (and there may be other hurdles too, that's as far as I
>> got).
>> I am reasonably sure that in Windows10 it *was* a mount point, and I had
>> no problems with access.
>
> I'm still running Windows 10 and the behaviour there is the same for 
> me, so I don't think it's a 10/11 thing.  I think a loooooong time ago 
> some Android devices used to do what you describe, but I haven't seen 
> it recently, they all seem to use the nasty MTP mode now.  I'd also be 
> curious to hear if others have had different experiences though.
>
Many Android versions ago, Android changed the way it shared its 
internal disk to the computer over USB from acting like an USB stick 
with a FAT file system to acting like a "Multimedia shared storage" 
(MTG?) device.  This in turn caused it to be mounted differently in 
operating systems, including Windows.

Folders that show up in Windows File Explorer may be actual folders 
available via the Windows File IO APIs, or they may be virtual locations 
implemented in loadable File Explorer extensions such as the extension 
that allows using File Explorer to navigate inside ZIP files.  If (and I 
don't know if this is the case), the Windows handling of the MTG? USB 
protocol is an File Explorer extension, it probably isn't exposed to 
other software such as Cygwin or even cmd.exe .


-- 
Jakob Bohm, CIO, partner, WiseMo A/S. https://www.wisemo.com
Transformervej 29, 2860 Soborg, Denmark. direct: +45 31 13 16 10 
<tel:+4531131610>
This message is only for its intended recipient, delete if misaddressed.
WiseMo - Remote Service Management for PCs, Phones and Embedded

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