Cannot copy/paste from FW12 (Fedora 42) to Android over USB

Framework Laptop 12 Linux
1

Hi all,

I’ve been using Fedora 42 on my Framework 12 - I’ve copied the system info below in case it’s helpful. It’s been working great so far, except for one thing: I can’t copy files from my laptop to my phone (Pixel 9 Pro Fold, running Android 16) over USB.

Things I have done so far:

  • Ensured phone is in file transfer mode
  • Rebooted laptop
  • Tried four different cables, both USB-C-USB-C and USB-A-USB-C.
  • Tried two different USB-C expansion cards (rear left and rear right)
  • Tried removing the expansion card and plugging in directly (rear right)
  • Tried using both Dolphin and Files
    • I can create directories on the phone
    • If I right click → new file, I can make new files on the phone
    • I can delete both newly-created and existing files on the phone
    • I can copy/paste from phone to laptop
    • I cannot copy/paste from laptop to phone
    • If a directory with the same name already exists when I try to copy/paste, it gives the error ‘Could not create directory’
  • Tried mounting the phone with gio mount.
    • I am not really capable with the terminal so once I got the phone mounted with gio mount I tracked down the the folder it mounted to in Dolphin and tried copy/pasting through there. This did not work.
  • Tried installing Android File Transfer from Discover. This crashes every time I try to start it up.
  • Found the Android File Transfer AppImage on github.
    • Running this as an executable allows me to upload one folder’s worth of items, then it crashes with no error message. The AppImage will not reopen until I disconnect and reconnect my phone.
  • I don’t really want to use KDE Connect, as I’d like to transfer a whole directory of a bunch of large files, but I tested a single file with KDE Connect and that worked.

Everything I can find searching the web says MTP transfers should Just Work as long as the phone is in file transfer mode, so I feel like I’m going insane. I’m guessing it’s something to do with the phone’s write permissions, but I’ve run into a wall in terms of things to do to fix it. If I’m missing something obvious or there’s something I haven’t found to try, please let me know!

Operating System: Fedora Linux 42
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.18.0
Qt Version: 6.9.2
Kernel Version: 6.16.8-200.fc42.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-1334U
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (62.5 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® Graphics
Manufacturer: Framework
Product Name: Laptop 12 (13th Gen Intel Core)
System Version: A5