Media Transfer Protocol is official driver, released by Microsoft, which allows you to manage the content of portable devices connected to your computer. For the most part this software used to be able to transfer data between a Windows computer and an operating-based smartphone/tablet Android systems. In fact, modern operating systems are able to “independently” pull up such software from the network, so this driver is more likely to be useful to users of older versions of Windows.

Usage

You need to install Media Transfer Protocol if you encounter problems when trying to transfer data to or from a portable device. This driver is also required for some Android managers devices. What is true, in the case of managers, Media Transfer Protocol is often installed with the program itself, so a separate driver download is also not required. Well, the third “case” of using the Media Transfer Protocol is working with various “firmware” (programs designed to install new “firmware” on devices from a ROM file). Most often, they do not install the “accompanying” drivers themselves. So here the user has to download and install the MPT driver “manually”.

Additional purpose

In general, initially, Media Transfer Protocol was part of Windows Media Device Manager 10 SDK. So it began to spread as a separate component not so long ago. Why was this component included? Software composition Development Kit? To enable developers to test and debug applications created for mobile platforms.

Key Features

• provides data exchange between a PC and a portable device on Android based;
• distributed as a stand-alone component and also with Windows Media Device Manager 10 SDK;
• compatible with old ones Windows versions;
• installed automatically;
• is the official solution from Microsoft.

Previous articles covering this topic have largely focused on just one protocol: Mass Storage. This is not surprising; it is he who, either in its pure form or complete with a software shell, rules the market today. Although it was not developed for these players at all, nevertheless, it has become widely used here due to its standardization, simplicity, and transparency in use. Moreover, MSC/UMS is being actively implemented in other portable devices: digital cameras, cell phones and smartphones, PDAs.

However, there is a company on the market that believes that last word has not yet been said in this area. This is Microsoft, which has been persistently trying for three years to instill in the industry a completely different approach to transferring content to portable devices.

When we talked earlier about the circumstances surrounding the emergence of Mass Storage on MP3 players, we mentioned the injustices committed against them by the industry. Portable players were "bypassed" when distributing classes USB devices, mainly due to the short-sightedness and suspiciousness demonstrated by the leading companies in the industry, and their inability to create a really working mechanism for copyright protection.

Now Microsoft says it wants to eliminate this unfortunate example of segregation. Although, of course, everyone understands that the company does not forget about the opportunity to seriously improve its position in the “digital entertainment” market.

Microsoft's approach to this issue is significantly different from anything seen in the industry before. So, it has nothing to do with Mass Storage, it is a completely different architecture, originally intended for portable multimedia devices.

On the other hand, it cannot be equated with proprietary protocols. This is a relatively open technology and is actively licensed by many manufacturers. In addition, in recent years, Microsoft has been actively integrating its support into its operating systems, which, as you know, are installed on most PCs in the world.

Mass Storage was developed back in the last century. The first information about Microsoft's developments in this direction appeared only in 2003-2004. Officially, the new protocol was presented on October 12, 2004 as part of a partnership Microsoft programs PlaysForSure (P4S). It is called Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).

PlaysForSure, of which MTP is an integral part, was first introduced to the public at the end of 2004

Zen PMC - one of the first P4S players - did not gain much popularity

At the same time, the first list of compatible devices was announced, in particular, players from Creative, iriver, Samsung.

Within affiliate program PlaysForSure MTP was far from the main “star”. Much more attention was paid to its other components:

• WMA (audio) and WMV (video) media file formats
• Windows Media Player shell version 10
• new Janus DRM system
• operating system for portable players Portable Media Center (optional component).

Microsoft was realistic about the prospects for Portable Media Center. Therefore, she took care in advance to introduce PlaysForSure support into existing varieties of proprietary OS for portable players. She quickly managed to find a common language with most platform manufacturers. The new concept, although not without creaking and not without skeptical and condemning comments from outside experts, began to develop.

Critics, not without reason, called PlaysForSure a response to, or even a clone of, the Apple “iPod+iTunes” combination. Where:

• WMA = AAC
• Windows Media = iTunes
• Janus DRM = FairPlay
• The stillborn Portable Media Center hoped to become = iPod OS.

MTP, however, was the original element here. Perhaps only a de facto monopolist in the market operating systems could afford something like this.

The P4S architecture was clearly created not without regard to Apple experience

The protocol, quite in the tradition of Microsoft, was not created from scratch, but was a modification of an existing solution. In this case it was the proven Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP). Back in 2000, it was approved as a standard protocol for digital cameras and was included in the USB class number 0x06.

MTP is a direct descendant of the Picture Transfer Protocol, familiar to many from digital cameras.

MTP borrowed a lot from him, starting with two letters in the name. By and large, MTP can be called an add-on over PTP: all software part, which is directly responsible for data transportation, remained unchanged. The set of commands has only been slightly expanded to cover new types of content and their interaction with each other.

The fundamental difference between PTP/MTP and Mass Storage can be called the concept of “objects”. Objects in a TP system can have types and characteristics that can be queried by the protocol. Objects consist of component parts, including links to other objects, metadata, and the content itself.

MTP object structure

Thus, TP protocols can be called “smart” protocols that can interact constructively with the firmware of a portable device or the software shell installed on a PC.

MTP operation algorithm

In fact, the set of TP objects already contains a database of information about the content, which in the Mass Storage system has to be created independently either by the player or using a PC, wasting time and device resources. As a result, user-friendly functionality of portable players, such as displaying metadata and Album Art, a powerful and flexible navigation system, can be implemented with much less "blood" and becomes accessible to resource-constrained developers.

MTP capabilities using the example of Sandisk Sansa e200 – Album Art, metadata navigation, rating system

It has a protocol and other features, such as creating virtual folders.

Virtual folders Media and Data in MTP connection mode, Zen Micro Photo player

“Naked” Mass Storage cannot compete in terms of capabilities. In its pure form, the protocol requires a fair amount of power from a portable device and a large amount of work on the built-in firmware; few developers go for it. Thus, the main opponent of MTP is Mass Storage with a shell, which offers similar capabilities.

Here, the advantage of MTP in the future should be its greater versatility. If Windows XP gains MTP support only with the installation of Windows Media Player versions 10 then in Windows Vista The protocol is already built in from the start. This will allow users to fully use it without any additional installations.

Additionally, unlike iTunes and SonicStage, which work exclusively with Apple devices and Sony respectively, the PlaysForSure project is open source. MTP devices can be produced by any company that uses platforms that support the protocol. And currently, the vast majority of platforms are compatible with MTP.

Major platform vendors support MTP

MTP can be used with any file system. This allows developers to create dual-protocol players that support both Mass Storage and MTP. Typically, the user can select which mode the device should operate in through its (device's) settings. Microsoft, however, looks at this practice very askance. In the latest PlaysForSure specifications, such tricks are completely prohibited. Now MTP has priority, and the Mass Storage protocol is activated only if no drivers supporting Media Transfer Protocol were detected on the PC. Below we will describe what troubles this can lead to.

Fortunately, no one is tying developers to PlaysForSure specifications. This is something that critics of the protocol often forget: a player manufacturer can easily “send” both PlaysForSure and Janus DRM, while maintaining MTP support. This allows them to ignore Microsoft's recommendations and allow the user to choose the protocol to their liking.

Choosing between MSC and MTP (from Sandisk Sansa e200 user manual)

It is curious that the priority of the MTP protocol over the PlaysForSure concept as a whole was involuntarily demonstrated by Microsoft itself when releasing its own Zune player. The latter is not a P4S device, does not support Janus DRM, but nevertheless uses MTP.

Having listed a number of obvious advantages of the protocol, we, however, cannot turn a blind eye to a number of serious disadvantages that reduce its attractiveness to the consumer.

Perhaps the main root of all troubles is that MTP appeared too late. In 2004, the MP3 player market turned six years old. Naturally, by this time, most players on the market had somehow decided for themselves the problem of choosing a protocol for their devices, preferring Mass Storage in one variation or another.

Moreover, the first version of MTP was seriously inferior to MSC/UMS in terms of user friendliness. It forced him to install Windows Media Player 10, did not have support in Explorer Shell Extensions and, as a result, did not allow him to see the device from Windows Explorer, copy files using Drag&Drop, or use a portable player to transfer data. Finally, in other operating systems, be it MacOS or Linux, protocol support was very bad. Compare this to Mass Storage, for which drivers can even be found for DOS.

For some users, an additional negative factor was the announcement of Janus, a new DRM from Microsoft, simultaneously with MTP. Of the entire PlaysForSure bouquet, it was Janus who received the widest promotion. The American company repeated the mistake of the SDMI participants, widely advertising the new DRM as some wonderful advantage of the PlaysForSure architecture. The result was a clear association between PlaysForSure=DRM => and MTP=DRM. And Mass Storage, on the contrary, = Freedom.

Along with FairPlay from Apple, PlaysForSure received its share of slop from the Internet community

DRM-friendliness is indeed one of the differences between MTP and PTP. Thus, DRM-related information is one of the protocol object types. However, the MTP architecture does not include DRM as a mandatory component, it simply makes it easier to implement for those developers who need it. In other words, MTP supports DRM, but MTP does not = DRM. Despite this, there is a common belief that MTP is essentially just a copy protection measure, that it "embeds" DRM into the copied files, etc. Microsoft's controversial reputation has contributed to the promotion of these myths - many people expect dirty tricks from the company's products.

Microsoft has traditionally been one of the corporations that has been particularly harshly criticized for its commitment to DRM. An anti-Windows Vista campaign banner from anti-DRM activists at defectivebydesign.org

As a result, by announcing MTP as part of PlaysForSure, Microsoft did a disservice to the protocol by “hanging” on it all the negativity from other components of the program: DRM, Windows Media Player. This is despite the fact that of the entire P4S MTP set, perhaps, it was the most successful and viable component.

On the other hand, a certain part of the music is purchased by Western users in online stores that use the P4S architecture and Janus DRM. Such tracks will only be played on MTP players. Although the future of DRM in music is now quite vague, and whether its support will remain an advantage is difficult to say.

Shortly before its death, Rio Audio campaigned for MTP, illustrating this with diagrams showing the horror of being unable to record PlaysForSure tracks on an MSC player

Another con is the inherent complexity of the MTP architecture. While Mass Storage essentially uses just one driver, Microsoft has built an entire structure for its protocol. This is an API called the "Windows User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF)", which can loosely be called "DirectX for the Periphery". Today this architecture is used more widely, but it was developed specifically for MTP and in 2004 was part of Windows installations Media Player 10. Support for the data transfer protocol is implemented here by a whole set of drivers and libraries. This makes the system more vulnerable and unstable.

In particular, this situation occurs. The majority of MTP drivers included in UMDF are installed on the PC. But Windows Media Player version 10 or higher is not available, and the libraries responsible for integrating MTP into the standard Windows shell (Shell Extensions) are also missing. The result is that the player is recognized by the system as an MTP device, but there are no options for working with it; the device becomes a “thing in itself”. If the player can be switched to Mass Storage mode through the menu, then this is not so scary. But if it is designed according to the PlaysForSure specification, then, having detected MTP support by the system, it will work exclusively using this protocol, depriving the user of the ability to fully use the device. Of course, such phenomena are a consequence of the youth of the protocol, its insufficient prevalence; in Vista, for example, this will not happen. However, critics rightly point out the complexity and heaviness of the MTP infrastructure as a drawback.

Work is underway to improve MTP, its latest versions already look much more interesting. The protocol has now been integrated into Explorer, thanks to which working with an MTP device differs little from using a Mass Storage player (however, there is no correct support in alternative file managers yet).

The only significant difference between MTP integration into the Windows shell and regular Mass Storage is that MTP players are displayed as devices, not as disks (screenshot from the site "dapreview.net")

The PlaysFromDevice standard is being developed - support for MTP by third-party equipment, such as stationary audio systems, car radios, etc. Its absence was another serious disadvantage for MTP players, because... There is already quite a lot of technology that “understands” Mass Storage.

If we abstract from the fact that MTP is, first of all, a tool for Microsoft to conquer and retain the market, most of the ideas embedded in the protocol can be assessed positively. In its latest variation, it surpasses the most common system, Mass Storage with a shell, in convenience and capabilities.

Thus, the user is given a full choice between using the Windows Media Player shell and Drag&Drop through Explorer. MTP players can be used to transfer any data without any problems - the lack of this feature was one of the main complaints of users. Protocol support for third-party operating systems is gradually appearing.

An alternative to working through Explorer is synchronization via Windows Media Player 11

If we imagine a world where all PCs, all household audio equipment and other related devices “understand” MTP, then for multimedia players it looks more attractive than Mass Storage.

Error messages that users of MTP devices may encounter (read more)

Microsoft has already managed to seduce three Big Five players with this prospect: Creative, Sandisk and Samsung. From the “second echelon” in the camp of companies from Redmond, iriver, Archos, Philips, Trekstor, Cowon, Mpio, and many other small companies.

The bulk of secondary manufacturers support MTP

Slowly but surely MTP is spreading among Chinese companies - some small Asian manufacturers are already claiming support for the protocol as an advantage of their products. Their full version of this protocol looks quite realistic, because... most of them work exclusively for Europe and the USA, where they are gradually starting to get used to MTP.

The Chinese company Meizu already equips its players with MTP support

And against the backdrop of a theoretically possible general rejection of DRM, even the use of MTP by Apple does not look completely impossible - nothing prevents you from integrating protocol support into the iTunes shell.

And yet there is a feeling that MTP has not yet crossed the line separating a technology that is simply widely advertised from a technology that has received real public acceptance.

Today, the owner of an MTP player is still sometimes forced to deal with problems that tormented users of players with proprietary protocols: opacity of operation, incompatibility with equipment, the need to install additional software.

The protocol's position is still quite shaky, and without decisive action from Microsoft it could easily sink into oblivion. In some ways, the situation is reminiscent of the situation with the MP3 format and its alternatives. Like MP3, Mass Storage offers enough capabilities and is widely used that there is no real incentive to switch to a new protocol. Similar to alternative audio formats such as WMA and AAC, MTP is introduced “from above”, in an “orderly” manner.

Microsoft hopes to improve the situation if it succeeds in registering MTP as a new class of USB devices. This will make the protocol an industry standard. The American company's ambitions go further - it hopes to "drive" all portable media devices - cameras, mobile phones, smartphones - under this protocol, leaving Mass Storage only the drives for which it was, in fact, intended.

What awaits data transfer protocols in portable players in the future? Will MTP become the new industry standard? Or will Mass Storage maintain its position? Perhaps new solutions will appear? It’s difficult to say for sure: everything in this industry depends too much on subjective factors, in particular, the actions of the largest players. For now, the Mass Storage protocol remains king, primarily in Apple's version, with a software add-on in the form of iTunes. “Pure” Mass Storage remains the domain of budget players and devices for enthusiasts, occupying the second step of the pedestal. MTP, which is distributed in the middle class of the market, is still third.

Schematic distribution of shares between protocols in sales in 2006.

What changes will the fall of DRM (if it does happen), as well as the distribution of wireless technologies– time will tell.

On the Internet you can often find questions from users asking “what are MTP, UMS and PTP modes, how do they differ?”

So, in order to understand why the various MTP, UMS and PTP modes are needed, let's first look at each protocol separately.

Connecting devices to your computer

There are only 3 types of connecting devices via USB to a computer:

• UMS or USB MSC

MTP

Media Transfer Protocol (transfer of multimedia content) or MTP for short. It is one of the protocols for multimedia devices such as Android smartphones and tablets, MP3 players, when connecting them to a computer or laptop. In order for your personal computer corresponded to the following minimum requirements, the following OS must be installed on your computer:

1. Windows XP SP2 or later
2. Windows Media Player 10 or later

On Apple computers with installed operating room macOS system MTP protocol is not working.

UMS

Universal Mass Storage (universal drive) or abbreviated UMS, also known as USB SMC.

UMS is an abbreviation for Universal Mass Storage. A data transfer protocol often found on USB flash drives and external hard disks.

PTP

Picture Transfer Protocol or PTP. Exists only for transferring images to a computer or directly to a printer for printing.

Differences between MTP and UMS (USB MSC)

The main difference between the MTP and UMS (USB MSC) protocols is that a different type of connection is used. MTP devices are connected to the computer as multimedia devices, and UMS (USB MSC) devices are connected as removable drives or drives. The PTP connection, as mentioned, is used only for transferring and printing photos.

Old Android devices Support USB mass storage for transferring files to and from your computer. Modern Android devices use MTP and PTP protocols - you can choose either of the two.

To select a protocol USB connections, open the Settings application, click Memory, then the menu button and select USB connection to computer. When a device is connected to a computer via USB, the protocol it uses is shown in a notification.

Why modern devices Android does not support USB mass storage

USB mass storage—also known as the “USB mass storage device class”—is the method by which older versions of Android allowed the computer to access its memory. When connecting an Android device to a computer, I had to click the “Connect memory to computer” button so that the device memory

Android became accessible to the computer via USB mass storage. When disconnecting from the computer, you should click the “Disable USB memory” button.

USB mass storage is a standard protocol used by flash drives, external hard drives, SD memory cards, and other USB storage devices. The drive becomes fully accessible to the computer, just like an internal drive.

This work scheme had disadvantages. The device connecting to the memory required exclusive access to it. The memory was disconnected from the Android operating system when connected to the computer. Files and applications stored on a memory card or USB drive became inaccessible when connected to a computer.

System files need to be stored somewhere; they cannot be detached from the device, so Android devices contain a separate /data partition for “ system memory” and /sdcard partition for “USB memory” on the same internal drive. Android installs applications and system files in /data, while user data is stored in /sdcard.

Hard partitioning resulted in insufficient space for applications and too much space for data. You cannot change the size of partitions without obtaining superuser rights on the device - the manufacturer selects the size for each partition at the factory.

Since the file system had to be accessed from Windows computer, it was formatted under FAT. Microsoft holds patents on FAT, which is an older and slower file system without modern system permissions. V present moment Android uses new file system ext4 for all partitions because Windows doesn't have to read them directly.

Connecting a phone or Android tablet to the computer as a standard USB storage device convenient, but it has too many disadvantages, so newer Android devices use different USB connection protocols.

MTP – storage device

MTP stands for “data transfer protocol”. Android devices appear to the computer as a “storage device” when using this protocol. The data transfer protocol was promoted as a standardized protocol for transferring audio files to digital music players with using Windows Media Player and similar programs. It was supposed to allow other media companies to compete with Apple's iPod and iTunes.

This protocol is very different from USB mass storage. Instead of exposing the Android device's file system to Windows, MTP works at the file level. An Android device does not provide all of its memory to Windows. Instead, the computer sends a request to the connected device, and it responds with a list of files and directories. A computer can download a file by requesting it from a device, which will send the file over the connection. If the computer sends a file to the device, the device stores it. When you delete a file, the computer sends a signal to the device, telling it to delete the file, which the device does.

Android chooses which files to show and hides system files so they can't be seen or changed. If you try to delete or edit an immutable file, the device rejects the request and displays an error message.

The computer does not require exclusive access to the drive, so there is no need to connect memory, disconnect it, or create separate partitions for different types data. Android can use ext4 or any other file system. Windows is not required to understand the Android file system.

In fact, MTP works very similarly to USB mass storage. For example, the MTP device shows up in Explorer so you can view and transfer files. Linux also supports MTP through libmtp, which is included with popular Linux distributions. MTP devices also show up in the Linux file manager.

Apple Mac OS X does not support MTP at all. iPods, iPads and iPhones use their own proprietary syncing protocol with iTunes, so why would they support a competing protocol?

Google provides a transfer app Android files under Mac OS X. It is an MTP client and transfers files to Mac. Google does not provide this application for other operating systems because they have MTP support.

PTP – digital camera

PTP stands for Picture Transfer Protocol. When using this Android protocol appears to the computer using a digital camera.

MTP is based on PTP but adds additional features. PTP functions similar to MTP and is used by digital cameras. Any program that captures photos from digital cameras can extract them from Android phone, if PTP mode is selected. PTP serves as a standard protocol for interfacing with digital cameras.

In this mode, the Android device will work with digital camera applications that support PTP, but not MTP. Mac OS X supports PTP, so you can use it to move photos from your Android device to your Mac over a USB connection without any special software.

In case of an older Android device, you will have to use USB mass storage. New devices allow you to choose between MTP and PTP - PTP is needed for programs that only support it.

If your device has a removable memory card, you can remove it and insert it directly into the memory card slot on your computer. The memory card will appear to the computer as a drive, which means you can access all the files on it, run file recovery software, and do everything else that MTP does not allow.

In this article we will figure out how to connect Android to a computer/laptop via USB as a flash drive and be able to transfer information without using a classic flash drive.

This article is suitable for all brands that produce phones on Android 9/8/7/6: Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, Meizu, Fly, Alcatel, Xiaomi, Nokia and others. We are not responsible for your actions.

Before Android 4.4 KitKat, it was possible to connect via USB as a flash drive. The PC saw the device as a removable disk and provided the same rights: the user could also perform other actions.

Then, in new versions of Android, the USB mode was replaced by MTP, in which only the data transfer function remained, and the same formatting did not work.

Setting up a USB connection

To manage the connection to a computer via USB, you need. To do this, add to Android settings section “For Developers” (if it doesn’t exist):

1. Open settings.
2. Go to the "About phone" or "About device" section.
3. "Build number" or " MIUI version».
4. Press (click) on this item until you see a message that you have become a developer (usually 7-10 clicks are enough).

Increase

After the developer section appears in the settings, you can enable USB debugging. The item is called that way, so you just need to move the slider to the “On” position and confirm the resolution.

Increase

Now you can connect the device to your computer via USB and select the operating mode. IN latest versions Android most used are:

• MTP - transfer any files from computer to phone and vice versa.
• PTP - transfer of photos, as well as transfer of files not supported in MTP mode.
• Charging only.

Connecting in USB storage mode

If you can't get used to using the media player, go back to using USB storage mode. For this you will need:

• Installed program USB MASS STORAGE Enabler.

This method may cause damage system files. In this case, you will have to reflash Android.

To connect Android to your computer as a drive:

1. Launch USB MASS STORAGE Enabler.
2. Grant superuser rights and agree to change how Selinux works.
3. If the device is supported, the main application menu will open.
4. Click "Enable USB MASS STORAGE".

Increase

Now, when connected to a PC, the phone or tablet will appear as a drive. To connect in MTP or PTP mode, just restart the device. Once you're done with mass storage mode, go back into the app and disable USB MASS STORAGE.

Problems