Wirebook › Glossary › MTP (Media Transfer Protocol)
What is MTP (why a phone isn't like a USB stick)?
In one sentence: How an Android phone shares its files over a USB cable: the computer asks for each file and the phone fetches it, instead of handing over the whole storage like a USB stick.
A little more
MTP is how most Android phones share files with a computer over a USB cable. Instead of handing the computer the whole storage like a USB stick, the phone keeps control and answers requests one file at a time: the computer asks for a list, then asks for each file, and the phone sends it.
That's safer, because the phone can keep using its own storage while it's plugged in, but it's also why phones feel fussier than sticks. The phone has to be unlocked to answer, big folders take a while to list, and you can't run a disk check or recovery tool on it. PTP is a simpler cousin meant only for photos, which is why picking PTP sometimes works when File transfer doesn't. iPhones use their own similar system, which is why Windows needs Apple's driver.
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