WIN10ner Wants All...

[ameerat42]

It had to be asked eventually...

To all Buffs, Aficionados, Passers-by...

How do I see a phone connected via USB to my computer in the WIN 10 Command Prompt?

I can see and manipulate files quite well using File Manager, and you'd think I'd be happy with that,
but no!...

Note: I do not (necessarily) want to download the MS phone app via Settings/Phone, but if that's the only way...

I mean, the phone is basically just another drive, isn't it?

Ta for any insights.

[arthurking83]

.....

How do I see a phone connected via USB to my computer in the WIN 10 Command Prompt?

.....

It depends(I think).

Depends on the phone, and how it allows connections.

Usual connection method is via MTP, which connects the phone as a media device, not a formatted drive as such!

If your phone allows USB Mass Stor connection(ie. just like any USB storage device), look for it's drive allocation(eg. lets say it's drive F, then in CMD use the command .... CD /D F:

SO check your phone to see if can connect itself to the host device as a USB drive or something, where it connects with a hard drive allocation(or two).
Note if you have a mSD card installed, doing it that way will most likely show the phone's memory as one drive, and then the cards space as another(eg. F: for the phone, and G: for the mSD card ... or something like that).

[ameerat42]

Ta, AK. It has a number of modes, all but "Charging" (I think) allowing file transfer.

It's the Phone internal memory I am trying to access via CMD prompt, because I can
take the card out and put it into a reader. There is a pic below for File Manager. No
drive letter is assigned while it is connected by USB. It sure looks like...

"C'mputer says No..."

Phone.jpg

[arthurking83]

When you don't see a drive letter assigned, it's in MTP/PTP mode .. so (that I know of) you won't access it via CMD.

Just had a peek(at my S5), connected to W10, on the phone drag down the info bar(top down), and it gives you options for connection modes.

The options are:
MTP, PTP(file transferring modes), Midi, and charging mode.

So, no USB Mass Stor (or USB Transfer) mode.

Just a guess here(ie. what are you trying to do) ... are you trying to delve deeper into the Android file system?
Trying to find some arcane folder/file maybe?

If so, best way to do this is via MyPhoneExplorer, using their file browser.
No guarantee that you'll have rights to any files/folders, but most likely it'll allow you to see them.

I've done this before on some of my old phones, where I've had persistent app files/folders that just don't understand the meaning of the word 'REMOVE'.

So using MPE, I've located offending folders/files and deleted(some), but some require root privileges, and don't delete easily.

Note: did find an way you can 'emulate' and control your phone via the PC.
Peeps at XDA have a program called scrcpy(which runs on the computer ... PC/Mac/Linux), connect the phone, set phone to developer options enabled, and you run the scrcpy command on the PC.
This then gives you a screen copy of your phone on the PC and you can control it from the PC.
That's about the best I can see.

Note2: you can get a command line app on the phone itself if required too. Can't remember names, maybe adb or Bash(Bash is a Linux command prompt, so most likely that).

[ameerat42]

Ta. I was, at the time, trying to generate better text file directory structures than TreeSize
and PrintFolder would do. Since then I've got to use TS better and can get a reasonable
result. But the idea of it persisted past that need. Funnily, I had been using MyPhExpl to do a
backup of messages, etc, just before that. Now I will re-visit its other capabilities.

[ameerat42]

Well, a useful program that'll get me by for comparing STUFF on Windows is Winmerge, from here.

FTTB* I'll stick to comparing files/folders from the phone's memory card, as the image data stored in the
phone memory is frequently deleted, anyway.

* For the time being

PS: Yes, there's the file comparison command, FC, in Win command prompt mode, but...