ADB Go: A Tool to Pull and Push Everything from Your Android Device
If you happen to be using an Android device, you may have come across scenarios requiring the transfer of files between your PC and the device. Typically, the go-to method for this task involves employing the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode, granting you access to your device's storage as if it were a USB drive. Nevertheless, it's important to note that MTP comes with certain limitations and drawbacks, including:
- You need to enable it every time you plug in your device
- It is platform-dependent and device vendor-dependent, meaning it might not work on some PCs or devices
- It hangs on big files or if there are too many files
- It is manual, meaning you have to select and copy the files you want
- It is hard to automate, even though libraries for MTP exist
- Fortunately, there is another way to transfer files between your PC and your device, which is to use ADB (Android Debug Bridge). ADB is a versatile tool that allows you to communicate with your device via a command-line interface. ADB has two commands that can help you transfer files: adb pull and adb push.
- adb pull copies of files from your device to your PC
- adb push copies files from your PC to your device
These commands are simple and powerful, but they have some drawbacks too, such as:
- You need to have ADB installed on your PC and enabled on your device
- You need to know the exact path of the files you want to transfer
- You need to type the commands for each file or folder you want to transfer
- To overcome these drawbacks, I have created a tool called ADB Go, which is a Python script that automates the process of pulling and pushing files using ADB.
ADB Go has the following features:
It can pull and push everything from your device, or only the files you specify
It can exclude some folders that you don’t want to transfer
It can group the pulled files by device ID, so you can easily identify which files belong to which device
It can work with any device that supports ADB, regardless of the platform or vendor
It can run with one simple command, without any additional arguments or options
It can exclude some folders that you don’t want to transfer
It can group the pulled files by device ID, so you can easily identify which files belong to which device
It can work with any device that supports ADB, regardless of the platform or vendor
It can run with one simple command, without any additional arguments or options
Conclusion:
while MTP serves as a common method for transferring files between Android devices and PCs, it does present some limitations and drawbacks. Users should be aware of these considerations when managing their data, and exploring alternative methods may be worthwhile for a smoother file transfer experience.