Media Transfer Protocol - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Media Transfer Protocol is a devised set of custom extensions to the Picture Transfer Protocol

Picture Transfer Protocol

Picture Transfer Protocol is a widely supported protocol developed by the International Imaging Industry Association to allow the transfer of images from digital cameras to computers and other peripheral devices without the need of additional device drivers...

(PTP). Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital camera

Digital camera

A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...

s, Media Transfer Protocol supports the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media player

Portable media player

A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...

s, as well as personal information on personal digital assistant

Personal digital assistant

A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...

s.

Media Transfer Protocol (commonly referred to as MTP) is part of the "Windows Media

Windows Media

Windows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.The Windows Media SDK...

" framework and thus closely related to Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...

. Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

has built-in support for MTP. Support for Media Transfer Protocol in Windows XP

Windows XP

Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...

requires the installation of Windows Media Player 10 or higher. Mac and Linux systems have software packages to support it.

The USB Implementers Forum

USB Implementers Forum

The USB Implementers Forum is a non-profit organisation to promote and support the Universal Serial Bus. Its main activities are the promotion and marketing of USB, Wireless USB, USB On-The-Go, and the maintenance of the specifications, as well as a compliance program.It was formed in 1995 by the...

device working group standardized MTP as a fully fledged Universal Serial Bus

Universal Serial Bus

USB is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that defines the cables, connectors and protocols used in a bus for connection, communication and power supply between computers and electronic devices....

(USB) device class in May 2008. MTP is since then, an official extension to PTP and shares the same class code.

Overview

The main purpose of this protocol is to facilitate the transfer of media files

Computer file

A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...

and associated metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

to/from devices, the management of media files and configuration data on these devices, and to allow the remote control of these devices.

The protocol was originally implemented for use across USB but extended for use across TCP/IP and Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

. Windows Vista supports MTP over TCP/IP. Windows 7 and Windows Vista with the Platform Update for Windows Vista also support MTP over Bluetooth. The host connecting to an MTP device is called an MTP Initiator whereas the device itself is an MTP Responder.

A main reason for using MTP rather than for example the USB mass-storage device class (MSC) is that the latter operates at the granularity of a mass storage device block (usually in practice, a FAT

File Allocation Table

File Allocation Table is a computer file system architecture now widely used on many computer systems and most memory cards, such as those used with digital cameras. FAT file systems are commonly found on floppy disks, flash memory cards, digital cameras, and many other portable devices because of...

block), rather than at the logical file level. In other words, the USB mass storage class is designed to give a host computer undifferentiated access to bulk mass storage, such as compact flash, rather than to a file system, which might be safely shared with the target device (except for specific files which the host might be modifying/accessing). In practice, therefore, when a USB host computer has mounted an MSC partition, it assumes absolute control of the storage, which then may not be safely modified by the device without risk of data corruption until the host computer has severed the connection.

MTP and PTP specifically overcome this issue by making the unit of managed storage a local file rather than an entire (possibly very large) unit of mass storage at the block level. In this way, MTP works like a transactional file system - either the entire file is written/read or nothing. The storage media is not affected by failed transfers.

In case the device maintains a database/index of the content of the disk, MTP saves the cost of re-scanning the entire disk every time the content is modified.

Additionally, the MTP allows MTP Initiators to identify the specific capabilities of device(s) with respect to file formats and functionality. In particular, MTP Initiators may have to provide passwords and other information to unlock files, or otherwise enable restricted capabilities

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

. Nothing specific of this nature is in the core standard but the possibility is allowed via Vendor extensions (whereas USB mass-storage does not cater for such extensions). MTPZ, the Zune Extension to MTP specifically denies access to files until authentication has been processed, which is only possible using Windows Media Player 10 or higher.

Drawbacks

By design, MTP devices (like PTP devices) are not treated as a traditional removable drive. The actual file system is implemented by the device, not by the computer's operating system. In theory the operating system may hide this difference, but this is not the case on Windows or Mac OS. This also means that conventional file system recovery tools will be of no use if the drive is corrupted, or crashes.

As opposed to USB Mass Storage, a number of operating systems do not support MTP out of the box. Some even require third-party software.

Neither the MTP nor the PTP standards allow for direct modification of objects. Instead, modified objects must be reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. With PTP/MTP, the file size must be known at the opening stage.

Windows MTP support

On Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, MTP is supported in Microsoft Windows XP if Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player

10 or later versions are installed. Windows Vista

Windows Vista

has MTP built-in. Most MTP-compatible devices do not appear through drive letter assignment

Drive letter assignment

Drive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to physical or logical disk drives or partitions in the root filesystem namespace; this usage is now mostly found in Microsoft operating systems...

in Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer

This article is about the Windows file system browser. For the similarly named web browser, see Internet ExplorerWindows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface...

, instead they will appear as "devices" in Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer

. Additionally, on Windows, MTP-compatible devices support a feature called AutoSync, which lets users configure Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player

to automatically transfer all newly acquired or copied content to devices whenever they are connected. AutoSync is customizable so that the player will transfer only content that meets certain criteria (songs rated four stars or higher, for instance). Changes made to file properties (such as a user rating) on a device can be propagated back to the computer when the device is reconnected. Windows 7's sensor platform supports sensors built into MTP-compatible devices.

Support for legacy Windows versions

For downlevel operating systems, specifically, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows Me, Microsoft has released the MTP Porting Kit. which contains a MTP device driver for these legacy Windows operating systems.

Some manufacturers, such as Creative Technology

Creative Technology

Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...

, also provide legacy MTP drivers for some of their players; these usually consist of MTP Porting Kit files with a customized INF file describing their specific players.

Market acceptance

Microsoft's partners, including Creative Technology

Creative Technology

, Intel, iriver

Iriver

iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....

and Samsung

Samsung

The Samsung Group is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea...

, who manufactured devices based on Microsoft's "Portable Media Center

Portable Media Center

Portable Media Center is a defunct hard drive-based portable media player platform developed by Microsoft. Announced at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show , and released in early 2004, it was originally positioned as a competitor to Apple's iPod.The platform was conceived in line with Microsoft's...

specification", popularized this protocol. These devices were lined up at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show

Consumer Electronics Show

The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...

.

After an initial period of uncertain reactions, several large media player producers such as Creative Technology

Creative Technology

and iriver

Iriver

iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....

have opted to embrace the MTP protocol and drop their own custom device protocols. The general perception is that these companies are happy that they no longer have to develop their own protocols and device drivers for their products . The current device makers and device lines supporting MTP are:

Archos
Archos
Archos is a French consumer electronics company that was established in 1988 by Henri Crohas. Archos manufactures portable media players and portable data storage devices. The name is an anagram of Crohas' last name, and it is also Greek for 'master'...

newer devices
Android Honeycomb 3.0+ all devices utilizing this OS
BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...

9500 series
Canon 400D (XTi)
Canon EOS 400D
The EOS 400D, called Digital Rebel XTi in North America and EOS Kiss Digital X in Japan, is a mid-range digital single-lens reflex camera introduced by Canon August 24, 2006....

digital SLR
Digital single-lens reflex camera
Most digital single-lens reflex cameras are digital cameras that use a mechanical mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens to an optical viewfinder on the back of the camera....
Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...

Zen
Creative Zen
The Creative ZEN is a range of digital audio players and portable media players made by Creative Technology. The players evolved from the now-defunct NOMAD brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series...

line — some devices only
Cowon
Cowon
Cowon Systems, Inc. is a South Korean electronics company. Established in 1995, the company's initial focus was software development. In 2000, with the introduction of the CW100, Cowon expanded their business to the portable digital audio player industry....

newer devices, e.g., iAudio (Cowon) D2
Dell DJ MP3 player
Intel portable media center
iriver
Iriver
iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....

H10 and other newer devices
JVC
JVC
, usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...

media players
Meizu
Meizu
Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese electronics manufacturer. Meizu is the developer of the M6 Mini Player, the M3 Music Card, released in March 2007, and the M8 miniOne mobile phone, released February 2009...

M series
Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

mobile phones
LG
LG
LG may refer to:*LG Corp., a South Korean electronics and petrochemicals conglomerate*LG Electronics, an affiliate of the South Korean LG Group which produces electronic products* Lawrence Graham, a London headquartered firm of business lawyers...

mobile phones
Nikon
Nikon
, also known as just Nikon, is a multinational corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in optics and imaging. Its products include cameras, binoculars, microscopes, measurement instruments, and the steppers used in the photolithography steps of semiconductor fabrication, of which...

D40/D40x
Nikon D40
The D40 is a now-discontinued Nikon F-mount entry-level digital SLR, announced November 16, 2006. Compared to its predecessor, the D50, the D40 had several features removed, a few added, and a lower price: US$499.95 ESP as of November 2009 with the 18–55 mm G-II kit lens, positioning it as an...

, D60
Nikon D60
The Nikon D60 is a 10.2 megapixel Nikon F-mount digital single-lens reflex camera announced in January 2008. The D60 succeeds the entry-level Nikon D40x...

, D80
Nikon D80
The Nikon D80 is a digital single-lens reflex camera model announced by Nikon on August 9th, 2006. The camera shipped the first week of September to US retailers. Considered by many to be an amalgam of design elements of the entry-level D50 and high-end D200 cameras, it occupied the same price...

, D300, D700, D2Xs/D2Hs
Nikon D2X
The Nikon D2X is a 12.4 megapixel professional digital single-lens reflex camera that Nikon Corporation announced on September 16, 2004. The D2X was the high resolution flagship in Nikon's DSLR line until June 2006 when it was supplanted by the D2Xs and later on by two new flagship cameras: the...

, D3
Nikon D3
The Nikon D3 is a 12.1 megapixel professional grade full frame digital single lens reflex camera announced by the Nikon Corporation on 23 August 2007 along with the Nikon D300 DX format camera. The D3, along with the Nikon D3X, was a flagship model in Nikon's line of DSLRs, superseding the D2Hs...

and newer Coolpix compact cameras
Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...

mobile devices
Palm
Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...

mobile phones (PocketTunes media player supports MTP file transfers)
Pentax
Pentax
Pentax is a brand name used by Hoya Corporation for its medical-related products & services and Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company for cameras, sport optics , etc. Hoya purchased and merged with the Japanese optics company on March 31, 2008. Hoya's Pentax imaging business was sold to Ricoh Company, Ltd...

digital cameras
Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

GoGear
Philips GoGear
Philips GoGear is a series of small flash memory and hard drive-based personal electronic devices from Philips. The line includes digital cameras, digital audio players, and audio recorders. The GoGear line is named for the size of its products, all of which are rather small and portable...

line
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul...

Yepp
Yepp
Yepp is Samsung Electronics' digital audio player brand. The brand includes a wide range of hard-drive based as well as flash-memory based players...

line and Juke cellular phone/music player Also Galaxy S line of phones
Sanyo
Sanyo
is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates....

Xacti
Xacti
Xacti is a brand of Sanyo hybrid digital camera and camcorder. They use a distinct pistol-shaped format with most controls operated by the thumb and able to shoot both video and picture simultaneously...

CG65
SanDisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...

Sansa
SanDisk Sansa
The SanDisk Sansa is a line of 2 to 16 gigabyte flash memory-based digital audio players and portable media players produced by SanDisk.- Sansa Fuze+:...

devices
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....

mobile phones
Some of Sony's MP3-Player, i.e., NWZ-A8xx, NWZ-E436F series
Certain Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

Cyber-shot
Cyber-shot
Cyber-shot is a line of digital cameras made by Sony. The first cyber-shot was made by Sony in 1996. The Cyber-shot range is well known for its proprietary InfoLithium battery pack, the trademark Carl Zeiss lenses, and overall design. Also, all Cyber-shot cameras accept Sony's proprietary Memory...

DSC camera models
Latest Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

Drag&Drop Music Players
Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...

Gigabeat
Gigabeat
The Gigabeat is a line of digital audio players by Toshiba.-Gigabeat:The Gigabeat was first called the MobilPhile and later renamed to Gigabeat. It contained a monochrome LCD with blue backlighting, and a 5 GB removable PCMCIA hard drive. Its case was made of aluminum, and battery life is...

line
Transcend Information Inc. (T.Sonic Series)now Known as MP Series.
TrekStor vibez
Trekstor Vibez
The TrekStor Vibez is a microdrive digital audio player released on November 15, 2006. It is currently available in 8 GB and 12 GB capacities....
Harman Kardon
Harman Kardon
harman/kardon is a division of Harman International Industries and manufactures home and car audio equipment.Founded in 1953 by Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon — two men with a deep interest in music and the arts — the company helped create the high-fidelity audio industry. Their first product...

GPS810
iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

/iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

/iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

(Does not natively support MTP) If jailbroken, users may purchase Pwntunes, enabling MTP, allowing media to be transferred without iTunes.

Note

Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

Zune
Zune
Zune is a digital media brand owned by Microsoft which includes a line of portable media players, a digital media player software for Windows machines, a music subscription service known as a 'Zune Music Pass', music and video streaming for the Xbox 360 via the Zune Software, music, TV and movie...

modified to "MTPZ" and is therefore not an MTP device.

Implementations

MTP Basic has been proposed for standardization and shall become available on multiple platforms.

Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...

supports MTP if Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...

10 or 11 (or the Windows Media 11 Runtime) is installed.
Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

and Windows 7 natively implement MTP.
The Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

and PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

can connect to MTP devices.
Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...

MTP interoperability can be achieved by using:
- libgphoto2
  GPhoto
  gPhoto is a set of software applications and libraries for use in digital photography. gPhoto supports not just retrieving of images from camera devices, but also upload and remote controlled configuration and capture, depending on whether the camera supports those features.Released under the GNU...
  
  a shared library which supports PTP with some MTP extensions and was originally designed to support PTP cameras
  - The gphoto2 commandline tool for scripted uploading.
  - All KDE
    KDE
    KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...
    
    applications have MTP support through KIO
    KIO
    KIO is part of the KDE architecture. It provides access to files, web sites and other resources through a single consistent API. Applications, such as Konqueror which are written using this framework can operate on files stored on remote servers in exactly the same way as they operate on those...
    - this includes Dolphin (file manager), Digikam
      DigiKam
      digiKam is an image organizer and editor using KDE Platform. It runs on most known desktop environments and window managers if the required libraries are installed. It supports all major image file formats, and can organize collections of photographs in directory-based albums, or dynamic albums by...
      
      and Amarok (software)
  - F-Spot
    F-Spot
    F-Spot is an image organizer, designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. The name is a play on the words F-Stop and G-Spot.-Features:...
    
    has MTP support through gvfsd-gphoto2.
  - Shotwell
    Shotwell (software)
    Shotwell is an image organizer designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop environment. It has replaced F-Spot as the standard image tool for several GNOME-based Linux distributions, including Fedora in version 13 and Ubuntu in its 10.10 Maverick Meerkat...
    
    has MTP support.
  - Nautilus
    Nautilus (file manager)
    Nautilus is the official file manager for the GNOME desktop. The name is a play on words, evoking the shell of a nautilus to represent an operating system shell. Nautilus replaced Midnight Commander in GNOME 1.4 and was the default from version 2.0 onwards....
    
    has MTP support with gphoto2
    GPhoto
    gPhoto is a set of software applications and libraries for use in digital photography. gPhoto supports not just retrieving of images from camera devices, but also upload and remote controlled configuration and capture, depending on whether the camera supports those features.Released under the GNU...
    
    :// URI
    Uniform Resource Identifier
    In computing, a uniform resource identifier is a string of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network using specific protocols...
    
    s.
- libmtp a shared library implementing the MTP protocol which also includes some command-line example tools
  - Amarok
    Amarok (audio)
    Amarok is a cross-platform free and open source music player for KDE, but is released independently of the central KDE Software Compilation release cycle...
    
    has MTP support through libmtp
  - Audacious
    Audacious Media Player
    Audacious is a free software audio player with a focus on low resource usage, high audio quality, and support for a wide range of audio formats. It is designed primarily for use on POSIX-compatible systems such as Linux, with limited support for Microsoft Windows...
    
    has MTP support through libmtp.
  - Banshee
    Banshee (music player)
    Banshee is an open-source media player, called Sonance until 2005. Built upon Mono and Gtk#, it uses the GStreamer multimedia platform for encoding and decoding various media formats, including Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and FLAC. Banshee can play and import audio CDs and supports many portable media players,...
    
    has MTP support through libmtp.
  - Clementine
    Clementine (software)
    Clementine is a cross-platform free and open source music player and library organizer. It is a port of Amarok 1.4 to the Qt 4 framework and the GStreamer multimedia framework. It is available for Unix-like, Windows and Mac OS X...
    
    has MTP support through libmtp.
  - Gnomad2 has MTP support through libmtp.
  - gMTP has MTP support through libmtp.
  - MTPfs supports mounting MTP devices like filesystem through libmtp.
  - Qlix has MTP support through libmtp.
  - Rhythmbox
    Rhythmbox
    Rhythmbox is an audio player that plays and helps organize digital music. Originally inspired by Apple's iTunes, it is free software, designed to work well under the GNOME Desktop using the GStreamer media framework. However, Rhythmbox functions on desktop environments other than GNOME.-Music...
    
    has MTP support through libmtp.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

has third-party MTP support by way of XNJB (which also uses the libmtp implementation of the protocol) and Android File Transfer for use with Android devices.
Symbian OS includes MTP support for music, videos and images.
AmigaOS
AmigaOS
AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000...

, AROS
Aros
Aros may refer to:*Aros , a river in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium*AROS Research Operating System, a free software implementation of AmigaOS* Aros, the original Viking name of Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark...

and MorphOS
MorphOS
MorphOS is an Amiga-compatible computer operating system. It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the...

have support for MTP devices through the Poseidon and its PTP class driver.
Android includes MTP support since API level 12 (3.1).

External links

MTP 1.0 specification from the USB Implementers Forum
USB Implementers Forum
The USB Implementers Forum is a non-profit organisation to promote and support the Universal Serial Bus. Its main activities are the promotion and marketing of USB, Wireless USB, USB On-The-Go, and the maintenance of the specifications, as well as a compliance program.It was formed in 1995 by the...
Introduction to MTP: Media Transfer Protocol by Steve Kolokowsky
MTP Extensions for premium content providers
Android File Transfer for Mac OS X (Google provided MTP transfer tool for Android devices)
Article on Canon's adoption
How to install Banshee with MTP support
Using the Creative Zen X-Fi with Linux

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Overview

Drawbacks

Windows MTP support

Support for legacy Windows versions

Market acceptance

Implementations

See also

External links