It used to work, doesn’t work since weeks anymore. Now I badly need to transfer my pictures on the computer (Macbook Pro) but nothing, USB and Bluetooth, none of both are working. I’ve already readen theat I should set the MTP option : This one should be found in the storage options but, sorry, I don’t find it, when I click on ‘USB connection to computer’ - I tried already thousand times !!! - it happens NOTHING. That all is really ennoying, makes me desesperate about, I don’t know, Fairphone or Android, or both …Why should be a new cable the ultimate solution ?
And : Ah yes, I installed a ftp server and finally I can have my files from the phone back again. But what a feature, no USB and no Bluetooth connections on the Fairphone !
Having no USB or Bluetooth is certainly not a feature, though. It’s either a broken connector on you phone or laptop, a broken cable or a bug in Fairphone OS or Mac OS.
I regulary connect my FP to my Mac since two years and i never had any issue. And if have done three OS updates on the mac and even more on the Fairphone. USB always worked.
When USB cables break the usually lose the ability to connect before the ability to charge. A broken cable would be my first guess too. I don’t know what’s wrong with bluetooth though.
Exactly, the bluetooth also doesn’t work on the same time. And why seriously should a new cable (which I bought together with the FF) going dead after 10 monthes when most of all cables in the world are working after eternities ?
USB2 uses four pins/wires, two supply power, two are used for data. It’s possible to damage a cable, or the connector on the phone, in such a way that charging will work, but data transfers do not. Most cables do last a long time, but a small percentage fails quite soon (as is the case for nearly any product).
If you don’t get any options under Settings > Storage > [menu key] > USB computer connection, then the phone isn’t detecting a signal on the two data wires, hence the suggestion that either the connector on the phone, or the cable is not working as it should. There are more reports of broken connectors on the forum, it wouldn’t be a first.
Though annoying, I’d personally hope for a broken cable as it is easiest to diagnose and fix - borrow someone else’s cable to test, or, less effective as cable problems can be intermittent, use your cable with another device. I’m usually paranoid enough to also try connecting to a different computer, just to rule out that side of the equation, but the problem has never really been on that side.
Alternatively (seeing as bluetooth also doesn’t seem to be working), raise a support ticket with the Fairphone team (online here, or see the bottom of that page for a phone number), and see if they are willing to take it on as a potential warranty issue - though this would potentially mean sending the phone in for testing (which takes time) if asked to do so.
!