Two paths, one phone.
Android over USB has two real-world transports. MTP is the one that lights up the second the cable goes in. ADB is the one that finds the SD card the file picker pretends doesn't exist. Both work in SyncShot, and the right one depends on what the shoot left on the device.
- A data-capable USB cable
- USB-C to USB-C on modern Macs. Charge-only cables look identical and quietly refuse the data lane. When in doubt, use the cable the phone shipped with.
- MTP — Media Transfer Protocol
- Default Android USB mode. No setup beyond tapping File transfer in the notification shade. Exposes the storages the phone chose to publish. SD card visibility is brand-dependent.
- ADB — Android Debug Bridge
- Developer mode. Requires USB debugging on and the Mac authorized once. SyncShot uses libusb directly — no separate adb binary on the Mac. Exposes every /storage/* mount, SD card included, even when MTP hides it.
- Destinations ready
- External drive mounted, NAS connected in Finder, cloud bucket added in SyncShot. If macOS can't see the destination, neither can the copy.
Step by step.
- 01
Cable that does data, not just power
USB-C to USB-C is fine on most modern Macs. Avoid the cheap charge-only cables — they negotiate power but never bring up the data lane. The cable the phone shipped with always works.
- 02
Pick the USB mode on the phone
Pull down the notification shade — Android shows a USB mode chip the second the cable connects. The default is "Charging only." Tap it. File transfer / MTP is the easy path. USB debugging / ADB is the deeper path. The next two steps split here.
- 03
MTP path — accept File transfer on the phone
Tap File transfer. The phone now exposes internal storage to SyncShot over MTP, no setup on the Mac, no Android File Transfer required. Internal DCIM, Pictures, Movies, Downloads — all listable. SD card visibility is brand-dependent; Samsung, Pixel, and OnePlus usually expose it as a second storage.
- 04
ADB path — enable USB debugging once, authorize the Mac
Settings → About phone → tap Build number seven times to unlock Developer options. Back to Settings → System → Developer options → toggle USB debugging on. The phone prompts "Allow USB debugging?" — tick "Always allow from this computer" and accept. Done once, remembered forever for that Mac.
- 05
Open SyncShot — the phone shows up as a source
The phone appears by model name. Selecting it lists its storages. MTP mode shows the storages the phone chose to expose. ADB mode shows every mount under /storage — internal, SD card, USB-OTG drives if any — because ADB has shell access.
- 06
Pick the folders, add the destinations
DCIM/Camera for the camera roll. WhatsApp/Media for chat photos. Movies for screen recordings. Add the Mac, an external SSD, NAS, cloud bucket — any combination. The same job feeds every destination at once.
- 07
Start, verify, eject
SyncShot reads the phone once and writes everywhere in parallel. Every file is BLAKE3-checked end to end. Green report = clean copy. Eject the phone in SyncShot before unplugging — leaves the MTP / ADB session closed cleanly so the next connect is instant.
After it's done.
Once the green report is up, the phone is free. The destinations hold byte-for-byte copies; the originals can stay on the phone until storage gets tight or the next session needs the space.
- Open the job report
- Every file, every destination, every hash. Anything not green is named individually. A clean report is the only signal that says it's safe to clear the phone.
- Save the workflow if the shape repeats
- Same phone, same folders, same destinations — save the layout. Next time, the phone connects and the workflow is one click from running.
- Eject from SyncShot, then unplug
- Closes the MTP or ADB session cleanly. Unplugging hot mid-session sometimes leaves Android's USB stack confused until the next phone reboot.
Need the camera-PTP path instead? See camera to Mac. Curious which phones SyncShot reads natively? Browse Android. More guides at the user guide hub.