USB not working with mobile phone

With my mobile phone, USB connection is no longer working since Update 05/05/2025. Drives connected by USB working fine.

I found this topic about tethering, and followed @Nachlese:

… it could be a problem with your phone …
open a terminal and have:
journalctl -f
running in it
the continuous live output will tell you what happens …

There is no live output when connecting / disconnection the USB-cable. But my phone-settings are different:

  • Developer: Yes
  • USB-Debugging: Yes
  • Standard-USB-Configuration: File transfer

Where to find / how to solve the issue?

Operating System: Manjaro Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.6.88-1-MANJARO (64-bit)

Usually MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) connection. Should be part of the package kio-extras for Dolphin or gvfs-mtp for GTK based filemanagers.

I don’t think MTP will be active in debugging mode, where ADB is used. 2 different drivers here…

Thank you @megavolt, but I have no idea what you are telling me or what I should check …

Disable debugging mode on your phone, so that you can access files via MTP, what is supported by Dolphin.

Check with (on the terminal)

lsusb -vt

whether your phone is physically connected.

Thank you @megavolt. I disabled debugging mode and as a second test developer mode but there is no difference and the mobile phone not listed, as far as I see:

$ lsusb -vt
/:  Bus 001.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/1p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
/:  Bus 002.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    |__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        ID 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 
    |__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        ID 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 
    |__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 2, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        ID 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 
    |__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 3, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
        ID 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 
    |__ Port 002: Dev 002, If 4, Class=Application Specific Interface, Driver=[none], 480M
        ID 13d3:5405 IMC Networks 
/:  Bus 003.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 5000M
    ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
/:  Bus 004.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    |__ Port 003: Dev 004, If 0, Class=Chip/SmartCard, Driver=usbfs, 12M
        ID 058f:9540 Alcor Micro Corp. AU9540 Smartcard Reader
/:  Bus 005.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
    ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
/:  Bus 006.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M
    ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
    |__ Port 003: Dev 005, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=[none], 12M
        ID 06cb:00bd Synaptics, Inc. Prometheus MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader
    |__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
    |__ Port 004: Dev 003, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
        ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth
/:  Bus 007.Port 001: Dev 001, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M
    ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

I don’t see a mobile phone either… so there something wrong with the connection.

Run:

sudo dmesg --follow-new

and plugin in your device. Any output? If not, then there is definitely a problem with your usb connection and not the update.

No output, only the phone reports loading battery …

Is it possible that you are using a USB cable that is designed for power transfer and not data transfer?

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Thank you @megavolt,

Is it possible that you are using a USB cable that is designed for power transfer and not data transfer?

How to check this?

Try another device with the same cable. Try another cable… Maybe a loose contact?

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Thanks a lot @megavolt, your support and advice was extremely helpful. The issue was caused by the cable: I tried four different ones, only one is good for data-transfer.

I checked again having developer mode ENABLED and as a second test debugging mode ENABLED too, in both cases the good cable works fine! In all cases, $ lsusb -vt reports the phone and $ sudo dmesg --follow-new brings up messages when connecting or disconnecting.

I report this in detail, may be it’s helpful for other users; I modified the headline, for sure there was no correlation with the UPdate.

Thanks so much!

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