I think I might be experiencing a bug but I'm not sure

S11 · October 13, 2024, 10:58am

So I’m using KDE Connect on Linux Ubuntu 22.04, so does KDE Connect automatically update itself or do I have to manually update it? I’m currently experiencing a bug, videos that are larger than a GB won’t transfer to my PC.

So I was able to successfully transfer a 67MB video over to my PC from my Pixel 6a but when I try larger vids that are over 1GB it just won’t work.

Let me explain what’s happening, so I’m trying to transfer a 10GB video from my Pixel 6a over to my PC and the process will start and it’ll show that it’s transferring and it’ll even show that the transfer is complete but it’s nowhere to be found on my PC so this a bug. It’s funny it will show that the transfer is complete but the video isn’t on my PC at all.

I’ve tried to transfer a 2GB video and that wouldn’t work either. Yeah this is a weird bug I’m dealing with. It’s funny but when I go into settings of KDE Connect and click on “Help” nothing happens, I’ll click it and nothing will happen. I’m trying to find the “about” page and see what version of KDE Connect I’ve got on my PC. Remember I’m using Ubuntu 22.04 I’m not using Windows.

So does KDE Connect on Linux automatically update itself or do I have to manually do that? Should I try uninstalling KDE Connect and reinstalling it? Is there an “about” page in KDE Connect that’ll tell me what version I’m using on my PC?

Thanks.

Edit: I will say that on my phone I have uninstalled and reinstalled KDE Connect so I know I’m using the current version on my phone. It takes a little more work to uninstall and reinstall it on my PC so that’s why I haven’t done that yet, if someone tells me that I should uninstall and reinstall KDE Connect on my PC then I will. Gosh what a strange bug cause it’ll show that my 10GB video has successfully uploaded to the PC and yet it’s nowhere to be found on my PC.

And yes I have “show hidden files” checked already.

Edit: Ok you know what I was able to transfer a 1.7GB video from my phone to my Linux PC but if I try to transfer a 5GB video it won’t work, and it wouldn’t work with a 10GB either. This is a bug right?

Edit: Someone on Reddit told me this,
"It does not update itself, your system package manager takes care of that.

On debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can use dpkg -l kdeconnect. For reference, the current version is 24.08.2."

I replied to this person I said,
"So I did “dpkg -l kdeconnect” and it said I’m using 21.12.3 so it looks like my KDE Connect is quite outdated.

Ok so then I did “sudo apt update” and looked through the programs that could be upgraded and KDE Connect wasn’t one of them, out of desperation I even did “sudo apt-get upgrade” and yeah, KDE Connect wasn’t one of the programs to be updated or upgraded.

So how exactly do I update KDE Connect on Ubuntu?

Should I just try uninstalling it and reinstalling it? What’s the correct way to install KDE Connect on Ubuntu, can you tell me or link me to an accurate tutorial, some tutorials aren’t correct so keep that in mind? Are you personally using KDE Connect on Linux?"

Thank you for your time.

jamesfrederik · October 13, 2024, 11:12am

Have you tried with a USB cable?

Also could try LocalSend.

You could also try primitive ftp on your phone and FileZilla on your computer

S11 · October 13, 2024, 11:33am

Yeah I’ve tried USB cable more than once with different cables too and to no avail. Yeah my Pixel 6a will not transfer anything via USB to my Linux PC.

But why isn’t KDE Connect working? Is this a bug?

Here very soon I’m going to install Ubuntu 24.04 and I’m assuming that when I do the command “sudo apt install kdeconnect” it’ll probably install a newer version of KDE Connect.

But still why isn’t this working on Ubuntu 22.04? And I can’t use USB, man this is just terrible. Oh yeah trust me I’ve already tried using USB and I’ve asked for assistance more than once on Reddit, USB just won’t work with my phone on Linux.

tranquilwaters · October 13, 2024, 11:40am

Hello, first off you don’t need to do updates via the command line/ terminal per se on ubuntu&derivatives. It’s just that it’s often easier to write instructions for this that can be copypasted instead of describing the graphic interface and where to click.
Also, apt update only checks on the server if there is newer stuff available, apt upgrade (or dist-upgrade) is needed to actually get these availble updates installed.

Ubuntu 22.04 was the older LTS version iirc, and is superseded by 24.04 LTS it seems. Are you on the old version on purpose or for a specific reason? Otherwise is might be a good idea to get your ubuntu upgraded so you can install the newer kdeconnect then.

For that I would think (as a longtime KDE user I’m not 100% familiar with Gnome workflow and naming) that you first need to check in the ubuntu software center (“the app store”) and let it check for updates and install them.
Then, once all updates for 22.04 are installed, via system settings it should be possible to have ubuntu check for newer ubuntu-releases. Your setting will probably say LTS-onlu instead of normal or beta releases, this is fine. Ideally it will notify you that a newer ubuntu 24.04 LTS is available and ask to upgrade everything. Just follow the instructions and reboot.

After that you might also automagically have the newer kdeconnect.

tranquilwaters · October 13, 2024, 11:49am

Actually that would only install the currently available* kdeconnect if it was not yet installed. * currently available in the repos of your current ubuntu, which if that is still 22.04 will not be all that recent anymore.

If you want to go the CLI way you will need to do

apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

And afterwards (after possible reboot, not sure) and upgrade to new ubuntu.
Check this tutorial as well if needed (click on the numbered on top to view the other steps)
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/upgrading-ubuntu-desktop#1-before-you-start

As for phone usb not working, does your phone ask you anything about the usb connection to use it for data transfer or only charging? Does the phone pop up as removable drive at all when you plug into your pc?

claydoh · October 13, 2024, 12:25pm

As you are on Ubuntu 22.04, you are basically stuck at whatever version of KDE connect was available there. There will have been a few updates to it, but it still will be a bit old.

I’m assuming you’ve tried gsconnect, which is an implementation of KDE connect for gnome? This might work better on a non-Plasma desktop.

S11 · October 15, 2024, 1:07pm

Listen I’m on Ubuntu 22.04 and here soon I’ll install Ubuntu 24.04

Now once I’ve got 24.04 installed I’ll do this “sudo apt update” and then
“sudo apt install kdeconnect” to install KDE Connect.

So that’s my plan, and it should install the current KDE Connect right?

And by the way, I do fresh clean installs of Ubuntu, so I’ll transfer over my important stuff to an external hard drive and then I’ll wipe the internal drive and then install 24.04

I mean this should fix my issue right? So KDE Connect is just buggy on Ubuntu 22.04? So installing 24.04 will fix my issue right?

So those who wish to stay on 22.04 are screwed if they want to use KDE Connect?

S11 · October 15, 2024, 1:10pm

So those who wish to stay on Ubuntu 22.04 are simply left with a buggy KDE Connect that doesn’t even work?

gsconnect? What is that?

Listen here very soon I’m going to install Ubuntu 24.04, do you think that’ll fix my issues and allow me to transfer my 10GB video? I mean I should be able to transfer a 10GB vid right or is there a size limit?

tranquilwaters · October 15, 2024, 5:50pm

You didn´t answer the question if you are staying on 22.04 for a specific reason (24.04 is LTS as well). Of course an older version is going to have older versions of software in the repos. Whether they are buggy or not I can´t say. But maybe the phone is newer and the kdeconnect on your phone is newer, and the old kdeconnect on your 22.04 doesn´t match anymore against this.

22.04 LTS is still in support, so you don´t have to upgrade, but going to 24.04 would just give you the more recent software repos belonging to 24.04, that’s all.
Alternatively you could try to enable the backports repo in 22.04 (I think in the software sources GUI it’s called Unsupported Updates or Preview Updates or something? (I’m on Kubuntu and openSUSE, so the wording is somewhat different than on Ubuntu). When you have enabled these extra repos do the “sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade” again and you might get quite a few updates. Maybe also newer kdeconnect.

Can´t tell you about a file limit. I don´t have 10GB videos to share, but either try it out, or maybe see if you find an answer on the kdeconnect project site.

claydoh · October 16, 2024, 5:21am

For the most part. That is how regular-release distros often work.
Kubuntu do actually provide PPAs to get around this by-design limitation, but none of them have a newer version of KDE Connect that hasn’t already been added to the official Ubuntu archives by now.

As I mentioned, GSConnect is an implementation of KDE Connect made for the Gnome desktop. It should be in the Ubuntu archives iirc as gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect and gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect-browsers This may simply work better on a non-KDE desktop setup.

Also the phone app is sort of important, too. If the app version is way out of sync with the desktop app, this can cause issues.

Ofnuts · October 16, 2024, 10:10am

apt upgrade on Ubuntu only upgrades you to the latest version on the repo for your Ubuntu release. So 21.12.3 is the latest you’ll get on (K)Ubuntu 22.04. There may be ways to get a more up-to-date version by finding a suitable PPA or recompiling from source (but beware of dependency avalanche).

This said if I had to transfer such a big file, I would either:

connect by USB and use the mass-storage access
get a USB key with a USB-C connector. Plug it in phone, copy the file, and plug it in the computer and copy again.

Also, if you transfer a 10GB file, you should see a significant decrease of free space on your drive. Are you missing 10GB when the transfer ends?

S11 · October 18, 2024, 5:05am

Yeah for some reason I can’t transfer files via USB from my Pixel 6a to my Linux PC and yeah I’ve got a data capable USB cable. I’m gonna install Ubuntu 24.04 on my PC and see if that helps. If I still can’t transfer files via USB after upgrading to 24.04 I’ll contact Google and tell them to fix their phone.

So listen though, you think simply installing Ubuntu 24.04 on my PC would allow me to transfer my 10GB video to my PC via KDE Connect? I mean, is that all I need to do?

Here in a few days I’ll install 24.04 on my PC and I hope that solves my issue, otherwise I’ll be coming back here.

S11 · October 18, 2024, 5:09am

“You didn´t answer the question if you are staying on 22.04 for a specific reason”

No specific reason I’m just lazy. But I do know people will stick with an LTS version for years before they finally upgrade to a newer Ubuntu release so thats why I asked the quesion, what if I wanted to stay with 22.04 for a while, are you saying I’d just be left with a buggy KDE?

But anyhow here in a few days I’ll install Ubuntu 24.04 on my PC and hopefully that fixes my issue otherwise I’ll be back here.

claydoh · October 18, 2024, 7:22am

Yes, you will not get new versions of most everything, buggy or not.

Consider trying things from the live desktop session before installing. I have a feeling the issues here are not necessarily related to the OS or hardware on the PC.

Ofnuts · October 18, 2024, 8:05am

I do the transfer with Ubuntu 22.04 (also worked on 20.04). If you can’t do the transfer with the cable it is for some other reason (one frequent reason being that the cable is for charge only and has no data lines). When you connect the cable, if you drag down the notification bar on Android, you see this (pardon my phone’s French):