[SOLVED] Can't get rid of KDE Connect on desktop

[DoYouKubuntu]

I like my desktops completely devoid of anything, so I can see each one's pretty wallpaper. I'm using KDE Connect with my Moto Z2 Force Edition. As you can see from the first screenshot, the computer definitely sees the phone:



But when I attempt to 'browse' the phone, it takes a few seconds and then produces the error message at lower right:



Clicking on it brings up this:



Believe me, I'm nowhere close to having gone through all the settings and configurations yet! But if there's a quick and dirty way of getting this big, black blob off my screen, I'd like to know about it. I'd also like to know why a computer that's obviously seeing and connecting to the phone via KDEC claims that it can't! I can ping the phone, and I can use the phone to move the laptop's pointer, so it's working both ways. So what's up?

[vinnywright]

see if theirs a kde connect update for the phone (a newer version than what it has) you did just move to 19.10 which would have a newer version than what you were using.

I'm just guessing I do not have a smart phone to use kde connect with so have no experience with it

VINNY

[jlittle]

Er... click on the close button, maybe the little one? Or am I missing something?

The file browser needs to have a bunch of permissions in android. For a long time the "browse this device" function didn't work for me. Eventually I asked somewhere, maybe here on KFN, and learned I had to cleat the app's cache and data, so that it set up the connection again and gave me the options to set up the permissions.

On my phone, a telco re-badged ZTE, the app is 1.13.2, last updated 23rd of September.

[Edit] Just found it. Claydoh's method was the solution.

[GreyGeek]

In the Play Store is a KDE Connect app from F-Droid. That's the one recommended by KDE Connect for the phone. However, I never got it to work in the phone for me. What I used is the Bluetooth dialog in the phone settings app against the KDE Connection on my laptop system tray.

Here is what Dolphin shows when the "Network" places is clicked on:

Make sure Bluetooth is turned on in both your phone and on your Kubuntu system tray.

The Kubuntu KDE Connect app is seriously touchy. For me, the phone version doesn't work at all so everything here is between my Bluetooth settings in the phone's settings app, and the KDE COnnect in the system tray.

First, my hostname is "jerry@jerry-Aspire-V3-771", which comes from /etc/hostname. I changed it in the KDE Connect setting to "Acer-V3" to fit on the line in the Bluetooth section of my Redmi Note 7 Android 9 smartphone settings app. If you close the configuration UI and then re-open it your hostname will revert to what is in /etc/hostname.

Then on the phone I touch the Bluetooth section titled "paired devices". When it shows what you've put into that hostname section of the KDE Connect settings, touch it. Have your mouse already hoovering over the KDE Connect icon in the system tray. A dialog will BRIEFLY popup over that icon showing that pin number and giving you the option to click OK on it. Click OK. Keep your mouse hoovering over the icon because in a second or two another dialog will pop up asking you to trust the connection or not. Click YES quickly because like the first dialog it goes away very quickly. I had to go back to touching the "paired devices" term a couple times to get my timing right. After you click OK on the trust dialog the connection is made.

Even while the connection is made, if you click on the KDE Connection icon to display the list of connected Bluetooth devices it will display what is in /etc/hostname and say that nothing is paired. Clicking refresh in hopes of displaying your new connection is hopeless. IF you right mouse on that icon and clicked the settings option to display its settings dialog it will show no connections. Yet, if you open Dolphin and in the "Places" panel click on "Network" option it will show what you see above in the image I attached to this post. In the right panel, under Bluetooth is "Received Files" and "Redmi". which is the hostname of my phone. "Acer-V3" shows in the Bluetooth listings on my phone, but Redmi shows up in the right panel on Dolphin. However, on the phone, down in the list of attached devices, is "Acer-V3", the name I put into the hostname text box on the KDE Connection Setting dialog. Under the "Received Files" section you'll find that KDE Connect displays what is in your /home/acct/Downloads directory, not just what you sent from your phone to your laptop.

IF you click on the Bluetooth icon it will display a dialog of previously or currently connected devices. You can turn on your phone's Bluetooth, and then the laptop's, and the connection should be automatic. If it is not then click the "connect" button beside that device in the Bluetooth dialog.

The good thing is that later, if I turn on Bluetooth on my laptop and in the phone, my Acer-V3 connect automatically reestablishes itself and Dolphin shows what you see above. To send a file to your phone drag and drop it onto the "send file" icon beneath your phone's hostname. To send a file from your smartphone select it using your file manager, and then click the share icon. On that dialog select "Bluetooth". Have your mouse hoovering over the KDE Connection icon because an "accept?" dialog will appear for about 1 second and then go away. If you miss it you have to send it again. The file sent will appear in the "Received Files" directory under the Bluetooth folder in the right panel.

As you might guess, the file you send from your phone is actually in your Downloads directory.

Didn't I tell you that KDE Connection is messed up?

What really works well for me is to plug my Redmi into a USB port Immediately a dialog notification pops up offering me the option of using gwenview or dolphin. I select Dolphin and it opens to "camera:/" and under than are two subdirectories: store_00010001 and store_00020001
The first is the directory of my 64GB of internal storage. The second is the directory to my external 256GB SD card. I can use Dolpin to drag and drop files in either direction.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks for the great input and suggestions. I just want to add/clarify a couple of things.

1) there is no 'close' button on the KDE Connect...thing...on my screen. I danced all around its edges and corners with my pointer, but found no way to close it.

2) the devices are definitely paired, and recognize each other. As noted, from the laptop--yeah, the one that says the phone isn't available--I can successfully ping the phone, and from the phone I can control the laptop's pointer. Other things work, too, those were just examples. Copying text on the laptop lets me paste it on the phone; alerts I get on the phone are displayed on the computer. Etc.

3) I already have the most recent version of the Android app; unlike Kubuntu, I keep all my Android apps current.

[claydoh]

As you have a fresh OS now, you will need to clean KDE Connect on the phone's end if you haven't already done so. You need to force close the app, then clear the cache and data. then re-pair. You may have to unpair it on the Kubuntu side as well. This should get you the prompts to allow KDE Connect to have access to the phone's file system, etc.

I forgot this part after I recently re-installed after my nvme ssd got fried and was grumbling for as moment until I remembered this.

I think that the device names are the same, but whatever fingerprints are used to verify and pair the two are different , so the phone thinks it is the old OS, and though it thinks it is paired, the new OS does not have permission to access everything as it has a different fingerprint.
A definite bug, but at least it errs on the side of denying access.

This also can happen sometimes when the app gets an update, so every now and then I have had to clear and re-pair.

[GreyGeek]

Thanks for the great input and suggestions. I just want to add/clarify a couple of things.

1) there is no 'close' button on the KDE Connect...thing...on my screen. I danced all around its edges and corners with my pointer, but found no way to close it.

In those cases I use Ctrl+Alt+Esc, the old skull & crossbones. (Zorin 15 doesn't allow that unless you add the shortcut. )

2) the devices are definitely paired, and recognize each other. As noted, from the laptop--yeah, the one that says the phone isn't available--I can successfully ping the phone, and from the phone I can control the laptop's pointer. Other things work, too, those were just examples. Copying text on the laptop lets me paste it on the phone; alerts I get on the phone are displayed on the computer. Etc.

Curious. Does connecting offer a connection dialog with Dolphin? If it does, does it open a "Camera://" URL in Dolphin that gives you the "Bluetooth" option under the Places "Network" option?

In playing around I've found it the easiest to just use the Bluetooth dialog in the system tray.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I've temporarily gotten rid of the problem [by not having KDEC running on the laptop], because other things were more important. I like KDEC, but it's more like a toy than a necessity, you know? But, @claydoh, yes, I had already done all that on the Android end.

Let's leave this for now, and kindly read the thread I'm going to post shortly...

[DoYouKubuntu]

Well, it somehow went away on its own. So although I can't explain the solution to help someone else who may come along, I'm marking this solved.

Oh, one thing: I still get that error message about not being able to browse the phone--even when I'm USING THE PHONE to move the pointer and click 'browse this device.'

[Don B. Cilly]

Well... if they had a "most annoying KDE app" contest, KDEconnect would probably get my vote.
How does it annoy... let me count the ways... I lost count already ;·)
In fact, it's so annoying that when it does stop doing something annoying for a few days, it immediately comes back and does something even more annoying at the next update.

Still, it's good to have something that keeps some track of your Annoid pesterphone... I guess... or I would have disabled it by now...

[jlittle]

Oh, one thing: I still get that error message about not being able to browse the phone--even when I'm USING THE PHONE to move the pointer and click 'browse this device.'

That's the behaviour I had, the app is talking to the Kubuntu daemon fine, and it indicates there's a permission problem on the android side for the file browsing. Claydoh's force close, clear data and cache, causing a KDE connect "file expose" option to appear, that allowed setting up the permission worked for me.

[DoYouKubuntu]

That's the behaviour I had, the app is talking to the Kubuntu daemon fine, and it indicates there's a permission problem on the android side for the file browsing. Claydoh's force close, clear data and cache, causing a KDE connect "file expose" option to appear, that allowed setting up the permission worked for me.

It didn't work for me when I tried it, but that was more than a minute ago, so maybe the planets are aligned just right, right now, so if I try again I'll get a different result!

[jlittle]

Just today got a new version of the KDE Connect app, and it stopped working. (My phone has Android 8.1.0, nicknamed Oreo.) So I've documented the steps, for reference next time. I had to:

• go to Android settings
• tap Apps & notifications
• tap See all 103 apps
• tap KDE Connect
• tap FORCE STOP, confirm
• tap Storage
• tap CLEAR DATA, confirm
• back to home screen, run KDE connect
  under available devices, showed nothing
• back to home screen, run KDE connect in Kubuntu via the system tray
• on phone run KDE connect again
• tap john@myriam ("myriam" is the host name)
• tap request pairing
• click accept in Kubuntu

Here is a screenshot:

For each of the items under "Some plugins need permissions" and "Some plugins have features disabled" I had to tap them and allow the access; the interaction varied. On the "filesystem expose" item I got

and had to muck about to get the whole phone as the location, and also to get access to it's SD card.

If you don't get that "Filesystem expose" item, it hasn't worked. If you get it wrong, and I often do by getting the location selection wrong, you have to start again from the top.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks for the very detailed instructions, John. They're sure to help someone down the road.

I saw that Android update yesterday, too, and applied it (I don't auto-update anything, anywhere). I'm still on Oreo, too, although mine is 8.0.0. The update didn't break my KDE Connect! Yet...