Tech Notes

Tech Note #20140003

Newer Android smartphones such as the HTC, Moto X and Moto G, Nexus, or Samsung Galaxy use the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) to transfer files to and from the phone over a USB connection to a Windows system. When the phone is plugged into the system's USB port, it is supposed to be automatically recognized and show up as an MPT device in the File Manager's tree. Unfortunately, despite claims that MPT will work under Windows XP SP3, achieving an actual working install can prove to be a difficult proposition.

Problem Description:

MPT will indeed work under Windows XP SP3 but the exact steps needed to make it do so are not clearly described anywhere. Various notes indicate that you may need to install Windows Media Player 11, the Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit, the phone manufacturer's device manager, etc., etc. And, quite possibly doing so will eventually make things work but the user will be left with a question in their mind as to how did that work? What they really want is a set of deterministic steps.

If one of the other methods is followed, the most common problem will be the dreaded "A service installation section in this INF is invalid" message (or a variation thereof) when the USB device driver is installed automatically. That and/or the device driver won't be found at all. Follow the steps herein to avoid all such problems.

Problem Resolution:

MPT devices need a set of USB drivers that implement the MPT protocol. The appropriate driver is either found on your system or downloaded from Windows Update, when you first plug in the phone and it is automatically discovered as a USB device. Now, it may be possible to still find these drivers on Windows Update or it may be possible to get them coincidentally when you install Windows Media Player 11 but the easiest way to get them is to download them directly in the Media Transfer Protocol Porting Kit from Microsoft. This Kit, which was meant to be used by developers of MPT device firmware, includes the required USB drivers and will install them into your system when you install the Kit. It can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=19153.

Follow the link, click the "Download" button and save the executable to a suitable location. Once that is done, run it and install the Porting Kit to a likewise suitable location (hint: we use "/Program Files/Microsoft WMSDK"). This will add the USB drivers to the "/windows/inf" system directory.

Now, the MPT USB drivers need a framework to be loaded under which may or may not be found on your system. Perhaps if you can still get and apply the latest .NET updates you might also get this framework. Or, maybe Media Player 11 does the trick? Once again, the easiest approach is simply to download the required User Mode Driver Framework from Microsoft and install it directly. It can be downloaded from: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=71641&/umdf.exe.

When you follow the link, the driver framework install program will be downloaded directly so save the executable to a suitable location. Once that is done, run it and install the driver framework.

Once these two steps are done, you can plug your phone into your system's USB port. It should be recognized as a new device and the USB drivers installed. If you previously mucked the installation up, you can bring up the Device Manager (Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Device Manager) and redo the install. Find your phone (probably under Portable Devices) and right click on it. Choose "Update Driver ...". Under the next dialog, check "No, not this time" to prevent the install from looking on Windows Update.

When you click Next, you'll see a dialog that wants to locate the drivers to install. You should be able to check "Install the software automatically" but if this fails you can restart from the Device Manager by right clicking on your phone again and instead choosing "Install from a list or specific location" when you come to it. This will let you browse for the drivers, which should be found in /windows/inf.

After the MPT drivers and framework have been installed, your phone should show up under the File Manager as "MPT Device". You can open it up and drag and drop files, etc. If your phone manufacturer has a device manager program (e.g. Motorola Device Manager), you should be able to install it and use it now. If you wish to sync media files to the device using Windows Media Player, that should work too, providing you install version 11. However, none of these applications should be necessary just to transfer files to/from your phone.