Not able to access path of mobile phone in cmd

Question

I'm kind of new at CMD so please go easy on me. I am trying to copy files from my mobile phone via robocopy in CMD as the regular copy/paste doesn't support some of the features of robocopy I'd like to use. Anyway, the problem is that upon inspecting the path to the phone in file explorer I get THIS PC/[Name of phone]. Robocopy does not recognize anything under THIS PC as a valid path. How do I get the real path of the phone through CMD?

Solution

THIS PC is not the actual path, it's just a Windows thing. If Windows has mounted your PC as a drive, you can use the path (i.e. F:\your\path).

However, if your phone is connecting via MTP, it will be much more difficult. The short answer is that you can't.

How do I access MTP devices on the command line in Windows?

Comments

[Ravindra Bawane]

You'd have to start by looking inside Disk Management to see whether the phone is listed there, I'd guess. Phones connect themselves to computers in ways quite different from other storage devices. There are third-party utilities that can be used to transfer files (Android devices can use ADB, not sure what you'd use for iPhone) via the command line.

[I say Reinstate Monica]

Like @music said, many phones use their own filesystem drivers and don't expose a traditional filesystem that can be accessed via native tools such as Command Prompt. One thing you can try is switch the phone from MTP to mass-storage device mode and see if that helps.

[DisplayNerd]

Tried switching to photo mode and mass storage mode. Didn't work. I read on a programming forum that windows has this really weird path for it but the only way to get it is through programming, using certain commands to access the shell and find the path from there. I couldn't find instructions for CMD, though.

[Ramhound]

"it's just a Windows thing" - You really should explain, what the "Windows thing" is exactly, your answer seems incomplete without that explanation. If you believe you have made that clarification, you might look at improving your answer, because that statement is confusing.

[DisplayNerd]

I think by "Windows thing" he means that windows puts all of your devices under This PC, regardless if it has a drive letter or not. In this case, my device does not have a drive letter. It has a private path windows uses to access it, which is what I'm trying to find.

[Community]

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