Connect M11 to PC or Mac via USB-C

[trippalhealicks]

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I know there are several threads on this already, but I've read through them and can't get a clear answer on this question: Out of the box, should the M11 be able to connect to a PC or Mac via USB-C cable and be shown as a browsable drive in Finder / File Explorer?  I've seen the workaround involving Android File Transfer on Mac, so I guess I really just need to know about Windows.  Is it not possible to connect the M11 without that "Mass Storage" USB mode?

 

Thank you

[jakontil]

Yes you can connect to windows, i did that sometimes, in setting switch to ptp mode instead of the other apple protocol 

sorry i forget which

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[elmars]

I can only talk about Mac. The M11 is not shown/detected as a mass storage. But if You set the camera to ptp, You can see and download the files of the M11 with software that supports ptp. Lightroom is such a software.

Perhaps the M11 will be seen as mass storage with the big connectivity update in autumn.

[trippalhealicks]

19 hours ago, elmars said:

I can only talk about Mac. The M11 is not shown/detected as a mass storage. But if You set the camera to ptp, You can see and download the files of the M11 with software that supports ptp. Lightroom is such a software.

Perhaps the M11 will be seen as mass storage with the big connectivity update in autumn.

See, I’ve been using PTP mode.  The camera doesn’t show up in either Windows or Mac OS.  That being said, I’m just happy to hear it’s *supposed to* work.  Now to troubleshoot! 😐

[SrMi]

To connect M11 with Mac using a USB-C cable, switch M11 to PTP mode and install Android Transfer. Android Transfer should start automatically.

[jakontil]

well out of curiosity and after finishing my shooting session, i plugged in the usb c cable to my m11, turned on, and windows 11 ask what i want to do with these files, the images

so i guess it just works... im not sure if i had switched to ptp since i have always used to transfer to my ipad either wireless or wired

[SrMi]

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I just realized a "big" advantage of the current connection method with Mac (PTP). Once you connect M11 to Mac, Lightroom open the import window and all images will be imported. Once you are done importing, you just disconnect the camera. There is no need to eject anything  !!

Life is too short to safely remove USB drive.

[IzelPhotography]

1 minute ago, SrMi said:

I just realized a "big" advantage of the current connection method with Mac (PTP). Once you connect M11 to Mac, Lightroom open the import window and all images will be imported. Once you are done importing, you just disconnect the camera. There is no need to eject anything  !!

Life is too short to safely remove USB drive.

I use Capture One Pro and use the internal storage of the M11 with the SD as a backup. I use Image Capture app on the Mac OS to connect to the M11 via USB (PTP) and download the images from the internal storage to a folder named "C1 Import Folder". This seems to transfer the images very quickly.

Once downloaded I just hit the import button in C1 (sessions) which is set to import all images from that folder. It takes less than a second to transfer them into sessions and afterwards, I delete the files from the import folder (I ticked ignore duplicates just in case I forget to delete the files from that folder.) I use a USB C 3.2 cable with a right angle plug for the camera side.

I've never needed to remove a card in a while now... which I don't miss 👍🏻

[jakontil]

5 hours ago, SrMi said:

I just realized a "big" advantage of the current connection method with Mac (PTP). Once you connect M11 to Mac, Lightroom open the import window and all images will be imported. Once you are done importing, you just disconnect the camera. There is no need to eject anything  !!

Life is too short to safely remove USB drive.

Hi srmi, I wonder with the windows 11 too, no eject function after transferring all images…i was worried if it corrupts the memory

or am i missing something here with the windows 11? 

[SrMi]

12 hours ago, jakontil said:

Hi srmi, I wonder with the windows 11 too, no eject function after transferring all images…i was worried if it corrupts the memory

or am i missing something here with the windows 11? 

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with Windows 11.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

On 9/14/2022 at 12:34 PM, jakontil said:

Hi srmi, I wonder with the windows 11 too, no eject function after transferring all images…i was worried if it corrupts the memory

or am i missing something here with the windows 11? 

Windows does not require the *ejecting* of any connected device in normal settings. They managed to sort this out in Windows 7. Only Mac retains this stupidity. They could sort it out. They just don't. One of Macs annoyances. You'll note the iPads and iPhones don't have this limitation either.

Gordon

[SrMi]

1 hour ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Windows does not require the *ejecting* of any connected device in normal settings. They managed to sort this out in Windows 7. Only Mac retains this stupidity. They could sort it out. They just don't. One of Macs annoyances. You'll note the iPads and iPhones don't have this limitation either.

Gordon

Microsoft says that To avoid losing data, it's important to remove external hardware like hard drives and USB drives safely. 

Safely remove hardware in Windows

[jakontil]

2 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Windows does not require the *ejecting* of any connected device in normal settings. They managed to sort this out in Windows 7. Only Mac retains this stupidity. They could sort it out. They just don't. One of Macs annoyances. You'll note the iPads and iPhones don't have this limitation either.

Gordon

Yeah but may be i was biased, once i watched a youtube video regarding ipad os 16, in file manager they still didnt have that ejecting feature thing, and it might corrupt the external drives

but since you told me so, i think there’s another factor causing such.. im okey now, thanks.. been plugging on and off the usb through the M11, finger crossed wont harm anything 

[jakontil]

48 minutes ago, SrMi said:

Microsoft says that To avoid losing data, it's important to remove external hardware like hard drives and USB drives safely. 

Safely remove hardware in Windows

This thing have gone, at least when connecting to my M11, been forking out every corner and still couldnt find it..just weird if it’s ever a bug in win 11 

[SrMi]

1 hour ago, jakontil said:

This thing have gone, at least when connecting to my M11, been forking out every corner and still couldnt find it..just weird if it’s ever a bug in win 11 

I checked it on Windows 11: the eject symbol is visible when attaching a mass storage USB device, e.g., an SD card. However, no eject is possible or required when connecting M11 via PTP, similar to Mac.

[jakontil]

3 minutes ago, SrMi said:

I checked it on Windows 11: the eject symbol is visible when attaching a mass storage USB device, e.g., an SD card. However, no eject is possible or required when connecting M11 via PTP, similar to Mac.

Thanks for the explanation SrMi, that really explains it as to why i couldnt find it

[FlashGordonPhotography]

6 hours ago, SrMi said:

Microsoft says that To avoid losing data, it's important to remove external hardware like hard drives and USB drives safely. 

Safely remove hardware in Windows

Likely still listed purely as an indemnity thing. Most of the time the eject icon is greyed out with modern drives so you can’t even follow the listed instructions.

When fat32 took over as the default drive system around Windows 7 MS added a protocol that *slightly* slowed the write speed to allow writing to the FAT at the same time as data copy. Previously the FAT was written AFTER the file write. Hence the need to eject to ensure this was completed (or the drive FAT could be corrupted). All modern drive formats now write to the directory concurrently. Ejecting is no longer required unless trying to mount a pre FAT32 drive. On Windows older NTFS drives sometimes still require ejecting but it’s likely you don’t have any of these lying around.

For many years Macs wouldn’t even read Windows formatted drives (NTFS, FAT) and then later only read them (FAT32) without a third party program. With the introduction of exFAT for Windows, Apple introduced native read and write. exFAT drives do not require ejecting. Nor do FAT 32. Almost all modern external drives and memory cards are formatted exFAT specifically because both systems can read/write without needing other software. So there is no need for a Mac to require ejecting almost every card and SSD on the market. It’s just an old habit not yet relegated to the bone yard. About the only drives formatted with APFS (Apple file system) are internal drives. You can format an external drive to APFS and you would need to eject that. But not exFAT which covers memory cards and most external drives.

Gordon

[jakontil]

9 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Likely still listed purely as an indemnity thing. Most of the time the eject icon is greyed out with modern drives so you can’t even follow the listed instructions.

When fat32 took over as the default drive system around Windows 7 MS added a protocol that *slightly* slowed the write speed to allow writing to the FAT at the same time as data copy. Previously the FAT was written AFTER the file write. Hence the need to eject to ensure this was completed (or the drive FAT could be corrupted). All modern drive formats now write to the directory concurrently. Ejecting is no longer required unless trying to mount a pre FAT32 drive. On Windows older NTFS drives sometimes still require ejecting but it’s likely you don’t have any of these lying around.

For many years Macs wouldn’t even read Windows formatted drives (NTFS, FAT) and then later only read them (FAT32) without a third party program. With the introduction of exFAT for Windows, Apple introduced native read and write. exFAT drives do not require ejecting. Nor do FAT 32. Almost all modern external drives and memory cards are formatted exFAT specifically because both systems can read/write without needing other software. So there is no need for a Mac to require ejecting almost every card and SSD on the market. It’s just an old habit not yet relegated to the bone yard. About the only drives formatted with APFS (Apple file system) are internal drives. You can format an external drive to APFS and you would need to eject that. But not exFAT which covers memory cards and most external drives.

Gordon

Hi gordon, are you saying that if formatted in exFAT, it is writable and readable on both windows and mac os? It could be useful for external drive backup since i still run on windows and ipad for now, and might add macbook soon 

[SrMi]

1 hour ago, jakontil said:

Hi gordon, are you saying that if formatted in exFAT, it is writable and readable on both windows and mac os? It could be useful for external drive backup since i still run on windows and ipad for now, and might add macbook soon 

SD cards use exFAT format and are writeable and readable on Mac.

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[SrMi]

10 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Likely still listed purely as an indemnity thing. Most of the time the eject icon is greyed out with modern drives so you can’t even follow the listed instructions.

When fat32 took over as the default drive system around Windows 7 MS added a protocol that *slightly* slowed the write speed to allow writing to the FAT at the same time as data copy. Previously the FAT was written AFTER the file write. Hence the need to eject to ensure this was completed (or the drive FAT could be corrupted). All modern drive formats now write to the directory concurrently. Ejecting is no longer required unless trying to mount a pre FAT32 drive. On Windows older NTFS drives sometimes still require ejecting but it’s likely you don’t have any of these lying around.

For many years Macs wouldn’t even read Windows formatted drives (NTFS, FAT) and then later only read them (FAT32) without a third party program. With the introduction of exFAT for Windows, Apple introduced native read and write. exFAT drives do not require ejecting. Nor do FAT 32. Almost all modern external drives and memory cards are formatted exFAT specifically because both systems can read/write without needing other software. So there is no need for a Mac to require ejecting almost every card and SSD on the market. It’s just an old habit not yet relegated to the bone yard. About the only drives formatted with APFS (Apple file system) are internal drives. You can format an external drive to APFS and you would need to eject that. But not exFAT which covers memory cards and most external drives.

Gordon

There is a saying: life is too short to remove USB drive safely :).

AFAIK, and all the information I can find online, exFAT drives also need to be safely ejected if OS writes to them. If you plug it out while data is being written, the data may become corrupted.

Windows 10 has introduced the "Quick Removal" option (must be set in preferences), which does not cache disk write operation. With that option set (default?), write access is slower but more predictable.

Macs do not have that option.

Note that even when just copying data, there may be write-accesses to the SD card.