Sync Music from Banshee via SSH to Android Device

Seems like while gnomevfs supports accessing files on ssh servers like local ones the c# bindings banshee is using don't.

My guess (it is only a guess right now) would be that if you used fusefs to make the android device appear in /mount like an ordinary device would banshee would see this device. And if this device contained the .is_media_device file identifying it as an MP3 player it would actually use the device.

Let's give it a try (I have set up password-less authentification with my device using ssh keys, my local username is gunter, my username on my android device is root, and since this device isn't rooted ssh is running there on the non-standard port 2222)

sudo mkdir /media/Sulla.home

sudo chown gunter:gunter /media/Sulla.home/

sudo chmod a+r /etc/fuse.conf

...add the following line to /etc/fstab:

sshfs#[email protected]:/mnt/sdcard /media/Sulla.home fuse user,allow_other,port=2222

A final command at the command-line:

mount /media/Sulla.home

Now the device looks like an ordinary mounted device. Let's hope banshee will be convinced by this.

If this does not work, a possible workaround is to use the FolderSync extension with what we just mounted.

There are Android apps to run an ssh server on your phone. You could install such an app, use sftp to connect to it from your computer, or mount your phone's filesystem on your computer with sshfs, and copy files to it that way.

There are alternatives that may be easier. I believe you can copy files using Bluetooth. You can install Dropbox on your phone, and link some or all of your music library to your Dropbox folder on the computer side -- the Android Dropbox client doesn't sync automatically, but only downloads when you actively choose to open a file, which is good for this application.