I use a Google Pixel 6a phone, running GrapheneOS (open source secure fork of Android). Everything works exactly like any android phone, I can connect phone to laptop and view files in Files app etc.
But Shotwell reports something is preventing access so it can’t import photos.
Any ideas appreciated. Screenshot of error below:
Which desktop environment are you in? If in GNOME, check if Files has mounted the phone and if so, click on the “eject” symbol next to it.
Also while this error still persists, can you please post the output of
gio mount --list - Shotwell should be able to do that itself, but it seems it does not recognize what is mounted
Sorry I didn’t see the reply.
Yes I am using Gnome DE.
Yes Files did have the phone mounted. I ejected it and it didn’t help, Shotwell then just comes up with “not responding” offering me the Force Quit options. tried several times.
Here is the output of that command:
Drive(0): CT1000MX500SSD4
Type: GProxyDrive (GProxyVolumeMonitorUDisks2)
Volume(0): Pixel 6a
Type: GProxyVolume (GProxyVolumeMonitorMTP)
Thanks for any help you can offer
PS I suppose worst case I can just connect phone, grab pics from a folder in Files (on phone) and drag and drop them into Shotwell or import via a temp folder or similar. Would be nice if this feature could be got working though 
You should be able to Ctrl-I and import from the mounted folder.
That should be a normal MTP mount. odd. If you want, can you do a
gio mount --list -i and additionally starting Shotwell from console with
SHOTWELL_LOG=1 shotwell
and attach the shotwell.log file from ~/.cache/shotwell/shotwell.log
Getting a bit above my pay grade here 
But I’ll do my best…
First command produced this output:
Drive(0): CT1000MX500SSD4
Type: GProxyDrive (GProxyVolumeMonitorUDisks2)
ids:
unix-device: '/dev/sda'
themed icons: [drive-harddisk-solidstate] [drive-harddisk] [drive] [drive-harddisk-solidstate-symbolic] [drive-harddisk-symbolic] [drive-symbolic]
symbolic themed icons: [drive-harddisk-solidstate-symbolic] [drive-harddisk-symbolic] [drive-symbolic] [drive-harddisk-solidstate] [drive-harddisk] [drive]
is_removable=0
is_media_removable=0
has_media=1
is_media_check_automatic=1
can_poll_for_media=0
can_eject=0
can_start=0
can_stop=0
start_stop_type=shutdown
sort_key=00coldplug/00fixed/sd____a
I then ran the second command to start Shotwell as you suggested, but it said not available:
bash: shotwell: command not found...
Install package 'shotwell' to provide command 'shotwell'? [N/y]
Ah. are you running from flatpak? Then it’s a tad more complicated, I am afraid.
I will type up the instructions once I am back home. Also that might explain why it fails to unmount the device itself.
Ooooh, I’ve had problems with Flatpaks before! Did’t even think, yes I installed it in a rush, chose Flathub Flatpak. I can happily uninstall that and go for Fedora RPM, that may run better. Shall I give that a go?
Thanks so much for your help
Yes it might work better, but before you do that, I would really appreciate if you could do this
SHOTWELL_LOG=1 flatpak run org.gnome.Shotwell
and then the log file is in ~/.var/app/org.gnome.Shotwell/cache/shotwell/shotwell.log
All while having the phone plugged in and trying to switch to the phone for import
Ok, I will give that a go now. I assume you want to see the logs?
Thanks again for your help with this
I did that.
I found the log file, can’t open (says no access) yet it did open it, I copied and pasted below the contents:
L 2 2024-07-02 13:17:47 [MSG] main.vala:559: Shotwell Photo Manager 0.32.7 (0.32.7)
L 2 2024-07-02 13:17:47 [DBG] main.vala:566: Shotwell is running in timezone BST
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L 2 2024-07-02 13:18:13 [WRN] ImportPage.vala:1168: Unable to initialize camera: Could not claim the USB device (-53)
L 2 2024-07-02 13:18:46 [WRN] ImportPage.vala:1168: Unable to initialize camera: Timeout reading from or writing to the port (-10)
Hm, I’d thought there would be more debug output related to devices… pity
Yes it seemed a bit sparse to me too. I did get the errors after typing the command so guessing the logs should contain it all
Yeah, there is definitely debug output in there, the timezone printout for example. Odd. Oh well. Thanks for trying, though.
No worries, I will try the RPM version now and keep fingers crossed!
Will let you know how I go. thanks again
Note that the flatpak version is isolated from the system version, so if you did significant work already it will not be visible. You can try to copy the photo.db and thumbs folder from ~/.var/app/org.gnome.Shotwell/data/shotwell/data to ~/.local/share/shotwell/data but you might run into issues if you have RAW files.
Also note that a number of image formats (CR3, HEIF, AVIF) is not supported with the RPM version
Thanks, good to know. I have not done anything with Shotwell yet other than change to light theme
Actually you reminded me of a question if I may…
I am currently trying to export my 40,000 photo library from Mac Photos app (saying a long overdue to Apple in my life). I had the choice of png, tiff, or jpeg. I suspect jpeg is the way to go (just family pics over the years, not intended to be used for any design work, just memories). Would you agree?
Also can I ask - If I try to force a manual import from a folder, it asks a very confusing (for me!) question:
Can you explain what this means? I don’t see any difference between the two choices!
Well I have tried the RPM version, and now the 3rd and final option, Flatpak from Fedora repo. None of them behave any differently, maybe it’s a bug with the phone. It won’t detect camera images, similar errors on all 3 versions.
I will just have to make do, I can access the phone files through Files app.
Which installer would you recommmend I use? (Flatpak from Flathub, Flatpak from Fedora Repo, RPM from Fedora repo)??
Also can I ask if it’s ok to just navigate to pics folders on phone internal storage in Files app, drag and drop to another folder, then ask Shotwell to import from that folder? Or, actually this has me wondering, should I just drop into the folder I choose in Shotwell for my photo library? (Which in my case isn’t the Pictures folder, it’s Pictures/Photo Library)
Will that ‘import’ them manually? I am a bit confused what an import actually does, as opposed to just dropping in my Photo Library folder