How to transfer pictures, music and videos from and to your Nokia phone using Bluetooth in Ubuntu
This should work with all phones with OBEX (pretty much any phone) and all versions of Ubuntu. I have tried different applications for the task of transferring files from and to my phone. The good thing about this solution, is that the phone will be mounted as a device, meaning it can be incorporated with Nautilus / Rhythmbox / Amarok / F-spot / Picasa / any application you’re using for your music and pictures.
Install needed applications
Yes, this is a copy and paste from my How to use your Nokia to connect to the Internet in Ubuntu. If you’ve already followed the first step in that how to, just install obexfs.
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Go to System - Administration - Software Sources
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Select Third-Party Software and add “deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/blueman ubuntu bluetooth”
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Close Software Sources. It will ask for permission to update. Yes, you’d like that…
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Go to System - Administration - Synaptic …
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Find “blueman” and “obexfs”, mark them for installation and click Apply
- When done, all open applications can be closed .
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Start Blueman from Applications - Accessories
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Click Inquiry, select your phone and click Bond
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Type the same pin on both your computer and your phone and the bonding should be successful
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With the phone selected, click Other and select “Set trusted”
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With your phone selected, go to Properties - Get Service List
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Take note of the OBEX File Transfer channel (ex: 11)
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Click “Device Information” and copy the Device Address (ex: 00:1D:FD:6C:9B:66)
- When done, Blueman can be closed
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System changes
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Click Alt + F2 and the Run Application dialog pops up. Write:
gksudo adduser YOURUSERNAME fuse && gksudo chgrp fuse /dev/fuse
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Log out and in again (System – Quit – Log out)
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Create a folder
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Go to Places – Home Folder
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Select File – Create Folder and name it Phone
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Make shortcuts for mounting and dismounting the Phone
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Right click Applications and select “Edit Menus”
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Click “New Menu”
Name: Phone
Click the image and select any icon -
Select Phone in the sidebar and click “New Item”
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Name: Mount Phone
Command: “obexfs -b THEDEVICEADDRESS -B THECHANNEL /home/YOURUSERNAME/Phone”
(ex: “obexfs -b 00:1D:FD:6C:9B:66 -B 11 /home/ramvi/Phone”)
Click the image and select any icon -
Click OK and “New Item” again
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Name: Dismount Phone
Command: gksudo umount /home/YOURUSERNAME/Phone
(ex: gksudo umount /home/ramvi/Phone)
Click the image and select any icon
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Select Mount Phone under Applications - Phone and Nautilus should pop up with your phone. It’s now accessible from any application
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Here’s some icon ideas:
- http://www.iconfinder.net/?q=phone
- /usr/share/icons/ on your machine
aUPDATE
There seems to be a bug in Ubuntu Hardy’s obexfs. I’m only able to read files. I’m not able to write files to the phone. This should be working in Ubuntu Gutsy though..? The bug in hardy will probably be fixed soon as well.

Oh yeah, the bug in Hardy is annoying. I am quite angry, because I have to run Windows in VirtualBox if I want to save something in the phone.
Kokesh
27. April 2008