Mount an Android device on your pc filesystem over ssh

Install scrcpy

Scrcpy allows to send keyboard input to the device, its installation is recommended since typing commands in the terminal from Android's keyboard it is quite uncomfortable:

scrcpy -K

Install Termux and setup openssh server

• Install Termux from Github (or F-Droid) on the phone you want to SSH into. Don't use the Play Store version, it doesn't work
• run pkg update and pkg upgrade
• run passwd and set up a password
• run pkg install openssh
• run ssh-keygen -A
• run termux-setup-storage - this will make the app ask for storage permission
• run sshd
• run ifconfig to know you IP address - look at inet field that looks like 192.168.X.Y

Test ssh connection

port=8022
android_ip=192.168.X.Y
ssh $android_ip -p $port

The last command will prompt to digit the password you have previously entered. Usually ssh specifies a username (username@$server_ip), if your ssh client doesn't allow you to not enter a username, just use a blank space or asterisk.

Once connected, you can display your device internal directory tree as follows:

cd /storage/emulated/0
ls

Mount android

With rclone

Run rclone config and select sftp option and follow the guided setup.

rclone config

Performing a minimal setup will produce something like this at $HOME/.config/rclone:

[ssh-connection-name]
type = sftp
host = $android_ip
port = $port

By default rclone will attempt to connect using ssh-agent. To connect using a password use --sftp-ask-password flag:

android_dir=/storage/emulated/0
mount_point=/mnt/android-device

curr_user="$(whoami)"

id "$curr_user"

sudo mkdir "$mount_point"
sudo chown "$user:$user" "$mount_point"

rclone mount android-ssh:$android_dir "$mount_point" --sftp-ask-password

With sshfs (deprecated)

Unfortunately sshfs is no longer maintained, but the setup script is still left for reference.

android_dir=/storage/emulated/0
mount_point=/mnt/android-device

user="$(whoami)"

id "$user"

sudo mkdir "$mount_point"
sudo chown "$user:$user" "$mount_point"

sshfs \
  -o idmap="$user" \
  -p $port \
  "$android_ip:$android_dir" \
  "$mount_point"

If you need to troubleshoot sshfs connection you can add the following options:

-o debug,sshfs_debug,loglevel=debug

If you want to specify a custom ssh config:

-F /path/to/.ssh/config

Stop Android ssh server

pkill sshd

Unmount directory

fusermount -u "$mount_point"
sudo umount "$mount_point"
sudo rmdir "$mount_point"