USB tethering to connect Linux to Android I believe I can access the files on my Android mobile from my Linux Desktop if I turn on 'usb tethering' on my mobile. However, when I do it, nothing appears on my file manager. I am using Debian9 Linux and I have tried it with KDE desktop and Dolphin file manager (where I also checked 'Network' in places) and also on LXDE desktop with PCManFm and Thunar file managers. 

On checking dmesg, I see following at messages: 

...
[ 1400.700600] usb 1-1.4.3: new high-speed USB device number 13 using ehci-pci
[ 1400.810883] usb 1-1.4.3: New USB device found, idVendor=1ebf, idProduct=6880
[ 1400.810886] usb 1-1.4.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1400.810888] usb 1-1.4.3: Product: Android
[ 1400.810890] usb 1-1.4.3: Manufacturer: Android
[ 1400.810891] usb 1-1.4.3: SerialNumber: 3a2e77f
[ 1400.819857] rndis_host 1-1.4.3:1.0 usb0: register 'rndis_host' at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4.3, RNDIS device, 32:04:36:81:21:ff
[ 1400.842696] rndis_host 1-1.4.3:1.0 enp0s26u1u4u3: renamed from usb0
[ 1400.878144] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): enp0s26u1u4u3: link is not ready


How can I access files on my mobile with usb tethering? Thanks for your help.
Tethering doesn't provide access to device's storage. It simply establishes a network between the host (mobile) and client (PC) where PC can access internet, if available. If you need storage access, try MTP or ADB or network based file access (WebDAV, FTP, SSH, etc.). I do not know much about setting-up MTP on Debian but the rest alternatives are covered in my answer here.