Linux sometimes connects to Android

I'm using Ubuntu 18 with Mate. I have two user accounts, a user account "archive" and an admin account "dave". When I connect my Galaxy android while in the archive account the phone just connects, no issues. Caja can immediately start browsing my phone. But when I'm in the admin account it keeps telling me "Unable to open MTP device". In just the last two hours I have seen it as mounted and unmounted per Caja.

Currently in the admin account and this is the first line of lsusb:
Bus 002 Device 069: ID 04e8:6863 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd GT-I9500 [Galaxy S4] / GT-I9250 [Galaxy Nexus] (network tethering)
so Linux does see the phone.