diff --git a/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/driver.py b/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/driver.py
index 3173e6eb98..c9db90a381 100644
--- a/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/driver.py
+++ b/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/driver.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ __license__   = 'GPL v3'
 __copyright__ = '2012, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>'
 __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
-import time, operator
+import operator
 from threading import RLock
 from io import BytesIO
 from collections import namedtuple
@@ -133,20 +133,9 @@ class MTP_DEVICE(MTPDeviceBase):
         self.dev = self._filesystem_cache = None
         try:
             self.dev = self.create_device(connected_device)
-        except self.libmtp.MTPError:
-            # Give the device some time to settle
-            time.sleep(2)
-            try:
-                self.dev = self.create_device(connected_device)
-            except self.libmtp.MTPError as e:
-                # Black list this device so that it is ignored for the
-                # remainder of this session.
-                self.blacklisted_devices.add(connected_device)
-                raise OpenFailed('Failed to open %s: Error: %s'%(
+        except Exception as e:
+            raise OpenFailed('Failed to open %s: Error: %s'%(
                     connected_device, as_unicode(e)))
-        except TypeError:
-            self.blacklisted_devices.add(connected_device)
-            raise OpenFailed('')
 
         storage = sorted(self.dev.storage_info, key=operator.itemgetter('id'))
         storage = [x for x in storage if x.get('rw', False)]
diff --git a/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/libmtp.c b/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/libmtp.c
index 8f83778c34..ffbcbe688d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/libmtp.c
+++ b/src/calibre/devices/mtp/unix/libmtp.c
@@ -224,8 +224,6 @@ libmtp_Device_init(libmtp_Device *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "IBHHssO", &busnum, &devnum, &vendor_id, &product_id, &vendor, &product, &usb_serialnum)) return -1;
 
-    if (devnum < 0 || devnum > 255 || busnum < 0) { PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "Invalid busnum/devnum"); return -1; }
-
     // We have to build and search the rawdevice list instead of creating a
     // rawdevice directly as otherwise, dynamic bug flag assignment in libmtp
     // does not work