10 ms·

As always, the most difficult problem is not sending files between computers, but between smartphones, tablets and computers. I'm still looking for a solution

by Fiahil 5y ago

As always, the most difficult problem is not sending files between computers, but between smartphones, tablets and computers. I'm still looking for a solution I could use to share pictures and PDF files from Android phones to iPads and Laptops using the "share" modal and completely self-hosted...

offtop5 5y ago
Any reason FTP doesn't work ? I imagine you could run an FTP server on a Raspberry Pi
- jandrese 5y ago
  Being completely plaintext makes it unacceptable for many use cases in the modern world. It's also a touch more complicated than it needs to be for the standard use case. Binary vs. ASCII transfer mode (and ASCII is the default most of the time even though it only very rarely makes sense). Plus the whole passive vs. active mode thing. Too many footguns and no security rule it out.
  - lucgommans 5y ago
    If you're running FTP as plaintext you're indeed doing it wrong, I'm not sure that that must be what GP meant. Not as if we explicitly mention (START)TLS for every other protocol that supports it.
    - SilverRed 5y ago
      You can't have secure FTP without a certificate and you can't have a certificate without DNS/domain names unless you want to manually add certificates around which is bad UX again. The ideal situation would be some universal airdrop which will never happen. The next easiest solution is to use cloud storage and send a link to the other person.
      - lucgommans 5y ago
        Yeah, that's fair. I think FileZilla shows who signed the cert, but yeah it still gives that pop-up asking the user to decide and I haven't checked whether they verify that signer against the system CA list. Either way, that's as canon as FTP clients get and since they don't have it, indeed it's mostly opportunistic encryption. (Not that relying on the CA system rather than TOFU'ing or sharing a fingerprint is without problems of its own, but that's a discussion for another thread.)
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Ftp could work, but the ux is very bad
  - offtop5 5y ago
    Then you could just implement your own client. There are already dozens of not hundreds of FTP clients for any device you could imagine, if you don't like the ux take an open source one and clean it up a bit.
- BatteryMountain 5y ago
  I use an ftp-server on my Android phone, works great! https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ I guess you can install in on multiple devices (Android phones and tablets), then use a file explorer that supports ftp or use a dedicated ftp client, to then transfer between each other. But accessing my phone from my computers via ftp (Fedora and Windows 10) is a piece of cake and reliable - don't even need anything like filezilla. To stop changing ip's: I recommend having a static ip range in your router instead of using dhcp (or some routers/dhcp server can allocate the same ip address to the same mac address), so all of your devices ip's stay stable (on newer phones, you have to disable the random mac address feature though).
cmurf 5y ago
I recently spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get Android to connect via smb, couldn't figure it out. It's such a stupid PITA it's almost by design and "yeah just use the cloud".
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Android, just like iOS, was designed with the idea of turning the user into a customer for products and services, therefore many things that we take for granted on desktop PCs, often even free, under those mobile OSes are either non existing or proprietary, filled with adware etc. By becoming mainstream they pretty much destroyed decades of efforts in bringing free and open source and standards to the masses.
charlesdaniels 5y ago
Agreed. Especially on iOS, there isn’t really a convenient way to do this. I’d love something that uses an ssh key pair to accept files from the “share” dialog and have them end up in ~/Desktop. I tried hacking something with Shortcuts, but couldn’t get it working.
obloid 5y ago
I've been using KDE connect recently and it's great for moving files between my phone and laptop. Another fun feature is sharing a url from the phone to the laptop and it opens the browser to the page. I don't know of any similar software but being able to do the same thing between iOS and android would be great.
- TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
  I second this. File transfers between my phone and computer are seamless and quick. I can even use it to find my phone when I use it. It is rare to find open source software that Just Works, and KDE Connect is one of these rare gems that does so.
- j-james 5y ago
  I second KDE Connect. Despite the name, it's not limited to KDE by any means - there's implementations for Windows, MacOS, and even GNOME Shell. It's very straightforward to set up and has a bunch of other features besides file transfer, like using your phone as a touchpad, sending SMS messages from the desktop, or pinging either device.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Would have been a strong contender if it had an iOS client
  - f1refly 5y ago
    The developers gave a statement on this: 1. gpl and apple appstore don't go along 2. ios apps cannot run in the background in ways that kde connect needs 3. ios does not permit 99% of things that make kde connect interesting and useful blame apple for this, not the kde connect devs.
    - Fiahil 5y ago
      Apple is definitely to blame here, but I won't settle for a solution worse than dropbox or google drive regarding the shareability on iOS
sidpatil 5y ago
I use Snapdrop (https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/) to transfer files between my iPhone and my Linux laptop. It offers a self-hosting option, and there are apps for Android and iOS available (though I've only used the Web interface).
- Fiahil 5y ago
  I used snapdrop as well, but it's not working with the share modal on phones. This means it's not what I am looking for! The primary use case is for me to share PDF scans made with my iPad/phone with my laptop. The second use case is for sharing screenshots of my laptop with others on my favorite messenger.
alcover 5y ago
I use yopp for this. It's just a very crude local server with a file picker. https://github.com/josephernest/Yopp https://github.com/josephernest/Yopp
- tptacek 5y ago
  There's no security, so everyone who has the URL can download your last file (well, not if you downloaded it, because then it will be automatically deleted on server). Why? Because sometimes you just want a quick solution for non-sensitive/personal data, rather than a super secure solution that would take 2 minutes (go to Gmail on phone, enter login, enter password, upload file, go to Gmail on computer, enter login, enter password, download the file...)*
- Fiahil 5y ago
  As many others: not working with the share modal. > This tool requires a total number of 7 actions to get the work done What the hell?!
smusamashah 5y ago
On Android, you can install croc in Termux and send files to any other platform with croc installed.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Yes, sure, but it's not working with the share modal. It's not what I'm looking for.
somethingwitty1 5y ago
Maybe overkill for you use-case, but something such as NextCloud could be used: https://nextcloud.com/ https://nextcloud.com/ I use this for cross-family backup and sharing. My main use-case is getting my photos from my phone to my desktop.
- StavrosK 5y ago
  NextCloud is great if you need Dropbox-like functionality. For straight-up syncing of a single directory, or multiple single directories, SyncThing is fantastic.
  - Fiahil 5y ago
    Syncthing doesn't have an iOS app, and nextcloud is not what I'm looking for.
velosol 5y ago
I've used Total Commander's Send to Wifi [1] before and found it workable for that use case (where both are on the same WiFi network; presumably you could use a hotspot for a place without WiFi at all). [1]: https://www.ghisler.com/androidplugins/wifi/ https://www.ghisler.com/androidplugins/wifi/
cturtle 5y ago
Linux Mint's "Warpinator" [0] is a newer project and has worked well for my needs. Very easy to send files to and from my android phone to Linux. [0]: https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator
- Fiahil 5y ago
  And how would I use : a) the share modal b) an iPad?
jandrese 5y ago
There is no technical reason sending files should be difficult, the problem is entirely political. A file transfer service that works too well immediately becomes a hotbed of porn, warez, rips, etc... Then it gets sued and/or shut down by the authorities. So all file services have to suck in specific ways to discourage abuse. The trick is to find the one that sucks in ways that aren't as much of an issue for your use case.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  There's a fairly significant difference between 1:N file transfer (1 person "sends", N "recieve") and 1:1 file transfer. What you say seems like a good summary of the issues for 1:N, but not particularly relevant for 1:1
  - jandrese 5y ago
    Being only a 1:1 transfer is itself a problem when you need to send the file to more than one person. There are plenty of cases where you need to send a file to a small group like 4 or 5 people. Worse, this sometimes means you have restrictions like downloading the file one causes it to self destruct, which means if said person clicks the link on his phone then realizes his error and clicks the link on his computer the link will already be dead and you have to re-upload the file.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      That's all fine, but magic-wormhole is a 1:1 file transfer system.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  My fundamental requirement is for it to be self hosted. Therefore the porn and warez are absolutely not an issue.
  - jandrese 5y ago
    If you're willing to self host then the problem is pretty much solved. Most people aren't technical enough to pull this off unfortunately.
psanford 5y ago
I have a Magic Wormhole client for Android that I wrote for the occasional sensitive file transfer to and from my phone[0]. I was planning on adding iOS support as well, but Apple's general hostility toward open source apps discouraged me enough to not want to work on that. [0]: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile
- amelius 5y ago
  The best thing to work on if you hate Apple is probably an iOS emulator.
  - psanford 5y ago
    What? I don't hate Apple.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
INTPenis 5y ago
I host my own Firefox Send instance for this purpose. https://gitlab.com/timvisee/send https://gitlab.com/timvisee/send (a fork of the original code)
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Too bad, it's missing an iOS client :(
  - INTPenis 5y ago
    Can't you just go to it in a browser? I only have Android at the moment but the whole idea behind Send was that I could easily share files from all devices since it's a web app.
orthecreedence 5y ago
I use Matrix/Element for this (via encrypted channels obviously) all the time.
- SilverRed 5y ago
  For small files this is probably fine but you are keeping those files stored on the matrix server forever which costs them a fair bit.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  I haven't tried this one, but, like the ftp solution, I think the ux would be clunky
lucgommans 5y ago
I made https://dro.pm https://dro.pm for this. You get a link like dro.pm/h which is short enough to even share over the phone or tell someone at a conference to open. Not like chat apps where you have to be connected to the other person first (even if that is yourself, need to navigate to that chat) and no need to install any software. It's made to be fast on any connection (e.g. by allocating the link before you even entered any data), and due to being ephemeral it's also less prone to being used for phishing like other link shorteners are. It auto-detects when you enter a link, otherwise treats text inputs as a pastebin, you can ctrl+v an image, and it has file uploads up to a few gigabytes. Code is on github (https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/) though I still have to change the license to be more permissive (I've decided that I won't pursue this as a commercial thing, just open a ticket if you want me to change the license sooner than whenever I work on this next). Viewing uploaded files instead of downloading is also possible for image/audio/video mime-types by adding /preview to any link. You can also use it from the command line if you're on a keyboard+terminal-only machine, e.g. just `wget -L dro.pm/h.txt` to download the uploaded file (the links accept an arbitrary .extension) or for uploading from the command line there is a bash one-liner contained in the page source itself, see: `curl https://dro.pm https://dro.pm | head` Made a mistake and uploaded something private or want to edit the link? Just click delete on the website, or on the command line you can use the token that you get when creating a new link.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  That isn't self hosted and it appears that all the data you send will be exposed to dro.pm
  - lucgommans 5y ago
    Should I package it as a .deb, or what makes something self-hosted? The code is already on github: https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ (link was buried in the text - I had a hard time prioritizing what people would want to read first, since that depends on your use-case). I guess magic wormhole is the wrong context to be making this argument in since everyone's primed for peer to peer now, but in general, yeah when using dro.pm it will put your data on dro.pm, similar to how pastebin stores your data when you use pastebin. It otherwise (and that's why I made this design decision) couldn't work after you close the tab, making it much less suitable for most of the intended use-cases. If you want peer to peer file transfer, you could have a look at https://file.pizza https://file.pizza (not made by me)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
12ian34 5y ago
maybe Syncthing (for Android, ideally syncthing-fork via F-Droid) will work for you. Share modal, cross platform, works with or without a centralised server.
shepherdjerred 5y ago
I use Resilio Sync for this purpose. It uses a peer-to-peer model (you install the app on all of your devices and they sync between themselves. there's no central server.), it's free, and it works well enough. If you want it available 24/7 without relying on peers being online then you can install the application on a cheap Kimsufi VPS. https://www.resilio.com/individuals/ https://www.resilio.com/individuals/
- Fiahil 5y ago
  It's not free, and it's more a Dropbox clone. When I share using the modal, it doesn't send the file directly I have to open the app to allow them to sync.
  - shepherdjerred 5y ago
    It is free, but there is also a paid option. The free software has limits. Dropbox is centralized (with some p2p for performance gains on local networks) whereas this is entirely p2p
kej 5y ago
I'm a happy user of Solid Explorer which has a plugin to host a local folder over FTP. It seems like there should be a more "modern" option but FTP has the advantage that pretty much everything still supports it. (It also connects to GDrive, SMB, and SSH, which covers 99% of my file sharing needs). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplorer2 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplor...
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Like many many solutions, it doesn't have an iOS equivalent.
rakoo 5y ago
I still haven't found a better way than sending yourself a message. It can be email or it can be IM; all platforms have working email/XMPP/Matrix clients where this can work. Email is probably a bit harder to self-host but still doable; the other two are easy in comparison. For Matrix the standard client is Element, for XMPP that would probably be Conversations. For emails I highly recommend using deltachat (https://delta.chat/en/ https://delta.chat/en/), which gives a more IM-like interface along with automagic e2e encryption. All of those are applications, so they have the share modal.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  I could send myself an email, but it's not even a good option for shared devices like ipad. I don't want to expose the full content of my email account, nor private messages on that device, therefore, sending emails is not the best solution.
  - rakoo 5y ago
    I completely agree. I would say that in that case the best is to have a specific shared account, which only contains stuff you want to exchange between your devices, but that means juggling with multiple accounts from the sender's device.
0xCMP 5y ago
Tailscale does everything peer to peer so it might fit what you wanted. They recently added a feature to share files between any computers in your network
_carbyau_ 5y ago
Syncthing mentions having an iOS app in beta in Nov 2020. Although top comment here suggests a combination: https://www.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/ese82l/ios_users_how_do_you_sync/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/ese82l/ios_users... Top comment snippet: "I use FE file explorer PRO (paid ) on iOS to connect connect to my VPS vis SFTP where my main syncthing pool is"
rahimnathwani 5y ago
For that particular use case (from Android to other devices on the same network), either of these would work: https://github.com/marcosdiez/shareviahttp https://github.com/marcosdiez/shareviahttp https://github.com/jimmod/ShareToComputer https://github.com/jimmod/ShareToComputer
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Both are missing an iOS app.
  - rahimnathwani 5y ago
    You said you want something 'to share pictures and PDF files from Android phones to iPads and Laptops using the "share" modal'. The two apps I linked do exactly that. You don't need an iOS app because you're sending files only from Android.
    - Fiahil 5y ago
      It goes both way, I don't want a partial solution.
tomc1985 5y ago
I've been using snapdrop.net, it works a lot like that sharing feature on macs
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Like sharedrop.io, it doesn't use the system sharing modal.
BatteryMountain 5y ago
Give an ftp server a try https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ Works great, see my other comment for explanation.
jb1991 5y ago
I’m content to use commercial solutions for this. Personally, I do all my transfers between different systems and devices using dropbox. I’ll probably get downvoted by even mentioning something commercial though :)
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Honestly, considering the abysmal gap in open source solutions, dropbox and google drive are "kind-of okay". The only issue is, it needs to sync up files between devices before allowing a download. The ux is not excellent, but at least it works. I'm really looking for a "universal airdrop", but I would settle even for a pale copy of it.

by Fiahil 5y ago

offtop5 5y ago

Any reason FTP doesn't work ? I imagine you could run an FTP server on a Raspberry Pi

jandrese 5y ago
Being completely plaintext makes it unacceptable for many use cases in the modern world. It's also a touch more complicated than it needs to be for the standard use case. Binary vs. ASCII transfer mode (and ASCII is the default most of the time even though it only very rarely makes sense). Plus the whole passive vs. active mode thing. Too many footguns and no security rule it out.
- lucgommans 5y ago
  If you're running FTP as plaintext you're indeed doing it wrong, I'm not sure that that must be what GP meant. Not as if we explicitly mention (START)TLS for every other protocol that supports it.
  - SilverRed 5y ago
    You can't have secure FTP without a certificate and you can't have a certificate without DNS/domain names unless you want to manually add certificates around which is bad UX again. The ideal situation would be some universal airdrop which will never happen. The next easiest solution is to use cloud storage and send a link to the other person.
    - lucgommans 5y ago
      Yeah, that's fair. I think FileZilla shows who signed the cert, but yeah it still gives that pop-up asking the user to decide and I haven't checked whether they verify that signer against the system CA list. Either way, that's as canon as FTP clients get and since they don't have it, indeed it's mostly opportunistic encryption. (Not that relying on the CA system rather than TOFU'ing or sharing a fingerprint is without problems of its own, but that's a discussion for another thread.)
Fiahil 5y ago
Ftp could work, but the ux is very bad
- offtop5 5y ago
  Then you could just implement your own client. There are already dozens of not hundreds of FTP clients for any device you could imagine, if you don't like the ux take an open source one and clean it up a bit.
BatteryMountain 5y ago
I use an ftp-server on my Android phone, works great! https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ I guess you can install in on multiple devices (Android phones and tablets), then use a file explorer that supports ftp or use a dedicated ftp client, to then transfer between each other. But accessing my phone from my computers via ftp (Fedora and Windows 10) is a piece of cake and reliable - don't even need anything like filezilla. To stop changing ip's: I recommend having a static ip range in your router instead of using dhcp (or some routers/dhcp server can allocate the same ip address to the same mac address), so all of your devices ip's stay stable (on newer phones, you have to disable the random mac address feature though).

cmurf 5y ago

I recently spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get Android to connect via smb, couldn't figure it out. It's such a stupid PITA it's almost by design and "yeah just use the cloud".

squarefoot 5y ago
Android, just like iOS, was designed with the idea of turning the user into a customer for products and services, therefore many things that we take for granted on desktop PCs, often even free, under those mobile OSes are either non existing or proprietary, filled with adware etc. By becoming mainstream they pretty much destroyed decades of efforts in bringing free and open source and standards to the masses.

charlesdaniels 5y ago

Agreed. Especially on iOS, there isn’t really a convenient way to do this. I’d love something that uses an ssh key pair to accept files from the “share” dialog and have them end up in ~/Desktop. I tried hacking something with Shortcuts, but couldn’t get it working.

obloid 5y ago

I've been using KDE connect recently and it's great for moving files between my phone and laptop. Another fun feature is sharing a url from the phone to the laptop and it opens the browser to the page. I don't know of any similar software but being able to do the same thing between iOS and android would be great.

TheAdamAndChe 5y ago
I second this. File transfers between my phone and computer are seamless and quick. I can even use it to find my phone when I use it. It is rare to find open source software that Just Works, and KDE Connect is one of these rare gems that does so.
j-james 5y ago
I second KDE Connect. Despite the name, it's not limited to KDE by any means - there's implementations for Windows, MacOS, and even GNOME Shell. It's very straightforward to set up and has a bunch of other features besides file transfer, like using your phone as a touchpad, sending SMS messages from the desktop, or pinging either device.
Fiahil 5y ago
Would have been a strong contender if it had an iOS client
- f1refly 5y ago
  The developers gave a statement on this: 1. gpl and apple appstore don't go along 2. ios apps cannot run in the background in ways that kde connect needs 3. ios does not permit 99% of things that make kde connect interesting and useful blame apple for this, not the kde connect devs.
  - Fiahil 5y ago
    Apple is definitely to blame here, but I won't settle for a solution worse than dropbox or google drive regarding the shareability on iOS

sidpatil 5y ago

I use Snapdrop (https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/) to transfer files between my iPhone and my Linux laptop. It offers a self-hosting option, and there are apps for Android and iOS available (though I've only used the Web interface).

Fiahil 5y ago
I used snapdrop as well, but it's not working with the share modal on phones. This means it's not what I am looking for! The primary use case is for me to share PDF scans made with my iPad/phone with my laptop. The second use case is for sharing screenshots of my laptop with others on my favorite messenger.

alcover 5y ago

I use yopp for this. It's just a very crude local server with a file picker. https://github.com/josephernest/Yopp https://github.com/josephernest/Yopp

tptacek 5y ago
There's no security, so everyone who has the URL can download your last file (well, not if you downloaded it, because then it will be automatically deleted on server). Why? Because sometimes you just want a quick solution for non-sensitive/personal data, rather than a super secure solution that would take 2 minutes (go to Gmail on phone, enter login, enter password, upload file, go to Gmail on computer, enter login, enter password, download the file...)*
Fiahil 5y ago
As many others: not working with the share modal. > This tool requires a total number of 7 actions to get the work done What the hell?!

smusamashah 5y ago

On Android, you can install croc in Termux and send files to any other platform with croc installed.

Fiahil 5y ago
Yes, sure, but it's not working with the share modal. It's not what I'm looking for.

somethingwitty1 5y ago

Maybe overkill for you use-case, but something such as NextCloud could be used: https://nextcloud.com/ https://nextcloud.com/ I use this for cross-family backup and sharing. My main use-case is getting my photos from my phone to my desktop.

StavrosK 5y ago
NextCloud is great if you need Dropbox-like functionality. For straight-up syncing of a single directory, or multiple single directories, SyncThing is fantastic.
- Fiahil 5y ago
  Syncthing doesn't have an iOS app, and nextcloud is not what I'm looking for.

velosol 5y ago

I've used Total Commander's Send to Wifi [1] before and found it workable for that use case (where both are on the same WiFi network; presumably you could use a hotspot for a place without WiFi at all). [1]: https://www.ghisler.com/androidplugins/wifi/ https://www.ghisler.com/androidplugins/wifi/

cturtle 5y ago

Linux Mint's "Warpinator" [0] is a newer project and has worked well for my needs. Very easy to send files to and from my android phone to Linux. [0]: https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator

Fiahil 5y ago
And how would I use : a) the share modal b) an iPad?

jandrese 5y ago

There is no technical reason sending files should be difficult, the problem is entirely political. A file transfer service that works too well immediately becomes a hotbed of porn, warez, rips, etc... Then it gets sued and/or shut down by the authorities. So all file services have to suck in specific ways to discourage abuse. The trick is to find the one that sucks in ways that aren't as much of an issue for your use case.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
There's a fairly significant difference between 1:N file transfer (1 person "sends", N "recieve") and 1:1 file transfer. What you say seems like a good summary of the issues for 1:N, but not particularly relevant for 1:1
- jandrese 5y ago
  Being only a 1:1 transfer is itself a problem when you need to send the file to more than one person. There are plenty of cases where you need to send a file to a small group like 4 or 5 people. Worse, this sometimes means you have restrictions like downloading the file one causes it to self destruct, which means if said person clicks the link on his phone then realizes his error and clicks the link on his computer the link will already be dead and you have to re-upload the file.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    That's all fine, but magic-wormhole is a 1:1 file transfer system.
Fiahil 5y ago
My fundamental requirement is for it to be self hosted. Therefore the porn and warez are absolutely not an issue.
- jandrese 5y ago
  If you're willing to self host then the problem is pretty much solved. Most people aren't technical enough to pull this off unfortunately.

psanford 5y ago

I have a Magic Wormhole client for Android that I wrote for the occasional sensitive file transfer to and from my phone[0]. I was planning on adding iOS support as well, but Apple's general hostility toward open source apps discouraged me enough to not want to work on that. [0]: https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile https://github.com/psanford/wormhole-william-mobile

amelius 5y ago
The best thing to work on if you hate Apple is probably an iOS emulator.
- psanford 5y ago
  What? I don't hate Apple.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

INTPenis 5y ago

I host my own Firefox Send instance for this purpose. https://gitlab.com/timvisee/send https://gitlab.com/timvisee/send (a fork of the original code)

Fiahil 5y ago
Too bad, it's missing an iOS client :(
- INTPenis 5y ago
  Can't you just go to it in a browser? I only have Android at the moment but the whole idea behind Send was that I could easily share files from all devices since it's a web app.

orthecreedence 5y ago

I use Matrix/Element for this (via encrypted channels obviously) all the time.

SilverRed 5y ago
For small files this is probably fine but you are keeping those files stored on the matrix server forever which costs them a fair bit.
Fiahil 5y ago
I haven't tried this one, but, like the ftp solution, I think the ux would be clunky

lucgommans 5y ago

I made https://dro.pm https://dro.pm for this. You get a link like dro.pm/h which is short enough to even share over the phone or tell someone at a conference to open. Not like chat apps where you have to be connected to the other person first (even if that is yourself, need to navigate to that chat) and no need to install any software. It's made to be fast on any connection (e.g. by allocating the link before you even entered any data), and due to being ephemeral it's also less prone to being used for phishing like other link shorteners are. It auto-detects when you enter a link, otherwise treats text inputs as a pastebin, you can ctrl+v an image, and it has file uploads up to a few gigabytes. Code is on github (https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/) though I still have to change the license to be more permissive (I've decided that I won't pursue this as a commercial thing, just open a ticket if you want me to change the license sooner than whenever I work on this next). Viewing uploaded files instead of downloading is also possible for image/audio/video mime-types by adding /preview to any link. You can also use it from the command line if you're on a keyboard+terminal-only machine, e.g. just `wget -L dro.pm/h.txt` to download the uploaded file (the links accept an arbitrary .extension) or for uploading from the command line there is a bash one-liner contained in the page source itself, see: `curl https://dro.pm https://dro.pm | head` Made a mistake and uploaded something private or want to edit the link? Just click delete on the website, or on the command line you can use the token that you get when creating a new link.

shkkmo 5y ago
That isn't self hosted and it appears that all the data you send will be exposed to dro.pm
- lucgommans 5y ago
  Should I package it as a .deb, or what makes something self-hosted? The code is already on github: https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ https://github.com/lgommans/dro.pm/ (link was buried in the text - I had a hard time prioritizing what people would want to read first, since that depends on your use-case). I guess magic wormhole is the wrong context to be making this argument in since everyone's primed for peer to peer now, but in general, yeah when using dro.pm it will put your data on dro.pm, similar to how pastebin stores your data when you use pastebin. It otherwise (and that's why I made this design decision) couldn't work after you close the tab, making it much less suitable for most of the intended use-cases. If you want peer to peer file transfer, you could have a look at https://file.pizza https://file.pizza (not made by me)

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

12ian34 5y ago

maybe Syncthing (for Android, ideally syncthing-fork via F-Droid) will work for you. Share modal, cross platform, works with or without a centralised server.

shepherdjerred 5y ago

I use Resilio Sync for this purpose. It uses a peer-to-peer model (you install the app on all of your devices and they sync between themselves. there's no central server.), it's free, and it works well enough. If you want it available 24/7 without relying on peers being online then you can install the application on a cheap Kimsufi VPS. https://www.resilio.com/individuals/ https://www.resilio.com/individuals/

Fiahil 5y ago
It's not free, and it's more a Dropbox clone. When I share using the modal, it doesn't send the file directly I have to open the app to allow them to sync.
- shepherdjerred 5y ago
  It is free, but there is also a paid option. The free software has limits. Dropbox is centralized (with some p2p for performance gains on local networks) whereas this is entirely p2p

kej 5y ago

I'm a happy user of Solid Explorer which has a plugin to host a local folder over FTP. It seems like there should be a more "modern" option but FTP has the advantage that pretty much everything still supports it. (It also connects to GDrive, SMB, and SSH, which covers 99% of my file sharing needs). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplorer2 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pl.solidexplor...

Fiahil 5y ago
Like many many solutions, it doesn't have an iOS equivalent.

rakoo 5y ago

I still haven't found a better way than sending yourself a message. It can be email or it can be IM; all platforms have working email/XMPP/Matrix clients where this can work. Email is probably a bit harder to self-host but still doable; the other two are easy in comparison. For Matrix the standard client is Element, for XMPP that would probably be Conversations. For emails I highly recommend using deltachat (https://delta.chat/en/ https://delta.chat/en/), which gives a more IM-like interface along with automagic e2e encryption. All of those are applications, so they have the share modal.

Fiahil 5y ago
I could send myself an email, but it's not even a good option for shared devices like ipad. I don't want to expose the full content of my email account, nor private messages on that device, therefore, sending emails is not the best solution.
- rakoo 5y ago
  I completely agree. I would say that in that case the best is to have a specific shared account, which only contains stuff you want to exchange between your devices, but that means juggling with multiple accounts from the sender's device.

0xCMP 5y ago

Tailscale does everything peer to peer so it might fit what you wanted. They recently added a feature to share files between any computers in your network

_carbyau_ 5y ago

Syncthing mentions having an iOS app in beta in Nov 2020. Although top comment here suggests a combination: https://www.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/ese82l/ios_users_how_do_you_sync/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Syncthing/comments/ese82l/ios_users... Top comment snippet: "I use FE file explorer PRO (paid ) on iOS to connect connect to my VPS vis SFTP where my main syncthing pool is"

rahimnathwani 5y ago

For that particular use case (from Android to other devices on the same network), either of these would work: https://github.com/marcosdiez/shareviahttp https://github.com/marcosdiez/shareviahttp https://github.com/jimmod/ShareToComputer https://github.com/jimmod/ShareToComputer

Fiahil 5y ago
Both are missing an iOS app.
- rahimnathwani 5y ago
  You said you want something 'to share pictures and PDF files from Android phones to iPads and Laptops using the "share" modal'. The two apps I linked do exactly that. You don't need an iOS app because you're sending files only from Android.
  - Fiahil 5y ago
    It goes both way, I don't want a partial solution.

tomc1985 5y ago

I've been using snapdrop.net, it works a lot like that sharing feature on macs

Fiahil 5y ago
Like sharedrop.io, it doesn't use the system sharing modal.

BatteryMountain 5y ago

Give an ftp server a try https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/be.ppareit.swiftp_free/ Works great, see my other comment for explanation.

jb1991 5y ago

I’m content to use commercial solutions for this. Personally, I do all my transfers between different systems and devices using dropbox. I’ll probably get downvoted by even mentioning something commercial though :)

Fiahil 5y ago
Honestly, considering the abysmal gap in open source solutions, dropbox and google drive are "kind-of okay". The only issue is, it needs to sync up files between devices before allowing a download. The ux is not excellent, but at least it works. I'm really looking for a "universal airdrop", but I would settle even for a pale copy of it.