4 ms·

Tell HN: Want to see Google fail? Try to find how to create a torrent on iPhone

6 points by LoveMortuus 5y ago

Today, a friend asked me how to transfer about 60 GB of images and videos from her iPhone to her Windows computer, because the phone is so full that it's not working properly. The obvious answer is use a cable, but here cable seems to have a loose connection so it cuts out mid transfer. iTunes wants to make a backup which you can't cancel and then the computer stops working. My first thought was create a torrent file, send it to Windows via any chat app or mail and open it on the PC. Now before giving her instructions I wanted to try the solution, although I do use an Android, but generally apps are more or less the same on Android and on iOS. Following my common sense I downloaded the most downloaded torrent manager and then spent a few minutes searching for an option to create a torrent file. Being unable to find the solution, I went on Google... 'How to create a torrent file on iPhone' Googles gave me only how to download torrents results. But I didn't give up, I'm good with computer stuff! 'How to "create" a torrent file on iPhone' More or less same results... Welp, let's try Bing don't laugh... No solution. After about 5 hours of trying, she decided to go for a run and have a dinner. Oh and she's going to ask a friend to borrow her a cable and an iMac just to be sure. I also wanted to try to SSH into the iPhone but you need to jailbreak it. Google Photos has a limit of 15 GB. iCloud has 5 GB. Mega.nz has a limit of 50 GB. Using a torrent would work, but if you can't create a torrent file, then you can't use the torrents. Why is it so hard to transfer a lot of files from a phone to the PC without using the cable? Did I miss something extremely obvious? EDIT: Not sure why people think this is a troll flamebait. It's not. I was just surprised that I wasn't able to find a solution even after a few hours... I shared my day, in hopes of finding a solution, seeing it get flagged is sad.

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
What kind of data is on the iPhone that is exposed to the filesystems to even come to the idea to make a torrent? Why even make a torrent you can use smb in the mobile finder. There are like a thousand easier ways to transfer data from an iphone than torrent. tbh this whole posts stinks like troll flamebait.
- Bancakes 5y ago
  Consumer toy can't even run torrents, how is this flame bait?
  - LoveMortuus 5y ago
    I wasn't able to create a torrent on Android either. Both platforms have apps that allow you to download, but not too create a torrent.
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  It's a mixture of ~8000 photos and videos. I don't know of SMB, but I'll Google it. Thanks! Sorry if it feels like troll flamebait. I was being serious.
  - nacs 5y ago
    SMB is Windows File Sharing, built into every Windows since like Windows 3.1.
    - LoveMortuus 5y ago
      Is this the same as exposing a folder to the network? I've done that before but it had always been quite cumbersome to set up and at least in my experience quite flaky in performance. I wouldn't want to guide a person over the phone on how to set it up. And the person I was trying to help is really really not tech savvy. With the help of fellow HN people I've found Resilio which works perfectly! And is moderately easy to set up.
samwestdev 5y ago
You can use Resilio Sync if you like torrents.
- basch 5y ago
  As silly it sounds to some people, starting with a solution like torrents and then working backwards to solve the problem, in this case Resilio is a good answer, and happens to use torrent, which is all the more reason to not dismiss OP outright. Theres a "i learned something today" south park esque lesson on hubris in this thread somewhere. I was just as guilty, as I read the thread, until I saw your response. edit: and the post was just as much a commentary on google refusing to infer meaning from the order of words, and treating them all as keywords. we dont need a million "google sucks more now" threads, but OP isnt wrong either.
  - LoveMortuus 5y ago
    I agree! I've just tested Resilio and it works perfectly, so as soon as she gets home, she is going to try it. I've also written here easy to understand steps on how to set everything up, so that she should be able to do it without any major hurdles. I thought of torrents because that's my immediate association when I hear big files.
titusjohnson 5y ago
What makes you think making a torrent file on her phone would have anything to do with freeing up space?
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  She said she wants to move photos and videos to the computer so that she can delete them on the phone.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
syrgian 5y ago
Amazon Photos has no limit for photos, so I would suggest just using that. iPhone's filesystem API is extremely limited, so I would not be surprised if there is no way to create a torrent file.
ivank 5y ago
PhotoSync is how to transfer photos to a computer without using a cable
howeyc 5y ago
It's called FILE Transfer Protocol(FTP). Yes, it still works.
cirrus3 5y ago
Seems like you XY Problem'd this by starting your search with an assumption creating a torrent was the solution. Did you try to google "how to wirelessly transfer images and videos from iPhone to Windows computer" first?
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  It wasn't my first search, but after few failed attemps with torrent, I did, which had better results[1], but the app stopped transfering, and she was unable to select more then one item at the time. Since I use Android I usually try press and hold to mark an item then use the option menu to select all. But she said that she didn't find that option and the pressing and holding just showed her the image. Few hours of trying different stuff and apps later, I decided to google how to select multiple items on iPhone (You have to drag with two fingers), but by then we were already trying Mega.nz which for her kept interrupting. [1] https://medium.com/macoclock/how-to-transfer-files-wirelessly-between-iphone-and-pc-50240eb83a5d https://medium.com/macoclock/how-to-transfer-files-wirelessl...
chrismcb 5y ago
I believe you are being flagged because of the title. Did Google fail? If what you are looking for doesn't exist, you can't blame Google. A title like "how to move photos from iphone"or something would have been better. I'm a little surprised you can't create a torrent on Android, but not surprised you can't create one on iOS. But if the reason to do this is the phone is running out of space why was your first thought "let me first create a large file" There of ways to move photos and video off. You could buy a connector to connect a micro SD card. You could use one of the free cloud service like you mentioned, like icloud and move them a group at a time. Of all the ways to do it, a torrent if the last one I would consider.
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  I guess I expected Google to either show the correct result or say that there are no relevant results, instead of giving me irrelevant results. I did initially try to also add Bing into title since they both did this, but I've reached the character limit. Should I change the title now, or should I leave it as it, so that it doesn't cause more confusion? Isn't a torrent file just an address on how to reach the relevant files, so it should be really small. From what y understand you don't even need the torrent file, you can just use a magnet link, but I don't have a lot of experience with that.

6 points by LoveMortuus 5y ago

YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago

What kind of data is on the iPhone that is exposed to the filesystems to even come to the idea to make a torrent? Why even make a torrent you can use smb in the mobile finder. There are like a thousand easier ways to transfer data from an iphone than torrent. tbh this whole posts stinks like troll flamebait.

Bancakes 5y ago
Consumer toy can't even run torrents, how is this flame bait?
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  I wasn't able to create a torrent on Android either. Both platforms have apps that allow you to download, but not too create a torrent.
LoveMortuus 5y ago
It's a mixture of ~8000 photos and videos. I don't know of SMB, but I'll Google it. Thanks! Sorry if it feels like troll flamebait. I was being serious.
- nacs 5y ago
  SMB is Windows File Sharing, built into every Windows since like Windows 3.1.
  - LoveMortuus 5y ago
    Is this the same as exposing a folder to the network? I've done that before but it had always been quite cumbersome to set up and at least in my experience quite flaky in performance. I wouldn't want to guide a person over the phone on how to set it up. And the person I was trying to help is really really not tech savvy. With the help of fellow HN people I've found Resilio which works perfectly! And is moderately easy to set up.

samwestdev 5y ago

You can use Resilio Sync if you like torrents.

basch 5y ago
As silly it sounds to some people, starting with a solution like torrents and then working backwards to solve the problem, in this case Resilio is a good answer, and happens to use torrent, which is all the more reason to not dismiss OP outright. Theres a "i learned something today" south park esque lesson on hubris in this thread somewhere. I was just as guilty, as I read the thread, until I saw your response. edit: and the post was just as much a commentary on google refusing to infer meaning from the order of words, and treating them all as keywords. we dont need a million "google sucks more now" threads, but OP isnt wrong either.
- LoveMortuus 5y ago
  I agree! I've just tested Resilio and it works perfectly, so as soon as she gets home, she is going to try it. I've also written here easy to understand steps on how to set everything up, so that she should be able to do it without any major hurdles. I thought of torrents because that's my immediate association when I hear big files.

titusjohnson 5y ago

What makes you think making a torrent file on her phone would have anything to do with freeing up space?

LoveMortuus 5y ago
She said she wants to move photos and videos to the computer so that she can delete them on the phone.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

syrgian 5y ago

Amazon Photos has no limit for photos, so I would suggest just using that. iPhone's filesystem API is extremely limited, so I would not be surprised if there is no way to create a torrent file.

ivank 5y ago

PhotoSync is how to transfer photos to a computer without using a cable

howeyc 5y ago

It's called FILE Transfer Protocol(FTP). Yes, it still works.

cirrus3 5y ago

Seems like you XY Problem'd this by starting your search with an assumption creating a torrent was the solution. Did you try to google "how to wirelessly transfer images and videos from iPhone to Windows computer" first?

LoveMortuus 5y ago
It wasn't my first search, but after few failed attemps with torrent, I did, which had better results[1], but the app stopped transfering, and she was unable to select more then one item at the time. Since I use Android I usually try press and hold to mark an item then use the option menu to select all. But she said that she didn't find that option and the pressing and holding just showed her the image. Few hours of trying different stuff and apps later, I decided to google how to select multiple items on iPhone (You have to drag with two fingers), but by then we were already trying Mega.nz which for her kept interrupting. [1] https://medium.com/macoclock/how-to-transfer-files-wirelessly-between-iphone-and-pc-50240eb83a5d https://medium.com/macoclock/how-to-transfer-files-wirelessl...

chrismcb 5y ago

I believe you are being flagged because of the title. Did Google fail? If what you are looking for doesn't exist, you can't blame Google. A title like "how to move photos from iphone"or something would have been better. I'm a little surprised you can't create a torrent on Android, but not surprised you can't create one on iOS. But if the reason to do this is the phone is running out of space why was your first thought "let me first create a large file" There of ways to move photos and video off. You could buy a connector to connect a micro SD card. You could use one of the free cloud service like you mentioned, like icloud and move them a group at a time. Of all the ways to do it, a torrent if the last one I would consider.

LoveMortuus 5y ago
I guess I expected Google to either show the correct result or say that there are no relevant results, instead of giving me irrelevant results. I did initially try to also add Bing into title since they both did this, but I've reached the character limit. Should I change the title now, or should I leave it as it, so that it doesn't cause more confusion? Isn't a torrent file just an address on how to reach the relevant files, so it should be really small. From what y understand you don't even need the torrent file, you can just use a magnet link, but I don't have a lot of experience with that.