15 ms·

How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

• SanjayMehta 3y ago
  Signal has a “Note To Self” feature which in a rush can be used to push files across devices. I’ve sent PDFs between my Linux desktop and iPhone, but never anything bigger than a few Mb.
  • quenix 3y ago
    Yup, WhatsApp has this too.
  • interloxia 3y ago
    Only between desktop and one mobile phone though. I find it mildly inconvenient not to have my messages synced between two mobile devices. It really breaks the magic of cross device usage.
• thesuavefactor 3y ago
  Warpinator in Linux Mint works nice in this regard. Works in local networks, discovers it's peers and has mobile clients.
  • austinjp 3y ago
    Interesting, apparently there are implementations (unofficial, beta) for Android, iOS and Windows. https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator https://github.com/linuxmint/warpinator
  • lemome 3y ago
    Warpinator works really well between Linux systems, it's like magic But add windows computer and it's a little bit of a mixed bag, you need to open ports, jungle the firewall and .. the magic is gone, the USB stick is out.
• seeg 3y ago
  Signal supportes notes to yourself. I think storage is most of their hosting costs. Also, you can send files to yourself and others using XMPP, there are free servers available online.
• ijhuygft776 3y ago
  I still wish Google would allow adhoc Wi-Fi on Android...
• vinhcognito 3y ago
  It's insane to me that this is a frustration I've had back maybe 20 years now and I still feel like there isn't a particularly great solution. My current iteration is just a "transfer" SyncThing folder that is on all my devices. It's not clean or convenient but at least its incredibly fast.
  • Yodel0914 3y ago
    Yep, syncthing is the closest I've found to a simple(ish) cross platform solution. Though when at home, my actual solution is to copy to my file server on one device, then copy from the server on the other.
  • DaSHacka 3y ago
    If only we had something like AirDrop that reliably worked cross-platform. Proximity-based sharing just makes significantly more sense than uploading files to some server miles away, then immediately redownloading them back when the computer was two feet away from you the whole time.
    • mkotowski 3y ago
      Maybe LocalSend? https://localsend.org/ https://localsend.org/ Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and macOS. Seems quite cross-platform. Can confirm it works smoothly for Linux and Android at the very least.
      • lifestyleguru 3y ago
        Most people will happily install entire ad package from Meta and Google, but not some unknown "LocalSend app".
        • Eisenstein 3y ago
          I know that Meta and Google make money from data, but they are also competent, so they can be trusted to at least not get breeched or sell the data to the an aggregator.
• advael 3y ago
  [flagged]
  • GMoromisato 3y ago
    The OP talks about transferring from a PC to a phone (and vice versa). I have no idea how to use scp on my phone or how to move a file from my PC to my phone with scp. Honestly, if you can teach me how to do that in less than a minute, I would (no sarcasm) really appreciate it.
    • advael 3y ago
      That's fair, the duopoly on the mobile platform is such that you are only allowed to do what google or apple deigns to allow, so I suppose one must take it up with them
    • careful_soace 3y ago
      Once I found Termux i use SSHelper less often, using scp and later rsync on either. But I'm on Android... SSHelper will tell give you a GUI where you configure optional password and get the IP and port. Then scp is -P<port> <user>@<IP>:<path> scp -P22222 myfile anyuser@192.168.1.10:/data/user/0/com.arachnoid.sshelper/SDCard/. where the only trick part is how Android managed storage, but it's just more letters (/data/user/0/com.arachnoid.sshelper/SDCard/<path>). Once I found Termux I embraced it since it's a nifty linux thing straight on my phone with it's own configurable sshd and it's exactly the same as above except with a different path and lots more options.
    • yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      Android: install termux, `pkg install openssh`, and preferably run `termux-setup-storage` to give it access to storage folders. iOS: I think https://ish.app/ https://ish.app/ ? (If you're in the ~1% of smart phones not on Android or iOS, either this is trivial (postmarketos rocks) or you're on your own)
      • PeterisP 3y ago
        It also requires running a ssh server on the PC, and the even harder issue of having an externally accessible IP address that will allow ssh connections to the PC from the internet - I can do the former but I'm not entirely sure if the latter is even possible with my ISP.
• SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
  Isn’t https://wormhole.app/ https://wormhole.app/ the solution here? Note I haven’t used it, it’s just often brought up here as a good solution for this class of problem. Is it surprising that the author mentions a ton of solutions but not this one? I would think a deep dive of file sending applications would include this, it’s old enough and well known enough in circles that its exclusion in a comparison of file sending approaches does feel like a bit of an oversight
  • vinnymac 3y ago
    Here is a list of open source options. This isn't the first time I have shared this on here either. Perhaps this is another sign that web search is failing us. SnapDrop - Site: https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/ - Source: https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop ShareDrop - Site: https://www.sharedrop.io/ https://www.sharedrop.io/ - Source: https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop FilePizza - Site: https://file.pizza/ https://file.pizza/ - Source: https://github.com/kern/filepizza https://github.com/kern/filepizza Original Wormhole - https://webwormhole.io/ https://webwormhole.io/ - https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole
    • hulitu 3y ago
      So the solution is to install another app and pray that it works on a PC.
      • vinnymac 3y ago
        Fortunately none of the options above require installation. If properly invested in and maintained instead of being a toy open source project, they’d work seamlessly everywhere the web does.
    • SOLAR_FIELDS 3y ago
      Nice thanks. I think the exclusion of some of these is especially egregious because the author identifies three criteria and then says that none of the solutions they explored fully meet all three. But at least from an early glance at least one or two of the solutions you mentioned do, as well as the solution I linked. Which kind of invalidates the entire point the article was trying to make, that there are not good solutions for this. There are, the author just didn’t consider them.
• minebreaker 3y ago
  KDE Connect?
  • mellow-lake-day 3y ago
    It's ok but it won't let you copy multiple files at once on Windows
  • winrid 3y ago
    KDE Connect has lots of bugs with... connecting. But when it works it's great. P2P over lan.
    • brnt 3y ago
      I never have connection issues; it's been one of those always-reliable tools for me. Can I ask what bugs you experience?
      • winrid 3y ago
        on every OS - windows, linux, android, iOS - it's like a 20% chance that it will connect or send the file if one of the clients has closed and reopened or disconnected momentarily. you have to close and reopen both clients.
    • fransje26 3y ago
      Exactly my experience. And not exactly intuitive either.
  • ranger_danger 3y ago
    Has a ridiculous number of bugs and is quite unreliable. Trying to talk to the devs usually goes nowhere.
• superkuh 3y ago
  Most people should run a static HTTP/1.1 webserver (after port forwarding 80) on their home PC so they can dump files into a directory to share them by sending the http://your.ip.address.here/directory/ http://your.ip.address.here/directory/ link via email or whatever. When you use directories and files your OS itself is the natural interface and everything just works.
  • ShamelessC 3y ago
    Most people can’t.
  • quenix 3y ago
    Protip: if you have python installed you can just run python3 -m http.server 8080 to launch a web server in the current directory on port 8080.
    • cl3misch 3y ago
      Sure, but you can't upload from a client device. You can only provide exisiting files on the host.
  • ranger_danger 3y ago
    No, they shouldn't.
  • jeroenhd 3y ago
    Most people with computers can right click and folder and hit share. SMB clients are built into any modern computer OS and various mobile devices (and apps are available for those devices that don't have it enabled by default). HTTP is clunky, unintuitive, and requires typing in IP addresses. It's not a natural interface to file sharing at all.
• kevincox 3y ago
  I made my own site for this. https://filepush.kevincox.ca/ https://filepush.kevincox.ca/ It uses WebPush notifications to set up a WebRTC data channel. So full E2EE with no website-run server in the middle (unless you need TURN). The actual domain is just a static site. It is similar to a lot of the other WebRTC based solutions but it works better for me because the push notification means that I only have to navigate to the site on one device. Then on the other I can just click the notification. And other than initial setup there is no need to manage pairing codes or similar each time. I mostly use it for between my phone and desktop. But has also come in useful for transfering files to and from my partner's Steam Deck and various other situations. (Although last I checked it was having trouble on Chrome due to some weird interaction between the Chrome push server and the CORS proxy on Deno. It used to work and Firefox doesn't need a CORS proxy so that still works. I should probably get around to filing a bug against Chrome to enable CORS on their push server)
  • gnur 3y ago
    Do you have the source available for this? This is something I'd quite like to selfhost as well :)
    • kevincox 3y ago
      https://gitlab.com/kevincox/filepush https://gitlab.com/kevincox/filepush I should probably add a link to the source on the site.
• grecy 3y ago
  I understand why AirDrop doesn't get full ticks here, but I have to say it has saved me hundreds of hours over the last few years transferring literally anything from phone(s) <-> laptop(s) <-> laptop(s) <-> phones(s) at the drop of a hat. I would not be happy if I had to give it up.
  • ghostpepper 3y ago
    If you have an iPhone and a Mac signed into the same iCloud account you can literally just copy to the clipboard on one device and paste on the other.
• evgpbfhnr 3y ago
  https://pairdrop.net/ https://pairdrop.net/ works well enough for me, but it still requires internet unlike airdrop... I wish these bluetooth transfer things were just magically cross-platform. Maybe someday.
• sineausr931 3y ago
  I was forced to go digging for a solution that supported Mac, iOS, Android and Windows. Localsend is available through the app stores and on github. I haven't had much occasion to use it yet, but here's another to add to your lists: https://github.com/localsend/localsend https://github.com/localsend/localsend
  • anta40 3y ago
    I use localsend almost everyday, mostly for copying images/PDFs between my Macbook Air and 3 Android devices. So far works great, no issue.
  • uncharted9 3y ago
    This looks impressive. Much less clunky than the Syncthing's interface and doesn't look as buggy as KDE Connect on my first try. The real test would be moving my 95GB DCIM folder from Android to Windows. Let's see how that goes.
  • joshvm 3y ago
    Localsend works really well so far, no issues with device discovery. I use it within our (heavily firewalled) intranet for offline file transfers between machines; particularly where you can't just scp something.
  • jw_cook 3y ago
    I'm also a big fan of LocalSend! I've tried several tools in the category of "easy cross-platform file/text sharing over LAN," and LocalSend really stood out as the most polished option.
• 65 3y ago
  This shows the joys of writing software for yourself (and your friends if you want). I have an admin panel on my website for dumping files into S3 that I can then download later. There are a million solutions out there, but simply hosting a file upload/download service that syncs to your own S3 bucket is for me my favorite solution. It's user friendly to me only, it's unusable for everyone else.
• snvzz 3y ago
  YMODEM or Kermit.
  • bronlund 3y ago
    ZMODEM
    • snvzz 3y ago
      It fails requirement 0. Solution should not be overengineered.
  • austinjp 3y ago
    Indeed. It truly pisses me off that consumer devices and OSes have taken such an aggressive backward approach.
• AJMaxwell 3y ago
  Been using KDE Connect for years and it can do exactly that, along with clipboard sharing, SMS, and device notifications. https://kdeconnect.kde.org/ https://kdeconnect.kde.org/
  • austinjp 3y ago
    I really wish this was the One True Way, but unfortunately I couldn't get this working. Installed fine but then, nothing.
    • belst 3y ago
      On windows I had to explicitly allow the executable in the windows firewall. I didn't get any popups or warnings that it got blocked. After that, it worked fine
    • fransje26 3y ago
      On Linux I also needed to adapt the firewall rules to allow it.
  • eliaspro 3y ago
    That's the #1 solution for devices under my control. For the rare cases, where I need to transfer personal data to/from corporate devices, I just use https://webwormhole.io/ https://webwormhole.io/
  • rambambram 3y ago
    I recently started using KDE Connect because I was fed up with the way I had to send photos from my Android phone to my Ubuntu desktop. I usually did that by email, or in some rare cases I plugged a USB cable in to connect. KDE works over Bluetooth, I guess, but it was super fast for transferring around 20 to 30 photos at the same (maybe more might also work, didn't try that). But the most important thing was that I could look at the thumbnails of the photos before marking them for transfer. This process was always very slow with an USB connection, because it was always trying to 'thumbnailize' every photo in the folder (which were 100s or 1000s). Picking the right photos by obscure datetime-name is not fun.
• TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
  I've been thinking about this problem a lot recently... Honestly, I wish we could apply a bit of political pressure to force major tech companies to implement basic device interop and file transfers. In the year 2024 you should be able to seamlessly transfer files across devices wirelessly regardless of operating system or manufacturer. AirDrop is pretty close to ideal, but it's limited to Apple's platform. I don't really care about any of the underlying details, I just want to have a simple way of sending files between devices without having to enable complex configurations (cough SMB, WebDAV, etc.) or tinker with anything. This could be achieved, it's not a pipe dream. Why isn't anyone lobbying for such an essential feature that could make everyone's life slightly better? There are no technical barriers to implementing this. There's just no political will. Edit: I think the ideal solution would be to have some sort of spec that device and operating system vendors could implement, so that workaround stop being required at some point. Then for older devices you could build an application that implements the same functionality.
• robviren 3y ago
  I have gotten a lot of use out of croc. https://github.com/schollz/croc https://github.com/schollz/croc F-droid has an android app and the cli runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows. Super pain free. It's not a synchronization solution, but sends stuff pretty easily.
  • ytch 3y ago
    I like it too. Croc is easy to install/use in almost all network environments.
  • _dain_ 3y ago
    Came here to say this. It's as simple as: (sending computer) computer-1$ croc file-i-want-to-send.txt Did you mean to send 'file-i-want-to-send.txt'? (Y/n) y Sending 'file-i-want-to-send.txt' (555 B) Code is: 1234-some-diceware-passphrase On the other computer run croc 1234-some-diceware-passphrase (receiving computer) computer-2$ croc 1234-some-diceware-passphrase Accept 'file-i-want-to-send.txt' (555 B)? (Y/n) y Receiving (<-127.0.0.1:44404) file-i-want-to-send.txt 100% || (555/555 B, 105 kB/s) You can also just drag-and-drop a file onto the executable icon and it will pop up a GUI letting you do the same thing. Transfer is encrypted, no account needed.
  • poopsmithe 3y ago
    This. croc is like a better magic-wormhole (available via python pip, apt, other package managers) I switched to croc after transferring large files over terrible wi-fi. No way to resume a failed magic-wormhole session, whereas croc does it automatically.
• innermatrix 3y ago
  https://www.resilio.com/individuals/ https://www.resilio.com/individuals/ maybe?
• ComputerGuru 3y ago
  It’s a crappy electron app, but LocalSend is a great open source alternative to airdrop that supports all major platforms with the same ease of use.
  • anta40 3y ago
    It's written in Flutter, btw https://github.com/localsend/localsend/tree/main/app/lib https://github.com/localsend/localsend/tree/main/app/lib
    • ComputerGuru 3y ago
      I stand corrected! I've had so many problems with it (preventing PC from sleeping, problems minimizing at startup, etc) combined with the completely non-native look-and-feel that I've come to associate with Electron that I just went with it. Next time I'll double-check to be sure, thank you for the correction!
  • austinjp 3y ago
    Yeah, it's great, but doesn't always work e.g. some corporate/academic networks.
• mkerrigan 3y ago
  The bigger issue is on Apple and iOS, the "regular user" doesn't often interact with individual files outside of the app. Even at my work (US airline), there have been recent restrictions added to the workstations so you can't just plug in a USB thumb drive and transfer some files (honestly a no-brainer). But for many people, much of their experience learning about using computers comes from work. If you don't regularly do it at work, how would they learn how to do it outside of work?
• CharlesW 3y ago
  > For some of these services like WhatsApp or Apple’s Airdrop I’m not sure if there’s a storage provider in the middle. Not for AirDrop, at least. You must be within RF range (~9 meters). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirDrop#:~:text=AirDrop%20uses%20TLS%20encryption%20over,or%20Wi%2DFi%20Access%20Point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirDrop#:~:text=AirDrop%20uses.... > So, considering the solution needs to be cross-platform the easiest way to get something up and running would be through a web browser. Yes, and Snapdrop seems to meet his 4 requirements: https://snapdrop.net/ https://snapdrop.net/
  • throw0101b 3y ago
    > Not for AirDrop, at least. You must be within RF range (~9 meters). iOS 17.1 allows you to begin a transfer when close by, but keep it going over cellular data so you don't have to wait around the person to finish it: * https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-use-airdrop-without-wi-fi/ https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-use-airdrop-without-wi-...
    • CharlesW 3y ago
      Interesting, thanks! https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-airdrop-to-send-items-iphcd8b9f0af/ios#:~:text=Cellular%20data%20charges%20may%20apply,turn%20off%20Use%20Cellular%20Data https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-airdrop-to-send-i....
• ethnographers 3y ago
  Been using Blip between my devices: https://blip.net https://blip.net Checks all the boxes in the article except the first one, but I don't mind signing in
  • joak 3y ago
    Just tried blip after reading this comment, works pretty well. Super fast and easy. Only 500dl in Android so far, wish them success.
• jeroenhd 3y ago
  Writing code is fun, but I can't find much of a downside with Bluetooth here. "You can accidentally turn it on" (fair, I guess?) "and it drains battery like crazy" (it shouldn't unless you have a very buggy device) don't seem like that bad compared to Yet Another File Sharing App. I remember way back in the Android 4 era, my phone and my tablet both supported some "standard" form of WiFi Direct. It worked intuitively (just share a file), was blazingly fast (as fast as P2P WiFi can be), was low latency, and just worked. I used it to transfer media files and backups and it easily beat having to hook up a USB cable to two devices. I was sad to find out this was probably some kind of proprietary interface, because the feature seems to have vanished. It was the best local file sharing mechanism I'd ever used and it disappeared into thin air. Android Beam was nice, but computers and tablets don't have the required NFC hardware to make it work. I don't expect Apple to play nice with anyone else, but it's time Microsoft, Google, and the various Android manufacturers got their shit together and developed some kind of open sharing system. Google and Samsung already joined forces, but Microsoft seems to have gone off to do their own thing again. We have P2P WiFi for display sharing and the like, why can't we decide on some kind of file sharing protocol here? I don't care if it's SMB or FTP or HTTP, it's really not that difficult a problem to solve. The only issue is that there are hundreds of apps, each with their own protocols and implementations, none of which come packaged with the OS.
  • TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
    I wrote a similar comment but so far have only received downvotes without any feedback as to why people seem to disagree with me. Admittedly, maybe my position is a bit more extreme, in that I think it would be pretty reasonable to consider applying political pressure or even legislating to improve file sharing and interoperabiliy between devices. I'd prefer it if big tech companies would just come together and implement support for full cross platform file transfers, but I don't see that happening. My biggest frustration is that there doesn't seem to be anyone with a large platform willing to ask people in leadership at the big tech companies about such features. In my ideal world: big tech would come together to write some spec, then devices and operating systems would slowly implement and roll it out. And on older devices you could just build a third-party app that implements the same functionality. The goal would be that ultimately you'd have seamless basic interoperability between devices without having to install third-party apps.
• auditor_3d 3y ago
  I typically just run a python3 -m http.server command from a command line on whatever device I need to send from and then hit it on a webpage. You can run that on an iOS device even with something like Libterm
  • deratbox 3y ago
    I also use uploadserver[1] so I can upload from other devices without anything additional on the client. 1: https://pypi.org/project/uploadserver/ https://pypi.org/project/uploadserver/
  • nehal3m 3y ago
    Amazing, what a lovely tip. Thanks!
• ChrisArchitect 3y ago
  (2022)
• kkfx 3y ago
  In an ideal world any hosts have an IPv6 global and any human have at least a domain name, with relevant subdomains for hes/shes own devices, a simple thing also offered to non technical users by ISPs in the form of a homeserver-router like the real one they offer but not crap, without violation of GPL, without doing their development just to milk data from users etc. So in an ideal world anyone can share files directly, can serve their own blog, participating in decentralized socials like Usenet, exchange messages in a decentralized manner like emails (not to be confused with WebMails frontends common today), having direct IP2IP (well, personal domain to personal domain) VoIP calls with or without video and so on. Such ideal world is there technically, it's not utopia technically but it's utopia socially in a society who have mostly chosen ignorance for the many and abuse of their ignorance for few.
  • globular-toast 3y ago
    Unfortunately I think it would take governments to start waking up and treating internet access as a public utility. Even then they'd have to compete with ad companies to get the right people to do the job.
    • kkfx 3y ago
      I think governments like the large availability of OSINT data from big tech, in a technically sound IT such giant collections would be far harder and limited... Similarly the effectiveness of modern propaganda would be far limited. The power of IT is the power to store, analyze, craft, manipulate information, if you give it to the most than the most can be Citizen not just slaves...
• mischief6 3y ago
  for a long time I've actually really wanted the plumber [1] here but a more networked and cross platform protocol for it. I really just want to be able to plumb urls from my android phone to Linux desktop or vice versa and have it work according to the plumber rules. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber_(program) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumber_(program)
• hulitu 3y ago
  I have an USB stick with both an USB-A and an USB-C connector. Works flawlessly (if you ignore the fact that files are hated in the Android echosystem)
• m-a-r-c-e-l 3y ago
  Use WhatsApp: - create a group and add 1 person - remove that person - share whatever you like with yourself via WhatsApp web :)
  • Yodel0914 3y ago
    Signal has a "notes to self" chat that I use to send smallish files. Anything large though goes via syncthing.
  • lostlogin 3y ago
    iMessage or the notes app works with mac and iOS or a combo of those. iCloud Drive probably does too, but it’s horrible in my opinion.
  • namphibian 3y ago
    Not necessary anymore, you can message yourself in WhatsApp now. They even sent me a notification in that regard. (That is recent though and I wish I'd known that (clever) workaround before this was possible)
    • maybevain 3y ago
      Recent? Unless you mean the notification, sending yourself a message has been possible for a long time. Just to make sure I know what I'm talking about I checked the conversation history with myself and the earliest messages are from 2016.
  • lifestyleguru 3y ago
    There are many memes on reddit that people use offical Ronaldo/TaylorSwift/CocaCola/whatever WA accounts for this.
• sebtron 3y ago
  Syncthing checks all 4 of the boxes: 1) No account needed 2) Easy to use for non-technical people: just copy files into shared folders (like Dropbox) 3) Works the same way across platforms 4) It is distributed, you can share a folder with local devices only
  • 28304283409234 3y ago
    As a Syncthing fan and user I'd say setting it up is non-trivial for a non-techie. Not hard, just not easy either. Once it works it works like a beautiful charm though!
  • XorNot 3y ago
    It would be nice if Syncthing supported the concept of moving files though - i.e. that it should seed a file to other peers and once it hits the target seeding level, delete it locally.
• putna 3y ago
  * send to “saved messages” in telegram * use gmail drafts for text sharing, remove after copying, when airdrop not available * python server for local things
  • volemo 3y ago
    I think you're forgetting about the four rules the author seeks to satisfy: 1. I can’t use an account from an existing online service. 2. It needs to be useable for a non-technical person. 3. Its flow has to be consistent across platforms. 4. No junk in the middle.
• rompledorph 3y ago
  Needed copying a pdf file from iPhone to PC. That was absolutely impossible! Tried USB, WiFi and Bluetooth. None of the built in apps or sharing services allowed copying the file over.
  • M95D 3y ago
    Your first contact with the garden wall?
  • dandanua 3y ago
    From a $3 trillion company this is absolutely intended.
    • lifestyleguru 3y ago
      I bet at some point there was entire team of people in Apple each paid >>200k USD with the goal "Make impossible a transfer of a single file out of an Apple device to a non Apple device, and for every incoming file from non Apple device pretend you don't know where it was saved and what it is even. Make it look like an incident."
      • deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
  • GoblinSlayer 3y ago
    It's a feature, not a bug. Apple users proudly pay exactly to be locked like that.
• greatgib 3y ago
  The best solution I have found to easily exchange files between devices so far is to use Telegram. It works perfectly for your own devices. You can have it on multiple devices at the same time (computers, phones,...), there is a special "saved messages" channel for files, it can easily accommodate small to reasonably big files (like GB files), and there is also a webclient that you can use in a few seconds if you are not on your trusted computer. You can also delete the file once you are done. The only problem is that you will have to trust Telegram for having you data. But I guess that if you are ready to trust WeTransfer or Google drive, it is not really different.
  • guitarlimeo 3y ago
    Yeah same here. Feels stupid sometimes though to transfer a 2GB file from my pc to my laptop through Telegram's servers when I could do it in my LAN but nothing has beaten Telegram's UX for me so far so I always wound up using it.
  • bestham 3y ago
    With the aforementioned Taildrop you do not have to trust Tailscale with your data.
    • greatgib 3y ago
      Taildrop just solve a smaller part of the problem space. For example, often the target might not be up or connected and you might want to have your file available to all your devices. The closest competitor to Telegram in term of convenience is email I think. Just a common use case, I will be at work, and will get a airplane eTicket pdf for a business trip. I would connect through telegram web to drop it into my saved messages. Then, later I would be quite sure to have it available on any of my phones when being at the airport, and even being able to access it from my personal laptop later for a visa request for example. Also, a moment later, I could suddenly share it with my girlfriend so that she have all the info to pick me up when I will come back. In addition I can quite easily search such documents by keywords or date.
    • midasuni 3y ago
• fastily 3y ago
  I have this problem all the time, so I wrote a simple web app to handle file transfers between computers on my local network: https://github.com/fastily/dumb-file-drop https://github.com/fastily/dumb-file-drop
• baeschtl 3y ago
  Tailscale recently added local file transfers called Taildrop https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop This really solved this issue for me, right click a file and select the receiving peer and it just appears instantly on the other device.
  • hashworks 3y ago
    What I really miss here is taildrop between different users. What if I want to send a file to a coworker?
    • OJFord 3y ago
      I would assume that limitation is because it's on the roadmap, but they want a different UI for it, or more control, or to see how beta goes with just your own devices, give some time to think about how it should work, etc. Because they've had to specifically put that limitation in place, no way they don't realise it could be useful.
  • pricci 3y ago
    In tailscale you also can expose a server to the internet with Funnel https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel https://tailscale.com/kb/1223/funnel
  • insomniacvoid 3y ago
    I created an automated installer to provide this functionality on KDE Plasma using Dolphin this morning to emulate the experience of sharing via TailDrop on Mac for Linux. https://github.com/error-try-again/KDE-Dolphin-TailDrop-Plugin https://github.com/error-try-again/KDE-Dolphin-TailDrop-Plug...
• undebuggable 3y ago
  I realized that the only reliable way to copy files between Windows, MacOS, and Linux is FAT32 formatted USB drive, assuming you have USB-C/A adapter available. Cloud object storage if you don't want to split the file into 4GB pieces, take the extra step to setup the clients, and upload speeds are acceptable. Between iOS and Android there is no local solution without PC in the middle and at least one MacOS machine is required. Most seamless is FTP server, but no free and acceptable FTP app exists for either. Very disappointing for an era when "AI is replacing and firing everyone".
• diffeomorphism 3y ago
  I must be missing something, but right-click -> share already works just fine? Share with kde connect, select your windows, linux, iOS, android whatever device, done. The only restriction is that both devices are connected to the same WiFi. Why are you looking for cloud solutions for a local transfer?
  • austinjp 3y ago
    Unfortunately this doesn't always work on corporate/academic networks.
  • h4kor 3y ago
    Thanks for sharing this. Didn't know this and just tried it. Works amazing!
  • genewitch 3y ago
    does this work in reverse? I took a video on my phone and now i want to put it on my computer but my kid took my USB cable to school...
    • fransje26 3y ago
      Yes. As you need kdeconnect installed on both devices to transfer your data from the one to the other, it is trivial to also transfer data back once the connection is established. The app is available for Linux, Windows, macOS, iOS and more.
  • fransje26 3y ago
    I haven't managed to get kdeconnect it to play well with firewalls though..
  • rwky 3y ago
    If they're connected to a vpn that allows client to client communication that also works you just have to specify the ips in the setup screen since auto detection won't work.
• DeathArrow 3y ago
  What we need is something like Apple's Airdrop or Google's Nearby Share to work on all platforms: PC, Mac, Android, iOS.
• enriquto 3y ago
  Any hackers left here? Why no one mentions netcat? # send cat file | nc -l -p 8888 # receive nc IP-OF-SENDER 8888 > file this works as long as both computers are connected to the same network, for example the internet
  • grumbel 3y ago
    There is also: python -m http.server Which tends to be my go-to solution for file transfer between devices, it shares the current directory over HTTP. Not perfect, since HTTP makes downloading directories rather cumbersome, but at least every device that can open a website can download stuff.
  • Loranubi 3y ago
    Because there are no terminals on phones (by default).
  • smartmic 3y ago
    Of course, this is a known way to do it for hackers. But the article clearly mentioned boundary conditions, among two are violated by the netcat trick: * It needs to be useable for a non-technical person * Its flow has to be consistent across platforms Besides having access to a terminal, netcat must be installed and hosts accessible, ports open etc. Not what is usually the case and especially not advisable when you operate on the internet level and not on protected local networks.
    • GoblinSlayer 3y ago
      Nontechnical people use messengers to send everything. Yet another tool to learn, switch and use would be only a hassle.
  • GoblinSlayer 3y ago
    I ended up writing encrypted netcat.
    • enriquto 3y ago
• Rygian 3y ago
  Here's a thought: This article is exploring the wrong problem. The filesystem where my files reside should already be a fully-distributed filesystem covering all the devices I own, right from the moment I buy and enroll them. With that precondition, my file is already where I need, and any physical bit shuffling is just a detail managed by the OS, using whatever connectivity is already available (or prompting me to "please connect cable type X between devices Y and Z for N minutes" if devices are out of sync).
  • zokier 3y ago
    Isn't that exactly the model of Gdrive/OneDrive/DropBox etc? Except they might not do any LAN transfer optimizations, but that is minor implementation detail edit: apparently at least Dropbox has had LAN sync for nearly a decade: https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/inside-lan-sync https://dropbox.tech/infrastructure/inside-lan-sync
    • Rygian 3y ago
      I don't think those come even close. Some blocking considerations: - They are a bolted-on "magical part" of your filesystem. If you manage your files anywhere outside of the magical field of synchronization, they're invisible (e.g if your file is in the "Downloads" folder, but that folder is not synchronized by Dropbox, then you won't find it from any other device.) - They are not distributed filesystems. They are a central filesystem (on their premises, outside your reach) and a smart replication strategy. You don't get a say on data sovereignty, and your data lives on rented disk space. - Trying to operate on your files is dependent on which device you're using. If you're on a computer, you get first-class local files in first-class directory trees, that you can manage with the usual semantics, provided you have enough free space in the physical disk of that device. If you're on a phone, you download copies of files (and pray they get uploaded if you change them in phone), and almost no way to manage the directory tree aside from the application itself.
  • dist-epoch 3y ago
    What you describe is called Google Drive/OneDrive/iCloud.
• ogurechny 3y ago
  Well, one can use a conventional torrent client. Half of the popular ones have some kind of “share mode” to automate the creation and link exchange. Or use a dozen other existing file sharing tools, including plain netcat. The problems are elsewhere: a) “Simple enough” is a moving target. Some time ago, users were expected to state their needs, find convenient tools, figure out how to use them, and be happy that their problem is solved. Nowadays it is proclaimed that user is an idiot, because the idiots don't actually choose anything, they do what someone else decided for them to do, and it's Good for Business. b) People don't know which solutions already exist (looking at the author here). c) Smartphones are deliberately crippled to create the market for 50 different bundled and third party file sharing apps and other reinvented wheels, with data and money trickling to the platform owner. In addition, rat race never ends, and the developers must update their apps constantly. Say, there is some ancient BTSync installer for Windows. It's rough, but it works. I'm not saying anyone should use that, but you can still transfer files that way. Can you use smartphone apps from ages ago in the same manner? Most likely not (and race organizers make sure you can't). It's quite like constantly resetting the MMORPG server to restart the money and activity flow into its economy.
• meowmeow20 3y ago
  Why don't we just put SSH scp on all devices?
  • grumbel 3y ago
    SSH requires to have shell access on the receiving end, that renders it unusable in most situations. Rsync can in theory do anonymous file offerings, but it's not a shell one-liner to get it up and running either.
    • zokier 3y ago
      > SSH requires to have shell access on the receiving end What makes you think that?
  • zokier 3y ago
    SSH SCP protocol has been deprecated for years now.
    • GoblinSlayer 3y ago
      scp tool uses sftp protocol under the hood.
  • GoblinSlayer 3y ago
    Can it work without ssh server?
• austinjp 3y ago
  I'm truly sick of how difficult it is to copy files between devices in different ecosystems. It makes me grind my teeth that emailing/WhatsApping attachments has become a default for people literally standing next to each other. No, we don't need more proprietary protocols like Apple This or Google That. We've got scp, sftp, Bluetooth, all manner of secure connecting and tunneling methods, all of which can be made easy to use and secure. Apparently, I can't Bluetooth a file from my Android phone to my partner's Apple phone because apparently Bluetooth is insecure and Apple have hobbled it on iPhones. What a crock. Fix the damn protocol or make a new one that's open. It's anti-competitive and user hostile to do otherwise. Yes, there are the various wormhole and filedrop services, and good for them. Unfortunately they sometimes don't work on corporate/academic networks. Ugh. What a mess. Rant over.
  • lifestyleguru 3y ago
    People completely misunderstand Bluetooth. It's a fingerprinting and tracking protocol. A legend says that sometime somewhere someone was able to reliably pair devices with it.
• deadghost 3y ago
  I setup Samba share on my LAN. It works well enough for my purposes. It's not super smooth as not every app let's me open a file directly from the network and I need to make a copy first.
  • zokier 3y ago
    Fun fact: While most people think Samba as LAN-only thing, it actually works "fine" over internet too. For example sysinternals suite is available that way: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/#sysinternals-live https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/#sysinternals...
  • AndrewDavis 3y ago
    This has been my solution too. I have a vpn into my home on all my devices, so even away from home I can typically rely on it. As a side note, for Android I've been using (and can't praise enough) Material Files [1]. It's the best simple file manager I've used that has built in samba support. [1] https://f-droid.org/packages/me.zhanghai.android.files/ https://f-droid.org/packages/me.zhanghai.android.files/
• udev4096 3y ago
  sharedrop.io is pretty cool for transferring files
• zoidb 3y ago
  I thin most people simply use email, since gmail is so widely used and will use gdrive for larger files.
• albertzeyer 3y ago
  I don't quite get it: What's the problem with Dropbox and co? Why this rule 1, to not use an account from an existing online service? Because of privacy? Or principles? I don't think this is so much a problem for the average non-technical person. If privacy is the reason, maybe encrypt it?
  • redder23 3y ago
    Yes because privacy MATTERS, and principles to only use open source and contribute back, even if its "only" a bug report matter too. Encrypting single files and also their names is a pain in the ass even for technical people. Its too many steps and just does not flow. If you have some kind on encrypted container you have one big file that you need to re-upload over and over again to share what is in it. A solution that is encrypted by design and the server never ever knows what is in the file it transfers to different devices is the way to go here and Dropbox and all the shitty for profit services to not offer that AFAIK.
    • albertzeyer 3y ago
      I think Mega (https://mega.io/ https://mega.io/) does exactly that, or not? Aren't there also other similar services?
• jchw 3y ago
  Bluetooth file transfer is not accessible enough for non-technical people? I mean I guess you have to mark the device you want to send to as "discoverable". If anything the real problem is that it's not very fast, but that's only an issue if you are sending particularly large files. This is still often my go-to solution aside from Tailscale's Taildrop feature.
  • sBqQu3U0wH 3y ago
    >Bluetooth file transfer is not accessible enough for non-technical people? It's incredibly difficult. Do you have any idea how "non-technical" these "non-technical" people are? I know people that use phone every day to make calls as send messages, take photos, browse Facebook, read emails and they could not send an email with a file attachment to save their life. Asking that kind of person to: 1. Enable Bluetooth and make device discoverable 2. Enable Bluetooth on another device. 3. Pair the devices. 4. Find an option to send the file 5. Accept the file in another device. 6. Wait for the file transfer to finish. 7 (bonus). File transfer failed for some reason and you have to start again. It's simply impossible.
    • OJFord 3y ago
      We did it all the time before smartphones, 'bluetoothing' ringtones or images (especially if lucky enough to have a 'cameraphone') to each other. I suppose it depends what you mean by 'non-technical', maybe our parents couldn't have and we were 'tech-savvy' in the way that children are, but this was normal, what everyone did, and of course many in 'non-technical' work now, didn't study CS, etc.
    • jchw 3y ago
      lol. You elongated this by assuming Bluetooth is disabled on both devices, which is not the default state on any OS I am aware of. The actual step list looks like this: 1. Enable Bluetooth discoverability on the target device. 2. Share file over Bluetooth on source device. 3. Accept the file transfer on target device. You don't need to add extra steps for things like "wait", that's the same for any kind of I/O operation such as "copying a file". It's also extremely silly to add something like "Find an option to send the file". On most operating systems, it's just not that hard. On Android it's in the normal "Share" popup. So this amazingly difficult and highly technical step is to press "Share" on a file and select Bluetooth. I could also make turning on a computer sound like a tedious seven step process if I wanted to be an asshole.
• aspyct 3y ago
  I regularly have to send files to customers, from a few megabytes to a few gigs. It's incredibly hard. Mail? Goes to spam. WeTransfer? Mail clients break URL. Download from my website? Some stupid browser will display the zip data onscreen. Send the link through messenger? Messenger breaks the link. SaaS gallery? Some file managers can't open the zip file. I've been doing that for two years now. Still don't have a 100% working solution. It drives me mad. Just yesterday I spent 30 minutes sending 3 jpeg files to a customer.
  • jjbinx007 3y ago
    Nextcloud works well for this, and as the files are already on your server you don't have to upload anywhere, you just share the folder, put an expiry date on and send them the url
    • panki27 3y ago
      Note: your customers do not require an account in your Nextcloud. You can share by link, and optionally add a password too.
      • jjbinx007 3y ago
        And as a bonus it can also be set as a drop box, where customers can send files to a folder of your choice. All the benefits of wetransfer but self hosted.
    • KronisLV 3y ago
      To add to this, it's reasonably easy to run, and has many different plugins, from a calendar and contacts list, to an online document editor (like Google Docs, except it can be pretty slow and/or resource intensive: https://nextcloud.com/office/ https://nextcloud.com/office/), to a simple clone of Slack (https://nextcloud.com/talk/ https://nextcloud.com/talk/), a mail client (https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/mail) and other things. That said, I've had updates (across major versions) break things on multiple occasions, one out of two servers running the exact same version has random crashes and in addition to that the file locking by default (if enabled, but not using Redis: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/configuration_files/files_locking_transactional.html https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/latest/admin_manual/config...) has broken and prevents me from deleting a file that just sits there and takes up a few GB of space. Oh and their Android app fails to upload files if I use the share option, instead of the file picker from within the app. On the other hand, sure beats storing data on third party clouds and is free, so I'll still keep using it.
• mihaigalos 3y ago
  If you're fine with plain http on your local network, you can use https://github.com/mihaigalos/aim https://github.com/mihaigalos/aim Spoiler: I wrote it.
• kierenj 3y ago
  I figured I'd try to solve this some years back.. registered "itcopiesfiles.com".. then promptly left it in the not-even-started side projects list ever since. What would work for that? How about: 1. One of the parties goes to the site, gets a code/link 2. Other party goes to the site, enters the code/link 3. Either party can drop a file/folder to the page 4. Data simply piped from one request to another by the server Any improvements to that flow?
  • jtvjan 3y ago
    That sounds like https://justbeamit.com/ https://justbeamit.com/. I don't know if it still works.
• Pete_arten 3y ago
  I got excited here, but after reading through and getting to the conclusion part my excitement dropped. Also, as the author states, if you're not technical person it's a hassle.
• INTPenis 3y ago
  This is why I host my own Pairdrop instance.
• chakintosh 3y ago
  I've been using Snapdrop for years, it's basically AirDrop for any device.
  • DeathArrow 3y ago
    It's not the same thing. You can't right click a file on your PC or mac and click send, nor you can open an image on a photo app on mobile and use share.
• NikkiA 3y ago
  Magic Wormhole has been the obvious and usual answer for the last 10 years or so.
• terramoto 3y ago
  I use either Whatsapp or Telegram to send myself a message.
• karolist 3y ago
  AirDrop or pbcopy/pbpaste on the command line (piping through base64/tar) between my own devices or Synology NAS to share with someone outside or Google Drive worked well enough for me.
• iAkashPaul 3y ago
  Taildrop, WebRTC based Snapdrop or plain old 'python -m http.server 2077'
• genewitch 3y ago
  I haven't had much luck with this on ios devices, everything else i have something that will work - matrix, misskey, etc. But realistically, i solved this 10 years ago or so by buying a Synology diskstation. I don't have access to it outside of the house, but that's why i run nextcloud in a DC, too. For a long while for stuff like sending drone footage to a friend while on my cellphone only i'd use syncthing, but it was very fiddly and hard to use in the winter, and i never got a "here's your link" thing, which may be fixed now. So i'd have to edit the filename and remember it, and then type the whole FQDN and URI to send someone a link. Nextcloud handles this much better. Misskey also handles this better, although i don't use it for large files. But at home, synology. There's clients for nearly everything including smart TV devices, and between computers i can use NFS or CIFS. I can even link https:// https:// download links locally. Let's just remember, folks, we had fully p2p video chat on windows, and then techbros started buying up huge portions of ipv4 because their antics were getting subnets blocked at routers, and now i've never (and i mean not one time) been able to get an open ipv6 port to accept traffic on a home device. Additionally, i barely remember what life was like without CGNAT, as i've been behind it for a decade with 3 ISPs. So i don't really care if you or your grandparents or kids can transfer files easily. use a USB stick like i do with my in-laws, neighbors, and whatnot. You did this to yourself. Enjoy your fb messenger - and email spam, though! -signed by someone who had /28 on GTE.net DSL 26 years ago
• redder23 3y ago
  I never used Syncthing but I miss it from the list. Does that not fit this? I mean if you do the initial setup on the non-technical persons device, its basically just copying files into a local folder. The other device grabs it as soon as its online or in the same network right?
• Someone 3y ago
  I expected this to end with Kermit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermit_(protocol), https://www.kermitproject.org/ https://www.kermitproject.org/), but I guess some people might think that doesn’t pass the “It needs to be useable for a non-technical person” requirement.
• smusamashah 3y ago
  I keep a list of web based p2p file transfer tools here [1] [1]: https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/fd6e275e44009b72f64d0570256bb3b2 https://gist.github.com/SMUsamaShah/fd6e275e44009b72f64d0570...
• sim7c00 3y ago
  weird i can still send myself msgs on whatsapp... - i will never update again... who else is gonna send me messages :s Oh, yeah , and that's my main way to share files too these days... and don't forget to share music as documents before whatsapp ruins it >.> - so it's still a bit tricky!
• quickthrower2 3y ago
  Dropbox is a lifesaver for getting around iOS’s horrendous way of dealing with files. If I need something on another device just send it there. Also useful for taking photos of receipts for tax time.
• broken-kebab 3y ago
  Syncthing works on Android, and for between-own-devices cases fits well. Typically, you just have to sync Download (for Android at least it's where 99% of useful files go) across your devices. It's a bit challenging for an average human to setup though. I do however share the frustration: basic operations (not just sharing) with files are stupidly complicated, and became worse with newer Androids.
• kiwibyproxy 3y ago
  I like to use ShareDrop.io [1]. It's peer to peer, auto discovers in local networks but works globally with shareable links. Only downside, because nothing is stored it's not asynchronous. [1] https://www.sharedrop.io/ https://www.sharedrop.io/
• contrarian1234 3y ago
  Bluetooth technically does work - but I don't think I'm ever able to get anything about ~40Kbps. It has similar issues to Wifi in that the OS abstracts it to such a degree that it's nearly impossible to see what's going on and to debug issues - Is it switching to some low power mode? - Is it falling back to some old version of the protocol? Why is it slow? - It shows it's transferring on my laptop, but on the phone is shows it's still connecting.. why? - Oh look, it just randomly "failed" in the middle of the transfer.. okay, why? Where do I find more info and debug/fix it? I've not been able to find a good way to work with it. Maybe I need to bring out Wireshark? Maybe Ubuntu is misconfigured somehow.. If the issue is with my Android phone then I'm probably totally screwed b/c there are only a couple of toggles in the Android menus ( and I have basically identical issues with KDEConnect and other methods )
• tempaccount1234 3y ago
  With external clients I serve the file locally, password protected access and encrypted file and then call them and watch them download. Then I confirm that they got it and stop serving. This is safe than to trust it to a third party service and I can monitor access. Sharing local port via ngrok is easy enough and Python comes with a http server that can serve a folder.
• pkaeding 3y ago
  For getting files off my android phone, I like "Share via HTTP". https://f-droid.org/packages/com.MarcosDiez.shareviahttp/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.MarcosDiez.shareviahttp/ it is easy to use, and leaves nothing behind (it also doesn't use up space on the phone to stage the files to be transferred, like proton drive apparently does, which can matter if your storage is almost full)
• dd-dreams 3y ago
  There is also "aft"[0] (I'm the author) for transferring files between devices. [0] https://github.com/dd-dreams/aft https://github.com/dd-dreams/aft
• m-p-3 3y ago
  For a permanent link between devices I go with Syncthing, for adhoc file transfers I go with magic wormhole. I'll also use my storage in Bitwarden and send files through Bitwarden Send if I can't be online at the same time as the recipient.
• NanoYohaneTSU 3y ago
  "Copying a file across your own personal devices is still painful." No. I have never had an issue with Dropbox or Discord for simple file sharing. For encryption I use Mega with Signal for key sharing. MegaSync is fantastic for files you want to sync between everything and has builds for all the popular distros. The fact that he doesn't list Mega is worrying to say the least. He's a nuDev creating a solution in search of a problem.
• renonce 3y ago
  For this I created a public Backblaze bucket, created a lifecycle rule that deletes files after 7 days, created an application key with write privileges but not read ones, then wrote a script that uploads an arbitrary file under a random name so only people with the name will be able to download or overwrite it. The best part is that the file is available under an HTTP direct link, not behind an obscure webpage with ads, so it’s easy to deal with with any tool and doesn’t require the other end to install WhatsApp or Telegram etc, and there is no file size limit (you pay $1.5/TB but it’s fairly cheap if you deal mostly with files <1GB). Now I just wish I could write such a script for my mobile phone as easily. Now this violates rule #1 (you need an account and you need to pay $6/TB/month for files stored, or $1.5/TB if you store files for only 7 days). For rule #4 you can set the lifecycle arbitrarily, like 1 day, such that the cost of storage is less than the cost of traffic.
  • coin 3y ago
    How can you be sure the underlying storage provider actually deleted the file?
    • apapapa 3y ago
      You hack them but even that isn't foolproof...
    • number6 3y ago
      They stop billing you for it... No force is greater than the market
  • metadaddy 3y ago
    No need to give your file an obscure name, or use a public bucket. You can use a private bucket and create a presigned URL with an expiration of up to one week.
    • renonce 3y ago
      Presigned URLs are long and ugly and b2 requires an extra API call to generate that, so I tend to prefer not to use them. The other reason for obscure names is so that you can't download or update files that you don't know the name even if you have the upload key. I know it goes against common sense security practice but compromising convenience can mean compromising security in many cases. The thing is to make sure your scheme is rigourous.
• mdavid626 3y ago
  I use Whatsapp. Just create a new group, add one of your friends to it and then remove him/her. You can use it for notes as well.
  • ralgozino 3y ago
    You don't need to create a group. You can message your self (your number) directly.
• thenoblesunfish 3y ago
  Syncthing has been working pretty well for me, for what turned out to be the hard one - sending music files to my Android phone.
• unstatusthequo 3y ago
  TailScale sends cross-platform. Or just self host Nextcloud and have that on all systems. Look at Nextcloud AIO. So easy. I use both. This is a solved issue for the most part. Also solves the file sending to others, as well as file requests. Now, universal cross-platform copy/paste? Ha. I’d love that solved!
• uhx 3y ago
  https://github.com/tfg13/LanXchange https://github.com/tfg13/LanXchange LAN, Android / PCs, easy to use for non techs no middleware and other sh..
• HarHarVeryFunny 3y ago
  Well, you either transfer it directly from A to B using a protocol that both ends support such as Kermit (what we used to use back in the day for copying files from bulletin boards using modems), or FTP, or SMTP (yeah, e-mail attachments), or via some intermediatory server or device such as Google Drive or a USB stick (floppy disk). I guess nowadays the only files that most non-techies care about are photos and videos on their phones, so solutions specific to those work, or indeed the ubiquitous e-mail attachments.
• prakis 3y ago
  We built simple tool for devs https://HelloEle.com https://HelloEle.com, you can use it along with S3 or BackBlaze.
• easygenes 3y ago
  I am surprised to not see Jami ( http://jami.net http://jami.net ) mentioned here yet. It is a GNU project and is fully cross platform. I use it to send files and messages between my devices, as easy as Telegram or Whatsapp.
  • dmd 3y ago
    Love how that site asks me for money before I even have a chance to see what it is.
  • renonce 3y ago
    I just installed it on Windows and then downloaded it on my iPhone. Can't even link my iPhone to my Jami account created on Windows. iOS side doesn't ask me to scan QR code and when I enter my pin and password it just says my account was not found. EDIT: I removed my password and instead of relying on the app for scanning the pin, I used the iOS built-in camera app to scan the pin and copied it to the app. Now it works. But that was poor experience nevertheless and I wish it was better designed.
• czard 3y ago
  XMPP is great for that, since I adopted it a while back, it's just been a breeze to send files around. With a usual setup and Gajim or Conversations for instance you can decide if you're sending that one file to all or a specific device(s) (i.e. resource), it's really neat. Hosting my own ejabberd server was also the easiest setup experience of my self-hosting life, can't recommend it enough.
• Mister_Snuggles 3y ago
  I recently discovered that the Files app on iOS/iPadOS can connect to SMB servers, so my solution is to just use the NAS that I've already got. Windows, MacOS, and Linux can also connect to SMB just fine and I'd be shocked if Android couldn't also do this. Rule 1: There are user accounts, but they're local to the NAS. I think it meets this one. Rule 2: Setting up the NAS is likely out of reach for many non-technical users, but using the files app and doing stuff in it is perfectly reasonable. Partial marks here. Rule 3: It's consistent in the sense that every platform uses its native file manager to connect to the NAS and manage files. Managing files on each platform is different, but you're already dealing with that difference. I'm calling it a pass. Rule 4: The NAS is the junk in the middle, so this is a fail.
  • 0x38B 3y ago
    I tried File's SMB support but found that larger (100+ MB) transfers fail for no apparent reason (1). Third-party apps' SMB support is much better - I had success with Readdle's Documents, Goodreader, and most recently FileBrowserGO. My slow-to-moderate internet speed may play a role; however even connecting to my laptops SMB share over a wired connection was fraught with issues. 1: the failed but in-progress transfers often stick around with no way to remove them. They're gone after restarting the device, though.
• swayvil 3y ago
  Strange how difficult and elusive such a basic function is. I've been using localsend lately for local stuff. It's great. Before that, thumbdrives
• apapapa 3y ago
  I self-host Jirafeau (https://gitlab.com/mojo42/Jirafeau https://gitlab.com/mojo42/Jirafeau)
• aborsy 3y ago
  I like peer to peer solutions such as Tailscale. Taildrop suits some cases, but the UI is poor (sudo taildrop get etc), and there are many use cases where taildrop is not useful or impossible. You could have a Tailscale serve where all devices could add to and remove from it. A bit like a mini webserver.
• Too 3y ago
  BitTorrent? Every kid knew how to use this 15 years ago. It can punch through a NAT. It’s blazing fast. It doesn’t strictly require any central components, only the optional tracker to make peer discovery larger. Too bad it got labeled as a piracy-only tool. Now Apple won’t allow it on the App Store. It’s actually damn useful for legit purposes too!
• Too 3y ago
  A comparison like this is not complete without Windows file shares or SMB. Sadly, despite pretending to try hard, it doesn’t pass the “requires expert to setup” test, it’s super easy to either accidentally lock down everything or accidentally open up your network to the world. It also fails the platform-consistency requirement, outside windows or outside your home network it is very frustrating.
• bageljr 3y ago
  It's a work in progress but here: https://github.com/bagel897/rustdrop https://github.com/bagel897/rustdrop
• eevmanu 3y ago
  If you want to copy files: - from a linux computer/laptop - to an android phone and - not follow rule 2, I'd like to suggest another alternative: `adb` (just platform tools) which has the `push` [1] command push [--sync] [-z ALGORITHM] [-Z] LOCAL... REMOTE copy local files/directories to device --sync: only push files that are newer on the host than the device -n: dry run: push files to device without storing to the filesystem -z: enable compression with a specified algorithm (any/none/brotli/lz4/zstd) -Z: disable compression [1]: https://developer.android.com/tools/adb#copyfiles https://developer.android.com/tools/adb#copyfiles
• 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago
  "A way out could be websockets; it would allow me to stream more than 8 kB of data between clients, but it does require an entire websocket handler." Websockets are not necesary. It can be done with HTTP/1.1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19122646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19122646 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28913973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28913973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37255178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37255178 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38988519 <-- I tried to provide a simple usage example here.
• RecycledEle 3y ago
  I share via Google Drive or OneDrive. Most people can figure that out.
• matheusmoreira 3y ago
  I run an FTP server on my phone and connect to it from the other device. Not even kidding.
• renegat0x0 3y ago
  In my area we mostly use android. I run NAS. All files are went via file manager+. I know that it would still be top difficult for normie though.