Best way to transfer local files to my Android device.
Best way to transfer local files to my Android device.
I have a Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G. It comes with the painfully slow USB 2.0. I wish to transfer local music files to it, but it's taking a long time to get copied over USB connection as well as it fails in-between sometimes. Is there any way to transfer the files in a quick and reliable manner?
Localsend works really well for me
Alternatively, https://pairdrop.net/ is the same idea (I assume) but runs entirely in your browser which is kinda cool.
Pairdrop is probably a miracle tool for me. Just open the website and send files or text, no configuration, no fuss and it even works outside of the local network.
One day I'll finally set up my own server, but that's just for the fun of it. One hosted at https://pairdrop.net is super solid and I can't remember it failing me.
Very simple, "just works." Great if you want to make a one-time transfer and don't care about syncing files over time.
I love Syncthing, KDE Connect (why is it not Konnect?) and others, but they might be a bit "extra" for this case.
Thanks just installed this on Linux and my phone and it works.
But it's a bit slow, I only get 3.1 MB/s. USB transfer is way faster.
Syncthing. Period.
I love syncthing, its basically like a personal P2P cloud thats beginner friendly. It automatically syncs selected folders between any number of devices, but you need to have it installed on both devices. I have this set up to always sync my pictures, music and password vaults between my devices. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nutomic.syncthingandroid/
If you want to just transfer files and not keep them synchronized then i would recommend the file manager "Material Files" instead. It comes with a built in FTP server that you can use to access your phone over the local network from your PC. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/me.zhanghai.android.files/
Both are available on F-Droid and Google Play, but i recommend getting F-Droid if you dont have it yet. Its a great alternative store for open source apps. https://f-droid.org/en/
What OS do you have installed on your desktop/laptop?
Agreed.
A great alternative that has selective Sync is Resilio. I find it to be heavy on my phone (because I have a massive media library and it keeps the database/index in ram).
But it lets me browse my media share anywhere, anytime (from the phone), and have it sync files to the phone as needed.
For everything else I use Syncthing-Fork on the phone, and SyncTrayzor on Windows.
Why do people sleep on KDE connect? It does a lot of things really well and is OS agnostic.
My reason is that it’s extremely buggy. I find it looses the plot if you are moving more than 1 file at a time, and it often can’t find paired devices even if they are on the same network. Plus it’s over bloated with no default configuration. I.e. I just want to send files. I don’t want it to act as a mouse pointer. And disabling it for each and every device is tedious.
Granted it’s better than any other alternative apps I’ve found. Which is why it’s installed, even on my iPad.
I personally don't like it because (on android) it insists on auto-starting and continuously running in the background with no options to change that behaviour. Every time I use it and after every reboot I have to force quit the app. It would be a great tool otherwise but I find that annoying af.
I've been using KDE connect's file transfer feature because I sometimes use my phone to control my PC, works well and fast.
Local Send.
Syncthing if you have a bunch of files in a folder.
Localsend if you just have 1 or 2 files.
Syncthing
Why not just use SFTP?
If you have a SD card you are installing them on, copy them directly to the SD and then put that in the phone. Also, disconnects I feel have to do with the quality of the USB cable.
Warpinator
That model of phone seems to have an SD card slot; if you have an adapter to use a micro SD card on your PC, just throw the MP3s onto one of those.
Only buy phones with a MicroSD, all Android transfer nonsense will waste your time.
Do you mean an occasional one-off transfer or to keep synced constantly?
For one-off stuff, I've used Olive Tree FTP server for more than a decade on my android devices. It's not always on, or a target for malicious stuff like a typical FTP server, you only run it when needed. I'm sending from a Win10 box, you didn't mention how you are sending, but if it's a desktop, nothing is easier than a quick FTP server instance.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theolivetree.ftpserver
I just went through this trying to transfer 23GB of music samples - tens of thousands of files in nested folders - to an Android phone to use with Koala Sampler. Tried USB, KDE Connect, Onedrive, all failed at some point, couldn't handle merging, or some other problem. Syncthing was the answer and it was pretty quick too.
Yup. It's working fine right now (61% of 24GB has already transferred).
Do you have a wifi network? If yes then use a file explorer on Android that can do FTP. Use any FTP client on your computer and transfer. I recommend FileZilla.
For one-off file transfers between any two devices, I like to use justbeamit.com
For a long term link, use syncthing
SMBsync2
Auto sync even while I sleep 😁
I myself use Google's Quick Share for this. Falling that, the Send Anywhere app can also work - it's not the fastest compared to Quick Share, but pretty reliable long as you have decent internet.
@hunt4peas
LocalSendTried it, but it crashes when I choose the music folder.