kde connect is my recommendation also
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- portal: cli file transfer agent between computers
- croc: simple file transfer tool via local server, with Android Appp
- transfer.sh: cli file sharing via cloud
Btw, clipboard is great too.
I find the easiest approach is to connect to the pc via sftp and use a file explorer that supports it - such as ghost commander.
I have tried KDE connect, and it never works when I need it to. I just send it to myself on Signal. It's the easiest, most non-bullshit way.
SSH along with the extra stuff it comes with like scp is the way forward.
The two following suggestions make use of secure shell.
Termux and then pkg install mc
(MC is Midnight Commander)
Alternatively, if you are feeling brave and GUI, Total Commander here.
If by wirelessly you mean via Wi-Fi network then one convenient option is qrcp. It generates a QR-code right in your terminal, which you can scan with a phone and send/receive files through a web interface on the URL it provides.
If you want to transfer files regularly, there is another option. Almost every distro has Python installed, and the Python has a "built-in" FTP server.
You need to just cd
into desired directory and run the command python -m pyftpdlib -w
. It will open a FTP server with root in this directory.
You then can access it through a file manager, like Material Files for example, and send files and folders back and forth. In Material Files you can save the server address for future use.
There might be more modern ways of doing this, but I run "Wifi FTP server" on my phone, with my download directory as its root. Then I use filezilla or whatever to transfer what I need. Trouble free and platform agnostic.
Primitive ftpd from fdroid is my go-to "too lazy to configure a cloud thing" solution. It is fast and just works.
Syncthing is great to periodically sync files between Linux and Android. And you could use it as file transfer service for occasional needs if you just share an empty directory.
I've been using FolderSync (Pro in my case) for many years to sync files (automatically and/or on-demand) from my phone to my Linux server.
The funniest solution I've found was a service that offered secure transfer of passwords between devices through their "encrypted transmission" with a password field on their website
FYI, don't give any password to a service you aren't using with that service
SSH + Termux is one option. X-plore for Android is a good file manager with a bunch of options for transferring files over a network.
If it's anything big I send it to my synology nas. If it's something small then I honestly just send it through Signal. Although, I do wanna try this kde connect thing out as well.
Haven't seen anyone recommend Flying Carpet, yet.
I use it to transfer files between my Windows desktop PC and my Steam Deck.
You should try kde connect
I use kdeconnect with this script: https://github.com/Samueru-sama/kdeconnect-any-filemanager
The android nextcloud client works great if you're willing to setup/maintain a nextcloud server.
For secure private transfer use the Warp flatpak in Linux and Worrmhole William in Android.
There are some browser based solutions like sharedrop.io and file.pizza. I haven't had the latter work for me though, not sure if it's still functional. They work through WebRTC to discover local candidates for receiving files, the same way that video calling typically finds the best connection.
Security
ShareDrop uses a secure and encrypted peer-to-peer connection to transfer information about the file (its name and size) and file data itself. This means that this data is never transfered through any intermediate server but directly between the sender and recipient devices. To achieve this, ShareDrop uses a technology called WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication), which is provided natively by browsers. You can read more about WebRTC security here.
I'll throw out another way: to access files from your phone, you can use termux. python -m http.server
Lot of people mentioning kde connect. I'm going to take a moment to clarify, kde connevts functionality is modular. you need the sshfs package for it to mount the phones filesystem over ssh. Once you've done that, it works pretty normally.
I've been using SSHelper together with rsync for years and it works perfectly. You can log in the first time with a password, and place your public key to use key based auth going forward.
In addition to doing this over WiFi I also often use a usb to ethernet adapter (usb side plugged into phone) to get better performance if I'm doing larger transfers, for example copying off a large number of photos.
Edit: looks like there's a note on the play store page about incompatibility with newer Android versions. Disappointing. I guess I'll have to find another solution when I eventually upgrade my phone.