I am seeking an application that is compatible with my Android device and Linux desktop, allowing me to securely transfer files wireless between the two platforms.
Does anyone have knowledge of such an application? Alternatively, should I consider using a mobile router? I am uncertain about the best course of action and would appreciate any advice.
KDE Connect is how I see most people integrate their Android phone with their Linux desktop, file sharing is one of the features.
You could install Signal Desktop on your desktop and use the Note to Self chat to transfer the files back and forth
Signal doesn’t transfer everything. I personally just use a cable and ADB.
To add, you do not need to have Plasma, to use Connect. GSConnect is available, for those on Gnome.
Scrcpy and Scrspy + have a good GUI that might do what you want.
Wireless transfer assumes your devices being on the same network. The easiest way is to use pairdrop.net on both PC and smartphone. Just open this page on both devices, they’ll discover each other, then you choose your files and they start transferring.
Have no idea what is happening with your files and if they’re getting sent anywhere besides your device. I wouldn’t use it for anything sensitive.
The most private way is to use something like Plain App or Syncthing (whatever flavor you prefer: 1 or 2) from F-Droid.
Plain app requires some initial setup on the phone and then you just connect by the set IP on the PC in a browser, but the IP might vary every time if you have never delved into your router settings and never set a static IP for your phone.
Syncthing requires the most initial setup work, but doesn’t need any maintenance afterwards. Just disable global discovery to be sure to only sync on your local network.
Syncthing is good and has been around for a while. Just sync a folder between the two and drop whatever you want to share in the folder. Setup takes like 10 minutes total.
KDE Connect/GSConnect is also good as Jonah mentioned.
@Jonah @Perk1ns @GABG @Blurb5778 @attempty @Stereotype @Draken @alula
I’m going to try out all suggestions. Thank you all for your input. I really appreciate it.
As said by Jonah and Blurb : KDE Connect on the phone (and computer if on KDE) is the best solution. If you are running Gnome on the computer then KDE Connect on the phone + GSconnect on the computer.
This solution not only permit you to easily transfer files between devices but also to text (meaning text message sms) from your computer, to use your phone as a simple remote for your computer (moving the cursor, left clic, right clic, launching apps, using the phone’s keyboard to remotely type on the computer, etc.) and other things that I didn’t really explore yet because I don’t need everything.
For me It’s a great solution easy to implement, stable. It just works, I love it.
Here is the website for kdeconnect : https://kdeconnect.kde.org
Here is the one for GSConnect : GitHub - GSConnect/gnome-shell-extension-gsconnect: KDE Connect implementation for GNOME
send.vis.ee works well for me but isn’t a perfect solution
KDE Connect! This app never works properly. Always an issue. On macOS, I can send to Android, but cannot receive from Android: file receiving pop-up window stuck at not doing anything endlessly. On my Linux, it’s not even dectecting my Pixel and vice-versa. What do I have to do? I de-activated the firewall in an attempt to make it work. But, issue persists. Of course, my Pixel and Linux computer are on same network. So, what? Same network, firewall deactivated, no problem for macOS app version to see Android, but for Linux, it’s a nightmare. How ridiculous it is! Works on macOS, but not on my KDE desktop. And when you do search on that topic, you’ve got so many results! So, this app is basically designed to detect other devices that are on the same network, and in the end it never works. I’m a Linux user for long, but my experience is that when we have to make Linux communicate with other devices using their respective apps that detect each other, it never works during the first attempts. It’s always a fight and time consuming. But, that’s the way it is. It’s either that or being f…d up by Apple or its Windows competitor.
Apparently, we have to guess or be in the mind of the dev to know that the following ports have to be opened, both on TCP and UDP: 1714:1764, because it’s not even mentioned in the app. That’s one of the most irritating issue when dabbling with such an app. We never know how to run/use an app unless we are in the secrecy: What’s the pass port number, please? Also, because apparently, the dev supposes we do not dare to run a firewall! It’d be much simpler if the dev set a warning in the settings telling us to open the required ports.
Finally, KDE Connect is a complete nightmare when it comes to reconnecting after network disconnexion. It won’t reconnect automatically, simply because it suddenly no longer finds the device! KDE Connect is simply unreliable.
As an app, it does many zillions things, but it fails at the most basic task, which is flawlessly detecting other devices and reconnecting to them when they are discoverable.
Always used it on different linux distros (kde connect or GSConnect) with a Pixel phone on GrapheneOS and never had any issue in more than 1 year. Always perfect for me. I never had anything to do on my router, KdeConnect/GSConnect just works for me.
Good, it’s interesting to know it works for some/most and not for others.
I also recommend syncthing. Its e2e encrypted file transfer. If you want it to be fully local (instead of relays) you can do that (I do that!). I always reserve IP for my devices on my local network. Then when you connect the devices, you have to set their Address like so:“dynamic, tcp://192.168.X.X” - the other device IP. You need to do this on both devices. Also you need to go to settings > connections and turn of “Enable relaying” and I also turn of “Global discovery”. Plus you can set syncthing on Android to only activate on certain wi-fi’s - I set it only for my home wi-fi.
Next, if you use VPN, I suggest you exclude syncthing from going through it (I generally exclude all local connections - also for KDE connect that is the other recommendation).
One more thing: Put syncthing unrestricted on Android in battery settings.
Hope this helps!
I use KDE Connect, works flawlessly in Fedora 38, Plasma Wayland