Suggestions - App to Transfer Files Between Mobile Devices
from Uncurious3512@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 04:28
https://lemmy.world/post/24179949

Hi all,

I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a (ideally) FOSS app that can help me transfer a large amount of files between mobile devices. The exact scenario I’m trying to solve for is transferring large amount of pictures and videos from a family member’s iPhone to my Android mobile phone.

I’ve tried a few solutions (see below list) but they all had some short coming or issue. I would ideally love something that has a mobile app that can be installed, but that’s only because in my experience mobile web browsers tend to timeout / hang when dealing with a large number of file uploads at once.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 04:34 next collapse

localsend.org

lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works on 12 Jan 05:17 next collapse

Yep, second this. 🚀

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 05:52 collapse

This looks very promising, thanks! I’ll be sure to give it a try!

catloaf@lemm.ee on 12 Jan 04:39 next collapse

So you want a lot of files, but not ALL the files? Is this one-time or ongoing?

It might be easier for them to use Apple’s tools like icloud, and then send you a share link for you to download. I assume icloud has some kind of “share album” function.

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 05:54 collapse

Its about 600 or so every few months. I’ll have to look into iCloud ,but that could work. Thanks!

JoeKrogan@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 05:20 next collapse

Syncthing ?

BertramDitore@lemm.ee on 12 Jan 05:32 next collapse

Syncthing.

lemerchand@sh.itjust.works on 12 Jan 17:11 collapse

Syncthing!

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 05:51 collapse

I’ve looked into Syncthing before but ruled it out due to lack of iOS support. Is that no longer the case?

stardust@lemmy.ca on 12 Jan 06:13 next collapse

I think Möbius Sync might work to get syncthing working for iOS.

BertramDitore@lemm.ee on 12 Jan 08:34 next collapse

Yup! I use Mobius on iOS to sync everything I want, including random one off file transfers, but mostly to keep my Keepass database and Obsidian vault in sync across devices. It works really well, despite apple making it super difficult to run consistently in the background. As long as you open the app every so often, it’s seamless and reliable.

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 13:05 collapse

Neat! That’s great news, I’ll be sure to try it! Thanks!

munkinasack@lemmy.ml on 12 Jan 06:34 next collapse

I’m using Sushitrain/Synctrain on TestFlight. No issues so far

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 13:04 collapse

I think going through testflight might be too much of a barrier, but I’ll look into it, thanks!

imsodin@infosec.pub on 12 Jan 20:10 collapse

There’s now a fully open source ios app in beta: forum.syncthing.net/t/…/22457

cptn on 12 Jan 05:46 next collapse

How many files? I transferred a few hundred photos from my mom's iphone to android with a lightning cable+usb-c adapter between phones. I've used localsend for the occasional file since then.

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 05:49 collapse

600 or so every few months.

moody@lemmings.world on 12 Jan 06:06 next collapse

KDE Connect might work. I’ve never tried it phone-to-phone, but it works great between PC, Steam Deck, and phone, as long as they are on the same network.

muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee on 12 Jan 06:30 collapse

Everything is the same network if u have taikscale

Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 12 Jan 08:07 next collapse

It’s not FOSS but take a look at Photosync:

www.photosync-app.com/home

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 13:21 collapse

Oh cool, I forgot about this app! Can it send only select photos, or is it all of them?

zorflieg@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 08:25 next collapse

Local Send. I got it from Techno Tim recommends.

tripflag@lemmy.world on 12 Jan 09:17 next collapse

I’ve been making copyparty, and one of the initial inspirations/usecases was exactly this one – bunch of internet-friends meeting in meatspace for some event, and needing to stream across pics/vids before we split up and maybe never meet again :-)

You can run the server on android using termux; see the instructions in the readme for the installation part, and then run the server like so: copyparty -e2ds --qr -v /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/from-family/::w

it will show a QR-code which you can scan from the other device to start uploading, and the folder is shared write-only (:w instead of :rw), so nobody can download anything. And it keeps track of which files have already been transferred, so the client will skip across dupes without reuploading them, and also resume interrupted uploads automatically.

Tried sending 340 photos (1.21 GiB) from an old iPhone to an android hotspot just now; I turned off the iPhone screen as soon as it started sending, and it finished in 41 seconds, so around 30 MiB/s? Maybe there are faster alternatives… But my javascript should be fairly resilient and recover from network glitches and such, so uploading from safari like this should be fine.

prenatal_confusion@feddit.org on 12 Jan 09:40 next collapse

That looks like a fantastic project! Thanks for the effort

Uncurious3512@lemmy.world on 13 Jan 00:14 collapse

Oh wow, neat program, and great job with the documentation! I’ll comb through it when I get back to my desk. Thanks for the suggestion and for the excellent program!

Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe on 12 Jan 15:54 next collapse

Syncthing

Windows - Synctrayzor

Linux - Syncthing

Android - Syncthing-Fork

iOS - Möbius

BCsven@lemmy.ca on 12 Jan 19:14 collapse

If it is a one time transfer, plug them both into a PC ,set USB as file transfer then copy the folders over