Hey,

I was wondering what folks use to quickly send a file or a link between your PC and android phone in a lightweight and self hosted way.

Currently I use syncthing to copy files around, but I’m looking for something more immediate, and quick than doesn’t involve searching for folders in a file manager.

Example use case: Send a file from PC to phone. Notification pops up on phone, tap it to access.

(PC runs OpenBSD)

What lightweight software do you guys use?

Stuff I tried so far:

  • syncthing
  • xmpp
  • tox
  • scp and termux.
  • magic wormhole
  • telegram saved messages
  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    Do you have any hosting in your home lab? Preferably something for running a docker container, but a hypervisor could do the job too.

    Nextcloud is an option if you do. Technically speaking you could properly protect it and make it public. You don’t have to do that though. Any file you upload on your computer could be copied to your phone or vice versa. If it’s public, then this could be done from anywhere.

  • arthurpizza@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    Open source file manager Material Files lets you set an SSH server as a bookmark and mount it instantly. Moving files around just like like it’s native. Works seamlessly through Tailscale.

  • EvilHaitianEatingYourCat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    I ll just hijack this thread : when plugging my android into laptop, the laptop doesn’t recognise it as anything. And the phone doesn’t give me the option to “share files” instead of just charge. Does anyone knows what’s wrong?

    • qwerty@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      Check if your cable has data lanes, some cables don’t have them and can only be used for charging. Tap the charging notification and check if you can change it to file transfer.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    5 days ago

    I use KDEConnect. I don’t know about iPhone but it works with Android, Linux and Windows.

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      I have tried to use KDEconnect over and over, It doesn’t work on my work network, it doesn’t work on most of my home network, If my laptop my cell phone come up as different IPs it gets confused. It’s discoverability is just absolutely horrible except for a select number of plain vanilla networks.

      • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        Damn that sucks :(. Seems to me I have to disable my VPN in order to discover devices, but I can re-enable it afterwards. I use it mostly for clipboard sharing between devices.

        • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          4 days ago

          My home network is split between wired and wireless, they’re on different IP ranges. I have every proper forwarding protocol and UDP sniffing everything set up so that devices can talk to each other across subnets.

          It refuses.

          So at home I can set it up on Linux to use a static IP to find my phone. And the phone kind of deals with it and works most of the time. But then I go to work and my IPs are the two devices change. Then I’m SOL.

          Also if I’m home and I’m roaming onto one of my other networks to talk to security cameras or something it’s incapable of talking to my PC.

          Honestly it’s discovery is just bad for me. I really wish that it’s supported a list of IPs, or gave me some kind of client I could run in concert with tail scale or I could move s*** around it’s just absolutely inflexible and for no good reason.

    • Hawk@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      0·
      4 days ago

      From memory MTP is pretty flaky and quite slow.

      ADB push is pretty good but at that stage rsync is just as easy.

      Put SSH in the phone and you can do it all from the computer too.

      • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        4 days ago

        MTP’s not bad anymore. It works perfectly well in Windows Linux and Mac these days and is as fast as anything else.

  • deadcatbounce@reddthat.comEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    Syncthing is fast. I have an IPv6 setup too which seems to help.

    I have my downloads directory on my desktop linked to a downloads directory on my Android; you can’t link to the real Android downloads directory anymore so I use another.

    When the file is removed from the desktop downloads directory it disappears from mobile.

    I tried using Bluetooth between them but it’s more fiddly than Syncthing with my config. Switch Bluetooth on on desktop, connect to desktop, send file, disconnect, move file. Whereas Syncthing is always on.

    However, before I started using Obsidian notes I used to transfer URLs using Signal’s Note-to-self thing. Signal on both desktop and mobile.

    Obviously, I sync between mobile and desktop Obsidian using Syncthing.

  • reddwarf@feddit.nlEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    You got some good replies and I personally am enamored by LocalSend, it is worth checking it out.

    However, there is a simple way if a) you use whatsapp and b) the devices involved have access to whatsapp.
    This involves not just sending files but you can send text and whatever whatsapp supports and you’ll have a history of these chats should you need to have them later again. Probably possible with other platforms but I use whatsapp so that is what I setup for information transfer to myself.
    The thing you want to do is create a chat group, add a friend for a very brief moment, remove said friend again after they accepted, enjoy your private group where you can dump any and all info into and pick up from wherever you have whatsapp available. The trick is to add a friend for a couple of seconds. If you create a group you are automatically in it but you cannot use it until you add someone else, then it becomes active and use-able. The fact that you end up alone in that group does not make it unavailable again. Weird but it works.

  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

    I love localsend.

    Works on Linux, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. It is basically an OS agnostic Airdrop.

    It’s FOSS, so you can go to the Github and build from source for OpenBSD, but I have no idea if that would work.