Randall Munroe shows us how it’s done:
Every time you email a file to yourself so you can pull it up on your friend’s laptop, Tim Berners-Lee sheds a single tear.
Sad that this XKCD from 2011 is still just as accurate today…
Only because IPv6 and self-hosting are not mainstream yet. But if it were commonplace for everyone’s home to have something as simple as a public file server or SSH server, then this problem would be trivialized.
Opera tried to make self-hosting mainstream back in 2009 with Opera Unite, but regular people just weren’t interested. It was a web server built in to the browser, which had a few apps like a whiteboard, a way to write notes, file transfers, etc.
Also, IPv6 is already mainstream in some countries. In the USA, several of the mobile networks are IPv6-only, using 464XLAT to allow connections to legacy IPv4-only servers. Comcast/Xfinity was also the first ISP to roll out IPv6 at a wide scale, and the majority of their customers had IPv6 connectivity way back in 2014 or so.
Globally, around 50% of traffic to Google and 60% of traffic to Facebook are using IPv6.
Not quite, we now have options like wormhole that make it pretty simple
Just send it over telegram. Even Whatsapp allows that size I assume.
For sure, let me just make an account, install the app, find and add them- wait, he drove over with a USB? Jokes aside, thanks for the recommendation, but it’s not any simpler than the 2011 solutions if you haven’t set it up already.
Who is not already using Telegram and/or Whatsapp?
No one I have met in Canada has ever asked to message over telegram or whatsapp.
Ah right, you are using the Apple thing over there?
HCTP: Hypercar Transfer Protocol. Someone make an RFC
Kde connect all day erry day
kde connect and syncthing both just work, and it’s amazing
I haven’t been able to get Syncthing permissions to work. The frustrating thing for me with Android has always been inconsistencies between vendors and weird permissions issues.
Localsend is also a thing
I personally find localsend more reliable and easyer when it comes to sending files
Came here to say this
KDE connect is gold
It times out for me every time. After ten or so files just gives up.
It is alright, but SFTP transfer broke for me some time ago. I think it is related to changes in Android, but surprisingly there were not a lot of posts about this issue last I searched. Using Android 13 / Samsung One UI 5.1 with Windows 11.
I use Material Files (from f-droid) as my default file manager, which includes support for mounting FTP, SFTP, SMB, and webdav shares. It doesn’t handle the connection getting interrupted very well, so if that happens i have to restart the app. Other than that it’s been working great for my SMB share.
Solid explorer seems, pretty solid
Syncthing is amazing though.
It’s pretty good. Definitely better then self-hosted stuff like nextcloud, because you don’t need to maintain your own server. But sometimes it takes a while for two hosts to discover each other on the same local area network.
I’ve never noticed any delay after first discovery. But i only use 3 devices so 🤷
I think they’re both good for different use-cases. I use nextcloud myself on a truenas system. I sync things like my pictures to nextcloud, and delete them from my phone after I’ve sorted them into the correct folders.
This way my data isn’t clogging up my phone and other things, is still available from anywhere (as long as my home internet doesn’t go down), and it’s still safely stored on redundant storage.
This does take a bit more setting up than something like syncthing, though it wasn’t very difficult at all. Basically install the docker image, tell it where my data goes, and set up a new dns record if you want it publicly accessible. I personally run it through a zerotier network so I don’t have to do that.
I like Nextcloud on my TrueNAS scale setup, but for photos I’ve started using Immich. It works extremely well, and does automatic backups of specific folders from your phone. The interface looks nice too.
I’m actually using Photoprism on the same truenas system to view my photos, I just already had nextcloud for the rest of my files, so I’m using that to upload. They point to the same datasets, so they share the image data. I believe photoprism is pretty similar to immich, but i haven’t used immich myself.
No shout out for my boi, LocalSend?
This is why I love lemmy. Bookmarked! Thank you.
You’re welcome 😊
Anyone have any other cool crossplatform tools to share?
SSH/SFTP?
croc is great, works even when devices cant find each other on the network, or with gigantic folders (I use it between computers).
Or Simplex chat, I dont use it to chat but only to quickly share between phone and laptop :)
The only thing is that both devices need to be in the same WiFi net. But it also works on the road when the laptop uses the phones Hotspot.
Love LocalSend! Have been using it almost daily since I found it.
Is safe?
How do you mean?
Is it vetted by someone reputable?
I am unaware of any independent audit. That being said, it is opensource. Given that and its popularity, I am, personally, quite confident in its safety.
Right on. Thank you
You’re welcome ☺️
Shiiit dude thanks! Installed - definitely a keeper
You’re welcome! 😊
So we’re reinventing
scpnow?For what LocalSend is designed, imo, it is more convenient to use than
scp— by quite a large margin.
The amount of times sending myself an email is still the quickest thing is insane. Sure I could try to use notion or keep to send myself some random string of text but am I logged in on my desktop? Idk. Just use email.
Also there are so many things like air drop, nfc, etc, but so many of them are so specific to certain devices. Maybe one day we’ll figure this out lol
Glad I’m not the only one! I am extra old and use my Hotmail too…
Most of my emails are to myself going back and forth between PC and phone lol
You don’t even have to send it, you can save as draft.
That’s brilliant. Thank you
Haven’t had to email a file to myself since I set up syncthing
Or just use a USB cable.
For phone-to-computer it works fine. But double-sided boi will still win if you need to send files to a dumber device like a printer – those don’t typically support MTP or whatever iphones use. Unless you have an ancient android phone that gives full block-level access to the internal storage/microsd card through usb cable lol. I really miss that feature.
I just add the printer on my phone and print over the network
So many people on here always talking about printing stuff in 2024. Is everyone a lawyer?
Some banks and other places like that still require physical documents for stuff like proof of address, affidavits etc.
Even though they’re going to fucking scan it into pdf anyway
I use my printer to print silly stickers, because I am a manchild, but I don’t think I am using the correct ink or paper, because they fade very quickly and smudge sometimes.
Also use it to print graph paper to doodle on.
What type of printer/paper do you use? I find cheap photo paper works well for high res on my inkjet, although it can fade if you leave it in the sun. I’ve been using vinyl sticker sheets for customising my bike and it seems to be holding well, but I did laminate them with sticky back plastic first.
There’s also the sellotape trick, but that only works for laser printers and you obviously can’t print white.
The printer is the cheapest canon inkjet printer I could find new in 2021. I don’t have access to the exact model name rn
I think I have glossy photo paper. I also had a few sheets of postcard size sticker paper that was not glossy and didn’t fade, but I recall it being stupid expensive, or that specific brand at least. I cannot remember the name. Would not survive the elements though.
I thought about laminating it but I wasn’t sure if the heat would fuck the adhesive
When I say laminate, I just mean the rolls of sticky back plastic. I don’t know if it’s called something else in your part of the world.
It’s the stuff we used to use to protect our exercise books at school. You can buy special laminating vinyl but this stuff is cheaper.
Acid free sticky tape (scotch tape in the US?) will also work for smaller stickers, just make sure the sort you use doesn’t yellow. In my experience, glossy photo paper scratches easily and has to have a layer over it to seal it, plastic is the easiest option (also remembering when I made over 200 trading cards on photo paper and had to design, cut and laminate them all by hand lol).
I did test the brand of vinyl paper I used with water and it did hold up. I’ve only had it on my bike for a few months, but so far it doesn’t seem to have yellowed or faded. I probably should have cut out the sticky back plastic to be bigger than the sticker though.
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I can’t post my memes on the much room bulletin board for everyone to see unless I print them :/
No, I just live in Germany
I transfer data by printing it and then scanning it when I get to the location.
I just like the artefacts it leaves behind.
If it is anything other than text or a photo, I compile the file into a QR code and print that.
A Windows 10 installation iso is about 1499639 QR codes
Couldn’t you, theoretically, create one massive QR code containing all that data? You’d need a massive camera sensor to get the resolution required to actually decode it though.
https://youtu.be/ExwqNreocpg?si=2eHJdNFMSYmUImV0
This guy wrote a game that can fit in a QR code
You mean I can backup my 20tb NAS on QR codes?
Sometimes I need to print out stuff for my grandmother
When I cook I like to print out the recipe. It’s annoying to have to touch ur phone when cooking because you might be handling raw meat so it’s annoying to have to wash ur re-hands whenever you need to check the recipe. Plus using a phone when hands are wet is also annoying.
Wait, what feature? You can’t access the phone’s storage? I’m pretty sure I can access my phone’s storage.
Old android phones used to emulate a USB mass storage device when you would connect them. To the computer, the phone would appear as a usb stick. Modern android phones, on the other hand, use a protocol called MTP (Mobile Transfer Protocol), which is completely its own thing.
The reason they switched to MTP is that the old approach gave the computer complete control over the phone’s storage; the phone would become completely unusable while connected in this way, and would just display a “connected via usb” splash screen. With MTP, the phone continues to be usable while connected via USB. But it has the downside that MTP is a much less widespread protocol than USB mass storage. On personal computers it should “just work”, but on stuff like printers it might not.
Personally, I think they should bring back USB mass storage emulation as an optional feature. Heck, it can still be done, but you need to compile your own android ROM with usb mass storage drivers, which I’m not nearly skilled enough to do.
Old USB implementation used to be a finicky nightmare, though. You make it sound like it wasn’t changed for a reason, MTP connectivity on Android as it is now is so much more functional, as well as safer.
In any case, that solves the misunderstanding. I thought you meant you couldn’t directly access phone storage anymore, which isn’t the case.
The printer scenario seems like an edge case to me. I mean, MTP has been the default for what? Over a decade? If you have a recent printer you’re probably fine (also, it probably has wifi and a dedicated mobile app or at least enough third party support to be used from your phone regardless). If your printer is older than that you’re probably better served by going through your PC first anyway. Sure, you don’t get direct USB access to printing photos, but now we’re talking about a very specific feature that was in use for a very specific sliver of time, and it requires you to be tethered to a device anyway. I don’t think that’s enough to justify legacy storage support on phones.
Sure, you don’t get direct USB access to printing photos, but now we’re talking about a very specific feature that was in use for a very specific sliver of time, and it requires you to be tethered to a device anyway. I don’t think that’s enough to justify legacy storage support on phones.
Yeah, fair enough.
If you have a recent printer you’re probably fine (also, it probably has wifi and a dedicated mobile app or at least enough third party support to be used from your phone regardless).
Not to forget the gazillion security holes. But most of the features stop working after a few years anyway.
Yeah, double sided boi looks like a great way to ruin your phone charging port if you don’t have a usb slot pointing straight up
I dont think you’re supposed to connect to both devices at the same time.
Oh, it’s a USB stick. I thought it worked like a cable.
Cable with a really big delay but a REALLY big buffer
I use KDE Connect
KDE Connect
Why isn’t it Konnect?
Multiple Ks in a row gets risky fast
Right, merica stuff.
КDE Кonneкt.
Yes, that’s in the picture.
Can you not just plug your phone into your computer, and then use your computer’s file manager to drag it from your phone to your computer? It’s this not a thing anymore?
Why the extra step of writing it to thumb drive?
These are the people who take screenshots with their phone cameras.
OP is just revealing that they don’t understand device-to-device file transfers.
remember when it was somehow trendy to take a picture with snapchat and the screenshot it to it shows the tools on right and post that on instagram? that shit was stupid as hell
I still do that all the time. I work with a bunch of different computers and it’s easier than sending a file or writing the info down.
I get that there’s device to device file transfers, but it’s slower, and other employees would undoubtedly fill my phone with garbage screenshots, if not virus furry porn.
I shamelessly take pictures of my screen all the time if I have to.
That’s not a USB drive, it’s an adapter.
Nope, it’s a USB drive.
Quite a few of the usual memory device manufacturers make drives that have a Type A USB plug on one end, and either Micro USB or Type C on the other. They’re specifically meant for one end to easily plug into your PC, and the other end to go into your phone. Not, obviously, both at the same time.
Example: https://www.pny.com/duo-link-usb-3-2-type-c-dual-flash-drive
I have one sitting in my desk that’s so old it still has a Micro USB connector on it and is therefore not terribly useful in this day and age.
Male to male?
People are going to plug their phone directly into their computer without a cable?Edit
The title says it’s a USB drive, not an adapterHa gayyyyy
They are, but I don’t recommend it unless you want at least one of the ports to snap internally as it hangs out the front of the PC.
The adapter shown is functionally identical to a usb 2 to usb c cable. I believe the meme is essentially suggesting the same thing you did with using a file explorer.
Kinda… But who the fuck has a male/female USB or usb-c cable sitting around???
One of the ends of this adapter should be female, or this should just be an A/C cord. The fact that it’s not made me think that this is actually a thumbdrive, not that I can confirm if it actually is or what OP actually meant.
Why would you need a male/female USB?
This device is basically just a really short charging/data cable. I don’t understand what’s so confusing about it. It’s functionally identical to using the standard charging cable, just with the devices closer together.
Because in practice you’re gonna need a cable anyways, since it’s a vanishingly small chance that your phone’s port lines up perfectly with your computer’s port when you set it down.
Maybe you can find a book that’s just the right height to put your phone on (RIP if you have a desktop), but just having a cable is still a better option.This is either a male/male adapter, or a thumb drive… In either case, a-to-c USB cable would be a better solution, and a less confusing image.
I agree that a cable would be wildly more useful than what’s pictured, for what it’s worth.
That said (tangentially related), I have a few male/female usb cables and they’re a godsend. Extremely handy for game controllers and/or extenders for bluetooth or wireless device dongles.
Somehow USB disks are still the easiest and most reliable way
I would do this before using a double sided USB
Can you not just plug your phone into your computer, and then use your computer’s file manager to drag it from your phone to your computer?
That’s right, you cannot. Well, sometimes you can. MTP is quite an unreliable technology, at least for Linux users. Sometimes you’ll plug in a device and it’ll work fine, other times it won’t even show up.
P.S. and yes I have enabled MTP on the android device
Idk
I just plugged my pixel into my Ubuntu laptop, and tapped on the USB charging notification on my phone, selected “more options” and changed the selection from “no data transfer” to “move files”.Then my Ubuntu file viewer could see all my files. Or at least a lot of them.
My employer encrypts external drives, including iPads and phones.
Except that if you connect your phone to a computer using USB, it will transfer files using MTP and it’s pain in the ass, as it’s slow and unreliable. Sending files over Bluetooth is better (but not much) over using USB connection.
Almost no phone would allow that nowadays.
No phone allow which? Writing to a thumb drive (I believe that) or connecting to a computer directly?
Just tried connecting my pixel 7 to my Ubuntu laptop and it worked. Im pretty sure I’ve done it with windows too, on previous pixel phones.
Maybe not trusting their computer having full access to their phone’s files?
Most phones are only USB 2.0. I don’t know why you would want to mess with that if you don’t have to.
IR data connection.
Print out on paper & scan it into the computer.
Copy the data into the computer in binary with an electron gun directly to SSD.
Recreate the data from scratch.
Install desktop os onto your phone & use it as your main rig to eliminate the need to transfer data in the first place.
Use an USB cable to connect the phone to a floppy drive & copy the data to floppy discs. And enjoy the asmr sounds as you do so.
Bluetooth if all else fails, but using a2dp dial-up frequencies.
Accept that there is no convenient way to transfer data & just live without it.
Place phone on scanner and scan each screen
Oh, that’s a good one, high tech, no need for extra data conversion on the PC, works for transferring videos as well :D
Take your phones hard drive out and add it as an external hard drive
Nokia N91 actually had a hard drive (like literally a spinning hard disc drive).
So the method is valid, albeit a bit easy.
SD cards are still a thing.
There’s gigabit IrDA these days FYI, if you can find the adapters…
… oh, TIL.
Outside of regular simple-command remotes I only ever used IR data transfer between my PC and Nokia 3650 (bcs the proprietary connector had shitty contacts).
And it was slower than any of other methods previously listed.
(I don’t actually remember, but less than 100kbps I think, about half the theoretical max iirc, some of which was the phone and the memory cards fault too)
or just a normal ass USB a to c cord
The real gangstas are living in the C to C future.
https://github.com/localsend/localsend
I used localsend on desktop, laptop and my phones to sync stuffs between OSes and phones. What I likes is that it support multiplatform out of the box and works flawlessly between Windows, Android and Linux distros (tried both on Ubuntu, and LM without problem). It’s just SHAREit without any stupid weird stuffs on it.
This is the shit
Syncthing ftw. As soon as I plug my phone into a charger, it starts syncing everything to my NAS. Even if it’s not charging, I can override the rule and force it to sync.
I don’t even need a double-sided boi because my dumb ass got lucky enough to pick a cheapo laptop with a USB-C port. The little sandisk drive is probably one my best investments into the phone besides the case.
Pretty much all laptops have USB C these days.
I also got a USB C flash drive and it’s indeed incredibly convenient.
Even my desktop motherboard has a USBC slot
Yeah, most motherboards from the last 5-6 years (or maybe even longer) likely have USB-C.
Newer motherboards usually have an internal port so that you can get a USB-C front panel connector. I recently replaced my case for primarily that reason.
Can’t you just plug your phone straight in and transfer the file? I still prefer KDE connect though.
KDE connect only works painlessly on phones that allow you to use your files… As weird as it is, that’s not most of them.
But you can still move them around somehow and force it to work. Also, the same works for syncthing. USB drivers haven’t been the easiest option for a while.
KDE Connect or Nextcloud. My phone has USB 2, but I can easily top 1 Gbit/s over wifi.
Nextcloud “Carnet” is the solution I had been waiting for for years. Instant uploads to my instance, I can access the files from any computer. Boom.
I’d add SMB as well, I use KDE connect for 1-2 files, nextcloud for photo backup and SMB for bigger transfers.
