I just had to email me a file I got sent to my phone and I feel unable to accept this as the better solution.
What you do guys use for inter-device communication?
magic wormhole
I just use SSH+Rsync for everything. I traded two-way sync for minimalism and reliability. I’ve had nothing but headaches with anything else, especially Syncthing.
My Computer and both Raspberry Pi servers both run Linux and I have Termux installed on my Android phone so OpenSSL and Rsync are easily available.
I made a script that runs Rsync commands from files containing all the information which easily swaps source/target files so I can easily transfer in both directions with a simple command line option. It’s reliable and simple and I’ve had a lot less headaches troubleshooting the rarely occurring issues.
Nextcloud
my boss just emails stuff to herself… or just lets it sit in drafts (imap) with the attachment.
i use localsend, wormhole, or similar usually, especially if one or both the devices aren’t “mine”… and if it’s stuff i’m ‘sending’ to a handheld from a pc, i might instead drop them somewhere on one of our dietpi boxes and just use http
SFTP, Caddy WebDAV
PC to phone:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
PC to PC:
- USB drive
- SFTP
- SSH
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
Phone to PC:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
KDE Connect can do all three of these.
Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.
One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)
For sending files between a phone and a PC, I use KDE Connect.
For sending files between PCs, I use SSH.
Both are really simple and lightweight tools that normally come preinstalled, and you can use them with no configuration.
Adding to this, there’s a gnome extension so you can use KDE connect without KDE DE.
You can use KDE Connect itself without KDE.
But GSConnect shows up in the equivalent of your task bar
KDE connect, sftp, and dropping files on my NAS is pretty much all I do.
Work stuff uses work methods though, work devices are “on” my network but fully segregated, so its thumb drive and sneakernet or our internal storage instead.
LocalSend on both devices is something I’ve used
I also like LocalSend. Not quite as automagical as airdrop but it’s cross platform
KDE Connect
- syncthing (file synchronization)
- kdeconnect (file transfers, clipboard sharing, presentation remote)
- deskflow (keyboard and mouse sharing)
- warpinator (one off file sharing)
- rsync / scp (one off file copies / backups)
Depends on the scenario, but I’ll use KDE Connect, NextCloud, VaultWarden send, or just go old scp.
I use bitwarden send, all my devices already have access to my password database and i can save and download files or text though it. You can also use the URL to let other devices access it if you want.
