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
  • Lettuce eat lettuce@lemmy.mlEnglish
    50·
    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.

    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      5·
      6 days ago

      Dart (the language it’s written in) doesn’t work on BSD, so sadly that’s out of the question for now.

      • Hawk@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Maybe snapdrop?

        When I was obsd I did FTP and rsync for everything. Syncthing had dinner performance issues for me.

        Maybe Seafile but I had a bad time with that.

  • electric_nan@lemmy.mlEnglish
    12·
    5 days ago

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

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      51·
      5 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
        2·
        5 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
          3·
          5 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.

  • vinnymac@lemmy.worldEnglish
    49·
    7 days ago

    Here are a bunch of local services I’ve used at one point or another from phone to PC or PC to PC. Not sure if any links are out of date.

    KDE Connect

    Wormhole (Closed Source)

    LocalSend

    SnapDrop

    ShareDrop

    FilePizza

    Original Wormhole

    PeerTransfer

    JustBeamIt

    Send Visee

    • Hawk@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      5·
      5 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
        21·
        5 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.

    • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 days ago

      I don’t know if it is always the fastest. I know they said android, but for example on not too old Apple phones (pre-usb c), I had the impression you could get better throughout on wifi compared to a cable connection. Maybe that’s just apple trying to squeeze money on proprietary connectors, but other manufacturers seem to copy their worst takes sometimes though.

  • Deckweiss@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    7 days ago

    https://pairdrop.net/

    open source, can be self hosted or you can use the official instance.

    Personally I have been using KDE connect most of the time when I am at home.

    Pairdrop I use more when sharing with other people across the internet.

    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      1·
      6 days ago

      pairdrop

      I like this a lot.

      A question. Docs say:

      Your files are sent using WebRTC, encrypting them in transit. Still you have to trust the PairDrop server. To ensure the connection is secure and there is no MITM there is a plan to make PairDrop zero trust by encrypting the signaling and implementing a verification process. See issue #180 to keep updated.

      Does this mean if you self-host on your LAN for personal use without https, then nothing is encrypted, or does WebRTC negotiate its own crypto?

    • naeap@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      7 days ago

      Yeah, can recommend that one too Although it sometimes seems to have some performance problems with a large amount of files - could be, that it’s already fixed though

  • arthurpizza@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    5 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.

  • deadcatbounce@reddthat.comEnglish
    5·
    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.

  • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    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.

      • one_knight_scripting@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        Can’t say I’ve used that… Yet. I like nextcloud because besides being compatible with Linux/Windows and having an Android app, it also has a simple web UI to access the files. It’s probably closer to self hosted OneDrive than anything else I can think of. Kinda like the simplicity of pairdrop though.

  • JASN_DE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    7 days ago

    As I have basically all devices connected to my Nextcloud instance, I simply use that. I don’t have any “time-critical” file transfers though.

    • vext01@lemmy.sdf.orgOPEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      Well my transfers aren’t “time critical” either, but life feels easier if I don’t have to jump through hoops to solve a task that involves copy files around.

      Re: next cloud, looking for something more lightweight than that.