11mo ago

LocalSend - Share files to nearby devices

If you want a easy, reliable and cross-platform way to share files between computers, phones, etc, it may be of your interest.

Android @lemmy.world

localsend.org

43 5

DeGoogle Yourself @lemmy.ml

LocalSend | FOSS Local WiFi File Transferring for Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, Linux

localsend.org

21 4

50 comments

Using kde-connect for that, works really nicely cross platform.
Also inb4 “Discord community server - no thanks” :D
- I love KDE connect have been using it for years.
  Only issue is recently I tried it on my raspberry pi and some features don't work. Specifically I can't get clipboard sharing or remote input to work on my raspberry pi.
  
  Oh, that sucks, wanted to use it for that too
- Works great on my linux laptop. It's also available for windows but lacks some sruff there unfortunately. For example you can only send one file at a time and many media players in windows are not recognized and yherefore cannot be controlled from the phone.
  I know this is the linux community. Just wanted to mention these things for people like me who also have a windows machine for gaming

Stupid question from an ignorant fool: how does this differ from just using bluray to transfer files?
EDIT: GOD I AM AN IDIOT I MEAN BLUETOOTH. BLUETOOTH. XDDD
- Burning physical bluray discs can take quite a lot of time.
  
  I meant BLUETOOTH. Lol. I mistyped. xD
  
  Also disk drives are basically non-existant these days. But to each their own.
- Answering the question you meant to ask, blueray is a physica... just kidding.
  LocalSend is basically like bluetooth file sharing over WiFi. Bluetooth, especially the fallback 2.0 is notoriously slow and short ranged. The situation got better with BLE, 5.0 and Long Range. Still, both devices need to speak BT. Ap*le's iOS is well known to ignore BT file sharing capabilities while implementing own proprietary solutions. On desktop, the situation is still bad. I once tried to send a file between two Windows machines via BT, and it was a horrible user experience. LocalSend (and similar) fix this by implementing cross platform apps and using readily available API's to share files with few clicks and reasonably high speed between a plethora of devices. I guess, if you don't have the aforementioned problems, you won't need LocalSend et al.
  
  especially the fallback 2.0 is notoriously slow and short ranged.
  So that's why my Bluetooth file transferring back in like 2015 was slow as balls! I also assumed it was the devices I had. Lol. Which is weird considering I could have sworn I had also done BT file transfers with other devices previously and it seemed a lot faster. (None of these were Apple devices).
  Ap*le's iOS is well known to ignore BT file sharing capabilities while implementing own proprietary solutions.
  Rude.
  [Everything else you said]
  That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for explaining. :D
- Haha
- It does work over network, so you don't need any physical connection apart from being in the same network. Therefore, it's easier, faster, less complicated, and more.
  
  I mistyped. Lmao. I meant BLUETOOTH. Haha.

Really great software. Works like a charm most of the time, the apps are quite okay, sends files locally. The first low-barrier solution to share stuff between wildly different devices since e-mail.

There are many good sollutions for this use case. Personally I use Warpinator — it comes pre-installed with Linux Mint and just works.

Why this over Syncthing?
- Its more convenient to send just the specific files i need rather than syncing a whole folder. I use syncthing to keep folders in sync between computers and local send to send stuff from my phone to my computer
  
  I guess. I keep a dir synced between my desktop and my phone. If I want a file transferred, I just drop it there.
- @avidamoeba @edu4rdshl one sends one file one syncs a lot of files
  
  Some in this thread said that LocalSend can send many files, folders too. 🤔
- Syncthing is nice, but Localsend has a more user-friendly interface.

Works perfect for me. Have been using for like a year

https://webwormhole.io/
- Isn’t that horribly insecure? I have my doubts regarding privacy. LocalSend sends to the device directly, without an intermediary.
  
  I'm pretty sure it only uses the intermediary to establish a P2P connection over WebRTC.

I've been using this for a long time now, and it's godsend.
Sending files between iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and other devices is great!

Magic wormhole is way more flexible

I don't like it being HTTP based and TLS (certificate?), nor I am a fan of flutter and the other 70-ish dependencies (https://github.com/localsend/localsend/blob/main/app/pubspec.yaml).
KDEConnect is great and does way more than file sharing, I'll stick with that.

OnionShare. Its more secure and works even if the device isn't local
- But it's really slow because it uses Tor. Sure, there are some use cases that require anonymity, but it doesn't make sense for most users.
- Magic wormhole is faster

You might want to check out Magic Wormhole
The "Warp" flatpak uses it. Might serve as a nice backend for your project!
- My files got corrupted when I used it, but that was a while ago

This is great except you need to be on the same wifi / local network. Worked with the wife for a bit, but we get annoyed having to "turn it on" when we send each other photos.
- You can use something like PairDrop instead. It is open source and browser based.
  
  Doesn't solve my problem of having to both turn on our sharing. But a nice app nonetheless
- I’m using it and enjoying it but I had always thought that it would also work from one device to another without Wifi.
  I guess I always had Wifi😅

Is there a reason I need something more than scp?
- Yes, you send files from/to your phone with an app that looks clean and modern
  
  I have an app that does exactly that over scp...

50 comments