5mo ago

Somehow USB disks are still the easiest and most reliable way

285 comments

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.
  
  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.
- 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 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.
- It times out for me every time. After ten or so files just gives up.

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.

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?
- 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?
- Shiiit dude thanks! Installed - definitely a keeper
  
  You're welcome! 😊
- So we're reinventing scp now?
  
  For what LocalSend is designed, imo, it is more convenient to use than scp — by quite a large margin.

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
  
  Wait, what feature? You can't access the phone's storage? I'm pretty sure I can access my phone's storage.
- 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.

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
- Haven't had to email a file to myself since I set up syncthing

I use KDE Connect
- KDE Connect
  Why isn't it Konnect?
  
  Multiple Ks in a row gets risky fast
  
  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?
- 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
  Or: https://www.westerndigital.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-dual-drive-m30-usb-3-1-type-c?sku=SDDDC2-032G-G46
  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 adapter
  
  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.
- 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.
- My employer encrypts external drives, including iPads and phones.
- 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.

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.

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.

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

I usually just plug my phone directly into the pc and copy the file directly
- me too. the double sided thing looks awkward.
  there's also localsend if you prefer over wifi for any reason
  
  Someone pointed out it's actually a usb stick with two different ends, which sounds pretty neat. I also thought it was like a cable without the actual cable part so your phone would just be dangling there awkwardly
- The USB Type-C is useful for sharing files offline between smartphones while the USB Type-A is useful when you want to backup files to a PC at some point.

One thing that really got me while working on computers and networking right as LAN networks became a thing in the late 90s and early 2K years was.... I'm connected to this switch, and so are they. Why do I need to burn a CD/use an external hard drive (later a flash drive), to move data?
Took me a while to figure out SMB/cifs, and when I did .... Game changer. Since then I've also learned all I can about storage, networking and file sharing. Most of my USB drives sit on my desk and don't get touched. I couldn't tell you what's on most of them. I've picked up a few thinking that I'll use it, but the most useful thing I've done with flash drives is to move data between computers when upgrading other people's computers. For me, I just make sure everything is backed up/synced to my local NAS, wipe the system and reinstall without a care in the world.
- SMB shares are Peak. I got one setup for my home network I haven't used a USB since.
  
  Please share your setup

I use KDE connect...
But my grandfather does the ol reliable method for image upload, which is:
emails it to himself
prints the email off
scans the printout into his computer again
uploads image to ~~faceboom~~ Facebook
I typo'd Facebook originally but thay was too good to get rid of so I just strikethrough'd it
- scans the printout into his computer again
  Your grandpa got the memo that inhales IT NEEDS MORE JPEG! And took it one step further.
- Sounds eerily similar to what my mom does to save receipts, minus the facebook part

or just plug the phone into the computer?
and use either adb pull or mtp (adb is more reliable from my experience)

its amazing how its generally easier to transfer something to a server a country over for it to then reach the other device. instead of it going directly over local network speeds.
also how its much easier to backup to google than to you own computer thats right there.
- It's really not if you have the right setup at home, instead of using somebody else's servers. Like nobody has a NAS or their own servers?
  It's much nicer not worrying about who can get to my files in the cloud, when they're not in the cloud.
  
  Like nobody has a NAS or their own servers?
  unironically no.
  thats what i do atm but its hardly easy for normies, when it 100% could.
  
  I do, but I VPN in, so it would be a pain to talk someone through that and send them their key.

KDE Connect and Syncthing do the trick for most stuff. For all else, all hail the USB C M.2 NVME enclosure.

Nintendo DS wireless file transfer lol
- Gameboy color infrared is all I need
- Bangai Oh! Had custom levels you could load by playing a sound file into the mic on the DS. Wild stuff!

Kde Connect

SMB has entered the chat

Wireless file transfers over the LAN. I ain’t got time to find my damn thumb drives.
- Long live netcat

In Android just selectively enable wireless ADB debugging and then use ADB Explorer. Easier than plugging the phone in, wireless, and allows access to all folders on the device (including /Android/data/* which is blocked from being accessed using on-device file explorers). Turn it off when you're done. Boom, wireless data transfer to and from an Android device at way faster than cabled SMB speeds.
- Faster than a cable, unless your device has usb 3.xx
  
  IDK, have you tried to copy files over USB-C/USB 3.0 to a phone? I similarly thought it was going to be much faster than it actually is, but it's still mind bogglingly slow using MTP -- especially with file creation operations. Want to move 5,000 small text files totalling 20MB? You'll be there for 8 hours, haha.
  In my experience ADB is significantly faster than a cable (even USB-C+3.0), even when ADB is connected wirelessly. I typically get 20MBps-40MBps using ADB regardless of whether I'm writing large files or a bunch of small files, where at best I will (and a cursory google search sems to indicate most people will) see 8MBps-10MBps over the cable for large files, and when I'm copying small files (e.g., game roms for ScummVM or something), I will get maybe 1Mbps at the top end. Results are consistent between computers I use to copy, cables I use to copy, and phones I've copied data to.
  I'm honestly surprised that in 2024 copying data to a brand new flagship phone using a USB cable is as poor of an experience as it is.
- That would work great for me if it had a linux version. Theoretically someone could just use fuse for it
  
  ADB Explorer is really just a wrapper for adb-pull, you can use that manually on Linux but without the GUI it's true it's not quite as seamless.

Localsend ;)

Sharedrop
Open source. Works about as good as AirDrop when that isn't available.

Localsend!

LocalSend does it best

I just email myself
- Yeah I email myself for work stuff since we aren't supposed to plug in our phones to our work computers.
  
  Is there a file size limit?

Send via Bluetooth...
- sad iPhone noises
  
  Send via Airdrop…

rsync
- Came here for this.

From my experience, a USB cable is the easiest to find/use.
- From my experience, aone USB cable boi is the easiest to find/use.

Mtp is so unstable in my experience that I try to use anything else available

I feel a bit like a bit of a fossil here, but why not drop the file into a network file share and grab it from there on your phone? No physical item required
- Cx Expolorer on Android can access network shares and Samba shares like a desktop OS. It really isn't a particularly outdated option, it's so much less fiddly than direct drive access from a PC and it effectively works just like a USB stick, interface-wise, without having to do the whole "where did I put my thumbdrive" dance each time.

I usually just use Bluetooth cuz I'm only transferring an image or two over. But if it's something big, I just use USB transfer because when the phone is plugged into the computer, it appears as an external drive.
Using this double sided boy seems like it would be putting a lot of weight on the USB port... 🤔
- I think it's a flash drive; you plug it into your phone, load files onto it, unplug it then plug it into the computer.
  
  oooh that makes a lot more sense, thanks. I was confused too

Always have a tiny USB drive on my key chain. The digital space is so huge nowadays and they cost almost nothing.

www.snapdrop.net
Run it locally yourself to make it even easier.

I use the Signal "Note to self" contact for smaller files, or SMB if i have to transfer large amounts - no usb-sticks needed.
for other people i normally upload either to https://send.vis.ee if it's a one time thing, to https://catbox.moe if i suspect that i have to share it more often over time or https://litterbox.catbox.moe/ for 3 day availability.

There is a little "most advanced transfer solutions" in your Spyware

I've been using floppy disks. You mean there are other options now?
- I need a USBC floppy drive now. "Hey, can I get that pic you took?"
  "Sure! Its on these 4 floppies!"

Is FX bad now? Been using it for nearly a decade and it works great for me.
- I use FX too. 0 problems.
- I have a file manager named FX on my android (costef just a couple of euros), is thatwhat you ate talking about?
  
  Yep, been using the pro version for a long time.

Command line FTP is good enough for me.
- I used to use FTP for file transfer, nowadays I just start up a HTTPS server on the source machine and grab stuff from there.

Local send.
You're welcome

I use WebDAV because my phones use that for all services which keeps everything on my own servers. Contacts, calendar, files, etc. Both Android and iPhone can be set up this way.

I pick one device-to-device option and it won’t load.
I pick another and it transfers at the speed of EDGE.
I end up just emailing the file to myself because my email is synced across all devices and it takes two minutes.

Termux, rsync and SSH.
Add a VPN and I can connect everywhere to my personal PC.
- Termux, rsync and SSH.
  Worked okay until I got overzealous and killed my battery from leaving Termux on for convenience.

Attach it to a draft email. Log in on the other thing, go to drafts, download your file, delete draft.

Solid explorer FTP plugin has always worked fine for me.
- me too. Fantastic, simple, fast.

iPhone and Mac be like:
Device one: copy
Device two: paste
- Right up until it doesn't, for no reason you can ascertain.
  
  Just, buy a new iPhone and Mac every two years.

285 comments