Have you been in a situation where you desperately need to send files from your phone to PC or vice versa but you’re missing a USB cord? I have, more times than I can count.
To tackle this problem, I tried multiple alternatives
- Bluetooth: worked well for smaller files but became a hassle with larger files
- Xender: worked well but I really couldn’t stand the constant disconnections
- Zapya: I prefer this to using xender as it has its own windows app
- Shareit: Although this one also comes with its own windows app, the transfer speed was still too slow
One of the many underlying factors that made the
alternatives above a hassle, was the constant disconnections, although my PC is
to be blamed for this 80% of the time.
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Another reason these alternatives were not the best for me,
was the transfer speed. They all lacked in speed.
Finally, the interaction wasn’t really seamless. Fine, being
able to just select the exact file I want from my phone to PC is good and all,
but it never really felt seamless, the interaction between my phone and PC was
janky.
When I found out about FTP and how I can basically have the
files on my phone displayed on the windows File explorer without any
interruptions, I was intrigued. For this to actually work, you need to build
some sort of FTP server on your phone before establishing a connection, but I found
a way around it.
Follow these steps to transfer files from your phone to PC
without a USB cord
How to transfer files via FTP
So, to avoid creating your own FTP server – because I don’t know how, there are android apps out there capable of doing this automatically:
There are more, but these ones get the job done
For this tutorial, I’ll be using ES File Explorer
Step 1:
Turn on your phone’s hotspot and connect your PC to it
Step 2:
After downloading ES File Explorer, open the app and on the top left of your screen, click on the 3 horizontal stripes
Step 3:
Click on “Network” to reveal a dropdown menu, from the
dropdown menu, click “View on PC”
Step 4:
Click on “Turn On”
Step 5:
Take note of the ftp address that has been generated, as you’d be using this address on your PC
On your PC
Step 1:
Open File explorer on your PC and click on the horizontal
bar
Step 2:
Now type in the ftp server address generated on ES File Explorer, press Enter and voila, every file/folder on your Phone will be visible on your PC
This way, you can drag whatever file you wish to transfer in
and out of your phone without a USB cord
How to switch between Internal storage and SD card
Step 1:
On your phone, while still in ES File explorer, click on the
three dots at the top right of the screen and select “Settings”
Step 2:
Click “Set root directory”
Step 3:
Click the back arrow
Step 4:
Select “/storage/(Your SD card name)”
Step 5:
Click Ok
Step 6:
On your PC, click on the refresh button and now you can
transfer files from your SD card too
Downsides to using this method for transfer
There is only one major con to this method of transfer I can think of and that is, the huge task of searching through folders just to find the exact file you wish to transfer. There is no special tab for images, videos, apps or audio, you’d have to know exactly where these files are located on your phone
Asides this little con, I find this the best way (in my
opinion) to transfer files from your phone to PC wirelessly.
Download Links
ES File Explorer
Until other apps find a way to make their connection stable and their transfer speeds better, I’m sticking with this method. It is less stressful and much better for my weak PC.