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.
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
114 points (100.0% liked)
Selfhosted
46677 readers
543 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dart (the language it's written in) doesn't work on BSD, so sadly that's out of the question for now.
Dang, that's too bad. Hopefully one day!
load more comments
(1 replies)
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 Not sure if any links are out of date.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)
- Site: https://wormhole.app/
LocalSend
- Site: https://localsend.org/
- Source: https://github.com/localsend/localsend
SnapDrop
- Site: https://snapdrop.net/
- Source: https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop
ShareDrop
- Site: https://www.sharedrop.io/
- Source: https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop
FilePizza
- Site: https://file.pizza/
- Source: https://github.com/kern/filepizza
Original Wormhole
- Site: https://webwormhole.io/
- Source: https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole
PeerTransfer
JustBeamIt
- Site: https://justbeamit.com
- Source: https://github.com/justbeamit/beam
Send Visee
- Website: https://send.vis.ee/
- Source: https://github.com/timvisee/send
- List of instances at: https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances
+1 for LocalSend. Well worth checking out.
Another +1 for it here. Use it multiple times a day between Linux, MacOS, android, and iOS.
+1 KDE Connect. File transfer works great on Android, Linux, and even on Windows 10/11! Clipboard sync is also a game changer; super easy to copy and paste across devices.
+1 Love LocalSend!
PairDrop is a fork of SnapDrop, which at one point had more features and active development. Don't know, how it is nowadays though.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I usually use kde connect.
KDE Connect also works on Gnome, Windows and Android. I can't recommend it enough. Transfering a single image from phone to PC is instantaneous
And having a unified clippboard is just so convenient
Yeah, me too. It is quick and easy. I use SyncThing for things I want to keep synced.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Kdeconnect. Alternatively NextCloud or sending an email to myself.
Seconding sending an email. SMB for big stuff.
I use KDEConnect. I don't know about iPhone but it works with Android, Linux and Windows.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Never heard of that tool. Thank you for sharing it!
load more comments
(2 replies)
A cable
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.
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.
I mean, the fastest method is likely to just plug the phone into PC and pretend it's a flash drive?
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
For more manual stuff; Ssh and X-Plore File Explorer.
Internal, sd card, ssh, ftp(s), google drive, dropbox, and a bunch of other cloud providers; treats it all like one big file system that I can casually copy/move files between.
For just syncing files between folders: FolderSync. The 'downloads' folder on my phone is setup as a 2-way sync with a folder on my server. Drop a file in either side, click sync, file is in both places. I use this to keep most of the files on my phone backed up, not just syncing the download folder.
I was a dedicated xplore user for years until I saw all the advertising cookies that they stuffed into it. That made me sad and I uninstall it.
I just paid the whole 4$ for the pro version and to support an otherwise free app I've quite enjoyed.
No ads/tracking anymore.
Devs gotta eat.
I also had the pro version. Last time I installed it, it asked me to review a bunch of cookies.
This was about a year ago. Could have changed since then.
load more comments
(1 replies)
FX File Explorer has a local web-access feature. Start it on your phone and access via local IP, then just turn it off when you're done.
Don't use on public wifi, it's http-only.
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.
I use Cx file explorer and mount my PC via sshfs in there. It's closed source but it supports a whole bunch of protocols including samba, ftp and webdav. And it can launch a webserver on your phone to offer the phone's files. But sshfs is the most convenient for me.
And for links and other small texts I use either KDEConnect's copy and paste sync or just send myself the text in Signal.
I've tried LocalSend for this, but I usually end up using more reliable ways like Syncthing (not instantly transfered, but at a decent speed) or sending myself the file on Element for Matrix (as good as instantaneous).
Taildrop works relatively well for most all circumstances. Only thing is you gotta use trayscale or cli currently for sending files from a Linux/bsd machine. I don’t know if opened has a port for trayscale but it definitely has a port of tailscale.
I use pairdrop. I don't personally self host it, but that option is available. It's better suited to more one-off situations, as there's no history kept anywhere.
Selfhost: https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/pairdrop
Open instance: pairdrop.net
Not heard of this one. Thanks.
I often spin up a quick python http server. Just go to the folder which has the files you want to transfer and run the following command: python3 -m http.server. This will server the folder content Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 (http://0.0.0.0:8000/) .... On your phone you can then browse to http://PC_IP:8000 and download what you want/need.
Too much typing, especially if transferring from phone to computer.
Thanks though.
load more comments
(2 replies)
SFTP or Matrix
view more: next ›