Tips/Transfer files between phone and PC using Wi-Fi

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Introduction

Have you ever wanted to quickly transfer files between your phone and PC but couldn’t find a USB cable handy? You might have tried transferring files to the cloud and re-downloading them, or even messaging them to yourself, but you probably agree those options are slow, inconvenient, and super janky.

Most of us need a way of quickly sharing files, but it's not always easy to do that, especially when the files are big or numerous.

Fortunately, there is a way to do that quickly and reliably, and guess what? You don’t need to use cables or rely on slow and unsafe online services because everything gets shared over your home Wi-Fi.

Meet KDE Connect

KDE Connect is a free and open-source app for connecting all of your devices. It actually does a whole lot more than just transferring files: you can answer calls from your PC, see your phone's notifications, use your phone as a wireless mouse, send SMS, share your clipboard… Honestly, it does a lot of stuff, but, for the sake of simplicity, we won’t talk about those today.

Unless you are already using Linux with the KDE Plasma Desktop, which already comes with KDE Connect preinstalled, you first need to download it on all of the devices you want to pair:

Download on Android - Play Store

Download on iOS - App Store

Download on Windows - Microsoft Store

There are also testing or third-party versions available for other platforms. Please note those versions are either experimental or might look different from what we’re describing in this tutorial, so we’ll not be covering them today. You can give them a try by downloading them from the links below:

Download on macOS – Experimental

Download on Gnome – Third-party

After installing KDE Connect, you’re ready to pair your devices!

Pairing your phone and PC

Note

While we'll be using Android and KDE Plasma screenshots here, the steps should be similar on iOS and Windows.

First, make sure all of your devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. It won't work if you don't follow this step!

Next, open KDE Connect on both of the devices you want to transfer files between.

With the app open on your phone, you should see a list of available devices to connect to.

Select the one you want and click on the Request pairing button.

You should see a notification pop-up on your computer. Click Accept in the notification.

If you don’t see a notification, just open the KDE Connect app, click on the device you’re trying to connect to, and click on the Accept button.

Transferring files between phone and PC using Wi-Fi

Now comes the part you’ve been waiting for!

Click on the links below to skip to instructions for your platform:

Instructions for KDE Plasma Desktop

Instructions for Windows

Instructions for Android

Instructions for iOS

KDE Plasma Desktop

To share files over Wi-Fi from a computer with the KDE Plasma Desktop to your phone you can follow one of these methods:

Click on KDE Connect in the system tray, click on the hamburger menu, and select Share file.

You can then choose the file you want.

Or

Right-click on the file(s) you want to share in the Dolphin file manager and select Send to ‘Device’ via KDE Connect.

Or

Right-click on the file(s) you want to share in the Dolphin file manager and go to Share -> Send To Device….

You’ll see a window asking which device you want to send your file to. Select one and hit Send!

Windows

If you’re on Windows, you can do the following to get a file from your PC to your phone:

After opening KDE Connect, right-click on its icon in the system tray, go to ‘Your Device’ -> Send a file/URL.

In the next window, select Send File and click on the button to the right of the field that says “Enter file location here”.

Now, just select the file you want to send and that’s it!

Android

Note

If you don't see the screen below, remember to select the paired device you want to send files to first. If you skipped to this part without reading prior instructions, click here to go back.

To get files from Android to any PC you should:

Open the app and select Send files.

Now simply select the file you want.

On Android, you can also click the share button from your file manager or any app that uses the default Android sharing options. Then, from the grid of apps, select the Send to Device option with the KDE Connect icon. After that, you can choose the connected device you want to send the file(s) to:

iOS

Note

If you don't see the screen below, remember to select the paired device you want to send files to first. If you skipped to this part without reading prior instructions, click here to go back.

To move files from an iOS device to any PC:

Open the app and select Send files.

Now, simply select the file to send.

On any platform other than iOS, your file will be transferred in the background to the Downloads folder of the receiving device. You can also check your device’s notifications for more information about the progress.

On iOS, due to the way it works, there are a few limitations: there's no notification support and you'll need to keep the app open and the screen unlocked while the file is being transferred. Please note your files will also end up in the KDE Connect folder at Files App -> On My Phone/iPad -> KDE Connect instead of the Downloads folder.

See how easy it was to transfer files using Wi-Fi? If you want to know more, you can go to the KDE Connect website.

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