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

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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… 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 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 from the links below:

Download on macOS – Experimental

Download on iOS – Experimental

Download on Gnome – Third-party

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

Pairing your phone and PC

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 KDE Connect open on your phone (you can do this from your PC as well), 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

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 those 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

To get files from Android to any PC you should:

Open the app and select “Send files”.

Now simply select the file you want.

After finishing the steps for your platform, 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.

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 action "Send to device" with the KDE Connect logo. After that, you can choose the connected device you want to send the file(s) to.

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.

If you want to read more tips and tricks, you can follow KDE on Social Media: