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How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

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Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#141
post #132

Bluetooth file transfer is not accessible enough for non-technical people? I mean I guess you have to mark the device you want to send to as "discoverable". If anything the real problem is that it's not very fast, but that's only an issue if you are sending particularly large files. This is still often my go-to solution aside from Tailscale's Taildrop feature.

>Bluetooth file transfer is not accessible enough for non-technical people?

It's incredibly difficult. Do you have any idea how "non-technical" these "non-technical" people are? I know people that use phone every day to make calls as send messages, take photos, browse Facebook, read emails and they could not send an email with a file attachment to save their life. Asking that kind of person to:

1. Enable Bluetooth and make device discoverable

2. Enable Bluetooth on another device.

3. Pair the devices.

4. Find an option to send the file

5. Accept the file in another device.

6. Wait for the file transfer to finish.

7 (bonus). File transfer failed for some reason and you have to start again.

It's simply impossible.

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#142
post #136

I regularly have to send files to customers, from a few megabytes to a few gigs. It's incredibly hard. Mail? Goes to spam. WeTransfer? Mail clients break URL. Download from my website? Some stupid browser will display the zip data onscreen. Send the link through messenger? Messenger breaks the link. SaaS gallery? Some file managers can't open the zip file. I've been doing that for two years now. Still don't have a 10…

Nextcloud works well for this, and as the files are already on your server you don't have to upload anywhere, you just share the folder, put an expiry date on and send them the url

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#143
I figured I'd try to solve this some years back.. registered "itcopiesfiles.com".. then promptly left it in the not-even-started side projects list ever since.

What would work for that? How about:

1. One of the parties goes to the site, gets a code/link

2. Other party goes to the site, enters the code/link

3. Either party can drop a file/folder to the page

4. Data simply piped from one request to another by the server

Any improvements to that flow?

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#145

Isn’t https://wormhole.app/ the solution here? Note I haven’t used it, it’s just often brought up here as a good solution for this class of problem. Is it surprising that the author mentions a ton of solutions but not this one? I would think a deep dive of file sending applications would include this, it’s old enough and well known enough in circles that its exclusion in a comparison of file sending approaches does f…

Here is a list of open source options. This isn't the first time I have shared this on here either. Perhaps this is another sign that web search is failing us. 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…

There is also Send.Vis.ee, which is a community fork of Firefox Send. It has always worked very well for me personally. There are many public instances available with varying file size limits and expiring conditions.

- Website: https://send.vis.ee/

- Source: https://github.com/timvisee/send

- List of instances at: https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#148

Tailscale recently added local file transfers called Taildrop https://tailscale.com/kb/1106/taildrop This really solved this issue for me, right click a file and select the receiving peer and it just appears instantly on the other device.

What I really miss here is taildrop between different users. What if I want to send a file to a coworker?

I would assume that limitation is because it's on the roadmap, but they want a different UI for it, or more control, or to see how beta goes with just your own devices, give some time to think about how it should work, etc.

Because they've had to specifically put that limitation in place, no way they don't realise it could be useful.

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#149

Any hackers left here? Why no one mentions netcat? # send cat file | nc -l -p 8888 # receive nc IP-OF-SENDER 8888 > file this works as long as both computers are connected to the same network, for example the internet

Of course, this is a known way to do it for hackers. But the article clearly mentioned boundary conditions, among two are violated by the netcat trick: * It needs to be useable for a non-technical person * Its flow has to be consistent across platforms Besides having access to a terminal, netcat must be installed and hosts accessible, ports open etc. Not what is usually the case and especially not advisable when you…

Nontechnical people use messengers to send everything. Yet another tool to learn, switch and use would be only a hassle.

Re: How to copy a file between devices? (2022)

#150
post #136

I regularly have to send files to customers, from a few megabytes to a few gigs. It's incredibly hard. Mail? Goes to spam. WeTransfer? Mail clients break URL. Download from my website? Some stupid browser will display the zip data onscreen. Send the link through messenger? Messenger breaks the link. SaaS gallery? Some file managers can't open the zip file. I've been doing that for two years now. Still don't have a 10…

>Download from my website? Some stupid browser will display the zip data onscreen.

Are your customers using IE6 or something? Customers like that should be fired.

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