Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server • Hacker News Board

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#41

Post by justusthane » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:27 PM UTC

monkmartinez wrote: post #14

This is awesome. The readme is fun as heck and I just want to use the software based on that. I see nothing but complaints about nextcloud and others on r/selfhosted. I can't wait to try this out.

If you think the readme is fun, check out the demo video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15_-hgsX2V0

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#42

Post by justusthane » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:30 PM UTC

Besides being useful, this just seems fun as heck after watching the demo video. I'm curious if folks have examples of other similarly fun/whimsical (but still useful!) software. I would submit https://fraidyc.at/ to the list.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#43

Post by mhuffman » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

MostlyStable wrote: post #34

visil wrote: post #5

Absolutely amazing piece of software, the kind that makes you wish you had a use-case for that. Kudos to devs for taking security seriously, too. By the way, the youtube video showcases this project really well.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but wouldn't this work great (albeit huge overkill) for the extremely common problem of trying to get files from one device to another (especially when one of those devices is a phone)? I see tools that are supposed to do that posted to HN all the time, with the comments usually pointing out one or another problem with any given utility. This seems like it would be pretty great s…

I have been having a lot of luck with Blip[0] recently regarding phone laptop file transfer. My biggest issue so far is that it does support iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows ... but not Linux.

[0]https://blip.net/

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#44

Post by srcreigh » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

Take a look at the known issues section regarding iPhones. It’s good evidence of apples non competitive behaviour regarding browser support. PWA/websites are not allowed to be good on iPhones.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#45

Post by Shank » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

As someone who has tried and failed to upload 2gb files on mobile data, only for the upload to fail at the last minute, this genuinely makes me want to play with it. There aren’t a lot of good drop-in solutions like this.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#46

Post by sunshine-o » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:57 PM UTC

In addition to being an awesome piece of software, their self hosted demo server is the fastest web app I have seen in a long time ... and this is while trending on HN !

Amazing.

Now I am wondering, would it be technically possible to build a similar app but based on the syncthing protocol?

I really like syncthing but it would be cool to have a version where you could just easily share specific files with peers.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#47

Post by yoavm » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 6:19 PM UTC

skibz wrote: post #3

The author of this tool uploaded a YouTube video demonstrating it a few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15_-hgsX2V0 At one point in his demo, he uploads a file but terminates the upload more or less halfway. Then he begins downloading the file - which only progresses to the point it had been uploaded, and subsequently stalls indefinitely. And, finally, he finishes uploading the file (which gracefully resume…

I really didn't think I need this software but the video is so good that I'm gonna try hard to find a use case.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#48

Post by aquova » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 6:20 PM UTC

I have never heard of this before, but watching through their Youtube introduction, this might be one of the best pieces of software I've ever seen. Assuming it works as advertised, this could replace a few things I've been hosting myself.

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#49

Post by corndoge » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 6:31 PM UTC

angry_octet wrote: post #15

No deps is great, but what I'm looking for is no bugs , authentication and encryption. I want features turned off by default, configs tight as a drum.

This is just good software

Re: Copyparty – Turn almost any device into a file server

#50

Post by MisterTea » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 6:45 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #9

skibz wrote: post #3

The author of this tool uploaded a YouTube video demonstrating it a few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15_-hgsX2V0 At one point in his demo, he uploads a file but terminates the upload more or less halfway. Then he begins downloading the file - which only progresses to the point it had been uploaded, and subsequently stalls indefinitely. And, finally, he finishes uploading the file (which gracefully resume…

It's very impressive, particularly if you remember waking up to a failed download from the night before over dial-up.

Most files were available via FTP which supported resume.