"Airdrop" alternative for transferring files from a Samsung phone to a Windows PC.

[balloonshark]

So my sister heard about how easy it is to Airdrop picture files from an Apple phone to an Apple computer. She's going to end up spending over 2 grand to buy two new devices because she's too lazy to plug her phone into her laptop or use some other method to transfer her pics.

What is the easiest way to "Airdrop" her pics from her Samsung phone to her laptop? I'm looking for something that's idiot proof, reliable and as close to Airdrop as possible.

 

[Jimminy]

She must be pretty well off. Not an expert, but can't she just use wifi to transfer files? Maybe set up a folder as shared on her computer, then use whatever file manager on the phone to put copies into it. Thats what I do with a windows computer and an apple phone, but most anything that will work on apple phones works just as well on other phones, often easier in fact.

Maybe somebody will have better ideas or know of an app that will emulate "airdrop".

 

[spdfreak]

I'd just set up one drive on her computer and phone and they will DL automatically as soon as she takes the picture. I have one drive and google photos on my phone, so my photos are double backed up.

 

[JimKiler]

Does she really need to download photos to her laptop or simply use Google photos to backup her photos in the cloud and view them in a browser on her laptop?

 

[lxskllr]

KDE Connect will work over the local network, and files can be transferred pretty easily. No idea how close it is to airdrop.

 

[balloonshark]

Does she really need to download photos to her laptop or simply use Google photos to backup her photos in the cloud and view them in a browser on her laptop?

I honestly think she has the laptop just to backup pictures. I've been begging her for years to get an external drive to back up the pics in case her laptop dies. The laptop is getting a bit old and she is running out of storage. I can't remember if it's a 2 core 4 thread or 4 core 8 thread. If the latter it would be worth upgrading storage and ram if it's possible.

I think cloud backup would be a great 2nd option. For all I know her phone is backing up to the cloud and she doesn't even know it's happening. I'll have to check on Friday.

If I swipe down from the top of my screen on my Galaxy A51 I see several sharing type options like "Link to Windows", "NFC", "Nearby Share" and "Quick Share". I assume some of these are for mobile to mobile transfer. I watched a video on how Air Drop works and there is a share button when looking at files or even web pages so no idea if any of the above can mimic Air Drop to transfer to Windows. Link to Windows sounds like it may work but I'm not signing into windows on my PC to test. Also if it only sync's files then that may be a problem if she deletes photos on her phone to make space for new photos. https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/mobile-devices/galaxy-phone-set-up-link-to-windows/

Edit: Samsung Flow looks like another viable option but you need to start up the app on the phone and pc to transfer files.

 

[Tup3x]

On my S23 I just transfer files to my PCs shared folder.

Link to Windows should allow all kinds of things including simple sharing (just drag and drop).

 

[darkswordsman17]

OP, you will save yourself a LOT of headaches by just letting her make the switch. If she's willing to spend that much and upgrade both phone and computer, she likely wants to for more than just airdrop.

 

[balloonshark]

OP, you will save yourself a LOT of headaches by just letting her make the switch. If she's willing to spend that much and upgrade both phone and computer, she likely wants to for more than just airdrop.

This thread was bumped yesterday.

She didn't really have the money to spare to upgrade so I took the laptop from her and upgraded the RAM to 16GB and installed a 1TB SSD. The laptop now boots quickly and is more responsive. She is more likely to use it now since it no longer takes 2 minutes to boot.

 

[quikah]

Not sure if you figured out a good solution, but the nearby share works, but requires an install on the PC:

The New Nearby Share Beta App for Windows | Android

Wirelessly share photos, documents, and more between Android devices and Windows PCs by downloading the Nearby Share Beta for Windows App.

android.com

 

[balloonshark]

Pardon the bump but localsend might be another good option and it's open source.

LocalSend: Share files to nearby devices

LocalSend is a free, open-source, cross-platform file sharing tool that allows you to share files to nearby devices.

localsend.org

 

[Red Squirrel]

I use sftp, unfortunately the app got updated to where it generates a different password each time unless you retype it, so that's kinda annoying. But other than that it's as simple as turning on the server on the phone then using Filezilla to drag and drop.