Syncthing for everything: file transfers, backing up phone photos, synced obsidian vaults, etc.
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2026
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Localsend
For phone <-> PC I use localsend. If I do PC to PC, possibly even large amounts of files or large files in general I put them on a network drive specifically intended for that purpose
KDE Connect and SyncThing
yes clipboard sharing and single file transfer is with KDE connect king
and Keepass and obsidian an photos with syncthing
Copyparty. Or any other web file server.
KDE Connect
I use ghost commander on my phone to access my NAS on my home network.
Oh, I remember a guy I met on a lanparty using it for everything
USB cable, KDE Connect, Nextcloud, or Syncthing.
KDE Connect can do all three of these.
I'm aware, but some devices I use regularly like an iPhone, work computer, etc, are limited in their capacity to run it.
LocalSend on both devices is something I’ve used
I also like LocalSend. Not quite as automagical as airdrop but it’s cross platform
I would argue it being cross-platform is magical.
There also copyparty. I don't personally used it but their release video is fun AF.
Nextcloud
For sending files between a phone and a PC, I use KDE Connect.
For sending files between PCs, I use SSH.
Both are really simple and lightweight tools that normally come preinstalled, and you can use them with no configuration.
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Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| NAS | Network-Attached Storage |
| SMB | Server Message Block protocol for file and printer sharing; Windows-native |
| SSH | Secure Shell for remote terminal access |
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 4 acronyms.
[Thread #1 for this comm, first seen 5th Jun 2026, 07:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
good bot
Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.
One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)
- syncthing (file synchronization)
- kdeconnect (file transfers, clipboard sharing, presentation remote)
- deskflow (keyboard and mouse sharing)
- warpinator (one off file sharing)
- rsync / scp (one off file copies / backups)
On the same network with device discovery localsend can be a good alternative.
It works on most devices, even IOS IIRC
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I know it's not a dedicated (or that good of a) solution but I just upload stuff to a private room on my Matrix server.
Samba drive + vpn tunnel. If I'm working on my PC and want to do something with my phone: plainapp
SMB share ( Android <-> Windows/Steam Machine
magic wormhole
Depends on the scenario, but I'll use KDE Connect, NextCloud, VaultWarden send, or just go old scp.
Honestly, syncthing, croc, vaultwarden send, Send (fork of firefox's send before they discontinued it, still works), Privatebin, etc.
Taildrop if you use Tailscale.
Surely I can use Syncthing inside Tailscale but 1. I have to depend on their public discoservers, or 2. I have to host and configure the discoserv myself for every client which is tedious to do
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There's PairDrop, you can self host it but iirc it transfer via webrtc so as long as the devices 'see' one another there's no mitm.
This is based on Snapdrop. If the current developer hasn’t gone crazy with the fork, you can read the entire source code over a cup of coffee. The server used to just handle discovery/handshake of devices on the same network, with file transfer peer to peer using local addresses.
Edit: Looks like they’ve added transfer over WAN not just local. Privacy discussion here.
Samba.
Or one time I made my own simple file sharing website
Most of the time I use Nextcloud. If I can't wait for the file to sync I'll use either email or a jump drive depending on which devices I'm moving data between. I
If I remember that I can, I'll occasionally use bluetooth to send from my phone to one of my computers.
All my devices are on the same wirguard network. It allows me to use SFTP to mount the fileservers of the others very easily. Then copying files is as simple as copying from one folder to another.
For files I use syncthing (also for music/photos/notes/etc... syncing files is IMHO the way to go wherever applicable).
For sending links to my PC (eg. articles linked from podcasts' notes) I used to rely on firefox sync, but I'm starting to distance myself from Mozilla so I am gonna experiment with wallabang.
For sending small notes to myself (stuff that I want to sort or act upon when I get to my PC), I'm using signal's "note to self" but I'm investigating alternatives because signal doesn't mark such messages as unread and so sometimes I forget I've sent some.
kde connect for most things
copyparty for the rest
I just use SSH+Rsync for everything. I traded two-way sync for minimalism and reliability. I've had nothing but headaches with anything else, especially Syncthing.
My Computer and both Raspberry Pi servers both run Linux and I have Termux installed on my Android phone so OpenSSL and Rsync are easily available.
I made a script that runs Rsync commands from files containing all the information which easily swaps source/target files so I can easily transfer in both directions with a simple command line option. It's reliable and simple and I've had a lot less headaches troubleshooting the rarely occurring issues.
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