LocalSend - Share files to nearby devices
LocalSend - Share files to nearby devices
If you want a easy, reliable and cross-platform way to share files between computers, phones, etc, it may be of your interest.
Using kde-connect for that, works really nicely cross platform.
Also inb4 “Discord community server - no thanks” :D
I love KDE connect have been using it for years.
Only issue is recently I tried it on my raspberry pi and some features don't work. Specifically I can't get clipboard sharing or remote input to work on my raspberry pi.
Oh, that sucks, wanted to use it for that too
Works great on my linux laptop. It's also available for windows but lacks some sruff there unfortunately. For example you can only send one file at a time and many media players in windows are not recognized and yherefore cannot be controlled from the phone.
I know this is the linux community. Just wanted to mention these things for people like me who also have a windows machine for gaming
I tried to use it between my Mint installation and my iPhone but couldn't get it to work. Didn't get any error messages, they just couldn't find each other. Any idea what's up?
Stupid question from an ignorant fool: how does this differ from just using bluray to transfer files?
EDIT: GOD I AM AN IDIOT I MEAN BLUETOOTH. BLUETOOTH. XDDD
Answering the question you meant to ask, blueray is a physica... just kidding.
LocalSend is basically like bluetooth file sharing over WiFi. Bluetooth, especially the fallback 2.0 is notoriously slow and short ranged. The situation got better with BLE, 5.0 and Long Range. Still, both devices need to speak BT. Ap*le's iOS is well known to ignore BT file sharing capabilities while implementing own proprietary solutions. On desktop, the situation is still bad. I once tried to send a file between two Windows machines via BT, and it was a horrible user experience. LocalSend (and similar) fix this by implementing cross platform apps and using readily available API's to share files with few clicks and reasonably high speed between a plethora of devices. I guess, if you don't have the aforementioned problems, you won't need LocalSend et al.
especially the fallback 2.0 is notoriously slow and short ranged.
So that's why my Bluetooth file transferring back in like 2015 was slow as balls! I also assumed it was the devices I had. Lol. Which is weird considering I could have sworn I had also done BT file transfers with other devices previously and it seemed a lot faster. (None of these were Apple devices).
Ap*le's iOS is well known to ignore BT file sharing capabilities while implementing own proprietary solutions.
Rude.
[Everything else you said]
That makes a lot of sense! Thanks for explaining. :D
Haha
It does work over network, so you don't need any physical connection apart from being in the same network. Therefore, it's easier, faster, less complicated, and more.
I mistyped. Lmao. I meant BLUETOOTH. Haha.
i just use
python -m http.serverEasy.
LocalSend is nice because you can set it up in a push configuration instead of a pull. I used to set up a server like that where I had the file, then go over where I wanted it and navigate and pull it and wait for it to download. But with auto-accept on on LocalSend I can push the file and by the time I get over to where I sent it it is mostly there already.
Really great software. Works like a charm most of the time, the apps are quite okay, sends files locally. The first low-barrier solution to share stuff between wildly different devices since e-mail.
There are many good sollutions for this use case. Personally I use Warpinator — it comes pre-installed with Linux Mint and just works.
Why this over Syncthing?
Its more convenient to send just the specific files i need rather than syncing a whole folder. I use syncthing to keep folders in sync between computers and local send to send stuff from my phone to my computer
I guess. I keep a dir synced between my desktop and my phone. If I want a file transferred, I just drop it there.
@avidamoeba @edu4rdshl one sends one file one syncs a lot of files
Some in this thread said that LocalSend can send many files, folders too. 🤔
Syncthing is nice, but Localsend has a more user-friendly interface.
Works perfect for me. Have been using for like a year
Isn’t that horribly insecure? I have my doubts regarding privacy. LocalSend sends to the device directly, without an intermediary.
I'm pretty sure it only uses the intermediary to establish a P2P connection over WebRTC.
Magic wormhole is way more flexible
I don't like it being HTTP based and TLS (certificate?), nor I am a fan of flutter and the other 70-ish dependencies (https://github.com/localsend/localsend/blob/main/app/pubspec.yaml).
KDEConnect is great and does way more than file sharing, I'll stick with that.
I've been using this for a long time now, and it's godsend.
Sending files between iOS, Android, Windows, Linux and other devices is great!You might want to check out Magic Wormhole
The "Warp" flatpak uses it. Might serve as a nice backend for your project!My files got corrupted when I used it, but that was a while ago
OnionShare. Its more secure and works even if the device isn't local
But it's really slow because it uses Tor. Sure, there are some use cases that require anonymity, but it doesn't make sense for most users.
Magic wormhole is faster
This is great except you need to be on the same wifi / local network. Worked with the wife for a bit, but we get annoyed having to "turn it on" when we send each other photos.
You can use something like PairDrop instead. It is open source and browser based.
I’m using it and enjoying it but I had always thought that it would also work from one device to another without Wifi.
I guess I always had Wifi😅
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