Tips/Transfer files between phone and PC using Wi-Fi

Information

If you haven't downloaded KDE Connect yet, click here.
If you already have KDE Connect but haven't paired your devices yet, click here.

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to quickly transfer files between your phone and PC but couldn’t find a USB cable handy? You might have tried transferring files to the cloud and re-downloading them, or even messaging them to yourself, but you probably agree those options are slow, inconvenient, and super janky.

Most of us need a way of quickly sharing files, but it's not always easy to do that, especially when the files are big or numerous.

Fortunately, there is a way to do that quickly and reliably, and guess what? You don’t need to use cables or rely on slow and unsafe online services because everything gets shared over your home Wi-Fi.

Transferring files between phone and PC using Wi-Fi

Click on the links below to skip to instructions for your platform:

Instructions for KDE Plasma Desktop

Instructions for Windows

Instructions for Android

Instructions for iOS

Note

If you don't see the screens below, remember to pair your devices first. If you skipped to this part without reading prior instructions, click here.

KDE Plasma Desktop

To share files over Wi-Fi from a computer with the KDE Plasma Desktop to your phone you can follow one of these methods:

Click on KDE Connect in the system tray, click on the hamburger menu, and select Share file.

You can then choose the file you want.

Or

Right-click on the file(s) you want to share in the Dolphin file manager and select Send to ‘Device’ via KDE Connect.

Or

Right-click on the file(s) you want to share in the Dolphin file manager and go to Share -> Send To Device….

You’ll see a window asking which device you want to send your file to. Select one and hit Send!

Windows

If you’re on Windows, you can do the following to get a file from your PC to your phone:

After opening KDE Connect, right-click on its icon in the system tray, go to ‘Your Device’ -> Send a file/URL.

In the next window, select Send File and click on the button to the right of the field that says “Enter file location here”.

Now, just select the file you want to send and that’s it!

Android

To get files from Android to any PC you should:

Open the app and select Send files.

Now simply select the file you want.

On Android, you can also click the share button from your file manager or any app that uses the default Android sharing options. Then, from the grid of apps, select the Send to Device option with the KDE Connect icon. After that, you can choose the connected device you want to send the file(s) to:

iOS

To move files from an iOS device to any PC:

Open the app and select Send files.

Now, simply select the file to send.

On any platform other than iOS, your file will be transferred in the background to the Downloads folder of the receiving device. You can use your platform's file manager to find it. You can also check your device’s notifications for more information about the progress.

On iOS, due to the way it works, there are a few limitations: there's no notification support and you'll need to keep the app open and the screen unlocked while the file is being transferred. Please note received files will also end up in the KDE Connect folder at Files App -> On My Phone/iPad -> KDE Connect instead of the Downloads folder.

See how easy it was to transfer files using Wi-Fi? If you want to know more, you can go to the KDE Connect website.

If you want to read more tips and tricks, you can follow KDE on Social Media:

Facebook
Twitter
Mastodon
YouTube
LinkedIn