How to share files between Android and Ubuntu on your network

When your PC and mobile devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, you can easily make them “see each other” and “communicate” with each other. This allows you to easily share files between your PC and your mobile devices. However, the connection between them is not done automatically, although there are many tools that we can use to create the connection. Here you will learn how to share files between Android and Ubuntu on your local network.

Access to Android files from Ubuntu

If you want to connect from your Ubuntu to your Android device, you can use the Speech application to create a file server.

Start by installing the app on your Android device.

Run Sweech on your mobile device and, upon request, grant it access to files, photos, or anything related to communications.

Press the “Play” button in the middle of your screen. At the top and center of your screen, you will see the IP and port of your device through which Sweech makes its web interface available to other devices on your network.

Type this address in the web browser of your computer, press Enter and in a few seconds you will have the Sweech interface on your screen.

You can access all the files on your device via the File Browser section.

By clicking on the name of a file, if possible, and depending on the file type, Sweech will present an overview of its content.

To select several files, click on their icon instead of their name. Then click on the “download” symbol that appears at the top right. Sweech will allow you to download a zip of the selected files. Save it somewhere on your PC.

Extract the zip the way you want to access your files on your PC.

To send files from Ubuntu to your device, first point the Sweech file browser to the folder on your mobile device where you want to save them. Click on the icon in the blue circle at the bottom right of the Sweech interface.

Choose the files you want to download from the requester that appears.

And that’s all. After a while, you will see the file browser update, showing your files in the active directory.

Access to Ubuntu files from Android

To access Ubuntu files from your Android device, Samba sharing is the easiest way to do this. It may sound a little complicated, but we have what you need.

Since your PC folder is available on the local network, run a file manager that supports access to LAN / Samba shares on your Android device. This tutorial uses the default file manager found in Xiaomi’s latest MIUI, but you can use alternatives like Total Commander, ASTRO file manager, or AndSMB.

The file manager of your choice can allow access to Samba shares differently. For Xiaomi MIUI’s default file manager, press the menu button at the top left, then choose “Remote”.

Select “Add a remote device” on the screen that appears.

Enter your PC details when prompted. You will need its IP address and you can find it by running ipconfig in Ubuntu.

Once your device has been added to File Manager, tap on it to access its contents.

You can copy and move files from Ubuntu to your Android phone (depending on the permissions of your Samba share) as you wish.

You can also share files between devices using Resilio Sync, which creates a P2P network between your devices. What other methods do you use to share files between Android and Ubuntu?

Related:

Is this article useful?
Yes
No