I just had to email me a file I got sent to my phone and I feel unable to accept this as the better solution.
What you do guys use for inter-device communication?
Syncthing for everything: file transfers, backing up phone photos, synced obsidian vaults, etc.
I use KDE Connect. Works well with Tailscale when I’m outside my home network.
I either use KDE Connect or Pairdrop depending on which devices I am sharing befween
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…)
Localsend
KDE Connect and SyncThing
KDE connect, sftp, and dropping files on my NAS is pretty much all I do.
Work stuff uses work methods though, work devices are “on” my network but fully segregated, so its thumb drive and sneakernet or our internal storage instead.
I really like microbin to copy paste files around.
Oh that’s cool! Cheers for that.
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.
Adding to this, there’s a gnome extension so you can use KDE connect without KDE DE.
You can use KDE Connect itself without KDE.
But GSConnect shows up in the equivalent of your task bar
So does KDE Connect. It’s a standalone program that happens to also be integrated into the KDE DE.
No, not on GNOME Desktops, that’s the reason you need to install GSConnect on GNOME. If you install just KDE Connect on a GNOME system, you will not have it integrated.
Ohhhhhhhhhh
Man I need to read better
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 10 acronyms.
[Thread #1 for this comm, first seen 5th Jun 2026, 07:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
PC to phone:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
PC to PC:
- USB drive
- SFTP
- SSH
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
Phone to PC:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- 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.
