Transfer Files Between a Computer and a Phone

🔌 No cable, no app, no account

Moving a file between your own devices is often a hassle: the USB cable is missing, the computer does not recognise the phone, AirDrop only works between Apple devices, and emailing yourself stops at 20 to 25 MB. Syncing through a cloud drive works, but the file has to be uploaded and downloaded again, and it uses up your storage quota.

File Transfer runs in the browser on both sides. Whether the computer runs Windows, macOS or Linux, and whether the phone is an iPhone or an Android, both devices can exchange files directly as long as they have a recent browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari 15.1 or later…).

💻 From computer to phone

1. On the computer, open File Transfer and select the file.
2. Copy the link and get it onto your phone: send it to yourself through a messaging app you use on both devices, by email, or with a notes app that syncs.
3. Open the link on the phone and confirm the download.
4. Keep the computer’s page open until the phone shows the transfer as complete.

On Android, Chrome normally streams the file into its downloads as it arrives (if it cannot, it keeps the file in memory and saves it at the end), and you will find it in the Downloads folder. On iPhone, the file is assembled in memory and saved at the end (a Download button is shown in case you need to start it again); Safari puts it in the Downloads folder of the Files app by default.

📷 From phone to computer

1. On the phone, open File Transfer and tap “Browse files” to pick a photo, a video or a document.
2. Send the link to yourself as above, then open it on the computer.
3. In Chrome or Edge, choose where to save the file: it is written directly to that location as it arrives. In Firefox, it normally streams into your usual downloads as it arrives.
4. Keep the phone’s screen on and the browser in the foreground until the end: phones may pause a background tab, which interrupts the transfer.

A dropped connection is not fatal: both sides try to reconnect for 60 seconds and resume where they stopped.

🔄 Between any of your devices

The same method works between two computers (a laptop and a desktop, a Mac and a Windows PC), two phones, or a tablet and a computer. For example: moving holiday videos from a phone to a computer to free up space, copying a large installer or archive to another computer, or getting a document onto a phone without putting it in the cloud.

If both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, the data can go directly across that network, and the transfer is usually much faster than over the internet. Sending a long video? Read how to send a large video without losing quality.

⚠️ Limits to keep in mind

• One file per link. For several photos or a folder, create a ZIP archive first, or send the files one after the other.
• Both pages must stay open during the transfer. This is not a sync service: nothing is kept once you close the page.
• Large files to an iPhone or iPad. Because the file is kept in memory until the end, very large files (several gigabytes) may fail on these devices.
• Between Apple devices nearby, AirDrop is often simpler. File Transfer is most useful when your devices come from different ecosystems or are far apart.