Selfhosted

I love localsend.

Works on Linux, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. It is basically an OS agnostic Airdrop.

It's FOSS, so you can go to the Github and build from source for OpenBSD, but I have no idea if that would work.

I didn't see it mentioned yet, so I'll throw warpinator in the ring.

Clients are available for Linux, Windows, Android: https://warpinator.com/

Kdeconnect. Alternatively NextCloud or sending an email to myself.

I use QuickDAV and OwlFiles.

Signal

I use Cx file explorer and mount my PC via sshfs in there. It's closed source but it supports a whole bunch of protocols including samba, ftp and webdav. And it can launch a webserver on your phone to offer the phone's files. But sshfs is the most convenient for me.

And for links and other small texts I use either KDEConnect's copy and paste sync or just send myself the text in Signal.

KDE Connect as another uas suggested.

Only buggy issue I have is that I use a VPN on my phone to access my local network when away from home. I have the VPN set up with Hairpinning so I don't have to disconnect from the VPN while at home which occasionally causes issues on my steam deck as the version of KDE Connect on the steam deck does not appear to have an easy way to connect to device via IP. On my desktop and laptop I run Pop!_OS and use GS Connect which gives me an option to connect to device via IP so I have less issues with my phone just randomly not appearing on those computers.

email.

For links, I use Pocket (you can use Wallabag, but I find the interface not efficient at all). For files, you can sync a folder with syncthing (but you only switch it on when you want a quick sync, otherwise keep it off for battery). If you just want to put some file on your phone, install FTP server (free) from F-droid and switch it on when you need it (there's even an optional switch on quick actions). Use Filezilla or any file browser (if on Linux) to exchange your files. Remember to switch the server off once finished, because FTP is not a secure protocol.

Here are a bunch of local services I’ve used at one point or another from phone to PC or PC to PC. Not sure if any links are out of date.

KDE Connect

• Site: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/
• Source: https://github.com/KDE/kdeconnect-kde

Wormhole (Closed Source)

• Site: https://wormhole.app/

LocalSend

• Site: https://localsend.org/
• Source: https://github.com/localsend/localsend

SnapDrop

• Site: https://snapdrop.net/
• Source: https://github.com/RobinLinus/snapdrop

ShareDrop

• Site: https://www.sharedrop.io/
• Source: https://github.com/szimek/sharedrop

FilePizza

• Site: https://file.pizza/
• Source: https://github.com/kern/filepizza

Original Wormhole

• Site: https://webwormhole.io/
• Source: https://github.com/saljam/webwormhole

PeerTransfer

• Site: https://perguth.de/peertransfer/
• Source: https://github.com/perguth/peertransfer

JustBeamIt

• Site: https://justbeamit.com/
• Source: https://github.com/justbeamit/beam

Send Visee

• Website: https://send.vis.ee/
• Source: https://github.com/timvisee/send
• List of instances at: https://github.com/timvisee/send-instances

Android -> other I often use Share via HTTP.

https://github.com/marcosdiez/shareviahttp

FX File Explorer has a local web-access feature. Start it on your phone and access via local IP, then just turn it off when you're done.

Don't use on public wifi, it's http-only.

This sounds great. Thanks.

rsync -avr --progress in termux or a file explorer app built on top of scp or rsync. It doesn't work like your use-case, but I've been happy with it.

I'm using a selfhosted pastebin (microbin) as sometimes I want to transfer text, other files... It's very efficient and in my instance it's using 13MB of RAM, which is fairly lightweight for modern standards

Localsend works great for me.

Taildrop works relatively well for most all circumstances. Only thing is you gotta use trayscale or cli currently for sending files from a Linux/bsd machine. I don’t know if opened has a port for trayscale but it definitely has a port of tailscale.

I'd use anything else that is based on rsync over Syncthing

I often spin up a quick python http server. Just go to the folder which has the files you want to transfer and run the following command: python3 -m http.server. This will server the folder content Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 (http://0.0.0.0:8000/) .... On your phone you can then browse to http://PC_IP:8000 and download what you want/need.

https://pairdrop.net/

open source, can be self hosted or you can use the official instance.

Personally I have been using KDE connect most of the time when I am at home.

Pairdrop I use more when sharing with other people across the internet.

I use pairdrop. I don't personally self host it, but that option is available. It's better suited to more one-off situations, as there's no history kept anywhere.

Selfhost: https://github.com/schlagmichdoch/pairdrop

Open instance: pairdrop.net

For more manual stuff; Ssh and X-Plore File Explorer.

Internal, sd card, ssh, ftp(s), google drive, dropbox, and a bunch of other cloud providers; treats it all like one big file system that I can casually copy/move files between.

For just syncing files between folders: FolderSync. The 'downloads' folder on my phone is setup as a 2-way sync with a folder on my server. Drop a file in either side, click sync, file is in both places. I use this to keep most of the files on my phone backed up, not just syncing the download folder.

As I have basically all devices connected to my Nextcloud instance, I simply use that. I don't have any "time-critical" file transfers though.

I've tried LocalSend for this, but I usually end up using more reliable ways like Syncthing (not instantly transfered, but at a decent speed) or sending myself the file on Element for Matrix (as good as instantaneous).

My solution is scp with termux. I can't suggest any better alternative.

Kde connect is also a option