How can I make my Android phone appear as a device in Windows File Explorer
without having a USB connection to my PC, aka over Wi-Fi?

On 5/23/2022 5:53 PM, MajorLanGod wrote:
> How can I make my Android phone appear as a device in Windows File Explorer
> without having a USB connection to my PC, aka over Wi-Fi?

Mount the phone as network storage

Use an Android FTP app, i.e.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.medhaapps.wififtpserver.pro

See <https://www.guidingtech.com/use-ftp-server-file-transfer-android/>

MajorLanGod wrote:

> How can I make my Android phone appear as a device in Windows File Explorer
> without having a USB connection to my PC, aka over Wi-Fi?

I would like to be purposefully helpful to answer your question.

Given there are _many_ potential solutions, there probably isn't enough
information in your one sentence to steer you toward the best solution.

Yet, to keep being purposefully helpful, I would suggest at first the most
_common_ Wi-Fi solution, which works especially well with some phones.

*Together is better with Microsoft and Samsung*
<https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sync-across-your-devices?r=1>

*How to use Microsoft Your Phone Companion on your Galaxy smartphone*
<https://insights.samsung.com/2022/03/07/how-to-use-microsoft-your-phone-companion-on-your-galaxy-smartphone-3/>

*Set up Link to Windows with your Samsung Galaxy phone*
<https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00083910/>

*Samsung Galaxy Phones and Link to Windows*
*https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00087844/*

That works especially well with Samsung because the app is native on
Samsung phones, but you can also download the app onto other brands.

Windows software:
*Introducing Microsoft Phone Link*
<https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/phone-link>

Android software:
*Link to Windows*
<https://play.google.com/store/search?q=link%20to%20windows&c=apps>

Note Microsoft keeps changing the name of the app on Windows.

In summary, if your phone is a Samsung, then the Android software is
already on there, but even if it's not, it "should" work on most phones.

To be clear, there are _many_ solutions. I don't use the solution above,
for example, but _most_ people will be using that Microsoft Wi-Fi setup.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to help others who ask for advice.

sms wrote:

> Mount the phone as network storage
>
> Use an Android FTP app, i.e.
> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.medhaapps.wififtpserver.pro
>
> See <https://www.guidingtech.com/use-ftp-server-file-transfer-android/>

To be purposefully helpful, below is a summary of tested connections.

For the technically competent, Frank Slootweg and I spent a ton of time
analyzing _all_ the possible networking solutions over Wi-Fi years ago.
a. FTP servers
b. HTTP servers/WebDAV servers
c. SMB/Cifs/Samba clients
d. MTPfs/LibMTP tools
e. KDEConnect tools
f. NitroShare tools
g. Kies tools
h. Vysor/Scrcpy
etc.

An FTP server on Android, as Steve suggested, works reasonably well, where
the two I suggest are "primitive FTP" & "FTP Server (free)".

The problem with FTP servers is that they will allow Windows to connect as
a network storage, as Steve mentioned, but not as a Windows drive letter.

The WebDav servers, on the other hand, do allow the Android phone to be
connected to Windows as a drive letter.

The two WebDAV servers I suggest are "The Olive Tree WebDAV server" and
"BestDAV WebDAV server".
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to help others who ask for advice.