Re:Googlebook
by array_key_first on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @03:02PM
(#48112813)
Getting files on and off of a phone is shockingly hard. Shockingly. It's even worse on an iPhone, if you don't have a mac. To get my photos from my iPhone to my PC, I had to first upload them to iCloud and then download them again. My phone and computer are, like, a foot away from each other but I had to send the photos across the country to some server and back just to look at them.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Googlebook
by engeljohnb on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @04:18PM
(#48113920)
Everyone emails themself stuff, that's normal. The weird part is how often will you ever need to email it specifically from your laptop, but it's already on your phone? If it's on your phone and you need to email it to someone, couldn't you just email from your phone?
Have you tried using the Gmail app? It's missing a whole bunch of features. For example, you can't even insert hyperlinks with custom text. For images, I often don't want to send an image at its full resolution. Rescaling images is a task that's much easier to do on a laptop.
Re:Googlebook
by engeljohnb on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @08:35PM
(#48116439)
In that case, have I got a laptop for you...
Biggest use case is needing to send a work email but only having the photo on your phone (and you don't have work email on your phone).
Re:Googlebook
by carlosjobim on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @10:16AM
(#48122219)
Why don't you have your work e-mail on your phone or on a phone?
MDM profiles that I’m not going to install
Re:Googlebook
by carlosjobim on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @10:55AM
(#48122756)
Then you should get a work phone from your employer for work tasks.
That’s not something my (and plenty of others’) employers provide
Wait, so you've got a work phone that is not MDM-managed? That'd be a rare exception.
No, I don’t have a work phone, and the phone I have is not MDM managed
Oh, I use use AirDrop to myself for this. Yes, given my photo library syncs to iCloud, just opening Photos seems like it makes sense on a fast WAN which I sort-of do have, but of course, iCloud syncs only happen when the device decides the mood is just right, and can't be triggered manually, because I guess that would just be 'clutter' in the UI.
What drives me absolutely nuts about AirDrop is that it's only device-to-device even if devices are on the same WAN.
My wife and I have home offices at opposite sides of the house with hardwired desktops and Wi-fi APs, but we can't AirDrop to each other as we're out of range for it.
there's an equivalent functionality in Tailscale clients
That's mostly an iPhone problem. Plugging in an Android phone still works, and wireless exchange with QuickShare also works on most devices. With Google reverse engineering Airdrop, I hope they can get the Android <-> macOS experience to finally work correctly soon as well.
Re:Googlebook
by chalupa-man on Thursday May 14, 2026 @03:17AM
(#48132104)
Plugging in an iPhone still works as well, I plug my iPhone into my Windows PC and it pops up with the filesystem automatically in Explorer, and the photos are right there in the DCIM folder.
I personally just have a discord with myself as the only member. With their webhooks API you can even automate the PC side.
Re:Googlebook
by zeroonetwothree on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @04:08PM
(#48113762)
You can just use Dropbox or equivalent.
KDE Connect may work for you. (You don't have to use KDE.)
I emailed myself many times to transfer some files between phone and computer. I would say at least once every week.
My only real use of Google Keep is as a cross-device clipboard.
Re:Googlebook
by mavamaarten on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @03:33PM
(#48113282)
I'm super techy but I admit that I just use Signal to send me a "Note to self" whenever I need a file from my phone on my computer quickly. For images I just use immich, but texting myself is honestly the quickest way for files because the experience is indeed terrible.
Same here with the Telegram "Saved Messages" ( the same stuff as Signal's )
Re:Googlebook
by catlikesshrimp on Tuesday May 12, 2026 @06:14PM
(#48115306)
It is a solved problem
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.ismartcoding.plain/
There is also localsend, but plainapp needs to run in only one device.
Re:Googlebook
by extraduder_ire on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @08:36AM
(#48121121)
I've been using pairdrop.net (fork of snapdrop, which got bought out) a lot recently. Only needs a web browser on either end, and doesn't take any prepwork.
Can be self-hosted, if that's a concern.
LocalSend works really well across platforms in a LAN, no uploading to some server required.
Photos taken on iPhone are automatically synchronized with iCloud.. I guess you can just go to iCloud.com and download them on your PC?
If you want to send a photo to your friend from your iPhone, just click on the photo and click the "share" button, then you have many options, including sending it via Email..
What am I missing?
Re:Googlebook
by array_key_first on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @12:02AM
(#48117661)
The synchronization is opaque - more than once I checked for photos and they weren't uploaded yet. Also downloading stuff is very, very slow compared to wired transfers, and logging into Apple anything on your web browser is a huge pain in the ass.
I remember in late 10s I could just connect my iPhone to a windows machine and the photos folder would be right there, mounted, with the typical iOS filenames for each picture. Is this a false memory? Maybe I was on a Mac and just forgot?
I'm pretty sure you can still do that, you can at least with Android phones, but it does require a physical cable.
Re:Googlebook
by deltoidmaximus on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @08:56AM
(#48121293)
It works on my bargain basement Moto G that way
Re:Googlebook
by dredmorbius on Wednesday May 13, 2026 @05:12PM
(#48127641)
My recent-ish experience with Android and video is that emailing video doesn't actually, you know, email the video, but rather links to it somewhere in Google's Cloud ... where the recipient cannot actually access it.
(There's a longer backstory, but this is, suffice to say, frustrating.)