Android file transfer: How to move information between your telephone and computer

Moving files between your Android device and a Windows PC, Mac, or Chromebook doesn't take to be difficult — or dependent on any deject services.

Contributing Editor, Computerworld |

Table of Contents
  • Android file transfers for Windows computers
  • Android file transfers for Mac computers
  • Android file transfers for Chrome Os computers
  • Don't like cables?

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Your smartphone is a powerful estimator in your pocket — and with Android, office of that PC-like muscle means being able to plug your phone into any Windows, Mac, or Chrome Os system and then drag and drop files either manner.

Different iPhones, Android devices allow you to admission their file systems direct from a desktop, without the need for whatever cumbersome interfaces or complicated procedures. In fact, transferring files to or from an Android device is basically no unlike than plugging an external hard bulldoze into your calculator and moving data to or from it.

All y'all need is your phone, your figurer, and a cable to connect 'em — with micro-USB or USB-C on the phone side and USB-A or USB-C on the computer side, depending on the specifics of your devices. (About current Android phones employ USB-C, whereas most pre-2016 devices take the older micro-USB standard. USB-A, meanwhile, is the traditional connector port you're used to seeing on computers, though more and more than models now also offer USB-C.) There's a decent chance that the aforementioned cable that connects your telephone to its wall charger volition work.

Got information technology? Good. Here'due south what y'all need to do next, depending on whether you have a Windows, macOS, or Chrome Bone organisation:

Android file transfers for Windows computers

With Windows, things are as simple as can be. Just plug your telephone into any open up USB port on the estimator, then turn on your telephone'due south screen and unlock the device.

Swipe your finger downwardly from the summit of the screen, and you lot should see a notification virtually the current USB connectedness. At this indicate, it'll probably tell you lot your phone is continued just for charging.

android file transfer usb notification JR Raphael/IDG

Afterwards you connect your telephone to your computer, a notification will let you prepare it for transferring files.

Tap the notification and select "Transfer files" or "File transfer" in the carte du jour that appears. If media files are all you lot're planning to move, yous could besides use the "Transfer photos" (sometimes listed as "PTP") choice, which'll treat your phone similar a digital camera. In one case you've made your selection, go to your desktop and open up up a File Explorer window using the method that makes the well-nigh sense for your Windows configuration:

  • Click the File Explorer icon in your taskbar
  • Open the Start bill of fare and click This PC or Computer
  • Click the This PC, Computer, or My Calculator icon on your desktop

And then wait for an icon representing your phone alongside other portable devices and drives. Click or double-click that icon, and ta-da! Yous're staring at your Android telephone's internal storage. You tin now click around and browse folders, drag and drop files between your telephone and PC, or manipulate the information in any way you want.

android file transfer windows JR Raphael/IDG

Your Android telephone's storage looks similar whatsoever regular difficult drive when viewed from a computer.

Android file transfers for Mac computers

Got a Mac? The Android file transfer process is a bit more complicated for you lot — simply fear non, for it'south even so pretty darn like shooting fish in a barrel.

The main difference is that before things will piece of work, yous'll need to download and install an official Google plan called Android File Transfer. To employ the program, your Mac must exist running macOS 10.vii or later, and your Android device must accept Android 3.0 or afterwards — something that should pretty much be a given with whatsoever reasonably recent Android product.

In one case the plan's in place on your Mac, just plug your phone into your computer, turn on your telephone'south screen and unlock the device, and then look for the same USB status notification described in a higher place.

Tap the notification and select "Transfer files" or "File transfer." The Android File Transfer program should so automatically open on your Mac, and you lot should be able to browse your phone's storage and transfer files to your centre's content.

If the official Android File Transfer program doesn't work well for you — a vexingly common complaint amidst Mac users these days — consider the favorably reviewed tertiary-party Commander I Pro as an alternative. Information technology costs $30 for a single license, $100 for a five-user team license, or $150 for a fifty-user visitor license.

Or — well, skip down to the final section of this story for one other option.

Android file transfers for Chrome Bone computers

You lot'd look file transfers between Android phones and Chromebooks to be as simple as can be, considering that Google's the driving force behind both of those operating systems — and by golly, you'd be absolutely right.

Merely like on a Windows arrangement, all you've gotta do to connect your Android phone to a Chromebook is plug it into whatsoever open USB port, then tap the USB charging notification on the phone and select either "Transfer files" or "File transfer" from the prompt that appears — or select "Transfer photos" or "PTP" if y'all want your phone to exist treated like a camera, with a focus exclusively on multimedia files.

Once you practise that, the Chrome OS Files app should automatically appear on your Chromebook with your telephone present as ane of the storage options. The arrangement volition probably even prompt you to back up all of your phone's media files to Google Drive; you tin allow that, if you'd like, or dismiss information technology and simply drag and drop files in either direction equally needed.

android file transfer chrome os JR Raphael/IDG

Pulling upward your Android phone's storage on a Chromebook is easy every bit can be — and typically includes a one-click choice to copy all your device's media files as well.

There'south really not much to it — nor should there be.

And if y'all want an fifty-fifty simpler way to take care of business organisation...

Don't like cables?

Hey, wait a infinitesimal — aren't at that place apps and deject services for this sort of thing? Sure at that place are, and we've got you covered there, too. Check out "Transferring files wirelessly betwixt devices" in our in-depth Android file management guide for everything in that location is to know.

This article was initially published in August 2017 and updated in October 2019.

Contributing Editor JR Raphael serves upwardly tasty morsels nearly the human being side of engineering science. Hungry for more? Join him on Twitter or sign up for his weekly newsletter to get fresh tips and insight in your inbox every Friday.

Copyright © 2019 IDG Communications, Inc.