I can’t consistently connect my android phone to my Linux Mint box consistently with any of the apps I’ve tried, because frankly, they are all janky as fuck. Sometimes they work instantly, then they disconnect and then they refuse to work. I feel like a lab rat in a random reinforcement maze because I think I’ve memorized the precise magical steps to get these services working, but it is just random.

Things I know about: How to turn off the firewall, how to turn on the firewall, how to open ports, how to close ports, how to keep a wifi network connected on android even if it has no internet connection, how to connect to the same wifi network, how to see if a device is visible on the network, how to find ip addresses, etc.

So here are the ones I’ve tried: KDEConnect (most reliable but I’ve spent 30 minutes on it today) LocalSend (tried it today, can see each other but “no route to host” when I try to send) Warpinator

I’m thinking of ditching WiFi and exploring Bluetooth at this point, even if it would take all night to transfer files, if it were reliable, it would be worth it.

Background: I run internet only through my phone, including downloads. To transfer files onto my computer, I need to connect my phone to my computer unless I want to burn through my hotspot data and download it directly to my computer. My USB-C port is unfortunately broken, so I have to do this.