localsend is super fast and multiplatform.
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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KDEConnect is honestly going to be better. It's runs on everything (yes, Gnome and Cinnamon), has transport and device security, and offers more than just file transfer.
KDE Connect is one of the most amazing pieces of software I've used in my life
It also has kdeconnect-cli with e.g. kdeconnect-cli --share myfile.txt so don't think you are stuck with a GUI to use KDEConnect.
KDE Connect fucking RULES! The ability to send clipboard from phone to pc, send files, control media, remote mouse input, its low key one of the most useful software I've ever used.
It's one of their best pieces of software, hands down
GSconnect extension on GNOME, and its honestly amazing. Send files, copy clipboard, auto pause my music when a phonecalls comes in. Custom commands from the phone to lock my session if I'm away from my desk. Such a great application.
KDEConnect is great, but I don’t think it can share a folder. If you want to transfer a folder from, say, a MacBook to a Linux PC, I think QuickDAV would be better suited than KDEConnect. Also, QuickDAV works on Win/Mac/Lin.
You can send entire folders from Android/iOS just fine with a normal file browser.
Downloads for all platforms: https://kdeconnect.kde.org/download.html
Also, fuck ZDNet for autoplaying a video on this page.
Any advantages to this over scp, samba/nfs, or even something like LocalSend?
You lost me athaving to use flatpak.
Lol what? Are you against Flatpak? Are you a snap fan?
You’re strawmanning their comment— I’d imagine they’d have the same, if not more, issues with snap.
Flatpak doesn’t integrate well with all systems. For me personally, on Arch, I have to update and store Flatpak versions of some dependencies, like proprietary Nvidia drivers, separately from the rest of my system and its package management system. And it does take up some space to store the runtime too.
Also Flatpaks may require some extra set up and/or workarounds due to their sandboxed environment. That’s not inherently bad and has some big security upsides, but it’s a consideration.
Also I don’t know how well it plays with immutable distros, but I’d imagine there may be similar integration issues there, too.
It’s still probably a lot easier for devs to have a consistent distribution format though, and they are typically more secure, so I’m not saying there’s not merits to only providing a Flatpak. Just pointing out that your reply here was misguided, imo.
I wasn’t strawmanning, I was asking a question.
for one time transfers (e.g. friends phone) I use warpinator.
if I own the device I use scp/rsync.
to keep files in sync I use syncthing
I just install openssh server, because I need it anyways, and use an SFTP client to transfer files. Seems to be fast, secure, and easy. No new ports to open up.
I've transferred many terabytes of data this way, no complaints. Rsync is nice for syncing huge folders, and walking away, so I'll also use that when the need arises.
A bit of self-promotion here: check out my free app SSH Pilot that supports SFTP/SCP file upload/downloads https://sshpilot.app/
I don't believe it's easier than rsync.
"go to another machine on your LAN"
So its basically syncthing?
But that its not able to decide who gets whick file as there is only one option to log in in QuickDAV?
But maybe more intuitive?
Syncthing (as the name implies) is meant to synchronize folders across machines. QuickDAV is meant to transfer files/folders from one machine to another. They definitely both have there uses, and there uses might overlap in a lot of cases, but they also have there own niches. Like, I wouldn’t use Syncthing to transfer a photo to my desktop once, and I wouldn’t use QuickDAV to keep my photos directory synchronized across several machines.
It's a WebDAV server, so it's more like FTP than Syncthing.
FWIW if it users WebDAV might want to check copyparty then as it also provides that, and a WebUI, and... a lot more.
QuickDAV has a web UI. It’s shown in the article.