How To Transfer Files Between Mac and Android

by the end of this video you'll be easily able to transfer any file between your mac computer and an android phone both using a cable and wirelessly however stick around to the end because there were two apps that i tested that i definitely wouldn't recommend using links to the apps that i do recommend are in the description below so let's get started if you have a lot of files to copy or they're fairly large in size say gigabytes then the quickest way is probably to use a cable and the best app for the purpose is the android file transfer app which is made specifically by android for this purpose before plugging in your phone to your mac download the software by either going to android.com forward slash file transfer or googling android file transfer note that the first result that pops up on the page isn't the one you want is actually the second result listed here that takes you to the android website click download now and if you receive this max security prompt click allow once downloaded open the package and like with most mac software simply drag the icon to your applications folder to install it open the application and you'll likely see a message like this one which is the signal to plug in your phone to your mac using the cable that came with your phone having done this you should see this pop-up window here that displays your phone's file system if it didn't work the first time try unplugging your phone restarting it and then reconnecting it i say this because it didn't work for me the first time but after i rebooted the phone it now works every time it just seems like you need to run the software before connecting your phone the other thing you might want to check are the usb preferences on your phone if you have the cable plugged in you might be able to access them from your notifications otherwise you can get there by clicking on settings followed by connected devices and choosing usb you want to make sure that the option file transfer android auto is selected if it isn't then again having made this change unplug and reconnect your phone and you should be fine the window displays the file system of your phone here you can access pictures or your photos folder which is usually located under the dcim folder the two videos i want to transfer were captured on my gopro so i'll actually create a new folder called gopro and then it's just a simple matter of dragging and dropping the files into that folder once copied back on my phone if i open files there you can see a shortcut to my gopro folder that i created and the two videos that i copied of my two dogs rufus and peppa to transfer files in the other direction from your phone to your computer open up a finder window find the files you wish to copy from your phone's file system and again simply drag and drop them over to your mac like so to transfer files without the need for a cable i recommend using an app called airdroid having downloaded the app you'll have the option to sign up or sign in but this really isn't necessary so i just hit skip in the top right corner of the screen you're then told the app will need access to your files which is kind of obvious so you'll need to allow the permission for that we then have a couple of different connection options and the one i use is the airdroid web i also prefer to use this second option connect via an ip address which means that the connection is directly between my mac and my phone over my home wifi rather than going out to the internet via an android server on your mac make sure you're connected to the same wi-fi network as your phone open up safari and type in the url as displayed in the app don't worry if the numbers in your address are slightly different to mine that's just normal click enter accept the connection on your phone and you'll be presented with this desktop interface in safari airdroid has a ton of different features but to transfer files we simply need to click on the files icon over here on the left and then as before open up a finder window and drag and drop your files to the folder on your phone where you want to store them a graphic in the corner indicates when they have been successfully transferred to go in the opposite direction and download files from the phone to your mac it's just a matter of finding the files on your phone and clicking on the download button click allow and the file will save to your downloads folder there we are as i mentioned at the start of this video i have tested several other tools that were suggested on forums like reddit which personally i didn't like handshaker for example wanted to access my location and have the ability to make calls which i thought was a little bit odd share it was another app that did work well wirelessly but again wanted access to make calls and my location as well as the ability to record video and take pictures it also seemed to transfer the files by its own servers and it wasn't clear whether a copy of those files were being stored on those servers to be very honest if the files you are transferring are private and include personal information i would stick to using the android file transfer app and i would discourage using any cart that kind of third-party app including airdroid however if you're not transferring anything too risky then airdroid is a safe bet so that is how to transfer files between your mac and android devices visit the website for lots more tips on everything apple and android and all your favorite apps and if you found this video useful i'd appreciate you giving a like and hit subscribe for lots more quick tutorials like this one until next time thank you very much for watching

Channel: Faculty of Apps

Views: 149,734

Keywords:

Id: D6gE-W9oUz0

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 25 2022