Want to send some data from your phone to your PC? In this article, we will tell you a few easy ways to transfer files from an Android phone to your PC quickly and without any hassle.
Using the mentioned methods you can back up photos from your phone to PC in order to clear up storage space. Or if you just want to move music to your desktop that you downloaded on your phone.
Moving files to and fro from an android device are very easy compared to an iPhone thus you can use multiple methods to transfer data. You can use a USB cable, or a third-party app, or even take advantage of a local wireless connection. With so many different options, you will have one or more options to choose from.
Easily Transfer files from an Android phone to your PC
USB cable
Using the USB cable that came with your smartphone is probably the easiest way to connect to your computer.
The transfer speed will depend on the type of cable and storage you have on both devices. For example, the transfer speed will be slower if your phone used eMMC storage, but a lot faster if it comes with UFS. Similarly, transferring files to a SATA drive on a PC will take longer than to an SSD.
Connect your phone and PC using the USB cable. You’ll see a notification or pop-up on your phone allowing you to choose a USB preference. Select File transfer. A file transfer window should open up on your PC, or you may need to navigate to This PC via the File Explorer and find the folder named after your phone.
From here, you can browse the contents of your phone and drag files across to a folder on your PC. Photos are usually in the Camera > DCIM folder, while downloaded files will be in the Downloads folder. You can also Select and Copy one or more files, then paste them into the desired folder on your PC.
Microsoft Your Phone app
If you have to transfer photos from your phone to your Windows PC, Microsoft’s Your Phone companion app is a fantastic tool. Transfers are blazing fast, but this cross-device copying only works on Samsung devices running OneUI 2.1 and above.
- You first need to install the Microsoft Your Phone app on your phone. Newer versions of Windows will have the Your Phone app pre-installed on your PC, but in case it’s not already there, you can grab it here.
- Once you’ve paired your phone to your PC using the app, transferring images is as easy as dragging and dropping the files from your phone to your PC or vice versa.
- To do this, click on the image of your phone in the left pane or the ‘Open phone screen’ button.
- The home screen will pop up in a new window.
- Navigate to the My Files app and long press on the file you wish to transfer to your PC. Tick the checkboxes beside the files to select multiple. And then you can drag and drop them on your PC desktop.
- You’ll be notified once the transfer is complete.
Google Drive
Another easy option for sharing files is via the cloud. The Google account you used to set up your Android phone also comes with 15GB of Google Drive storage by default. And this storage can be easily accessed from your PC or Mac, allowing you to send multiple files at once.
And you can use this method with any app. So if you already use Microsoft OneDrive or Dropbox, you can use those instead.
- Go to the Google Drive app on your Android device.
- Click on the + button in the bottom right corner, and tap on Upload.
- Select the file(s) you want to share from the list, and wait patiently while they’re uploaded — this could take some time for large files.
- Head to drive.google.com in your desktop browser and make sure you’re logged in with the same Google account as your phone.
- Your uploaded file(s) should be there ready for you to download.