I really like microbin to copy paste files around.
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2026
64 points (97.1% liked)
Selfhosted
59637 readers
650 users here now
A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.
Rules:
-
Be civil: we're here to support and learn from one another. Insults won't be tolerated. Flame wars are frowned upon.
-
No spam posting.
-
Posts have to be centered around self-hosting. There are other communities for discussing hardware or home computing. If it's not obvious why your post topic revolves around selfhosting, please include details to make it clear.
-
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or github here. Just post the link for folks to click.
-
Submission headline should match the article title (don’t cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).
-
No trolling.
-
No low-effort posts. This is subjective and will largely be determined by the community member reports.
Resources:
- selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
- awesome-selfhosted software
- awesome-sysadmin resources
- Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting
Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.
Questions? DM the mods!
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Samba.
Or one time I made my own simple file sharing website
KDE Connect and SyncThing
All my devices are on the same wirguard network. It allows me to use SFTP to mount the fileservers of the others very easily. Then copying files is as simple as copying from one folder to another.
magic wormhole
Nextcloud
PC to phone:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
PC to PC:
- USB drive
- SFTP
- SSH
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
Phone to PC:
- USB cable
- KDE Connect
- Nextcloud
- Syncthing
KDE Connect can do all three of these.
I'm aware, but some devices I use regularly like an iPhone, work computer, etc, are limited in their capacity to run it.
my boss just emails stuff to herself.. or just lets it sit in drafts (imap) with the attachment.
i use localsend, wormhole, or similar usually, especially if one or both the devices aren't "mine".. and if it's stuff i'm 'sending' to a handheld from a pc, i might instead drop them somewhere on one of our dietpi boxes and just use http
I just use SSH+Rsync for everything. I traded two-way sync for minimalism and reliability. I've had nothing but headaches with anything else, especially Syncthing.
My Computer and both Raspberry Pi servers both run Linux and I have Termux installed on my Android phone so OpenSSL and Rsync are easily available.
I made a script that runs Rsync commands from files containing all the information which easily swaps source/target files so I can easily transfer in both directions with a simple command line option. It's reliable and simple and I've had a lot less headaches troubleshooting the rarely occurring issues.
Everyone else mentioned most of what I would suggest.
One is missing for your original problem. Localsend. Think airdrop but cross platform. Super useful if you have a mix of devices (iOS, android, windows, etc…)
KDE Connect
For sending files between a phone and a PC, I use KDE Connect.
For sending files between PCs, I use SSH.
Both are really simple and lightweight tools that normally come preinstalled, and you can use them with no configuration.
Adding to this, there's a gnome extension so you can use KDE connect without KDE DE.
You can use KDE Connect itself without KDE.
But GSConnect shows up in the equivalent of your task bar
So does KDE Connect. It's a standalone program that happens to also be integrated into the KDE DE.
No, not on GNOME Desktops, that's the reason you need to install GSConnect on GNOME. If you install just KDE Connect on a GNOME system, you will not have it integrated.
LocalSend on both devices is something I’ve used
I also like LocalSend. Not quite as automagical as airdrop but it’s cross platform
I would argue it being cross-platform is magical.
There also copyparty. I don't personally used it but their release video is fun AF.
- syncthing (file synchronization)
- kdeconnect (file transfers, clipboard sharing, presentation remote)
- deskflow (keyboard and mouse sharing)
- warpinator (one off file sharing)
- rsync / scp (one off file copies / backups)
SFTP, Caddy WebDAV
Depends on the scenario, but I'll use KDE Connect, NextCloud, VaultWarden send, or just go old scp.
On the same network with device discovery localsend can be a good alternative.
It works on most devices, even IOS IIRC
load more comments
(2 replies)
Honestly, syncthing, croc, vaultwarden send, Send (fork of firefox's send before they discontinued it, still works), Privatebin, etc.
KDE connect, sftp, and dropping files on my NAS is pretty much all I do.
Work stuff uses work methods though, work devices are "on" my network but fully segregated, so its thumb drive and sneakernet or our internal storage instead.
There's PairDrop, you can self host it but iirc it transfer via webrtc so as long as the devices 'see' one another there's no mitm.
This is based on Snapdrop. If the current developer hasn’t gone crazy with the fork, you can read the entire source code over a cup of coffee. The server used to just handle discovery/handshake of devices on the same network, with file transfer peer to peer using local addresses.
Edit: Looks like they’ve added transfer over WAN not just local. Privacy discussion here.
I use Bluetooth. Or if a device doesn't have it, I will drop it into my server with scp or filebrowser.
For files I use syncthing (also for music/photos/notes/etc... syncing files is IMHO the way to go wherever applicable).
For sending links to my PC (eg. articles linked from podcasts' notes) I used to rely on firefox sync, but I'm starting to distance myself from Mozilla so I am gonna experiment with wallabang.
For sending small notes to myself (stuff that I want to sort or act upon when I get to my PC), I'm using signal's "note to self" but I'm investigating alternatives because signal doesn't mark such messages as unread and so sometimes I forget I've sent some.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Taildrop if you use Tailscale.
Surely I can use Syncthing inside Tailscale but 1. I have to depend on their public discoservers, or 2. I have to host and configure the discoserv myself for every client which is tedious to do
load more comments
(2 replies)
kde connect for most things
copyparty for the rest
Most of the time I use Nextcloud. If I can't wait for the file to sync I'll use either email or a jump drive depending on which devices I'm moving data between. I
If I remember that I can, I'll occasionally use bluetooth to send from my phone to one of my computers.
I use bitwarden send, all my devices already have access to my password database and i can save and download files or text though it. You can also use the URL to let other devices access it if you want.
view more: next ›