I have two Nexus 5Xs. I believe they have the hardware to transfer data via:
- USB (via an OTG and regular USB cables)
- Bluetooth (I assume NFC is the simplest or only way to start this)
- WiFi (perhaps making one android a hotspot if there isn't a separate WiFi hub)
- 3G/4G/whatever mobile network via cloud storage/third party server
How can I directly transfer a folder with many files of around 1GB between androids?
Email, dropbox, google drive etc are pretty straight forward for the odd single file but not for many or big files.
USB would be fantastic for speed and simplicity, but I have no idea how it works software wise. When plugged in I get a notification about the USB mode to use, such as charging, MTP, "Picture Transfer" (??). Nothing I select causes the other device to be mounted. Does android not have an MTP client? If I plug a flash drive into the OTG I can instantly see all the files when choosing picture transfer (not just pictures :P). I guess I could go via a flash drive but it should be possible directly.
NFC/Bluetooth, also called android "Beam" needs an app (such as File Beam) to handle arbitrary files but seems to work in some cases. Occasionally I get a message saying it did not complete with no error or other info. It's also tediously slow for any files of reasonable size.
WiFi would be a bit faster but takes too long to set up. Some apps such as "File Manager +" will host an FTP server which provides complete file access via a browser with no security after you type in the IP/port. This only works if it thinks you're connected to a WiFi network and not the hostspot yourself. SSH servers are much more robust but require a client installed on the other device which takes even more time.
