How to transfer files between BlueStacks and Windows PC?

Question

I'm using BlueStacks App Player. Sometimes I need to transfer files between BlueStacks (SD card) from/to my Windows.

I seem to find the file that stores the data in the SD card on <BLUESTACKS_DATA>/Android/SDCard.sparsefs/Store, but I cannot see the content & modify it easily from my PC.

Are there any ways to transfer files between them?

Answer 1

For BlueStacks App Player for Windows v 0.9.0.4049 and higher

There is a shared folder between BlueStacks and Windows:

• BlueStacks: /sdcard/windows/BstSharedFolder (you may need to install a file explorer app such as "ES File Explorer" to access this folder)

• Windows: <BLUESTACKS_DATA>/UserData/SharedFolder (by default, <BLUESTACKS_DATA> is C:/ProgramData/BlueStacks. This is set on BlueStacks installation).

  On a Windows 10 device, it was found at the location C:/BlueStacks/Engine/UserData/SharedFolder or C:/ProgramData/BlueStacks/Engine/UserData/SharedFolderor C:/BlueStacksData/Bluestacks/UserData/SharedFolder.

Manual method (BlueStacks ↔ PC)

Copy/put any files you want to transfer to one folder (using "ES File Explorer" on BlueStacks, or "Windows Explorer" on PC), and those files will be shown on another folder.

Simple method (PC → BlueStacks only)

From BlueStacks, open "BlueStacks Settings", click "Import Windows Files" and click Proceed. A file chooser dialog will appear where you can select the file you want to import (tips: you can select multiple files by holding Ctrl and clicking other files). Finally, click Open. BlueStacks will copy the files to the same shared folders mentioned above.

^{Reference: How to Access Files on your PC from BlueStacks?}

Answer 2

BlueStacks Media Manager

Bluestacks now has a Media Manager that you can use to easily import/export files.

Answer 3

use import windows file app that come along with bluestacks.

Answer 4

BlueStacks only provide a way to access a subfolder of the sdcard /storage/sdcard/windows/BstSharedFolder which in Windows has the path C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\Engine\UserData\SharedFolder. The easiest way is thus to place some files there, and then use an Android file manager app (eg, TotalCommander, which can move whole folders) to move the files around where you need them on your sd card.

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/EDIT: the rest of this answer seems to not be working anymore. I leave it here if you want to try it with an older version of BlueStacks.

It is also possible to get full access to the sd card with some more complex manipulations.

BlueStacks stores the sd card as a kind of virtual image disk, on Windows it's at C:\Program Data\BlueStacks\Android\SDCard.sparsefs or at C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\Engine\Android\SDCard.vdi depending on the version. Essentially, what you can do is that you can create a new virtual image disk, but formatted in FAT, which will allow both the mounting inside Android and Windows! Then, you will see the virtual image disk as a drive in "My Computer".

To go down this route, you will need two softwares:

1. A virtual disk creator (eg, DATA.IMG Maker).
2. An image mounter (eg, OSFMount).

Then you can format in FAT using your OS formatting tool.

And lastly, you need to kill all BlueStacks processes (ie, they start with "HD-*") and change the path to the sdcard image via regedit at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BlueStacks\Guests\Android\BlockDevice\2\Path.

For a step-by-step tutorial on this approach, have a look at the 7labs.io tutorial.

Answer 5

Using ES Explorer

1 - Download Es from App-store and Enable and Connect WiFi

2- Open ES Menu Go to LAN, On your computer share the folder (Read/write Access/Everyone) on network and enable network discovery

3- Scan or add IP of Windows Computer and use windows user/pass

4- You can now copy paste files between two devices easily

It Will Work 100%

Answer 6

If you want to transfer a relatively big file (i.e. 1GB):

1. Download Droid Splitter on your Blue Stack and split the big file into smaller chunks using Droid Splitter.
2. Transfer the smaller files to shared folder one by one (if you get stuck, you may have to restart Blue Stack or your laptop).
3. After you transferred the files, join the smaller files using Droid Splitter. If you can't join the smaller files, then you might have to transfer the files in an android phone and use Droid Splitter to join the smaller files.

I tried this and it certainly worked. Good Luck :-)

Answer 7

You can install Total Commander app in BlueStacks along with FTP and SCP/SFTP (SSH) plugins and transfer the files over the network to your local PC. On Mac SSH can be enabled and transferred to your localhost via SSH. On Windows you can install FTP server on your PC, so the app can connect to your IP via FTP protocol.

Answer 8

When I installed bluestacks I had an app called Root Explorer. A file cabinet with a R on it.

Simply Open, Storage, SDcard, [File Location], "Hold Click", Send, To Windows. (I had couple seconds wait after that for the Save box to pop up)